The Bonney Street Garage was a significant part of our childhoods.
No, we didn’t grow up in a greasy dirty mechanics workshop. Instead we spent time on our weekends and school holidays in our Grandma Bertha’s garage (located on Bonney Street, in Nambour, Queensland), half of which was dedicated to the pursuit of arts & craft enlightenment.
Grandma was a great artist, who could pick up and master any craft technique and then add her own inspired flair. Every time we visited she’d have something new to show us. Just a few examples of areas of her expertise: Hobbytext; silk painting; fimo; face-washer dolls; knitting; pressed flowers; …
But what made Grandma’s passion extra special was her desire to share what she knew. And this is where the Bonney Street Garage came into its own. Grandma would host craft afternoons in her garage, where ladies from her neighbourhood and church would came and learn the latest craft idea. The afternoons were about craft, but also fellowship and friendship.
We can directly link our passion for arts and craft back to Grandma. It’s not just the finished product that fills us with joy, but the challenge to master something new and share our success (and sometime failures) with likeminded crafties.