Creative idea was right on the button for the Dragons
A button tin gave goldsmith Elaine Sarah Comerford the idea of a business whereby people can create their own personalised jewellery collection
THE reaction to Thursday night's Dragons' Den has been phenomenal -- more than 10,000 hits on my website, and phone calls and emails of congratulations. More importantly, I also received business enquiries and provisional orders from jewellers all over the country.
I am pinching myself. How has all this happened so fast for me?
I spent my childhood in the beautiful, historic Dunhill, Co Waterford, a stone's throw from Dunhill castle and Annestown beach. I grew up with inspirational surroundings and with two very creative parents. It seemed inevitable that I'd grow up loving to work with my hands.
I was also taught from a young age that if I want something, I have to earn it. This created my entrepreneurial hunger.
I hear my nephew say, "I'm bored!" far too often. I don't think I was ever bored; there was always something to do, something to create.
I contacted my enterprise board and started reading books on various aspects of starting a business.
My fiance, Mark, has high hopes for winning the lottery. I don't even play the Lotto -- I'm determined to make my own fortune!
The first significant step on the road to Button & Co was taking the jewellery production and goldsmithing skills course run in Kilkenny by the Crafts Council of Ireland. Here, I learned my skills under Jane Huston.
Always looking for inspiration for designs, I was in my mother's house one day having a cup of tea and chatting. She had always told me to be trendsetter rather than a trend follower.
Then I spotted the button tin, and I thought to myself, "What about a jewellery collection in buttons. Like a charm bracelet, but a more classic design, a design that would have significant meaning."
After the initial concept came all the technicalities of the design. I wanted people to be able to create their own unique memories, to customise their own jewellery -- that's where the needle and thread design came from, and the significance of a loved one threading on the bracelet would help create a lasting memory.
I could see a mother collecting the buttons for all the moments in her daughter's life, and giving them to her on her 21st birthday or when she leaves home. It seemed to just fall into place.
It was a lot of hard work and there were many setbacks getting it to where it needed to be, but finally I felt confident that I had a really attractive product.
Whoever it was in RTE who decided to do Dragons' Den, I just want to say thank you. It is so difficult creating a product and setting up a business from scratch. The opportunity to pitch my idea in the Den was the huge break my little business needed.
The timing was perfect. I had the collection which I had been developing, called "buttons", a new take on an old idea. My patents and trademarks had come through and the website www.buttonmemories.com was live. All I was missing was the expertise, confidence and contacts to get out there.
The grilling in the Den is a long process cut to the few minutes aired on the show. I have to say the Dragons couldn't have been nicer to me. They allowed for the fact that I started off very nervously. And my jewellery collection was a big hit.
All the Dragons praised the idea -- they liked the bracelets, ear-rings and cufflinks. It was unbelievable that three of them -- Niall O'Farrell, Sarah Newman and Gavin Duffy -- were interested in investing. It took a good five minutes of looking at the back wall of the set to make up my mind. But with an offer from Niall for what I wanted -- and with his experience in retail and luxury brands -- he was the obvious choice.
'I don't even play the Lotto -- I'm that determined to make my own fortune!'
When I left the Den I was in pure shock. I couldn't believe what had just happened. I came, I saw and I conquered the Den, and I couldn't wait to start working with Niall.
Some weeks on, and we're starting the process of rebranding to Button & Co, and we're getting our products into shops. It's a really exciting time and I love every minute of it.
Niall is a very genuine person and we work brilliantly together. We're both on the same track and have the same visions for the brand.
Taking on a partner was definitely the best move for me. It's given me confidence in my abilities and it's fantastic having someone on the end of a phone that I can call for advice.
I can just imagine in the years to come, a doting mother giving a unique piece of jewellery, made of buttons symbolising memories, to a loving daughter.
I can't believe that what started out as an idea in my head, via Dragons' Den, will become a treasured gift for others.
www.buttonmemories.com, (087) 9841679/(051) 396663
