Katherine Jackson followed the rest of her family down the career pathway of becoming an accountant. She found it stressful to work long days and weekends, and difficult to switch off when she wasn’t working.
Her mother and grandmother had introduced her to different crafts, such as knitting and embroidery, from a young age, which she loved. Her mother encouraged her to take up hand-crafting hobbies to de-stress her mind.
“From there, my obsession with handcrafts began. I dabbled in things like punch needle, weaving, quilting, clothes making, and soap making, and then I came across an advertisement for an Earring making course which intrigued me as I love earrings and I love making things,” said Jackson.
Jackson completed an earring-making course in 2019, where she was able to let her creative juices flow and express herself. She found that the process was more rapid than handcrafts. At this time, however, Jackson was still working as an accountant with two young kids, and then along came Covid.
She pushed back her earring dreams until late 2021, at which point she quit her job to be there for her boys when they started school. She started to dabble in earrings again and was reminded of how fun it was.
Although she enjoyed the process of making them, she couldn’t actually wear them herself due to her sensitive ears. Therefore the next step was to find an alternative and discover titanium and niobium were inert metals that wouldn’t react in people’s ears. With encouragement from friends and family, Jackson decided it was time to start selling them, which is how Blue Tango was created.
A team of one, Jackson does everything from designing, making the jewellery, packaging, and posting. She runs all the company's social media accounts, promoting the brand and photographing all the products.
Jackson recently launched a new website, allowing her to move away from selling on Etsy, which she described as a big learning curve.
“I didn’t quite realise what was involved in creating a business from scratch. When I first started, I didn’t know the slightest about Instagram Reels or hashtags, but I was determined to do as much as possible. I have really enjoyed learning about so many aspects of running a business, and it makes it that much more rewarding knowing that I’ve done it all myself.”
All of Jackson’s jewellery is hypoallergenic. She noted that many stainless steel materials used in earrings contain small amounts of nickel, which many people are allergic to.
“I’ve had so much amazing feedback from customers who are so happy they can finally start wearing earrings that don’t leave their ears red and itchy. I’ve not seen any other New Zealand companies offering Niobium or Titanium earrings, so it’s our unique selling point.”
A fan of bold colour combinations and embroidery, Jackson was inspired by various textures and colours when designing her pieces.
For the past few years, Jackson has volunteered for the charity ‘Bare Necessities,’ which helps underprivileged new mothers with postpartum items. When starting Blue Tango, one of the first things Jackson decided to do was donate a portion of the profits to charity. She said that one dollar of every product sold goes to the charity, helping new mothers in need.
Overall, Jackson said that she enjoys being able to make people happy. She continued that getting her products into local boutiques around New Zealand was her goal, as well as her range of kid's jewellery and clip-on earrings, adding that she was surprised how many adults didn’t have their ears pierced.
