Finding customers

Hello new followers, thanks for joining. I was wondering whether anyone has any interesting stories about how they stumbled onto customers?

I have a story of my own. A few years ago I was in the UK visiting my family. My Mum and I were at the famous Chelsea Flower Show in London for the day, trekking around trying to take it all in. We stopped at the stand of a woman selling her nursery plants and copies of her book. Her name was Carol Klein and she was just starting to become known in the gardening world in England. She complemented me on my earrings. I said thank you I made them, as you do. She asked me to make her a pair (and I bought her book).

I duly made the earrings and shipped them off. The following year I got a phone call from her husband saying that Carol wore them everyday and wanted something new. By this time my Mum had sent me photos of Carol from her newspaper column, wearing the earrings. I sent over some sketches of ideas but I never heard anything back, despite a follow up email.

Two years later her husband phoned me again saying Carol must have new earrings - she was presenting BBC Gardener's World by this time. Thinking that sketches and design decisions weren't going to cut it, I offered to send three pairs of earrings to them, they could choose what they wanted and return the others. They bought all three pairs and I was thrilled the first time I saw Carol wearing a pair on the tele.

The design has been a best seller for me and I wear my own pair often. Today I decided to update them, so I made them as I always do but enamelled them with shades of transparent green enamels. I am blowing my own trumpet today but would love to hear your stories too...