Meet Victoria

When I started making jewelry four years ago I thought running a small business would be easy, I'd seen my parents (seemingly effortlessly) do it all of my life. I'd helped others do it in my various management roles. I was computer savvy, I had two research degrees, and I was creative, it would be a breeze!

I'm glad I didn't know how hard it would be to build everything from the ground up, it meant I was able to focus on each challenge as it arose, unaware of and un-phased by the hurdles looming behind each small victory.

During this time I fell unexpectedly and madly in love with product photography, graphic design, brand building, and storytelling.

These were the aspects I was told were the tedious necessities that would take away from the art I really wanted to create.

Rather than hire professionals, (I had lots of time, but no money to invest), I decided to put my research degrees to good use and learn everything I could about these aspects.

Turns out the more courses I did and the more I learned, the further I willingly ventured down the rabbit hole. I loved it; I would be excited to finish an art piece or piece of jewelry so that I could take pictures of it and tell its story.

Fast forward to 2021 and I've realised all of that learning and pushing myself to be better in those aspects was leading me to do what really set me on fire, the storytelling.

Looking back this seems like an obvious progression, I used to tell people I wanted to be a 19th Century Author when I grew up...I then became an Historian fascinated with intangible heritage and folklore. Storytelling has been such an important part of everything I've done professionally for over a decade.

Everything was leading me to this point.

I created Cedar Cottage to further my vision and passion of helping creators, small businesses, and artists like myself tell their story, build their online presence, and allow them more precious time creating, growing, and doing what sets them on fire.