There is more to me than being a political maverick or a videographer Cowgirl.
I have co-owned Garnet Station with my wife Verity for 18 years and over that time I have been a chef, a pizziola, a theatre technician, occasionally a maitre’d and all of the time the maintenance Tool Gal.
When we started this business our motto was Good for You, Good for the Planet. Our boho chic maximalist theme was driven by our reuse and recycle ethos. It’s the way we each grew up, with parents who never threw anything away, who instilled in us a love of old things, and because old things were made to last they keep on going.
As a wax sculptor and artist in my younger days living in Norfolk Street, Ponsonby, I did a series of large TV-inspired paintings on thick brown Kleensaks. Over the years I’ve painted on straw hats, corflute, plywood and reused old canvases because I can. It feels really good to keep the life of an object cycling over and over, knowing it won’t go into a landfill. Luckily, there is now a swing towards using as much of an unwanted object as possible.
The council’s week-long inorganic collections used to be so much fun. I admit I miss the ferreting through things – this is the joy of free kerbside finds. Neighbours exchanged objects, people cruised in cars for a treasure and scrap metal collectors competed for anything worth a buck. Now you hide your one cubic metre behind your fence and book the council pick up in a prescribed time frame. The other option is to go to a Waste Free station where they take your unwanted items to on sell, dismantle or repair. It may cost you something but it’s worth it to keep it out of landfills.
This year, Garnet Station has been open only on Saturdays as' How Bazaar', our latest evolution as a vintage market. It’s been a blast and we’ve loved the different types of customers it has attracted – hard core op shoppers, occasional secondhand lovers, curious regulars who are then delighted to find a random whatnot they never knew we had or that they wanted. Many are of a similar age to us and they remark that their children are not into it, they find it a bit odd and prefer new stuff. But what’s great is that often people buy things to reappropriate or up-cycle: a walking stick to be made into an art work and given to a friend who is reluctant to use a cane, even though they need to; an worn old sailing ship’s heavy rig pulley to be put on the Xmas table as a nautical centre piece; an antique theodolite, surveyors' equipment on a tripod, to be added to a tripod collection; a pair of retro chrome, orange padded chairs perfect for a small kitchen table in an apartment; a tatty faded sombrero to be worn to a themed party; 30 hollow-stemmed Marie Antoinette Champagne glasses for a gentleman who loves to entertain… the list goes on.
It’s been a great way for us to lighten the amount of belongings we have, not to mention the myriad objects people have given us over the years because they know we value old things. The beauty of old things is that they can keep on having a life with someone else, you can see the photos we take of happy shoppers on Garnet Station insta and fb pages. Of course, the benefit of doing this is two fold – a clear conscience that we are looking after Mother Nature by not consuming so much, and the long overdue clearing out of deep, dark storage areas. I feel freer, less encumbered, lighter with more room to pick up mementos of our travels, which we plan to do a lot more of.
But until then you might like to consider coming to check out the weird and wonderful vintage collection at How Bazaar on a Saturday 9am-2pm, and if you are looking for something specific ask me and I may just have it out the back waiting for you!
P.S. We closed the doors on Garnet Station cafe, restaurant, bar and tiny theatre to travel the world in search of amazing food, art and architecture. Check out the first episode of our Garnet Galz Getaway on YouTube. Created for all the armchair travellers who want to see the world from the comfort of their own home. Episode One: Montmartre Paris, Living like Locals. Watch, like, subscribe and enjoy!
Lisa Prager
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