What you might not have noticed about the stall was the wild history that took Jan Morris from St John's Ambulance to Egypt and Iceland, and then to a stall selling leather goods in Griffith.

Mrs Morris started as a nurse with St John's ambulance, and worked in medical care for 30 years. It took her to some strange places, including a psychological ward where she saw some 'pretty savage stuff.'

"I was there, you'd have people running down the hallway completely on fire, or people slashing themselves and that's just what they were about ... then at the time, you'd have untrained people coming in as teenagers to help."

She worked in psychology for five years, and in her words 'felt a bit like a hypocrite' in trying to connect with other cultures in the ward. Most people, when trying to connect with other cultures, would try and learn some of the language or take a course. Jan Morris is not most people.

"I just wanted to know how people dealt with mental illness in other parts of the world, so I travelled," Mrs Morris said.

She travelled for the next six and a half years, working odd jobs and seeing the wonders of the world. A highlight for her was hiking the Marrah Mountains in Sudan, along with meeting Richard Morris under 'the left paw of the Sphinx in Egypt.' The two of them spent the next five years 'in pursuit of the miraculous and fantastic' according to their website.

While they definitely found the fantastic, funding this journey wasn't easy and Mrs Morris took up all sorts of work on her trip around the world.

"I went to Iceland and worked in fish factories, I went and worked on some farms. In those years, I did all sorts of odd jobs and learnt new things."

Journeys have to end though, and equipped with new skills and a new husband, Mrs Morris returned to Australia and returned to nursing. This time around, she worked in adolescent psych but found resources lacking.

"When I got back from overseas, I worked in adolescent psych and we just couldn't get the stuff we needed. That led to me making it, and I kept doing that and that got so big that eventually I had to choose," Mrs Morris said.

READ MORE

And so, with a ute full of leather offcuts and a sewing machine, Jan and Richard Morris started Morris Outside. They pride themselves on sourcing homegrown materials, and take great care in the design process to ensure every customer gets exactly what they need.

Not one to leave a skill unused, Mrs Morris found herself crafting different gloves and cuffs to address medical needs as well.

"I've got 30 years of nursing up my sleeve ... these arm cuffs for example, they're for people with breast cancer. When people have breast cancer, they can get septicemia so they can't get scratched and this helps with that," Mrs Morris said, talking about the suede arm guards at the booth.

"It's about people being comfortable in their work, you need to be comfortable and then it's about buying one glove, instead of five."

It's been an incredible, globe-trotting journey but it's safe to say that Jan Morris's current calling definitely fits her like a glove.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: