Leonie loves Wynnum and its creative style. Growing up on the Sunshine Coast she was a frequent visitor to the Bayside in her twenties where she met her husband, eventually settling close to Wynnum 15 years ago.
It was always her aim to have a locally based business which led to the opening on Bay Terrace of The Collective Store in November 2010. In late 2013 she was able to move to the more prominent location on the corner of Bay Terrace and Florence St.
Leonie loves the Wynnum community and its creative artistic streak that she describes as “contagious”. She puts it down to the influence of the Bay inspiring local artists to be “quirky and different”.
“Wynnum was crying out for a creative space like The Collective Store when it opened.” she says. As the name suggests it is a collective run on the old style co-operative principal with artists sharing the running costs of the stores and its proceeds. Some artists even work in the shop which adds to the feeling of community.
Leonie is proud to host nearly 40 Wynnum artists out of 100 from across Brisbane. The wares on display range from jewellery, to textiles and original paintings. A leather wrap bracelet by local design duo, She Creature, is popular with the inscription ‘Hope is a Waking Dream’. Renowned textile and Lota based artist Cathy Moon has a range of Shibori textiles featuring silk scarves. Edelweiss Jewellery, created by Anita Jochumsen, has a range including titanium, turquoise and fresh water pearls as well as opals mined from her sister’s opal mine in New South Wales.
Tracey Potter is a local painter with a range of mainly figurative artworks in oils and watercolours. Michelle Scoccimaro has a range of crochet made from natural fibres with items from baby booties to women’s accessories.
Leonie’s latest venture is the creation of workshops for adults and children within a creative hub. The workshops held at the shop, will include weekly children’s art classes with Tanya Dower, basket weaving with Maryann Talia Pau, and remodelling old jewellery with local and internationally recognised artist Daniele Lamarche-Sarvia. They can be booked online at the shop’s website www.thecollectivestore.com.au/workshops.php.
Leonie has every confidence in Wynnum, describing the trust in the community with the vast majority of her customers being local, many popping in on a weekly basis. Some customers even make a special visit from Toowoomba, no doubt enjoying the Wynnum bayside at the same time.
Most of her advertising is by word of mouth and Facebook with a growing reputation amongst artists and customers.
Leonie herself is a trained silversmith but has little time at present to indulge in this creative side. Instead she commits her energy to the local community as a founding member and now organiser of the BAM Festival (Bayside Arts & Music), being held for the third year in September. It’s her way of getting the community to be involved in the local arts culture. That’s something you can be sure Leonie will be doing for a long time.
The Collective Store is a member of WynnumCentral
