Bunyip is 13
Bunyip Beads & Buttons is officially 13 years old today! We’re very excited to be getting into our teenage years, and fingers crossed 13 isn’t unlucky for us. As a mini celebration of all things Bunyip, here’s 13 things that have happened to us over the years – thank you for being a part of it with us…
Team Bunyip
In 13 years we’ve had a few faces come and go, so here’s an attempted run down of everyone – thank you for your time at Bunyip! Shout out to – Cat, Lily, Suzy, both Amber’s, Freya, Cassie, Etta, Aiden, Ginny, Claire, Ruby, Rosie, Daniel, Tony, and Katie. Phew…
Independent Business
We’ve always relished being one of the many indies in Exeter, and especially love being on Fore Street, right in the hub of the indie action. Mattie is the chair of the Fore Street Collective, on the BID board, was part of the team that created Exeter Trails….who knows what else she’ll be doing in another 13 years?!
Making Lovely Things
It’s no secret that one our of favourite things to do is make lovely things – we even have it emblazoned in gold on the outside of the shop! Mattie didn’t originally intend to sell jewellery, and at first had it in the shop as examples to show customers what they could make. Due to popular demand, these pieces started to sell and so the handmade jewellery range was born! We now sell our classic designs and beautiful one offs in the shop, on the website and on Etsy.
McCoy’s Arcade
Bunyip traded in the McCoy’s Arcade for almost 11 years! In that time we saw lots of things come and go, but what always stayed the same was the friendly traders, the breeding ground for new indie businesses and of course the Real McCoy vintage shop & cafe. One of the lovely ladies who worked in the cafe is even a godparent to one of the Bunyip babies…
Exeter Trails
In 2013, Exeter Trails was created by Mattie and other independent retailers around the City. This was a wonderfully successful project, with 5 maps created showcasing over 100 of the amazing indies Exeter has to offer. In 2015, the hand illustrated maps were updated and reprinted – if you STILL haven’t grabbed some, we have all of them in Bunyip so come and grab a handful! or have a look at www.exetertrails.co.uk
New Shop
In October 2013, we left the arcade and moved out into the bright lights of Fore Street – hurrah! After a false start attempting to move out a few years earlier, it was so nice to be able to spread out in the lovely big new shop and be able to see all the goings on of Fore Street out of our windows. We literally dragged all the beads up the hill on a trolley….good times!
Otton’s Haberdashery
When Bunyip left the arcade and moved out on to Fore Street, we did so with Otton’s Haberdashery. We’d always been asked for haberdashery stock in the old shop, but never had the space to expand and didn’t want to sacrifice our bead & button offering in the process. The new bigger shop changed all this, and so long term Bunyip girl Lily opened the haberdashery side of things, and we now share our shop space together. This means there’s now always two of us in the shop, which we love! And pretty fabric, of course…
Events
We’ve loved being able to host events over the years – one of our favorites in the arcade was The Great Create, and up in the new shop we’ve even had a gig, where wonderful Nuala came and performed for us to celebrate our 1 year birthday. Any excuse to open the fizz…
Make – Kits by Bunyip
One of the ever changing things in Bunyip has been the kits that we design, package and sell all under the shop roof. We’ve just launched their 3rd packaging design, with the beautiful illustrations all hand drawn by Freya Hartas – we’ve also just launched these for wholesale, another string to our bow!
Bunyip Babies
When Mattie opened the shop, she was 26 and certainly had no kids! Now, she has 2 Bunyip babies to contend with. They are 8 and 5, both at school and are convinced Mummy is going to be on Strictly Come Dancing because she’s been on the TV talking about independent business!
Craft Fairs
Even though we’ve done all sorts of Craft Fairs, our favourite has to be the Contemporary Craft Festival in Bovey Tracey. We’ve been showing at this fair for at least 8 years, and it gets lovelier every year…the Pimms, the deck chairs, the beautiful things….sigh.
Party Curse
A running joke amongst the Bunyip team is the PARTY CURSE! Every time we have a birthday, anniversary or just any sort of meet up, there’s always some sort of extreme weather condition that prevents us all being there. We’ve had floods, snow, lightning & hail storms….who knows what will happen this year!
BID
In early 2014, Bunyip boss Mattie got elected as the representative for the Fore Street area on the Business Improvement District board. This means that she gets to fight our corner on all sorts of plans & issues, so here’s to lots of new exciting changes happening over the next few years!
And there you have it, 13 Bunyip-y things to celebrate our birthday. Thank you so much for being our customers, our champions and our friends – and here’s to another 13 years of crafty loveliness!