Martina’s Castle Street shop over the moon with online progress
IN THE pre-online world where it was founded some 30 years ago what would have been a sleeve note for a book, there’s a short paragraph on The Cat & The Moon website which captures the essence of what award-winnning jewellery designer Martina Hamilton and her team are all about.
“The Cat & The Moon has been showcasing Irish made craft and design for over 30 years. We believe there is true value in something born of the creative process, and refined through talent and skill. Ireland has a wealth and abundance of creativity, and the beauty in our shop is a testament to the Irish makers talent. Welcome to our little piece of handmade heaven!”
In many cases slick scripts don’t always match the reality but in this case the words and what you find when you walk in the door of The Cat & The Moon on Castle Street in Sligo fit perfectly together.
But, 30 years on, times have changed and Martina and her team had to move swiftly when lockdown started in March 2020. From a business viewpoint their market moved online and looking back, Martina was happy to report this week that the digital offerings via their website, Facebook and Instagram were crucially important in maintaining and sustaining the business. They moved quickly, worked long hours and their online sales took off.
Before the lockdown they always had a webiste but it was a small part of the business. “However, during lockdown we started to focus an awful lot more with story-led content and making it a more interesting experience for the customer.
“It is totally different to walking into a shop, you are in someone’s home, their kitchen. A lot of work went into that and I along with my husband Malcolm and the team here drove that, we had a group of people working on this all the time.”
The first thing they did was to get a story to show what they were doing and it was a family affair with her daughters and indeed their dog all involved!
“It was commercially successful between the supports we got from the government and the customers online. “We built new relationships with new customers and we were busy. Now, in business terms we are very similar to 2019 and early 2020 in terms of the return of customers.
“What we learned was that we need to be more active on social media and we found that it wasn’t just one age group, the customer demographic was from all age groups and we got to people who didn’t come to Sligo,” she said. The reach from online platforms was also a welcome development, Martina adding: “There is nowhere in the world where we haven’t posted goods during lockdown.”
However, she argues that the success of their online offering was based on connections already established: “The relationships that we built up over the last 30 years came into their own during the lockdown. “People knew we were going to deliver what we said we would. You knew you were dealing with people who had the integrity to do exactly what they said. We also did a lot of commission work, showing customers jobs in progress and giving them a step by step sense of how the commissioned work was coming on.” Everything about The Cat & The Moon has an elegance and relevance to it, and a touch of class. As you step through the door there’s what I might describe as a welcome absence of the ordinary. For starters they ‘win the watch’ with the very name of the shop. It’s perfect. It couldn’t be more appropriate, ‘The Cat and the Moon’ was included in one of W.B. Yeat’s most famous collections of poetry, ‘The Wild Swans at Coole,’ published in 1919. There is an attention to detail in the shop which is no coincidence. Martina, as a creative artist herself, has previously said she doesn’t believe in coincidence and every shelf, every corner of the display areas, the nooks and crannys that all good craft/design shops must boast, has a measured feel to it. Eye candy, you can only marvel at the originality, the creativity, vision and the skill of the creators of the various pieces.
But there’s no coincidence to this either, there is an ethos behind what you see for sale, there is a creative community that the owner has fostered. Martina explains it better than I can: “There was a need, in my opinion, for a place that would allow people to show their work in order to take the next step in their career. Encouragement is needed in order to progress, and if the chance is given, it creates a better place in the world for the artist and the art lover.
“In the west of Ireland we can be so isolated. So, I find that if you do something in a group, it forces you to look up, to look around you and to come together, which is important, and always good.”
So, whether you wander in off the street or join online from your beach house in Bali, there is something for you at The Cat & The Moon, and notwithstanding the platform for work by other artists, the creativity of Martina herself, shines through and is well represented on those shelves, virtual and real.
An award winning jewellery designer, she has been creating collections of innovative and timeless jewellery inspired by the coastal landscape here in Sligo. Many of the collections reflect elements of the Wild Atlantic Way and ocean life. Her jewellery is designed to be worn and loved both day to day and for very special occasions, with pieces ranging from elegant simple studs, to dramatic statement neck pieces.
She said: “After 30 years creating jewellery I’m still being inspired by the randomness I find in nature and to that spark when simply turning over shells on the beach.”
Asked is there a formula, a procedure she follows that leads to the finished item, she returns to her lack of coincidence mantra:
“I spend a long time distilling any creative idea down to what we eventually end up making in precious metal. “For me personally, a piece needs not only to resonate with me, but also needs to resonate with other people. “I’m usually inspired by nature, for example my ‘Croí Sliogan’ design. One day it was raining on Streedagh beach while I was out for a walk. I was looking down to the ground, away from the rain, when a shell caught my attention. Something about the shape instinctively hit me on a primal level.
“With time, the design took shape, it needed a name, and upon researching the Irish words for
heart, I discovered core and heart were almost interchangeable. Shell of course and Sligo (the shelly place) had obvious resonances, and so Croí Sliogan got its name. “It was some weeks later, when the piece was finished and in production we realized there was a shape of a little heart naturally in the open space within the surrounding shell shape – nature’s way of guiding me in the direction I needed to go.
“There is no such thing as coincidence.”
So, not a great believer in coincidence, but she should be an advocate for serendipity which saw her enter the jewellery design world by accident:
“I stumbled accidentally in to making jewellery to begin with. I just had completed my degree in Fine Art and like most people coming straight out of college, I had a student loan to pay off and a living to earn.
“I couldn’t believe my luck when an opening came up, where I would be paid while learning a completely new skill of jewellery making. I found that I loved it, loved the materials, how I could design and make for them. “After six months my makers’ mark was registered with the assay office in 1989 and the rest is history as they say.”
Off to a fast start, Martina concedes that producing something exclusive, building a theme, a brand or a bespoke collection didn’t happen quite so quickly.
She said: “It takes time and confidence to come up with your own vision, but your eyes must be wideopen, enough to see how it could be realised commercially.”
Looking ahead Martina plans to do more painting and she is hoping for a creative year ahead with new additions to the collections.
Alongside Martina’s Jewellery website, The Cat & The Moon website showcases a variety of fine art and Irish crafts. Martina greatly appreciates the response to their websites, and the opportunity to ship Irish jewellery and crafts worldwide. Purchases can be made online via their two websites or Martina is happy to take your call, if you wish to make a purchase over the phone. Vouchers welcome including One4All vouchers for payment. The Cat & The Moon opens six days per week, Monday to Saturday, 9am to 6pm. For more information visit martinahamilton.ie or call 071 9143686.