Our story
Sail Away started as a business that could go anywhere — and it did. What came back was a studio with exacting standards, a deep love of beautiful printing, and a frame shop that takes your work as seriously as you do.
How we got here
Sail Away started in 2009 when I was 24 — not in a garage or a co-working space, but on a dock. I had a Chemistry degree from Warren Wilson College and a clear conviction that I didn't want to spend my life in a lab. So I taught myself web design and photography, found clients, and bought a sailboat at 25.
The idea was simple: build a business that I could operate from anywhere, and go see the world. It worked. Over the next several years I sailed through the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and down through the Eastern Caribbean. Then across the Atlantic. Then across the Pacific.
"We literally left a normal world and arrived in the Marquesas to find everything had changed."
That crossing — crewing across the Pacific when COVID shut down every border on earth — was the pivot point. We made it to Tahiti, flew home, and couldn't reach our own boat in Grenada for months. So we landed on Ocracoke, on the Outer Banks, and started a new chapter.
Photography had already led me to printing — I'd been making fine art prints since 2009 and digitizing artwork for artists since around 2010. Framing was the natural completion of that. If you can make a beautiful print, you should be able to put a beautiful frame around it.
We moved to Elizabeth City, bought our first house, and opened the shop. The business has changed shape many times over the years, but the core has stayed the same: make things well, take the work seriously, and deliver something you're genuinely proud of.
Fine art printing studio
Hundreds of moulding choices
What we stand for
These aren't posted values — they're just how we work.
If something isn't right, we know before you do. A frame that's slightly off, a print with a color cast — these things bother us. That's a feature, not a quirk.
Every print, every frame, every scan is done in-house. When you hand us something that matters to you, it stays in our hands until it comes back to yours.
We'll tell you if a different frame would serve the work better. We'll tell you if a file won't print well at the size you want. We'd rather be useful than agreeable.
Come see us
Stop in, bring something you want framed or printed, and let's talk about what it needs.
Location
112 N. Poindexter St.
Downtown Elizabeth City
North Carolina
Hours
Mon – Fri: 10am – 4pm
First Fridays
Join us for the monthly
Art Walk downtown
Get in touch
