Sarah Kay

We’ve headed up to Scalloway in Shetland to meet Sarah Kay of Sarah Kay Arts to see what a typical day is like for her and what inspires her to run her small island business.

Sarah is a resin artwork and jewellery maker and designer. She lives and works in Scalloway where her studio overlooks the ancient capital of Shetland, Scalloway and its ruined castle. Scalloway is a busy place with a small working harbour and boat repair yard. It’s the winter home of the Swan, an ex-herring drifter now used for boat trips around Shetland, the Inner and Outer Hebrides and as far north as the Lofoten Islands and makes regular sail training trips to Norway.  

Sarah’s work beautifully captures the colours of Shetland, especially the sea and the underwater world of colour. Check out Sarah’s Instagram where she shares some amazing images from her snorkelling trips. It’s hard to believe sometimes that such exotic and vibrant underwater creatures actually live in the waters surrounding our islands. Sarah has been working on creating new products inspired by her underwater discoveries.

Sarah has worked hard to grow her business in the last few years and feels like her biggest achievement so far has been taking steps into selling wholesale and she now supplies small independent shops throughout the UK. As well as working on her art business Sarah runs a successful holiday let business with nine purpose built self-catering chalets.

So, a typical day is working on her art and business, running the holiday lets and going for a quick snorkel. An 8mm wetsuit means that this is a year-round activity!

It’s clear to see the love and passion Sarah has for her native Shetland and that she loves to share that through her art. The one place she’d love to visit is, Fair Isle – can you imagine the stunning artworks she would be inspired to create from a visit there?

Take a closer look at Sarah’s isle20shop and buy a piece of Shetland for yourself. 

From the shop