A sprinkle of magic ore dust

A former miner and a former winemaker have teamed up to take Western Australia’s iron ore to the world, but through retail outlets rather than mine sites.

Sam Wendt and former miner Ashley Sutton are behind a new retail venture called The Iron Fairies, which, as the name aptly suggests, is a shop that sells fairy ornaments made out of iron ore.

Through their company, Wild Blue Holdings Pty Ltd, the pair contracts a factory in iron ore-hungry China to make its fairies from ore.

The fairies are then shipped to Perth and sold at Wild Blue’s Carillon Arcade store.

Mr Wendt, a former winemaker, said the company intended to open a retail outlet in New York within 12 months, as well as opening stores in Melbourne and Sydney.

They were also considering opening stores in other overseas locations, he said.

So far the shop sells 16 fairies, which are based on characters from a book written by Mr Sutton, a former miner.

“Ashley lived and worked in the Pilbara and has written a book for children about life in an underground mine,” Mr Wendt said.

The fairies described in the book are created by fictional “grumpy” underground miners, who place them in a special garden.

There is also a website that contains a game, where clues from the book are needed to progress through the different levels.

Mr Wendt said The Iron Fairies Volume One book is also stocked by Dymocks, Angus & Robertson and Borders.

He said the fairies have been an instant hit, with some versions selling out even though the shop has only been open for a month.

“There’s nothing like this anywhere in the world and we were not sure how it was going to go,” Mr Wendt said. “We’re not only surviving but we’ve sold out of some of the fairies.”

Mr Sutton is currently in New York working on the company’s concept store.

“The US is such a huge market,” Mr Wendt said. “We have had a lot of American tourists come into the [Perth] store, and they love it.

“Hopefully the fairies become a craze.”

Wild Blue Holdings is a wholesaler of cast iron products, which are predominately for use in gardens. It sells its products through 500 retail outlets across Australia.