Images Magazine Digital Edition August 2018

IS DECORATOR PROFILE www.images-magazine.com 28 images AUGUST 2018 round and they do a refresher course on how to use the fire tender.“ This service allows Kerri to get most of the orders out within a week to ten days, with bigger orders taking a bit longer. “I keep an eye on the prices [in the UK] when I look at what we‘re selling to try and not make it ridiculous. Obviously there‘s no VAT here, but we‘ve had to pay shipping on everything, which is not inconsiderable. The one advantage we have is quick turnaround. We can‘t beat the prices of the UK companies, but we‘re quick.“ Given that Warrah Workshop is the only embroidery shop in the country, Kerri and Brian are kept busy, although they‘ve recently seen a huge uptick in business. “This year, I can‘t keep up,“ says Kerri. “I don‘t know what‘s happened, it‘s gone a bit mad, hence the fourth machine. We‘ve seen a 30% increase in sales in the last year.“ They don‘t advertise, and only set up a website in June, which was mainly to show people what logos they might want to use or adapt. They get a lot of corporate orders, as well as for the hospital and the government, plus the various sports clubs. There are also a lot of orders for tour T-shirts from the military based at RAF Mount Pleasant. “They all club together and make their own design for this particular tour. Quite often they involve a penguin: penguins driving tanks, penguins holding a spanner, things like that!“ Straightforward and reliable Over the summer just gone (it‘s winter there now), Kerri was embroidering up to 12 hours a day, seven days a week to cope with the orders (Brian does a lot of the pressing and printing as well as still working in IT). Those are long hours to keep, especially when taking into account the other work that has to be done each day. “Because we live off-grid, just the general day-to-day maintenance of systems and living takes more time. You can‘t just pop to the supermarket. We have to maintain our power systems, our water systems, we have chickens, we have gardens.“ They grow fresh veg in two polytunnels and in their gardens – peppers can cost £4 from the shop – eggs they get from their chickens and meat from neighbouring farmers. A small store at Fox Bay is open twice a week for half an hour. They order dried and tinned goods from Tesco online, which take three months to arrive. They stick to offering only embroidery and vinyl printing because they are straightforward, reliable methods. “Power and chemical handling are obviously a bit of an issue. I‘ve looked into DTG and thought, ‘No’ we can‘t really do that here.‘ I‘ve seen various new technologies in Images magazine, like the colour dyeing on the thread [Coloreel], which is, wow. But it‘s a double-edged sword because having not to stock all the colours is great, but one of the things we‘re always really aware of it that you don‘t want to get too high-tech, because if it goes wrong, it can‘t be fixed. This technology may prove itself to be incredibly stable and useful and we might say yes, we need it. And it would be awesome, but something we‘re always aware of when we‘re buying new technology is ‘Can we maintain this without help or without someone here?‘“ The challenges may be many, but the upsides are enormous. “I have a thirty-yard commute from the house and my office window overlooks the bay“ says Kerri. “I‘m looking out there now. For half the year, you can see whales out there. You also see seals, dolphins, penguins – we live in one of the most amazing places. I mean, yes, it‘s kind of odd, but it‘s amazing and I‘m so lucky to be able to work from home in a place that is just fabulous.“ www.warrahworkshop.co.fk An old stable block was turned into the workshop Kerri‘s husband Brian helps out with pressing Penguin-themed logos are popular with Kerri’s customers Kerri with her Barudan embroidery machines