Ok. So we were a little quiet on the news side of things over Summer. We were like duck feet under water peddling away under the surface while all remained calm and silent up above! It's time to put the last six months into words and let you know what cogs have been turning. (If you fancy a read, cool. If not, skip through and enjoy some photos.)
Tying the Knot: Founders, Indigo Greenlaw & Wills Rowe 'tied the knot' literally in a Scottish hand-fastening ceremony for their Festival style Wedding in October. Fun & chaotic times! Hannah followed suit with her partner, James, in Christchurch just a month ago.
The new store, & oh, the Earthquake: The previous Summer, we'd had a pop up in Picton High Street for four months and LOVED having somewhere local to showcase our products as well as the chance to have face to face interactions with our customers. We were lucky enough to be able to lease the same shop space late last year and opened our doors on November 4th. 
Just 10 days later, our home, our business, our community and our country were shaken up by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake which (according to Wikipedia) was one of the world's three largest Earthquake's in 2016. Our hearts went out to those in Kaikoura & Seddon, areas so close to home it's hard to imagine the landslides, cracks, isolation and devastation the quake caused without seeing it ourselves. The main road down to Christchurch is still closed now in May and freight is all-over-the show-nation wide. What did that mean for us? Mostly, we're just incredibly thankful that the quake's effects weren't devastating even closer to home. We did lose the facade of our brand new store, but had incredible helping hands from our community (a special thanks to Marni and a huge thanks to the locals who supported everyone in this event.)
IF ANYONE IS WONDERING, MARLBOROUGH IS FINE. PLEASE COME AND VISIT, THIS REGION IS AWESOME.
Our People: While the lovely Darelle, Hannah and Linzee took care of a very busy Christmas period at our Tannery Store in Christchurch, we had several hands on board up here in Picton. Our help included the happy-go-lucky face of long time friend Marni, the lovely Liza from Nantucket/USA, Amy (a childhood friend from Scotland) and the awesome Swiss born and trained Gabriela. This International crew helped us through a Summer of changes, through the Earthquake, the Christmas rush, the closure of the Tannery Store in January and the refit of our Picton HQ. Thank you Thank you Thank you - you are amazing.
Marni headed back home to Como, Italy in December, Liza to the USA, Linzee to Mother her two gorgeous boys, Darelle to be a full-time artist (Go Darelle!). Gabriela remains with us part-time in Picton, while Hannah stepped up to be our Assistant Manager and works remotely from Christchurch. She's also making some wicked art, as featured on one of our latest Cause Tees.
We closed the doors to our Christchurch Store.
We FINALLY finished the Kickstarter. This means our hand-built recycled wine-barrel art boards are available for sale online again - YES. These are the new and improved versions and we are so happy to be producing them for the store again.
CONSERVATION & CAUSES: We're doing a lot of work with Causes at the moment. This means that every new t-shirt design & many of our boards are linked to a specific cause that we donate some profits too. These causes are generally environmental or socially based and we love giving back to our community/land. Cause products currently include our new 'Kete' (for Satisfy Food Rescue) and 'Tuiana' (for Kaipupu Point Wildlife Reserve) tees as well as the Woodsman Board series (Para Wetlands) and the almost-sold-out 'Black Dog' t-shirt (Live More Awesome Foundation). This years Causes will also include Project Jonah, Conservation Kids NZ, Black Stilt/Kaki Birds (DOC) and another for Live More Awesome. Watch the space for our Conservation Exhibition later in the year. We love this stuff. Get involved.
Screen-printing: YES! We finally have our 'Still in Print' tees ALL BACK IN STOCK. Had your eye on a Lion, Bison, Mushroom, Waxeye or It's a Tribe Thing? All sizes are now back in store and online.
WINTER SALE: Yep - this is happening. As our apparel is limited edition in design, we are rolling over to the next series of artworks. All of our END OF LINE designs will be on sale throughout Winter.
1 tee? $40 (save $25) 2 tees? Use offer code 'TWOTEES' $75 (save $55) or 3 tees? Use offer code 'THREETEES' $95 (save $100).
EVENTS: We're having quite a few exhibitions, pop-ups and events this year! With our newly developed recycled barrel boards, we are seeking to build relationships with businesses and individuals to create customised and commercial fleets of barrel artworks for cellar doors, foyers and homes across the country. We have several exciting exhibitions coming up including a skateboard show in Framingham wines' underground cellar, a pop up store at Lawson's Dry Hills cellar door and a conservation-based exhibition in Picton later in the year. We are looking forward to working with new board artist, Michel Tuffery, who is hand-carving the surface of three barrel boards for our next exhibition as well as guest artists old and new.
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