1999

Rimu was going on 2 and well and truly getting around. He was a good kid, easy going and always happy. Our dog Karma was his best mate. Anytime Rimu had chippies or snacks he would share with Karma.. One for me, two for you.  She returned the favour by being ultra protective of him. Gently bunting him with her head if he got too close to the heater, rushing to the couch if he looked like he was going to roll off. She would stay up late with us and provided  a good attention shift when stuff got monotonous at the table.  

We had so many designs by this point, I literally saw dollar notes lying around. We talked about selling the art, and couldn’t figure out how to produce it or where to sell it. Wiremu got some photocopies done and they looked awesome. “Yes!” I thought ”we are in business!!” He scanned those copies slowly and intently resulting each time in a fat NAH. Line shades were inconsistent, a speck of dust must've been stuck on the copier, the paper was shit etc etc etc. You name a discrepancy - he found it.

To this very day everything gets the once, twice, thrice over. It used to do my head in cos I just wanted to get shit out, but I’ve grown to appreciate the process so much. Only took me 20 years. 

Evidently photocopying was a no go,  so the next step was to look in the Yellow pages for a printer.

One of our smartest moves. 

We found a small company based in Tawa. The manager there was a lovely woman named Diana. She could tell we didn’t know wtf we were doing and she took us under her wing.  We learnt so much from her in regards to paper stock, inks, textures, weights. We had no experience, no money, but we had this kid that she thought was super cute. I think that helped. 

She did us a good sized print run on beautiful paper, the finished product was exquisite and we had a month to pay the bill. Such a generous woman taking a chance on us. She remained a friend for many years to come.

We had 30 days to make good on our print bill. It was time to hustle.

Rimu and Karma - Hereford St Porirua (that carpet!) 1998