Ok, well, I have been meaning to write about Glebe since I got home, and now seems like as good a time as any... so... it was really good! I'm sure that I was under-prepared in many ways, and that I'll look back one day and laugh at my naivety in the whole situation, but I felt so much more prepared than I did at Bondi the week before, so much!
Thanks for the photos Karen, you clever thing!
I have discovered that you should always try and get a corner spot if you can... double exposure is fantastic, and at Bondi I was hidden by two ginormous tents either side of me... not sure if people could actually see that I was there. And you should try and pre-empt things as much as you can, know your product etc., which is like retail 101, but practice saying all the stuff in your head out loud-- the reasons that you do things, things that might seem obvious to you, which aren't always obvious to others, such as the fact that I have wondered through the valley of stuffing choices and settled with simple old polyfil for various reasons, such as washability, general availability, cuddability--polyfil is squishy and soft... but customers associate synthetics with cheapness, whilst they associate things like cotton--which is highly flammable--with natural and good, as they do with wool, which is lovely, but not as easy to wash, and which would push the cost of my toys up a little. I also noticed that some people were making comments such as I wonder where she imports them from, which was a little disheartening, but it means next time, I need some signage making it explicit that I make them all myself, from scratch!
I'm learning as I go along! And I'm getting everything completely sorted so that my table looks really nice next time (which will be from August 1st), I'm going to buy a few metres of calico and stamp it with the wonderful little mushroom stamp I showed you a little while ago (just bought some fabric ink from
here... very excited!). And making up a bunch of other things, that no doubt I'll show you as I finish!
I also made some friends, had lots of chats with stall holders and marvelled at the awesomeness of other people's wares... I love all this lego jewelry... thinking if I know someone that would wear lego cufflinks, and love the clothes that were on display by Red Ruby, they don't have a website, but they are divine screen-printed tops and skirts... great designs, great cuts and great fabrics! Resisted the urge to spend all sales $ on these, but it was extremely difficult.
But I didn't completely resist buying all together. I met Riyo, who sells a lot of cool stuff, Japanese fabrics, I bought some fat quarters, and stamps and lots of awesome felt stuff... and these sweet little zines for about $3... hand stamped from hand carved stamps that she makes... I'm starting to seriously love this stamping caper...
So, anyway, I'll stop blabbing on, and just say I had a great time, I'm booked again from the August 1, and will be making it a regular thing from then on, and that I'm pretty excited about the whole thing!
Now, I have to finish cleaning... I pulled the whole flat apart on Sunday, trying to create a permanent screen-printing station... I think Henry is enjoying the maze-like conditions, but Joe and I are not...
B.
