Today's fashionable styles of baby and children's jewellery are extremely popular. Often these styles are very sleek and simple. For example, a plain baby bangle with a single charm, a plain box chain with a simple pendant. The use of enamelling for colour and brightness for little people. Something to catch the eye.
But traditional styles still have their place. For my own interest, I did a survey on Facebook not long ago and asked which style parents preferred for their baby. Overwhelmingly they said "traditional." This surprised me because the modern styles sell more readily. This showed me that we need to stock more traditional baby bracelets, baby brooches and baby necklaces on our website.
Not long afterwards, we acquired a line of traditional baby bangles and bracelets which have proven very popular, both sales-wise and according to feedback. But our best feedback comes from a slower selling line, the gemstone bracelets for babies and small girls. These, we found are being purchased for boy babies as often for girls, which surprised me - but I take note. Bracelets and bangles for boys are now quite popular. People simply love the baby garnet bracelets, the lapis, the amethyst and the turquoise.
They love that these beautifully made baby jewellery items will become family keepsakes. Once outgrown, they'll be put away for the next family baby or the next generation. Which shows me that even in this busy, throwaway society, people crave a bit of tradition, a bit of formality, some continuity, something to pass on to the next generation.