Barra is quite a nice place to be a dreamer, there’s lots to explore and find, and my husband was brought up there so knows all the secret places to go. I became a bit obsessed with finding the tiniest shells on the beach (I had no idea they could be so small!) and my photo gallery became rolling smudges of colours - sea, sand, seaweed, rocks, lichen, shells and huge views - and I wanted to capture that somehow in my work.

The Japanese ‘hana’ (花) simply means ‘flower’. In Hawaiian it means ‘craft’ (or ‘work’) and in other languages where the word is used it has a universally positive meaning, from ‘happiness’ (Arabic) to ‘hope’ (Kurdish). Using the word/name ‘hana’ for my new business creates a really nice connection to Hannah Zakari.

I had already been making tentative steps to close the ‘bricks and mortar’ part of my business, Hannah Zakari in the latter half 2021, so I was faced with the decision to stick with that plan, or bring it forward. When government announced that financial help was going to be made available I was so relieved to have a bit of breathing space…