This is actually Jellydots’ second beginning. The first attempt, three years ago, made it halfway into the world before life pulled everything in a different direction. But the idea never really left. It sat quietly in the background, waiting for the right moment. And now, in early 2026, Jellydots feels completely different — more focused, more intentional, and finally becoming what it was meant to be.
Creating anything is hard. Creating an entire business — the products, the website, the e‑commerce setup, the photography, the vendor relationships, the systems, the branding — is a challenge that stretches you in every direction. But it’s also strangely energising, because every piece you build makes the whole thing feel more real.
When an Idea Becomes Real
Matt has always said that ideas are the easy part. The real work is getting off the sofa and doing something about them. Jellydots began with one simple question: What if a greeting card could be more than paper? That thought turned into clay dust on the table, test firings in the kiln, endless sketches, prototypes scattered everywhere, and eventually the first tiny ceramic keepsakes — hearts, balloons, flowers, houses — each one shaped, sanded, painted, varnished, and held up to the light to see if it felt right.
The first collection didn’t appear in a neat, linear way. It was a loop of creating, refining, rethinking, remaking, and then doing it all again. Each pass brought the products closer to what they were meant to be: thoughtful, tactile, and quietly joyful.
Once the products existed, the next phase began — making sure they could be produced consistently and at a scale that didn’t require superhuman stamina. That meant designing and testing clay cutters with Ethan at Print Forge, adjusting varnish timings so keepsakes dried smoothly, re‑photographing everything more times than anyone wants to admit, rewriting descriptions so they sounded like Jellydots rather than generic card‑shop filler, rebuilding the product catalogue so it actually made sense, and learning how to laser‑engrave without scorching everything in sight.
It’s not glamorous work. It’s the late‑night, cold‑tea, “just one more tweak” kind of work. But it’s also where the brand finds its backbone.
Digital: Websites, Social, and the Endless To‑Do List
Setting up the website felt like building the tiniest shop window in the middle of the internet. Shopify, product pages, SEO, shipping profiles, apps, CRM systems, accounting, tax — all the invisible scaffolding that makes a business function.
And once that was in place, the digital world expanded. Folksy arrived. Then Pinterest. Then Facebook. Then the blog. Then paid ads. Then the realisation that running a creative business means being a photographer, writer, marketer, analyst, designer, and customer support team all at once. It’s a lot to hold, but there’s something satisfying about watching all the pieces slowly click together.
The Quiet Companion: Uncertainty
Even when you know your product is different — when you can feel its uniqueness — uncertainty still walks beside you. You wonder whether people will understand it, whether they’ll connect with it, whether they’ll choose it, whether the pricing makes sense, whether they’ll see the value beyond a £5 supermarket card. These questions don’t disappear.
For all the challenges, there’s something extraordinary about watching an idea grow. Seeing a keepsake you shaped by hand become part of someone’s celebration. Watching a card you designed land in a home hundreds or thousands of miles away. Hearing that a tiny ceramic heart made someone cry happy tears or became part of their Christmas, birthday, or first Valentine’s.
Jellydots is still starting — and maybe that’s the best part. A business built with heart, shaped by hand, and carried forward by the belief that small things can mean a lot.
Kaylee
