Printed Jewellery Boxes have arrived!

Last night I received a surprise package – rather bulky and heavy. I couldn’t remember ordering anything online to fit with the parcel, so I was pretty intrigued when I opened it. There was a lot of foam and some more boxes inside. Each of these boxes contained more boxes… Spring Jewellery boxes!

The results:

You might remember my post from awhile back, where I was searching for the right jewellery boxes and packaging. 

So, I’m rather excited to show off my first batch of jewellery boxes with my logo…

I love the feel of the black leather interiors. I'd love it even more if the supplier could do these with contrasting white interiors (they do have some, but not with ahinged box, unfortunately). Ideally, I like a mint green exterior too, but I couldn’t find anything off-the-shelf which fit.

Ring box and Pendant / bracelet box

Choosing a jewellery box / packaging supplier:

I ended up going to Talbots – a supplier I hadn’t heard much about – to order these boxes. I struggled to find a decent supplier of pretty boxes for very small amounts; it wasn’t really worth it to order the 1000 minimum from China to get the exact boxes I wanted. Some of the other suppliers I looked at were:

• Potters: good customer service, a fairly good range, although nothing that totally inspired me, but when I received samples they turned out to be a bit disappointing in quality. They also couldn’t / wouldn’t print on the outside lid for the boxes I wanted, which was a complete deal-breaker.
• Finer Packaging: has some very nice products I was interested in, but they were more expensive and had a 100 box minimum order for each size, which I found a little prohibitive
• Tiny Box Company: I really wanted to use them, but they were out of stock in the one cufflink box I wanted, and they didn’t really have many others in the luxury range. Also were a bit on the pricey side.

Lots of boxes packed in boxes - taking up space on my dining table!

General thoughts on using Talbots as a box supplier:

So, I have mixed feelings about Talbots right now. I’m undecided on whether I’d recommend them or not.

On the plus side:

• Really impressed with the quality of both the boxes and the printing (the detail is fantastic)
• They had a really great range of boxes, more in the unusual / luxury category than other suppliers, and they were really reasonably priced
• They were quite accommodating – I wanted a green foil ink and although not originally offered in their standard colours, they did manage to find it for me

On the down side, however:

• The sales / ordering process was excruciatingly slow – I first emailed them on August 7^th, so it’s taken over 2 months to complete the order. I found the Sales representative quite unresponsive – sometimes not replying for 2 weeks – and had to chase quite a lot
• The Sales Rep was also not great at answering my questions and would often ignore questions
• I specifically asked (more than twice) for a full breakdown of the costs and totals for each product I was ordering before she put it through… and she said she would, but I didn’t hear anything after that. Then suddenly, boxes arrive at my house that I’ve been billed for, and I hadn’t received a word – no dispatch comms, no total price I would be charged, nothing!
• I had emailed a list of products I wanted to order and the quantities – the Sales Rep then rang me back a few weeks / emails after to confirm the products. I repeated my order (some of the names of the product had changed since) and again, I’d asked her for an emailed breakdown (so I could check she’d got it right). Of course, when I received the order, I found she’d left off a whole product that I specifically remember her looking up the product code for, and missed another product that was in my email. Sigh.
• They weren’t able to print on the cufflink boxes at all. I was insistent on the phone that I’d like them printed, she said she’d find out… but I heard nothing until they just arrived, completely unprinted. To add an extra kick, it looks like I was charged for printing on those items (not a huge amount, but still…)

So, what do you think? Have you found a good box / packaging supplier?

Overthinking the whole packaging thing... plus pink topaz

I have spent about three weeks looking at different options for jewellery boxes and packaging... and I'm completely stuck. I've worked out that ideally, I need boxes which:
- are pretty, modern, and a nice colour
- can be printed on the outside with my logo
- don't have a ridiculous minimum order number
- do not cost £££

So... not an overly demanding list of requirements, right? But perhaps I am too fussy - what I really don't want are cheap cardboard boxes. My ideal box is something elegant and pretty like this:

...but unfortunately I would need to order 1000 minimum in each size. Ah. Perhaps not then.

So, I've finally whittled down the suppliers to just two options, and I think I've made my mind up at last (in the absence of anything better!): I think I will go for these boxes from Potters instead of these from Finer Packaging because a) Finer can't print on the outside of the lid, only inside; b) their minimum order for printing is 100 per size.



Any other packaging suppliers I should check out? Am I making the right choice?

In other news, I made this modern pink topaz ring on the weekend. It has a high bezel made from 0.5mm sheet, and a hammered band.

The hammered band...

Fits me well... perhaps I should keep this for me?