My name is Shirra Wall, I'm a new resident to Ottawa who has moved here after a lifetime on the West Coast. Until last September I was the owner and designer for Shining Sun Gardenworks, a metal art manufacturing business I grew over 6 years.

During the last few months of my ownership of the company, my favourite fantasy was to find myself working in a sun-filled room, CBC radio playing in time with the hum of my sewing machine. My shop was cold, metal work is loud and dirty, and the demands of a $250,000 a year business had started to lose its novelty.

Fast-forward 8 months and here I am living that fantasy. My new endeavour is called Super Craft Star. I use my graphic art and silkscreen skills, adding to a combination of vintage, recycled and new fabrics to create a line of pillows and home décor accessories.

The company is in its fledgling stages but I have great hopes for its future. I intend to use many of the skills I learned in building Shining Sun Gardenworks, including skills in sales, research, web development and e-commerce, administration and management, not to mention an impeccable eye for design to build this company to similar heights.

As Shining Sun Gardenworks I sold my wares at dozens of retail and wholesale craft shows over those years, including Circle Craft (Vancouver), the Acre show (Las Vegas), One of a Kind (Toronto), Buyer's Market (Philadelphia) as well as many smaller community shows and farmer's markets.