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Handmade Market on Saturday was just awesome!  I have done a few markets around Canberra and not always with the best results, but I have to say that this one was THE BEST by a long way. 

 

The organisers were simply wonderful, friendly and supportive, always ready for a chat and to ask how we were going.  They even had two cute-as-pie little blondies (the 8 year old daughters of the organisers) who larked around the place all day, visiting and thoroughly charming the stallholders. The crowd was HUGE and amazing, such great shoppers, and SO many people through the door.  The weather was simply awful (glad I wasn’t outside) but they still came out in droves. 

  

And I made a packet. We all did - every stallholder I spoke to well exceeded their expectations and was very happy indeed!  Personally I would have been happy if I had made half of what I did.  I have never sold so much at one market and I have never had such a friendly, happy and relaxed market.

 

These zip purses were very popular, great for stocking fillers I guess.

 

Button jewellery and paper stitched cards were good sellers too, as were the handbags.  This photo (above) was taken in the afternoon when I had to spread everything out because it was all going fast. 

So a huge thankyou to Julie and everyone else involved - you really know what you are doing and I’m so glad Canberra has you.  Read Julie’s account of the day, and read Lisa’s post too - they have better photos of the crowd that I do. 

I was lucky to be opposite Lisa from the wonderful Canberra’s Got Style blog and she was just awesome as well.  So happy and cute.  EXTREMELY EXCITED to say that I just discovered the post after her market post sent me into PALPITATIONS AND CAPITALISATIONS!!!  If you are an IKEA fan who desperately wishes Canberra had it’s own IKEA store, then go and read an exciting new development.  No, not a store opening here (dammit) but the very next best thing.

Since the v. successful market, I have had a bunch of cash burning a hole in my pocket.  Check out what I have bought for myself:

I am SO excited, and can’t wait for it to get here.  I bought it off eBay so I am hoping all is well.  I am also waiting for one of these to arrive:

I know, a bit indulgent but like I said, the money was burning a hole.  Oh my god, look what just jumped into my shopping cart as well.

I know, I know.  In my defence, I have been drooling over these things for well over a year now, so I thought, why not?  Happy Christmas to me. 

To be honest, I feel kind of sick about spending so much money.  And I feel worse telling YOU about it (whoever you are) but I earnt it selling my stuff and if you can’t enjoy it then what’s the point eh?   *breathe*

Listen up Canberra people!  I will be at the Handmade Upmarket this Saturday 21st November at Albert Hall from 10am to 6pm and I really hope to see some of you there.  Pop in and say hello! 

 

It’s a great chance to get some Christmas shopping done and there will be over 50 handmade businesses there on the day. I will be bringing a bunch of my Red Instead stuff including handbags, zip purses, art and prints, children’s hats, women’s doily singlets and more.

 

Not sure if I have many of those belts left actually - I think they all went at the last market I did.   It’s all been a bit rush rush!  Lots of doily singlets and other goodies though. 

I’ve been doing a little bit more art and collage work lately.  This one will be there for sale tomorrow actually - I call it Fly Away Bird:

 

You might remember the canvas above looked like this a little while ago:

 

I did this next one in my Art Journal and I’m loving the textured blue:

 

I’m very excited because even though it was my last Mixed Media and Collage class with Rebecca last night, a few of us from the class (Rebecca, Kim and I, at least) are going to continue meeting up for an art night every Thursday!  YAY!   

I have done a few more spreads in my new art journal so I thought I would do some more show’n'tell.  I have really been enjoying my art/collage class with Rebecca Vavic and have been having fun with my art.

{THIS} IS ME - a spread using my favourite photo of myself, and of course featuring my favourite colour, red.  Lots of layers, including old sewing pattern tissue, photocopied photo, acrylics, paper, bubblewrap stamp and inks.

Bird in Book - this one started off with just the bird picture, ripped out of a vintage kid’s poetry book and sitting on my art table for months, waiting for the right project to use it in.  I like the yellows and textures here. Acrylics, stamps paper, inks, sequin waste stencil.

Girls - Last week, Rebecca showed us step-by-step her technique of drawing/painting faces, including getting the eyes just right. My first attempt (in class) was terrible and I was very frustrated.  Of course, I had skipped some of her suggestions and rushed through it, thinking it was going to be as easy as she made it look.

I tried to commit everything she said to memory and tried again at home in my art journal.  I went slowly and remembered that I was a beginner and needed to use pencil first to plot out the placement of eyes in relation to head (halfway down) and all that, and I was really happy with how the girls turned out.

I first drew with pencil until I was happy, then went over the outline in waterproof fineliner and used a kneaded eraser to rub out the pencil lines.  Then I used a mixture of watercolours and fluid acrylics to give them some colour.

Rebecca also showed us how to use watercolour pencils (then go over them with water) to give some shading to the face, but I haven’t done that in these two pieces.  Partly because I was hesitant about it, but also because I quite like the flat-colour faces and slightly vapid expressions in their eyes. I like their large eyes and small mouths too, and their long elegant necks.  I think Peter Pan collars is emerging as a theme - they’re so cute!

Thanks Rebecca!