Up Close … with Kelly Savy |24 April 2018

‘Always believe in yourself and do not be afraid to follow your dreams!’

To succeed in a niche market, you need a well-defined group of customers and products specifically tailored to their most urgent desires. 28-year-old Kelly Savy can safely say that her business, Tweethings, is cultivating such a success. Tweethings specialises in handmade products such as decorations and photo booth frames for parties and other joyous celebrations. Having just recently moved from a tight, cramped shop in Victoria to a much bigger one at Unique Building, Providence, Kelly finally sat down with the Seychelles NATION to talk about her life and her ever-growing business.

Childhood and family life

“I grew up in Corgat Estate and Glacis where I lived with my mother, father and younger sister, Emma. We moved to North East Point later on during my teens,” Kelly starts off.

“My best childhood memory was when I was 7 years old. Back then we lived at Corgat Estate, and I used to go fishing and swimming with my friends in the river which runs under the bridge next to the Mont Fleuri Police Station. It was much more fun doing this when it had just rained heavily and the river was rough and overflowing the banks.”

“My worse memory is when I was 13; I accidentally tripped while going up a flight of stairs with a pot of boiling water, which poured all over the back of my little sister Emma whom I was going to bathe. I remember getting a good beating from my mum for this!”

Kelly is now married and has a 4-year-old daughter.

Education

“I attended the Mont Fleuri and Glacis primary schools, and then went to Beau Vallon secondary and later on I went to School of Advanced Level Studies (Sals). After graduating from Sals I spent almost a year in the teaching profession, but because it was not something I really enjoyed, I left to take up hotel management with the Seychelles Tourism Academy (STA) at La Misère. I chose this course at the behest of my dad, who was also in this field at one time. I graduated with an Advanced Diploma from the STA in 2013. However I was unable to take up my degree with the Shannon College as I was expecting my daughter at the time."

Passion for DIYs

Kelly reveals that she had always had an eye for interior decorating, fashion and had always enjoyed experimenting whenever the opportunity arose.

“When my baby was born, I stayed home for a while taking care of her. I wanted to be there for her during her early years as she has been born with a rare condition known as spina bifida and she required frequent visits to the doctors, therapists and specialists to check and help her progress and development. In between taking care of her I decided to try my hand at card making for different occasions as a hobby.”

Tweethings makes its debut

“Like I said it all started around the time I was home with my daughter. I started venturing into creating other things such as party boxes, party hats and other accessories. Soon I was getting orders from my friends and relatives. I bought equipment and other material online to try better things, so then it progressed to where I am now.”

I chose the name Tweethings by combining sweet and things together but I replaced the ‘S’ with the letter ‘T’ to make it sound cute like when the birds tweet. So that is how Tweethings came to be.

Products, clientele and a whole lot of glitter

“I sell a wide variety of things all handmade and designed by me, with the help and support of my husband who has been here from the start and my brother-in-law who joined this year. We create and design invitation cards for different occasions, party boxes, cake boxes, photo booth frames, banners, cake toppers, buntings, party decorations.”

“When a customer calls me to ask whether I can do something (even if this seems impossible), I try to accommodate their request as much as possible. Since the items are handmade, we can cut, pin, glue and tie anything together to make up what my client is looking for. We do a lot of personalised items because most of my customers want specific names, dates, etc of their loved ones on these items. My clientele is varied. I have people calling me from all over Mahé, Praslin and La Digue.”

Making it work

“It has not been easy to get where I am today. Even if I have begun building a name for myself, the struggle is still ongoing. This is partly with other people trying to pinch my ideas and passing these off as their own, others have come into the same business but cutting down prices where it comes to a point of being ridiculous. Hand-made items are not easy to make. You have to put in a lot of patience, time and love into each product. At times I work from morning till late at night or even until early the next morning just to ensure that I deliver our work on time.

“When you are spending valuable time going around the local shops to buy (expensive!) basic material, which unfortunately you do not have a wide variety to choose from, taking into account the running costs of fuel, rent and utilities, then it is hardly a huge money-making business. I persevere because of the love I have for creating these things and for the pleasure and satisfaction it gives me when my customers are happy and return for more. Some other issues are with the struggle and bureaucracy you have to go through with obtaining a little bit of financial support from banks or other institutions.”

“We start an item from scratch. Our ideas are original; we do not copy or duplicate anybody else's work. We tend to always be more innovative and on the lookout for beautiful and better designs. We are meticulous in what we do so no scrappy or untidy work from Tweethings!”

You can also find Kelly on…

The TéléSesel channel. “When I was approached to become a TeleSesel presenter, I took up the challenge with open arms and have had no regrets so far. I enjoy my weekly stint with them enormously and I have made a lot of friends there. I hope the viewers enjoy my programme as much as it brings me joy to present it to them.”

Words of wisdom

“Always believe in yourself and do not be afraid to follow your dreams!”

(The accompanying photos show Kelly with samples of her creations)

 By Elsie Pointe