Olives and Bananas Wool Shop
After two shop floods from the tenants above, and the lease up, I could not imagine signing another lease with that landlord or in that building. The shop flooded on February 14th 2022 and by October when we moved the shop contents out the space still had not been repaired. Insurance dropped us deeming the space too high risk.
Saying goodbye to the shop in Thunder Bay comes with many mixed feelings – I haven’t even been able to find the right words to post on social media because I’m so sad and frustrated by how it all ended (flood from tenants above). It is just taking me some time to find my mojo.
Rather than focus on what was, I really need to focus on what is ahead for my family, and how I can recreate the wool shop. I think I knew in February this year, when the shop flooded for the second time -this time destroying an extraordinary amount of stock as well as the floor, again- and adding a musty ceiling to the already questionable air, that the current shop was ending. My lease was coming up, and I couldn’t imagine renewing it for a space that had so many problems, costing us enormous losses. The business was great, the space was not, and trying to find another workable space in Thunder Bay wasn’t going to be easy, which I knew because I’ve been keeping an eye out since the shop flood in 2019.
Many of the comments that came in about the flood told me to remember that the space was not what made the shop. Recreating the shop in any space is possible, and it will continue to be the creative space because of the people, the art, the fibre, colours, and all the wonderful things that flow from it all.
It was in these months that R and I started considering the move to Australia (again). As we looked into different things, pieces just started falling into place, which quickly turned into realistic plans. We knew it would take time to do it right, so we created a timeline and set a date to move roughly around August 2023. I feel that just thinking about where we will be, the plants, the birds, the rainforest.. is all filling me with new creative paths. It’s a rejuvenating twist, a big one, and just what I needed to turn 2022 upside down.
The last few years have been exhausting trying so hard to keep the shop moving forward. I am burnt out. The burn out is not what I got into this business for, so I’m changing that. I look forward to spending the transition getting back to my creative play, and returning to the actual therapeutic side of fibre arts that drew me in in the first place. The shop, with all its character -and more- will come back to life in its new environment, and I’m happy to be patient while it finds its way.
Olives and Bananas Fibre Art 