Sea Sky

Sea Sky in Hamble is run by Debbie and Susie, who used lockdowns to develop their website and offered free delivery for local orders. They also focused on their bright shop window, altering its content to cheer anyone who walked past on daily exercise.

Introduced by the previous owner of the space, they went into business together despite having only met a few times. But it worked out very happily and six years later they are still thriving, having combined their backgrounds of printmaking and retail (Debbie) and theatre and design (Susie). They love being a part of the friendly village community; they showcase the work of local artists and a local superyacht rigger makes the dog leads they sell.

Debbie, pictured, said: “The COVID crisis was very worrying but we were determined to keep our heads above water and the grants were so important. We’ve been so well supported by the local community and they rallied round to ask how they could help, buying gift vouchers and so on. We made little videos and sent them to our customers to help them choose the items they wanted from around the shop. Now the website is done, we’ll carry on selling online – we now get orders from all over the country.

"We have to love a thing to sell it and we’re always on the lookout for new quirky things; we try to stock directly from independent suppliers and we cater to any pocket.

“We’re really looking forward to restarting our workshops – we had a fully booked calendar for last year which had to be cancelled - using our space so that people have a lovely creative experience with no pressure.”