To market, to market...

This Friday night I am setting up shop at the BrisStyle indie Twilight Market. This will be my first 'real' market all year and here it is almost the end of August.

Markets are rather special, especially when it's BrisStyle, which is hand-made only and the primary retail out-let for this not-for-profit collective of craftspeople. These twilight markets can be hugely successful, especially running up to Christmas, but it's also an opportunity to catch up with members of long standing and meet some of the newer recruits.

I've got some new work in the pipeline for Friday night, the nature of which has been in part dictated by physical limitations after surgery in July - my beloved sewing machine hates my back at the moment. So lots of crochet and some paper and glue and embroidery have been my most comfortable options.

I have crochet bags:

...fabric and crochet cushions....    

clothing for chickadees...

and some pixie houses that are actually pin cushions in disguise...

Plus plenty more.

If you are local, drop by King George Square from 5 p.m., browse the stalls, bop to the band, and grab a bite to eat at The Groove Train...look forward to seeing you and being back in the thick of a market once more!

Retro campers and kitschy kitchenesque

The little red caravan that could!

BrisStyle's craft caravan took the damp Brissy CBD by storm last Friday, with yarn-bombing, make-and-take, a Brown Owls meet-up, talks and demos all day, and BrisStylettes of all ages and shapes selling their hand-made goodness from cosy and colourful stalls. 


The caravan is a marvel - Helen, BrisStyle eventista extraordinaire, and beautiful Bel have done magic with their collection of retro lounges, beach brollies, and charming flamingoes!

I was also really tickled to see my own UFO's put to such good use at last by the Owls in their craftactive activities!

And I had a great time sharing a tent with the talented Anita from Mum's Cupboard (as in, what's in Mum's cupboard) for wimcee's first market outing for 2012.

Anita's Dr Mid-nite and Charlie the Owl glass stud earrings from her etsy shop
at http://www.etsy.com/listing/99280858/doctor-mid-nite-and-charlie-glass-stud

I've gone kitchenesque for the time being, which has been fun, in an effort to build up my stocks again after the hiatus. Had such a lovely time making five new aprons to take to market only to sell four of them before opening time...very happy for them to find good homes so quickly, but it threw my theme for the day just a little.

some new retro style aprons available from: http://www.madeit.com.au/detail.asp?id=554834

All we need now is some old-fasioned Brisbane winter sunshine to smile on the market season in full swing. Here's to blue skies, with no early Westerlies!

great snap of the yarn-bombed BrisStyle flamingo from Little Chrissy at
 http://little-chrissy.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/brisstyles-soggy-but-awesome-craft.html

Caravan-a-go-go!

We have lift-off!

The BrisStyle Craft Caravan has hit the road!

With support from the Brisbane City Council, BrisStyle - our collective of crafters, artists and artisans - has this year been tasked with spreading itself about a little more liberally. The brief is to share skills and experience with the wider community, and, more importantly bring creative heads together to support each other.

OK, so we've had a bit of fun too, fitting out the vehicular manifestation of this initiative.

The call went out: daggy old banana lounges, girls! Bright beach umbrellas!

This is vintage kitsch, banana-bender style...kitsch as nobody else can quite do it (or might wish to), from the land of the choko vine and saos with cheese and tomato.

   




             






On Friday 1st of June, the Caravan will park itself in King George Square, in central Brisbane, for a day-long event featuring craft demonstrations, craftstalls, and a crafters' drop-in-zone. This has been augmented with various info sessions and get-togethers in the suburbs already, and will kick-off a week-end of similar activities at Zillmere Festival on Saturday, and at Hamilton on Sunday, where the Craft Caravan will be part of the fabulous, annual Racecourse Road Carnival.





Speaking as a marketeer of a number of years' standing, winter has to be the magic season for Brisbane markets and festivals! Even if it's cool, the sun is usually shining and the sky is almost always cloudless and blue. So, no better way to kick off the winter markets season than a craft festival in the CBD for the first day of June! Check it out!

Have great weeks!

A twilight affair

"The city" is a pretty magic place in the nights leading up to Christmas...somewhere I took my boys when they were little to see the lights, the giant Christmas tree in the square, and the Myer windows, and it's where my own parents also took me and my brother and sister when we were small, for much the same purpose.

Debra Lidster's photo of the Myer Christmas windows

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It's great fun to be part of the Christmas events with the Christmas BrisStyle indie Twilight Market this coming Friday night...not just about offering our hand-made goodies for sale as stocking fillers and presents for under the tree in a world where we all have to search harder and harder to find something a bit unusual, a bit special.









It's also about sharing the buzz with the city workers, the families come to see the lights and the tree, those starting out their Friday night festivities, those on their way to pick up trains or buses to get home...the chat is always interesting and stimulating and we all love talking to people who are interested in what we do and why we do it in the happy crafting collective world that's BrisStyle. And the many others we've got to know - the customers, the suppliers, those from allied fields, the extended families, the new babies, those who have faced illness, even a few we've lost along the way. The hand-made world is like a very large, disparate family and I feel very blessed to be part of it.

In BrisStyle we have a little band of special, special people who dedicate a great chunk of their "spare" hours to organising and promoting us and what we do - arranging markets and seminars and workshops, liaising with government agencies and business organisations, supplying us with all sorts of info and suggestions to help us all along our chosen paths, and at the same time still trying to find the time to ply their own crafts.

Peppermint Magazine's photo of a BrisStyle indie Twilight Market in full swing.

So if you are local, come and visit us in King George Square from 5 p.m.  - have a chat, and by all means look around at our wares for some Christmas shopping that's outside the parameters of normal retail shopping. Look forward to seeing you!

Day and Night, Night and Day...

This Friday night sees the staging of another BrisStyle indie Twilight Market in King George Square, Brisbane - fingers and toes crossed for a perfect Brissy-style balmy spring evening under the non-daylight-saved stars! Something a little dia de los muertos about this one too, being just around the chronological corner from Halloween. (If day-of-the-dead over-the-top calavera-chic tickles your fancy, take a stroll and visit the Crafty Chika here, or Calaverita Mexicana here.)

This print for sale from etsy here: Mariposerfuerte

see more of Carmen here: chica chica boom chic

                                            

Things Latino - a la Carmen Miranda and Frida Kahlo - have always had a fascination for me...all that colour and pattern, the symbolism and multi-cultural references, the whole outrageously, joyously, ketch-chi kit-and-kaboodle!

Iconic Frida

So wiggle on down town to King George Square this Friday night - I'll be doing my bit for the festive vibe with lots of new bags, aprons, headwear, childrens' wear, soft toys and accessories,  plus a couple of recycled and upcycled pieces for grown-up chicas! (boom-boom)

Twinkle, twinkle, twilight fair!

The brisStyle indie Twilight Market twinkles again this Friday night (19/11) in King George Square, Brisbane CBD, from 5 - 9 p.m. - the perfect venue for Christmas shopping with a big range of hand-made, everything from homewares to hats, bikinis to brooches, softies to scrunchies, and all the way back. wimcee will be there with some really cute new embellished aprons, Ava the Advent girl, embroidered felt glasses cases, fabric journals and altered skirts, as well as all the usual kiddie couture, high tea accessories and bags of bags.

BrisStyle indie Twilight Market

chicka chic

After a long but rewarding day taking part in Brisbane's Saviours of the Lost Arts Fair on Tuesday, fingers and toes are crossed for a beautiful winter's day for the BrisStyle indie Designers' Market this Saturday...and wimcee will be there with more even more fiesta-rama goodies, including more fabric-covered journals for catching the moment in prose or image form, and some new fabric brooches to dress up the most neutral woolly cardie or coat.

Fiesta-rama!

Viva the fiesta! Check out the chicka chic! Limbering up for the lambada round...Baby and Kids Market (30/5), BiDM (5/6), Boutique Markets (13/6) and Mathilda's Market (19/6), plus a possible spot on the co-op tables in King George Square all day on Tuesday 1st June as part of the Saviours of the Lost Arts Fair, wimcee should be in over-drive this week but isn't...

The fiesta mood has mellowed the pace and I've been having too much fun with ruffled skirts and little embellished trews to feel too stressed out about anything at the moment. A few cameo peeks just to set the scene and go-go the co-co cabana!

Skirts with plenty of ruffles, frills and braids will warm up the coolest winter's morning teamed with leggings and boots, and are unique combinations of colourful cottons. Little trousers are embellished with frills and trims, this one in a hooty owl print on cord, and there are plenty of hand-knits in pure wool like this riotous rio shrug! Join the congo line...Mama-mio!!

Summer sniffles

Naturally as I haven't markets to do for a bit I've now got the worst of bad summer colds, so only slowly putting together new stock for coming market days/nights. I spent way too much money at the Craft Expo on fabrics and trims, including more exquisite Japanese print cotton from the same people I have bought from at past markets...these superlative French and English design reproductions are printed on the finest of weaves in the most subtle variations of colour. Funky Fabrix are also back from a shopping spree in Japan so more joy there to be had I'm positive, except I need to not go anywhere for a bit or face financial disgrace.

Billie has a heap more of my skirts at BelleVille, and some winter jackets like this one with a custom quilted finish, so depleted racks at home. I will have more skirts again by my next market date - the very first BrisStyle indie Twilight Market on April 30th, taking place in King George Square from 5 p.m. - and I'm working on a few more upcycled adult's woollies, knitting needles also going clickety-clack with small people beanies, and a general sense of controlled frenzy happening in amongst family birthdays.