By Laura Kingston

Captured Keepsakes is a really unique business in our region. What led you to set it up?

After my son was born in 2009, it became an obsession of mine to capture as many special moments in my family’s life. I’ve always been really creative and over the years I kept developing my skills to find new and different ways to bring my creative visions to life. 

I started to get interest from friends who wanted to capture memories in their own families and in 2016 I outgrew my home studio and opened the North East’s first and only dedicated lifecasting and keepsake jewellery studio in my hometown. 

I offer two main categories of product – keepsake jewellery is where we capture fingerprints, pawprints, doodles or handprints and footprints onto silver pieces such as necklaces, bracelets and cufflinks. The other is lifecasting, where I create casts of hands, footprints, baby bumps, breasts – you name it, I cast it (within reason)!

By 2019 I was getting loads of interest from people all over the UK who wanted to purchase my designs but couldn’t make it into my studio. Now I can offer a print uploading service so people can create their prints at home and send them to me through our website. 

Over the years I have built a reputation for providing quality bespoke keepsakes to lots of very happy parents, grandparents, families and dog owners, with many of my commissions coming from previous customers and recommendations. 

Did you ever think this is what you would end up doing? 

I never thought that this is what I would end up doing, but I love it! As a child, I would sit designing and making things for hours and would love the feeling of creating something from nothing. I’ve always been fascinated with how materials work, how things are made and have loved getting messy! I’m fortunate that the business I’ve created allows me to indulge my curiosities and capture wonderful memories for people at the same time. It’s such an honour to be a part of capturing moments in people’s lives. It’s normally very happy moments but occasionally there have been very sad commissions with customers wanting to capture memories to remember their loved ones by. Each one is different and I try to spend as much time as possible understanding each job and making the experience as bespoke and personal as possible.  

Do you find it lonely working in such a niche career and working for yourself?

It can be a little, but not when I’m working in my studio as time just flies and I have my little Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Evie, to keep me company. From an artistic perspective, I’m a member of the Association of Lifecasters International which provides a fantastic support network on Facebook. We all chat with each other a lot and if we want help or advice on something we can ask for tips, post pictures and offer help, it’s great. From a business point of view, I’m a member Mastery Marvels – a business support group specifically for female entrepreneurs. I’ve found that even though we all have a different business, we can still support each other as female business owners and provide that platform for sharing worries, brainstorming ideas and building contacts.