RISE AND SHINE
She retrained immediately after finishing university, and has never looked back. Stonechat founder Ann Chapman tells MARIE KELLY why now every day has a silver lining.
Jeweller Ann Chapman shares her story and talks about what Christmas means to her
Stonechat founder Ann Chapman has just one simple Christmas wish: that every woman who finds a Stonechat box beneath her tree on December 25 loves what she discovers inside. These are her first thoughts each year when she wakes on Christmas morning.
For seven years, Ann has brought joy to customers not just at Christmas time, but on any number of occasions (“So many events are marked with a piece of jewellery.”) with her considered designs and contemporary aesthetic. Although a graduate of European studies in Trinity College, Chapman said she knew as soon as she completed her degree that she wouldn’t be heading for the department of foreign affairs or the European parliament like many of her peers. Instead, on the day she received her degree results, she hotfooted it to D’Olier Street, where there was a FÁS office, and signed up for a traineeship in jewellery making. She trained by day and supported herself by doing silver service waitressing at night, before moving to the tiny town of Glenarm in County Antrim to take up an internship at Steensons jewellers, a store from which her father had often bought gifts for her mother when Ann was a child. “I had always loved their aesthetic so I knew this was the right next step for me. They were wonderful, giving me the keys to their workshop so that I could go there at night and work on my own designs.”
This was how Ann built up a portfolio strong enough to win one of only 12 coveted places on the Crafts Council of Ireland’s prestigious goldsmithing course. Ann moved to Kilkenny and for two years spent 12-hour days in the studio, while waitressing three nights a week. “I was the teenager who always had a part-time job,” explains Ann, “so I knew I would be able to support myself while retraining. My parents always told me that if I wanted something badly enough, I had to go out there and make it happen.”
In 2012, she did just that, and opened up Stonechat in The Westbury Mall. “For the first three days, not a single customer walked through the door. I went home to my husband and cried,” she reveals. But on reflection, Ann says the timing of the store’s opening was perfect. “Ireland was in recession and the shift away from fast fashion and cheap stocking fillers had begun. I found that people were starting to see the value of spending €200 on something that was Irish and handmade and would last a lifetime rather than €20 on a throwaway novelty gift.” Ann reveals that in her seven years in business, there has only been a single month in which the store has failed to perform better than that same month the previous year. “I managed the Design Yard for five years after finishing in Kilkenny,” explains Ann, “and it taught me how to run a shop. I needed that solid retail experience.”
Ann is as enthusiastic about the business and branding aspect of Stonechat as she is the creative. But she describes herself as a listener first and foremost. “Jewellery is a very emotional purchase,” she says. “Inevitably, there is a story to be told when a customer comes in to buy a piece of jewellery, and that’s especially true when someone visits us to have a piece remodelled,” she explains. “I don’t know what it is… but customers seem to tell me everything. I often think, people just need someone to listen.”
It seems at the heart of it Ann Chapman is a storyteller, fashioning her own and her customers’ emotions into stunning pieces of wearable art. What better gift to hand someone on Christmas morning?