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The MYJN Note
A living note from our studio.
The price of gold and silver has been moving in a way I have never seen before in almost ten years of doing this.
Not gradually. Not in a way you can plan around. Some weeks it feels like the number changes before I have finished reading it. And because MYJN is a small studio that sources in small quantities rather than sitting on months of bulk inventory, we feel every spike the moment it happens. There is no buffer. When the market moves, we move with it, immediately and fully.
What makes this harder for us specifically is that Gold Vermeil is built on two precious metals at once: a solid silver core with a thick layer of real gold bonded over it. When both markets climb at the same time, we absorb both surges in a single piece. Lately, some of our raw material costs have reached more than three times what we were paying not long ago. That number is not an exaggeration. I wish it were.
I want to be honest with you about all of this, because you have been honest with us by choosing us, and MYJN has been my life for nearly a decade. I do not take that lightly.
What you did not know, and what I want you to know now, is that we made a quiet agreement inside the studio to hold our prices through last year. Through the entire holiday season, through every spike and every hard conversation about margins, we did not change a thing. We wanted to protect that time for you. We wanted the season to feel the way it always has. So we absorbed it, and we said nothing.
But there comes a point where absorbing it becomes a question of whether we can keep going at all.
I want to tell you what keeping the standard actually looks like from where I stand, because I think about this a lot, especially late at night when the studio is quiet and I am still here.
My colleague Wenyi stopped a full shipment recently because she found a mark on a piece. One millimetre. Something almost no one would ever notice, and she sent the entire batch back for a full repolish without hesitating. That is not a policy. That is just who she is, and it is the kind of person I want beside me. I sit with the fumes from the extra anti-tarnish coating we apply because we want the pieces to last longer on your skin and in your life. We reject and redo. We reject and redo again. We do not move on until it feels right, not just until it passes.
This business is everything to me. I know how that sounds, and I know my family would agree, because they tell me often. I find myself back at my desk after dinner most nights. I have stayed until two in the morning more times than I can count just to make sure every order is right before I can sleep. I have missed things I should not have missed. I have not been home to see my parents in longer than I want to admit. I am not saying this for sympathy. I am saying it because I want you to understand that when I talk about the standard we refuse to drop, it is not a line from a brand. It is the only way I know how to do this.
We had a real choice to make. We could quietly thin the metal, reduce what goes into each piece, and keep the prices where they were. A lot of brands make that choice and most customers never notice. Or we could protect everything we have spent years building and be honest with you about what that costs.
We protected the quality. We always will.
We have made a measured adjustment to our Silver and Gold Vermeil prices to reflect where we actually are. It was not a decision we made quickly or lightly.
And because I never want MYJN to feel like a place you have to grow out of, we have been working hard on something alongside this. Our Atelier Collection, and the designs coming in brass finished with fine silver and 18k gold alongside pearls, carry the exact same design language and the same obsession we bring to everything. They are just as considered, just as beautiful, and they allow us to keep a part of MYJN within reach for everyone who wants to be here.
If you have been with us for a while, thank you. You are the reason I can keep choosing quality over convenience on the days when convenience would be so much easier.
If something has been sitting in the back of your mind, take this as a quiet sign to choose it while it is still here, and while we can still hold this for you.
Rowan
We answer when it cannot wait.
Some messages arrive when the studio is dark, the door is locked, and the day should already be over. We still read them. If something feels urgent to you, it matters to us — and so sometimes you will get a reply late at night, long after any reasonable definition of working hours, because we know there is someone lying awake worrying about a clasp, a gift, or a parcel that has not arrived yet. We do not want you to carry that alone. We would rather lose a little sleep than let you spend the night anxious with nowhere to turn.
We write the long replies, because you deserve the whole answer.
A lot of brands stop at yes or no. We do not. When you ask about materials, about sensitivity, about how to care for something or whether it will hold up to your life, we sit down and write the full answer. The kind that takes time. The kind that explains, compares, and reassures until there is no question left unspoken. We would rather spend twenty minutes writing to you than let you reach the checkout with doubt still sitting in your chest. You are never an order number to us. You are someone who trusted us with something small and personal, and we take that seriously every single time.
We keep the lights on a little longer.
The sign on our door says we close at six. Real life rarely agrees. Sometimes you finish late and rush over anyway. Sometimes you are only in town for the weekend and this is the one evening you have free. On those days, we stay. The shutters come down later than they should, the last train home gets a little quieter, but you get the time and space to try things slowly, to ask everything you wanted to ask, to make your choice without being watched or hurried. If you made the effort to come to us, we will quietly make the effort to stay for you.
Before you arrive, the room is already waiting for you.
When you book a studio visit, we do not simply pull open a drawer and see what is there. We think about you before you step in. We lay out a tray, choose pieces we think might suit you, turn on the softer light, straighten the cloth, wipe the mirror until it is clear. By the time you walk through the door, the room has already been thinking about you. We want you to feel expected and considered, not squeezed in between other things.
Your box should smell like something worth remembering.
A box can be cardboard and nothing more, or it can be a small moment that stays with you. We chose a quiet scent for our packaging so that when you open it, you pause for just half a second and breathe. It is not about perfume or theatre. It is about making you feel, for that moment, that someone prepared this slowly and with thought, not rushed it along a conveyor belt to meet a target. One day, if you catch that scent somewhere else and think of MYJN before you even see us, that will be enough.
Sometimes we say yes, even when the policy says no.
We have policies because they keep things fair and consistent. But we also have eyes, and we have memory. There are times when a piece comes back clearly loved and worn, technically past any reasonable warranty. On paper, the answer is no. But if you have been with us for years, if you have chosen us again and again through different seasons and different chapters of your life, sometimes we quietly say yes and take care of it anyway. Not because we have to. Because we remember who stands by us, and we want to stand by you too.
We plate a little more, so you can worry a little less.
Many of our pieces go through steps you will never see and never need to think about. We apply a thicker, carefully controlled protective coating so the surface stays beautiful longer and sits more kindly against your skin through daily life. You may only notice it years from now, when you realise your piece has held up better than you expected. That invisible layer is not something we advertise. It is simply our way of caring more about how your jewellery lives with you than how quickly we can finish it.
Small batches. Many pairs of eyes.
We do not run large, anonymous production lines. Our pieces arrive in small numbers, and many hands and eyes pass over each one before it reaches you. Clasps are tested. Surfaces are held under proper light and turned slowly. Anything that does not feel right does not leave. You will never know which pieces were quietly set aside, and that is exactly the point. Our job is to keep the almost-right pieces away from you so that you only ever meet the ones that feel completely right.
What happens before your jewellery meets you.
Before a piece reaches you, it is hand-finished and individually checked, which means no two are ever exactly alike. Many designs receive an additional layer of protective plating that may feel slightly textured when new but softens naturally as you wear it, helping the piece stay beautiful with only simple care and dry storage. Our boxes are fully recyclable. With every production run, we refine the packaging and the unboxing the same way we quietly refine this website, line by line, so that your time with MYJN always feels calm, considered, and worth returning to.
Why we choose to stay small, human, and within reach.
We protect our team's rest and their boundaries, which means replies can sometimes take a little longer than you might expect elsewhere. But every message is answered with a clear head and real attention. We work in small batches, keep our designs limited, and hold our margins thin so that carefully made sterling silver and thoughtfully designed pieces remain accessible to the people we make them for. Alongside silver, we continue to explore other materials with the same minimal, sculptural approach, always balancing honest pricing with fair pay for the people who make and pack your pieces. We are not trying to be the biggest. We are trying to be the one you trust.