We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Caitlin Cooper. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Caitlin below.
Caitlin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard
One thing I do differently is I find all the stones for my jewelry. Every single one of the stones I use come from long hours of hiking through the deserts, mountains and coasts with my dog, Carlin, and packing out heavy bags full of, hopefully, amazing rocks. I then cut every single one myself on my saw at home, shape them into whatever I think they should be, polish each one using my tumbler, then finally make them into unique pieces of jewelry. Sometimes I bring back a pack full of rocks that are not great, but most of the time I am bring home unique and one of a kind stones that no other silversmiths are working with. It makes what I do super special! Plus I can tell each customer the origin story of each piece they buy, I can usually remember exactly where I was when I found their stone!
Caitlin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Caitlin Cooper and I am a rockhound turned silversmith from Idaho. During the pandemic when we were all on lockdown, I moved back home to Idaho to wait out the “2 weeks” with my husband. We had been living all over the country for the last several years, so it was nice to be home….until the boredom seeped in! My step mom is a life long, second generation, rockhound so she suggested we get in the car and go find some rocks. I mean, what could be more socially distant than walking around the mountains picking up rocks? Well, I ended up falling in love with rockhounding and soon enough I had collected a TON of rocks. I decided in the winter of 2021 that I needed to start doing something with all these rocks and share them with the world.
I spent the next few months gathering tools from thrift stores, my dad’s garage and online. I watched hours of YouTube tutorials on silversmithing and cutting rocks and just started experimenting with the whole process. I ended up starting to sell a few of my pieces online in the Spring of 2022, and it has grown so much from there! I ended up signing up for a few local art markets and fell in love with talking rocks with people at my booth. I make rings, necklaces, bolo ties, bracelets, money clips….really anything people want. I love bringing my unique rocks to people who wouldn’t have the opportunity to see them any other way.
One thing that as been amazing as well is the custom work I do. I have a lot of fellow rockhounds send me their rocks to make into new family heirlooms. People who normally wouldn’t have the tools or know-how to turn their finds into something that will last forever, can come to me to make it happen. I can’t tell you how good it makes me feel to make someone’s wedding rings out of a rock they found with their fiancé. Or a bolo tie for someone who’s grandfather “found this rock 60 years ago”. Or make Christmas presents for someone’s whole family out of rocks their late father found with them when they were kids. I truly love and embrace being able to make things that bring people pure joy!
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
Markets. Hands down the best place for me to sell my jewelry is at art markets. I have been so lucky to meet the most amazing organizers, customers and new friends from doing them. For my products, it is really important for people to see these stones in person, touch them, see how they make them feel. Along with the products I sell, the conversations I have with every person that comes to my booth is memorable…for the good or bad. I get to meet so many fellow rockhounds that are just excited to talk shop and look at rocks. My whole display if full of my favorite finds, from my first large moss agate to my cherished 5 pound black agate. People want to know the whole story, not just the price of my pieces.
Sometimes I get people who don’t believe that I do everything myself, I get comments like “oh…you mean your HUSBAND cuts these rocks for you” or “you didn’t FIND these outside, you FOUND them in a rock store”. I take all of these comments in stride, knowing that people just don’t know what they don’t know. And they are vastly overshadowed by the comments by other people saying, “see honey (to their young daughter), this woman find rocks too and makes them into things!” or “I have rock I found once, do you think you could make it into something?”. I love meeting new customers at these markets by simply being myself and being passionate about what I do. I don’t need to do much of a show to get people interesting in the work I am doing, it speaks or itself with the end result. I end up getting more customers from being in person at shows than any other way I have tried.
How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.
The only Ecommerce platform I sell on is Etsy. I do sell through my Instagram as well, but Etsy is the only real selling site I use. There are definitely some pros and cons, as most small businesses on Etsy know. Some of the Pros would be that there are people scrolling through Etsy everyday, lots of eyes on your products is always going to be a good thing. A Con to that is there are so many companies on Etsy now that are not small businesses and we just get lost in the crowd sometimes. It is hard for consumers to tell which shops are real artisans and which are bulk manufacturing entities. Some of my most loyal customers have found me on Etsy, but they are far a few between compared to in person markets. I use Etsy because it is easy to upload my products, it’s easy to find, and they offer advertising. But, Etsy is know for their outrageous fees sometimes. I really have to factor into my prices how much I am going to lose by selling a piece there. I encourage a lot of my customers to just message me or find me on IG to make the purchase so I am not having to deal with the fees. In the end I am sure I will move to my own website in time, but for now I will just keep eating those damn fees!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.houndsmithjewelry.com
- Instagram: houndsmithjewelry
- Other: TikTok- lookatthisrock
