After 20 years it’s time to say goodbye to the Made in Glenorchy shop
When we first opened the Made in Glenorchy shop more than 20 years ago we didn’t expect it to last so long. From a few fur products in a single room shed, to a showroom /shop and a workshop space.
We’ve evolved along the way, changed direction from making items with possum skins to printing and now we’ve “pivoted” to going online. After a lot of soul searching while in lockdown and trying to do business in a tourist town without tourists, we’ve made the hard decision to close the shop and change to online only.
We started out in 1998 selling possum fur products. Then we changed to glass lamination and even t-shirts for a while, after Thor hurt his hip while hunting possums and couldn’t supply skins for the shop anymore.
Sometimes conditions were a bit challenging, but while we operated as a possum shop we employed three local people, donated many items for local fundraising, and sold possum fur items including bedspreads to people all over the world.
We decided to change direction in 2014 and made the move to printing both on fabric and with a signwriters printer on vinyl and canvas and also a PET film to laminate with. We’ve learnt so much along the way. There is nothing like being able to print images on a large scale to show up any faults both in the taking of images and the processing of them. We’ve also pioneered a new technique for laminating images onto glass so they are UV protected and resist scratching and other damage that can occur with printing directly onto glass
As you can imagine it has been a real wrench to say goodbye to a place where we have poured our hearts and souls into for more than 20 years but all good things come to an end and new adventures are on the horizon. Now I’ll have more time to go out and capture those iconic New Zealand images that look so good as splashbacks and wall art.
To answer your questions:-
No, we haven’t closed the business.
Yes, we are still laminating splashbacks for kitchens and bathrooms etc
Yes, we still do wallpaper
Yes, we still have both the lamination oven and the printer
No, we haven’t left Glenorchy.
All we have done is move our operation up to our property on the edge of town. One day we’ll have a small showroom up here too. Meanwhile, you can find us online both on Facebook and on our website where we have a growing gallery of high-resolution images of New Zealand
A huge thank you to our landlord who has been so easy to deal with over the years. Our lovely employees who helped make our business the success it was, and of course our many customers who have supported us over the years, We hope you’ll continue to support us as we keep making improvements to our website, add to the image library, and create wonderful splashbacks that are already being installed all over the country and overseas
