about

Hi hi!   My name’s Trish!
I just wanted to tell you all a little about my little vintage shop – Trish Hunter Finds – and how I got to where I am now.

I’ll start by introducing you to my shop.

It is a little bit different to most vintage shops we know and love!
See, the four walls surrounding my retro wares are not made of bricks and mortar, but the same plywood and aluminum that many of you have slept behind, snuggled up in sleeping bags, telling ghost stories and swatting mosquitoes.
Trish Hunter Finds, is located inside a converted retro Franklin Caravan – a vintage shop on wheels!

In May 2011, after a very long year in the making, I finally got to open my very own shop door, fold down it’s step, and open for business.
My travelling shop pops up at Camberwell Market every Sunday at stall 202, and is available for bookings on other days!

What can you find in store? Anything from J.H. Lynch prints, Australian Pottery, Kitsch ceramics, 1980’s video games, Starburst clocks, Sunbeam Mixmasters, 1950’s frocks, Kitchenalia, Playboy magazines and more!
If it’s vintage or retro, you’ll probably find it here, at Trish Hunter Finds.
So come by, say hello and have a blast having a blast from the past.

Oh and you never know, it may soon be travelling to a town near you!
Keep up to date with the whereabouts of my little shop, by following on Facebook!

If you don’t live in Melbourne Australia, perhaps you’re in another state, or even overseas, NEVER FEAR!
You can now buy fabulous vintage clothing & collectables anywhere in the world at any time!
My online vintage shop is just a click away!  Right on this very webpage you can find a huge variety of retro things that might be for sale in the shop.   And you don’t even need to get out of your pyjamas! Hooray!

Also keep in mind that we’re always buying and taking good quality items on consignment.
If you have something you’re ready to part with, contact Trish Hunter Finds!

 

The History of Trish Hunter Finds.

Since I was very young, I’ve always been playing shop, though I never treated it like a game.  I took it very very seriously.  It was business after all!
I remember reading a diary entry where I’d sold Dad a pet rock and I made a note saying “Reminder, get 25c from Dad” The next day’s entry was “Got my 25c from Dad”  So so serious.

I was doing anything and everything to create little businesses, from dog walking for $3 per hour, to holding market stalls selling beaded jewellery and doing wraps in other kids hair.

I remember in perhaps year 7, buying two garbage bags of books from the local opshop which cost me a whole $2, and lugging them up to the second hand book shop selling them for $40.
It was always all about business.
I always wanted to be a shop owner.

I began to take the idea seriously about 6 or 7 years ago.
I wanted to start a shop selling vintage band t-shirts with a cheap recording studio out the back.
It was about the same time that I began seriously trawling the Opshops finding cool things for myself.
It quickly got to the stage where I’d bought so much that I couldn’t move in my house.
The vintage band tshirt shop idea morphed into a vintage shop, and there the dream began to unfold.

Dreaming of owning a shop for my whole life, gave me a narrow view.
Every shop is in a building! That’s what you do, and that’s what I was aiming for.
I didn’t consider that there could be a different way to do things, which was very unlike me – I was always one to think outside the square.

So about two years ago, I finally had a lease for the shop I’d always dreamed about, in my hand and ready to sign, however in the end it fell through.
Being denied the shop of my dreams, though completely devastating at the time, opened my mind up to new things.
My narrow view widened.

I remember before I even had my drivers license, bringing up with a friend the idea of  selling out of a caravan, taking the shop with me everywhere.  That was kind of laughed off at the time, and forgotten about until…

I began to have regular market stalls, to clear out some of the vintage collectables and clothing that I’d accumulated over the years.
I did quite well.  So I had more stalls, and more!

It almost became a little shop!
I had regular customers, and I got to continue to do what I love which was to buy and sell, however there were flaws.
I was constantly being rained on, blown over and having stock get ruined.
I couldn’t do marvelous displays that I’d always dreamed of placing in shop windows, or dress mannequins in stunning evening gowns & fur stoles.

Then, that idea I briefly raised those years ago about the shop in a caravan was brought back and not laughed off.
See, I was trying to come up with ways to further my stall, and also still had the dream of having the shop in the back of mind, it became clear what I had to do – The shop in a caravan! Ding!

It’d literally be like a mini shop! It’d be lit up, I’d have display windows, people could walk in and browse my wares.
I’d have a cash drawer, tote bags, swing tags, mannequins to dress, It would really be a real shop!
It was genius!  But was it even possible?
I mean, it was laughed off for a reason last time.
Was it really that silly? Or was this another of my lunatic inventions that I would have dreamed up back in my childhood days.
After some research and forum chatting about the construction of caravans, I found out it could really possibly work!

From then on the Trish Hunter Finds caravan shop project was underway.
There were plenty of disasters along the way, dragging out the project for a whole year. (And I mean plennnnty of disasters.)
My Dad became the hero of the story.  He helped me create my travelling vintage caravan shop!

When I finally found the perfect caravan for the shop, (The third caravan in the story mind you,) we towed it back to Dad’s carport and began the conversion.

However it wasn’t like building something from scratch, we were dealing with a 40 year caravan that had lived outside and suffered all weather conditions.
There was a lot of restoration we had to do to the van before we could even begin the renovation, from treating & pulling out wood-rot, to rewiring, to replacing full side panels & floor.

We could then begin to plan, and start constructing the exciting bit: What was going back inside! HOORAY!
I loved sitting on the floor of a completely sad looking empty caravan with Dad after a massive days work, looking around and imagining the dream.
I didn’t see rotten walls, I saw glamorous bright lit up shelves, I didn’t see holes in the floor, I saw checkerboard lino.

Then finally, in May 2011, I got to show off all of our hard work.
It was truly the best day of my life.
I was close to tears throughout the whole day.
It was completely overwhelming.
Seeing peoples mouths mime the word ‘Wow’ as they approached, meeting lovely people who were filled with compliments, but mostly watching people enjoy what I enjoy, and realise that something I’d been working towards since back when I was walking dogs for $3 an hour had come true.

I am a shop owner! Yeeee.

 

The Future of Trish Hunter Finds

I’m so very excited about what the future holds for Trish Hunter Finds.  There are a lot of ideas in the works and this is just the very beginning!
The online store is forever building, and I hope to eventually be travelling around with the shop to various locations booked by you!

If you’d like to book me for your event or market, please contact me and I can let you know the process, benefits, prices and more!

I can’t wait to see what the future holds!

Thanks for reading this novel of an about me!