As the year starts drawing to an end and before the silly season starts to take a hold, we thought we would reflect on the past year.
Its been a big one for us, its probably the first year after starting Island Collective almost 5 years ago that its feels all the hard work has started come to fruition.

Laid Bare…

They say most small businesses fail in the first 2 years, so we are stoked we have gone beyond.

Hey lets be honest, running a small, local business as a working mother in a small coastal town, in a massively competitive market isn’t easy. We don’t have a massive marketing budget, don’t pay for models (lucky we have nice friends) or do we pay social influencers.

Our first personal achievement of 2017 was Home Beautiful Magazine publishing an article in the Feb issue of Artist and Creator of Island Collective, Fleur Yorston.
For us it really highlighted that IC was not just a lifestyle store but a working artists studio as well and place for people to get creative together.

Unexpected and unknown media is always buzz. A mention (that we were totally un-aware of and drew our attention from a friend flying back from Bangkok) In the International Jetstar magazine. Where we we mentioned next some of favourite and very established Byron Bay Stores.

Recently Captain and The Gypsy Kid did a blog piece on Yamba. Sheree Commerford, (who was born and bred here) highlighted what our small coastal town has to offer,but what we really loved about it, was its intimacy, it didn’t try and pretend to show Yamba as something it wasn’t, but highlighted we may be small but have a lot to offer.

Its been a massive creative year…

This year we have hosted some amazingly creative workshops. We are proud our workshops have such a strong following. We believe its because we see them as a wholistic experience, adding beautiful food,  refreshments to match in our inspiring environment of IC. The renaissance of the hand-made is stronger than ever and next year we will be adding some new exciting workshops to feed this growing appetite.

Some of our workshops this year have included Macrame with Emilia Lorena, Clay with Amanda Brightwell and Basket and Mandala weaving with Ruth from Craft School Oz. Our mission is to bring to Yamba new and exciting creatives to share their amazing talents with our community, making art and craft education more accessible to all.

Where to next….

As most small businesses have to, innovation and seeing new opportunities have become a daily mantra.

Since opening we have always held creative workshops in our space and now have branched out to private baby showers, hens parties and girls weekends. The Island is fast gaining a reputation as a Boutique event space in Yamba and we couldn’t be happier.

Since the beginning of IC interior plants have always played a role in our decor. It may have taken us 4 years to see the light (people constantly asking if they could buy our plants) but now we proudly have a specialised selection, beautiful ceramic pots and vessels to put them in and love helping clients curate their interior spaces with the healthy and healing qualities that plants give.

Next year we are also keen to increase collaborations with like minded brands and artists. We love the idea of sharing resources and building our Island Tribe.

And lastly we have added a wedding and gift register to our online services, to help make special occasions less overwhelming, when buying gifts.

Your Island Love…

How do you judge whether what your vision is, is actually becoming someone elses… or more to the point are your clients feeling apart of whats in your head? (a constant battle as a creative)
Responses to our Instagram and Facebook posts and the personal messages you sent us about our service, really are the fuel in our fire.
As we grow with our brands we also love growing with our clients and being apart of their daily lives.

Thanks for being apart of our Island Tribe, here’s to more Island Vibes together, now and in the future.

❤️ Your Island Tribe 🌴