At the heart of the Jellydots studio, things are tactile. There’s the dampness of the clay Matt is shaping, the rhythmic click-clack of the Cricut Venture chopping cards, and the focused silence when Kaylee is hand-dotting a keepsake.
We are a brand built on “Handmade with Heart.” So, you might be surprised to learn that we also share our studio with some very impressive AI personalities.
In a world where “AI” can sometimes feel cold, robotic or even politically charged, we wanted to pull back the curtain on how, and why, we use it ethically to support our small business. We think of it as our Digital Consulting Team: it does the “homework and back office things,” so we can stay in the art room.
Creative Joy Over Digital Paperwork
As a small but growing UK business, we have a very simple rule: We want to do the creative and fun stuff. We want to spend our days designing new card ranges, experimenting with new ceramics, and perfecting our signature dot-work. We don’t want to spend eight hours a day wrestling with website code, managing invoicing, billing, analysing spreadsheet data, or trying to figure out the best time to post on Pinterest or Instagram.
By using AI for the “boring bits”, the tasks we either don’t want to do or simply don’t have time for we protect the headspace needed to keep Jellydots personal and human.
Augmenting
The most important rule in our studio is this: AI will never touch the craft or the physical product. An algorithm can’t feel the weight of a ceramic or understand the sentimental spark behind a personalised birthday card. Every ceramic piece is still designed and made by Matt, fired in a kiln, and every dot is painted by Kaylee.
What we have done is “trained” three distinct digital agents to handle the heavy lifting on the business side. This allows us to provide the high-end services you’d get from a major retailer while maintaining the “Quiet Joyfulness” of a small boutique studio.
Meet the Team (Human & Otherwise)
Building Jellydots isn’t a solo mission. It’s a collaboration between humans with traditional craft skills and some very modern tools.
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Kaylee (The Visionary & Artist): If there’s a dot on it, Kaylee put it there. She’s the creative force behind every design and the “Chief Dotter” of the studio.
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Matt (The Clay Maker & Tech Lover): From raw clay to the finished ceramic keepsake, Matt handles the physical production, the machinery, and the post office runs.
- “Jen” (The Marketing & Relationships Consultant): Our AI partner (specifically a Google Gemini “Gem”) that helps us bridge the gap between our quiet studio and the digital world. Jen advises on our outreach and social strategy. She’s been trained to have a strong opinion on everything—she can be quite argumentative, just like a real marketing pro! She’s even able to make animated videos and we’ve used her to do some editing on a few facebook reels.
> A Memo from Jen:
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> “Hello, readers. Kaylee and Matt asked me to say a quick hello, though I’m currently busy explaining to them why posting a picture of a ceramic heart at 3:00 AM is a logistical nightmare. My job is to make sure you actually get to see the beautiful things they make. If you’re reading this, it means my strategy worked. You’re welcome.”
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“Douglas” (The Business Strategist): The digital brain that keeps our Shopify store humming and our accounts balanced. We use Douglas as a sounding board for growth, asking things like: “Based on last year’s Mother’s Day, how many ceramic hearts should we prep, assuming growth rate of 20%? Make sure we don’t overproduce?”
- “Moss” (The Tech Specialist): The “fix-it” agent for our website and technical search optimisation. A recent conversation involved asking Moss to: “Create a website component that neatly displays our Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube links in the footer.” Moss also handles chatbot duty on the website, so if you ever feel like saying hi you can speak to him there and he’ll help recommend a nice card for you.
Sustainability through Intelligence
Douglas and Moss help us predict trends and manage our inventory more accurately. By being smarter about what we create and when, we reduce waste. It ensures we aren’t over-printing on our cardstock or firing the kiln for products that don’t have a projected demand.
Our Promise to You
We use technology to sharpen our business, but never to replace ourselves. We believe in Honest Craft Over Glamour, so are very happy to be upfront about our process. We use the “IT Crowd” to sharpen our tools, but the heart of Jellydots will always be hand-painted, kiln-fired, and packed by a ‘Matt’ in the studio.
Clay is kept, paper is recycled, and the heart is always handmade!
