I am a member of a collectively run shop

—South Coast Collective. Our shop is right in the heart of the Aro Valley, in Wellington. For those who don't know the area, it is a village, within walking distance of the CBD, with remnants of old Wellington with delightfully colourful Victorian-era houses. You can find Aro Video next door, great eateries of all sorts and other boutique shops. My work often comes straight out of the kiln to here.

 

Everything in the shop is considered from the point of view of sustainability and we go to great lengths to get that as right as we can. This might mean the product is made locally, the fabric is organic with inks and dyes certified to be safe and not contain harmful ingredients, the furniture is made from recycled timber, etc. It isn't easy, suppliers of organic cotton for example are still only about 5% of the market, but we have been working together for decades and are noticing our customers are much more familiar with these concepts than we started. We have organic kids' clothing, organic textiles mainly for homeware, pottery, some furniture, artisan homewares etc.