Retired couple starts art business, opens inn at Hall’s Harbour, N.S.

A creative couple from England makes memorable art in Nova Scotia.

Emma and David Jarrett moved to Canada from Peterborough, England, in 2006 and they had always dreamed of starting a business together.

Now in their 30th year of marriage, they are living out that dream and doing what they love.

“My husband started making jewelry out of wood and resin in BC and then when we moved here, we started doing farmers markets and initially it was just the necklaces and then the opportunity came to have more on the table,” says Emma, owner of Tides Inn in Hall’s Harbour, N.S.

David is a cabinet maker and started his own business called Coast Mountain Designs in Whistler, BC. Now in his retirement, art has become his way of slowing down. He started making jewelry when they lived on the West Coast but since moving to Nova Scotia in 2022, they’ve only added to their creative collection.

“It’s something I have been interested in for quite some time, working with wood. I’ve always kind of worked with wood for my whole career. Ended up doing cabinet making and it just kind of evolved into making different things out of wood,” says David.

The focus for David’s art right now is his wooden lake maps. He started creating these earlier this year and they have been a hit.

“When you have a property on the lake people seem to have a real attraction to the lakes. So, when people see what we produce they seem really impressed and they kind of love it.”

They can make almost every map in Canada, but right now their focus is Nova Scotia lakes.

“They are 3D lake maps on a one-eighth-inch of plywood and then a 3D laser cuts out layers of the one-eighth-inch plywood, with the laser engraver and then it’s glued together, well painted and glued together.”

The lake maps are a team effort. David creates the designs and Emma paints them.

“We have some friends that have sawmills and we go and look through some of their scrap wood actually and I like to look at a piece of wood and think what can I paint on the and sometimes the unique marking on the grain speak to what could be something that could be added to its beauty,” says Emma.

They make jewelry, water-coloured cards, paintings, wooden tide clocks, lake maps and a bunch of wooden art.

They’re work at is on display at local markets throughout Nova Scotia, they started attending them when they moved here two years ago.

“One of the things I have just recently been doing is water colour painting. One of the things I have been doing is painting the wood and luckily, I have my own lovely personal carpenter, and he makes the wood blocks for me. I also do paint on live edge wood. He also helps choose the pieces that would be good for painting on. I help him do the market for his products, and reply to people on Facebook,” says Emma.

And as if that doesn’t keep them busy enough, they also run the Tides Inn.

“It used to be a bed and breakfast about 20 years ago and we just reinstated the rooms and started doing it again three years ago,” says Emma.

Emma would like to host workshops, whether its art or yoga. She says weekend retreats are something she would love to offer at their property.

“Right now, we have got one suite and one king-sized room. Those have been open for three years and next week we are hoping to have the third suite open,” says Emma.

David says right now they are enjoying what they are doing and seeing where it takes them.

For those looking to check out their creative pieces you can find them on social media or visit them at local markets.

“If you go to our Facebook page, you can message me and that’s how we tend to do the orders right now,” says David.

The two say they just enjoy seeing people love their work as much as they do.

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