The year of saying "Yes!"

One of the great joys of not having most of my waking moments taken up with paid work is that when other interesting opportunities arise I can actually say "Yes!" 

Now that I again have two children at the one school I have finally said Yes to joining the P&C (PTA).  In my capacity as an opinionated bigmouth I was invited to participate in a series of scenario planning workshops for the Peel region run by Regional Development Australia, Peel.  I am very pleased I said Yes as it was a great experience and I met some excellent people.  I also said Yes to attending a series of professional development workshops presented by the local contemporary art gallery.  Then I said Yes to being a voluntary gallery attendant at the same gallery on an ongoing basis and am loving my time there. 

I have also said Yes to participating in various projects at Mandurah's annual community arts festival: Stretch.  One of these is in a paid capacity but the others are just for fun. 

Pictured above and below is a house I made for an exhibition at Stretch called My Place.  All the participants were given a plain wooden house which we then decorated to turn it into My Place.  I loved the house in its plain state as it looked like a Pixie House so I was tempted to simply paint it up like a Warren and Mahoney pixie but nobody here would get it.  (If you don't get it either look at the lovely Pixie of the Day tumblr.) 

I am not an artist and I still have an issue with making useless things (the issue is that I don't like doing it) so I turned my house into a card box house which, if it doesn't get trashed during the exhibition, I will eventually keep my crochet kit in. 

The didactic that goes with it is:
A Room of One's Own
I am a maker and often have several projects on the go at a time: this can be messy!  My favourite creations involve contemporary interpretations of traditional textile handcrafts.  At the moment I don't have a space to work in so the next project on my "To make" list is a workroom.

Ironically all this making of pretend workrooms has of course slowed down the work on the real house and real workroom.  Never mind, it was fun and soon Stretch will be over for another year and I won't have so many lovely things to distract me.

Here are some pictures of one of the other projects I am working on for Stretch.  Firstly the inspiration (Pics stolen from all over interwebland. Oops.)

Then progress so far.

This one is called Immerse and as you can see it is still just a work in progress.  This odd project will take a bit more explaining at some point; in the past if I had been asked to do this I would probably have said that I would rather stick pins in my eyes.  But there we are.  Things have changed.  Saying Yes will do that.

Handmade heaven

I have a theory.  Actually I have many, but one is that any shop that calls itself a "shoppe" is sure to be as grim as a very grim thing.  For a sad period of not-too-distant history the same could have been said of any market with "craft" in its name.  But only folk with their heads in holes won't have noticed that this is no longer the case.  "Craft" is no longer a C-word.  Whatever you call it, the resurgence of the scene where individual people design, make and sell stuff, especially where they sell it themselves at markets, has been one of my favourite aspects of recent world history.

So after leaving behind New Zealand's thriving scene, and having also shopped at fantastically tempting design, handmade and contemporary craft markets in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, I was very keen to check out the Perth scene.  I have not been disappointed. Here is my pick of the local markets.

Perth Upmarket (above) is something of a phenomenon.  This quarterly market has grown to the point where it now has 150 stalls.  The location is the lovely Winthrop Hall and the grounds of the University of Western Australia.  I attended the most recent market not as a shopper, not as a stall-holder but as a stall-holder's trusty assistant as my friend Denise was a first-time Upmarket stall-holder selling her Lulu Tissu wares. Perth Upmarket also now run various pop-up and themed markets at other locations.

Unwrapped pops up at various events and locations around the city. Unwrapped says it aims to provide a platform to showcase new, undiscovered design talent. They currently don't have any upcoming events listed but I hope they do soon as their mix of stall-holders is fresh and interesting. (The picture above is of Shaggy Mafia's P50 T which is my son's favourite top.)

Bazaar (above) is an annual pre-Christmas market in the grounds of the Fremantle Arts Centre.  Now some of you will know of my dislike of markets that charge an entry fee as another of my theories is that the higher the market entry fee then the grimmer the goods will be. You may also know of my dislike of outdoor craft markets and extreme dislike of markets with centralised payment systems.  Well I had to take a deep breath and just get over myself as Bazaar has all three.  The outdoor thing wasn't an issue as summer weather here is quite a reliable beast.  The quality of the goods on offer meant that it was worth forking out the entry fee (only $2). A couple of my favourite sellers were Eucalypt Homewares and Old Grey House textiles.

However I did find that the centralised payment system meant that I simply didn't make all my usual small impulse purchases, especially as I was there with my daughter.  There was no way I could sneakily buy presents for her by lingering at a stall where she had admired something, and for many other small purchases I couldn't be bothered with the hoohaa.  Even so I'll still definitely go back to Bazaar again this year.

Made on the Left describes its aim as "to support all creative designers and events showcasing independent labels".  They do this through running regular markets but also by writing an excellent blog covering all sorts of things of interest to local artists, designers and makers.  Their blog is a great place to find out about other markets, pop-up shops, exhibition opportunities, calls for submissions and a variety of miscellaneous interesting goings-on.  Although their market is smaller than some of these others, it is the one I've ended up spending the most money at. One time my haul included two hen's teeth items: T-shirts for a girl who doesn't wear pink, purple or anything flowery, but isn't into boys' clothing and who doesn't wear anything with a visible logo. Both T-shirts were huge hits (Lisamax's "For today I am a robot" pictured above) but that jolly girl keeps growing.  She and I will be shopping at Made on the Left again this coming Sunday to say hi to Denise and to hopefully score some great gear. (Made on the Left, Sun 10th July, 11am-5pm, at one40william)

One thing I have learned about the markets here is to buy stuff I like when I see it as many of the stall-holders are pretty tricky to track down later online.  In New Zealand it was a doddle to track down sellers on Felt, Toggle, Endemic World or Clever Bastards, but I haven't found it quite so easy here.  Some local designers sell on Etsy,  Madeit, or Indie, but many more just sell online through their own websites or not at all.  Like so many things around here I wonder if this is actually a problem or an opportunity....  Either way, I now know to go to Perth markets with one pocket stuffed with cash and the other with a notebook as there is certainly plenty here worth buying.

Pic at the very top is of Tim Whiteman's Protea lightfittings which I spotted and admired at Bazaar.  At the time I had no need for them, but I am about to attempt to prove another of my theories (that it is possible to turn a sow's ear house into a silk purse house) so happily now I do.