... on Finders Keepers... far out!

Oh my goodness. It feels like about three weeks since Friday afternoon, and yet the weekend flew by, too. I'm not sure that's possible, but it feels true to me right now! The studio is a shambles, the car is as-yet not unpacked, my feet are sore but I'm smiling, still!

In case anyone missed it, Kuberstore was a debutante at this past weekend's Brisbane Finders Keepers market. To me, Finders Keepers is a big deal. It's only on twice a year, and it's been something I've aspired to ever since I first visited one. The stalls are always so beautiful, and there's a cornucopia of desirable things on offer. If you have the stamina you can do just about all your christmas shopping in one hit, as you hone your ducking-and-weaving skills amongst the mad crowd.

What a fabulous weekend! I had a wonderful spot beside some beautiful red brick arched doors on the veranda of the Old Museum, and the only problem was my stock of paper bags running dangerously low on Saturday afternoon. If you had told me beforehand that the number of paper bags I had taken wasn't going to be enough then I would have laughed, because that would have meant that they were going off out into the world in the hands of buyers, filled with Kuberstore things. Well, they did! At 3 on Sunday morning I awoke, worrying about this no-more-bags issue, and got up to fashion some up out of brown paper on the sewing machine!

So. Two days of a pace so frenetic that it verged on nuts. At times I simply couldn't get around the side of my stall to tidy or restock the other end, so it got a little unruly down there. (Note to self for future stall design... ability to access it all from behind!) Lots of chats, and some degree of tablecloth wrangling as they did Monroe skirt impressions in the strengthening breeze! I saw a number of dear friends, (some of whom I hadn't seen for too long) and it was so lovely to spy their familiar faces coming towards me along the crowded veranda. The weather held. It was a long weekend. It was over in a flash. I'd do it again!

Many, many thanks to those who visited, your support and words of encouragement are absolutely cherished. Extra thanks to my Ma for minding the stall while I had a quick break, and to C for that fabulous breakfast you made us on Saturday morning, and everything else, you splendid man!

Three cheers for Finders Keepers! HURRAH!

... on little bits of signage.

I'm just about ready to pack everything up for tomorrow's BIM at City Hall. You know, every time I'm preparing for a market I find something that I can do better. Each market I've done up until now has seen me scurrying about at the last minute sorting out something small but vital - pricepoint signage.

These folded cardboard signs have worked well in terms of angle and size, but as they've been taped together at the start of the day and then thrown out at the end, I've been having to re-create them each time. I can only fit three to an A4 page so I was going through lots of card. Plus they have a tendency to blow away. I liked the look, but as I've got at least three more markets to do before Christmas and I'm almost out of card, I wanted to sort out something less disposable. Enter C and his mad saw skills. Bless the man, again.

He rummaged about and came up with a piece of timber from a pallet, and chopped it up into lots of triangular prism shapes for me. A once-over with some sandpaper and they were just as I'd imagined. All my pricepoints fit easily onto a single printed piece of A4 card...

... and they certainly won't blow away! They tone in nicely with my old wooden display items and my little wattle forest, and my shredded paper egg display nests that are also making their first appearance at tomorrow's market.

Is anyone's market setup ever 'finished'? I feel that each little thing I improve upon contributes to a better display, but I don't know whether it's ever going to become a static or finished thing... and that's good!

... on filling a whole table.

Now that it's all over and I've had a good sleep, I can start to speculate upon how much I've enjoyed the past few weeks of preparing for my first whole-trestle-table market, the BrisStyle Indie Market in Brisbane City Hall, which was yesterday. What a wonderful venue for a market! The whole of City Hall has just been so beautifully renovated, it was a real delight to be there. The individual stall areas were spacious and there was plenty of room for shoppers - I give the venue three big thumbs up!

For me, a whole trestle table seemed like an awfully large amount of space, but to make transport and unpacking easier I'd set myself a limitation of 'all these things need to fit onto one fridge trolley', which after a bit of nifty origami-like display item packing, was indeed achieved.

I had so much fun scouting about for items to use for my display. My main criteria was 'recycle'! I really wanted something to be able to put my wall hangings in to show them off properly - they're so airy that in the past, hanging out in the open, I think they've been a bit lost amongst the riot of colour and texture that is a handmade market. An old beehive box with a white paper backing insert was just the ticket, and it gave me somewhere high to put my big Kuberstore sign, and a spot for a little twiggy wattle forest to hang my little rainbow eggs.

C (oh thankyou for helping me, you splendid man) made me a box and a display stand out of some plywood that I'd been keeping because I knew it would come in handy. It was the shipping crate that my lovely Bellerby globe came all the way from London in, and I'm very happy that some of it now has a new life as part of my display!

It was a bit tricky to present my plaster wall words, as I didn't want to have lots of stock there, and most online orders are custom words these days. So, I had a couple of display words (including the ever-popular 'laundry') and some take-away brochures explaining the pricing and so on, and a 'free shipping' coupon code that customers can use in my Etsy store. 

Etsy store coupon code: enter the coupon code freepost during the transaction for free Australian shipping on orders of plaster wall words of four letters or more (AU$28). Valid until 31.12.2013. Hooray!

My rusty old sign was just perfect for showing up the whiteness of the cast plaster asterisks and quote mark magnets, and gave me a place to stick some snippets of info and one of my new asterisk envelope-pattern cards.

And the day itself? After the crazy whirlwind of preparation and the anxiousness of 'Am I ready? Is everything packed?', the worst thing that happened was a momentary panic at having to get the fridge trolley up a curiously-high pair of stone steps at the Ann Street entrance to City Hall, and a dropped shoebox that saw plaster asterisks and eggs spilling out onto the floor which, thankfully, was carpeted. The best things? My stall neighbours Clare (who makes beautiful silver jewellery) and Brenda (an artist, embroiderer and fellow seedpod-admirer) were cheery and lovely to meet. My Ma came for a few hours, bearing coffee (thanks Ma, so much!) and so I was able to check out the rest of the market and have a good chat with Bronwen from Whizzbangle/BravoJulietDesigns about the joys and perils of making moulds from Pinkysil. I had set up a little spot to carve at the end of my table, so I spent most of the day happily carving plaster and chatting to people who stopped by. A satisfying number of little Kuberstore parcels went off out into the world.

So. I loved the venue, and I much prefer a daytime market over the evening ones I'd previously done. I think I'm already looking forward to the next one, but first? Pancakes for breakfast, and then... unpack!