collectively creative social heaven

1080 823 In Good Company | Northern Rivers
island-collective-logo-300

Island Collective

1/16 Uki St, Yamba

www.islandcollective.com.au

Visit Clarence Valley Northern Rivers-01
collectively creative social heaven

If you are looking for contemporary artist and stylist Fleur Yorston, you’ll most likely find her among fiddle leaf figs and cane furniture, in her Yamba homewares studio, Island Collective.

Fleur knows a thing or two about island living, having spent most of her life in New Zealand, imbibing Maori and Pacific culture. Eight years ago, after travelling widely, Fleur and her family put down roots in Yamba.

What she couldn’t find, though, were homewares to suit her unique style. A collector and lover of things for the home, Fleur was inspired to start her own business, and sell wares she loved and artwork she’d created.

Now, she also runs workshops in her space, and hosts private functions. Just recently, a group of women from Wauchope indulged in a creative weekend workshop at Island Collective, accompanied by music, champagne and lots of laughter.

Many of Island Collective’s customers are local, or find Fleur while holidaying in Yamba. “When people come into the Island Collective creative space, they walk away inspired,” says Fleur.

While local and holiday traffic are good, about 70% of Fleur’s business is now generated through Instagram and her website. Fleur styles images the way she styles homes, and customers anywhere in the world have access to her studio. Island Collective pieces have found their way as far as Fiji.

Being a small, Yamba-based enterprise means Fleur needs to draw on her vast creative toolbox to make business work. But being small, and coastal, is also an edge lots of other businesses don’t have.

“I think the personalised service I provide sets me aside from bigger online lifestyle brands,” says Fleur. “And people like supporting a small, coastal business. I can offer them a piece of island living for their homes, so they can make that holiday feeling part of their every day lives.”

For Fleur, success is being able to do what you love, and make a living doing it.

“I can’t imagine not doing business from such a beautiful part of world,” says Fleur, “and with social media and the internet, these dreams can become a reality.”

Share this story

Read more stories

Townsend taproom breakthrough brews

 1123 627 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Sanctus Brewing Co.
When Sanctus Brewing Co. began life in 2019, there was no indication that the brewery would go on to enjoy the immense success it has over the last three years.

Dance call for Kyogle

 1473 828 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Ascent Dance
Starting a dance school just five weeks before the onset of a pandemic might have dampened the spirits of some new business owners, but Haylee Holliday took it as a sign that Ascent Dance Studio had to succeed.

nicholson fine foods yamba

eclectic food innovator shines

 1030 1030 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Nicholson Fine Foods
The small coastal town of Yamba is home to the one of the world’s best eating prawns, the Eastern King Prawn. It’s also home to the highest…

stone and wood 001

not just a business, a community partner

 960 761 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Stone & Wood
“That’s like asking parents to name which of their children they prefer,” says Jamie Cook, Stone & Wood co-founder. He has been asked which of the…

horizon motorhomes ballina 002

when opportunity knocks…

 1600 1067 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Horizon Motorhomes
When a campervan arrived on Clayton Kearney’s used car yard in 1995, and sold in seconds flat, he realised there was a gap in the market…

You can judge a book by its cover

 1440 2560 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Charlie & Fox
When Jess Tunnage’s mother-in-law gave her a sewing machine for Christmas a few years ago, she had no idea how to use it.

Creativity takes flight

 2560 2560 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Honey Hunt Style
Jules Hunt moved to Byron Bay with her family 15 years ago because she wanted to raise her children with a strong sense of community. It was by chance that this move led to the flourishing of her artistic career – and more recently to her turn as a successful business woman.

Nurtured by nature

 2560 1723 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Greenx7
For the past 10 years GreenX7 has been running workshops and retreats internationally and in the Tweed for clients as diverse as McDonald’s, Deloitte, Six Senses, and the Australian Defence Force, to inspire both individuals and teams to tap into the healing power of nature.

Casino RSM Club

 1360 906 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Casino RSM Club
The 23 of March 2020 was the hardest day of Neale Genge’s career.

A hive of success and support

 940 627 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Wild Honey Creative
Wild Honey Creative is living proof that special skills and services we might once have associated with our cities – such as graphic and digital design, innovation in marketing and brand storytelling – are thriving in regional areas.

Keeping it real in the Tweed

 1706 2560 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Tweed Real Food
Tweed Real Food is a business launched in 2018 from a desire to be resilient. Little did founder Julia Foyster know how prescient her plan would turn out to be.

herb blanchard haulage

in for the long haul

 1024 682 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Herb Blanchard Haulage
If you happen to be in the ‘jacaranda city’ of Grafton or its surrounds and you see a big blue truck out on the roads, the chances are its part of the…

A fighting spirit … and great networks

 768 1024 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Five Sixty Farms
Stranded on the roof of his house with his wife and their eight children, Pepe Fassos watched helplessly as his beloved greenhouses smashed and floated away in a tsunami of floodwater.

glass lab tweed heads 002

riding the wave of success

 1000 661 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

The Glass Lab
Adam Wessel may have worked in surfboard factories since the age of 16, but it was a stint in the luxury yachting industry that sowed the…

northern_lights _ballina_northern_rivers_001

let there be light

 2000 1333 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Northern Light
“I eat a pot of honey every day and I’ve been stung more than 70,000 times,” says Jeffrey Gibbs, founder of Northern Light, an organic beeswax…

Osteria Casaurina Tweed Coast

overtures of romance and style

 1000 667 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Osteria
Mark Wilson, Lia Mason and Lee Middendorf all met when the three of them were working in hospitality jobs at The Sandbar …

It was time the level the paying field

 1500 562 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Zepto
What do you do next after more than a decade building up a Byron Bay skydiving business to become a national success and then stepping back after listing it on the Australian Stock Exchange?

biggy pop sings support for matilda

 2048 2560 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital
In 2020, Iggy Pop received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys; in the same year his pet cockatoo, named Biggy Pop, became the founding patron of Byron Wildlife Hospital…

all the best fine foods casino 001

our kitchen rules in the heart of beef country

 1000 664 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

All The Best Fine Foods
From little things big thing grow, goes the saying, and Casino-based business All The Best Fine Foods is certainly proof that humble….

wrightway products 001

right place, right time, right way

 600 436 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Wrightway Products
The greatest challenge for Jennifer Joy and John Donnelly, the driving force behind Wrightway Products, was getting the world to see the value of…

Start Typing

X