Onward and Upward

The combined stalls of Artefacts and NexusMaille

This weekend represented the first time I have ever been able to display my wares in the offline, real world. Melody Tallon from Artefacts enabled me to ease my way in, by offering to share her stall with me at the Great Train Weekend Markets, Mt. Victoria.

The main part of my display

This was a great experience - for the first time ever, I was able to gather all of my jewellery together, and see it as a collection of pieces, rather than as individual listings online.

The stall itself was indoors, with a lovely log fire, comfort food available, and a free hot breakfast for stallholders on Sunday morning - all of which was most appreciated when Sunday turned out to be cold, wet and windy.

Unfortunately, however, I only sold a single pair of earrings over the entire weekend ... to Melody. And even though I said that I was doing it for the experience, and it didn't matter if I didn't sell anything, in the end, well, I was disappointed. It turns out I did want to sell something.

I'm sure there are many contributing factors as to why I was unable to make a single sale. Thinking about it, it could be:

• The markets were out of town, with minimal signage or advertising.
• There was an unexpected second market right in the middle of town, visible from both the station and the Highway.
• The demographic for steam trains is mostly senior people, or parents with young children.
• Some of my pieces could be considered to be very expensive.
• My display needs work.

These are only the ones I have identified. I'm sure with research, I could find many more valid reasons, any of which, alone or in combination, may have contributed. Having said that, in some way I feel as though I am making excuses - that it really comes down to me and my jewellery. I take some heart that I did get comments about my lovely pieces; people just weren't ready to purchase, it seems.

So where to from here? Revise and polish my display. Make more affordable pieces such as earrings. Research my next market. Research my ideal demographic. Learn to take a step back from my jewellery as a personal reflection of myself. Finally, to remember and appreciate the primary reason I do this - because I love chainmaille. It provides me with a satisfying outlet for the creativity I have only just discovered within me.

Onward and upward!

IronFest 2011

Well, Uni is all but over for the semester, so it is time to rise up from the books and return to real life. I began the transition by attending IronFest at Lithgow with friends on Sunday.

What is IronFest? Their website describes it best: "it is a cool arts Festival with a Metal Edge, featuring art exhibitions, stalls, live music, street performance, historical re-enactments, (including St George’s Day Jousting and a Napoleonic battle re-enactment entitled ‘The Battle of Lithgow’ featuring infantry, cannons and cavalry!), blacksmithing demonstrations, workshops, busking competitions, automotive displays, educational, historical and technological displays and lots more..."

The weather was amazing; I managed to leave my overcoat, gloves, hat and scarf in the car - only needed four layers of clothing instead of the five I was expecting. Sunday had an apparent temperature of around 8^C, whereas Saturday's temperatures had ranged between -1 to 0.4^C!

There was a lot of real chainmaille, used for the re-enactments, as well as two stores selling chainmaille jewellery, both using anodised aluminium in lots of pretty colours. I must confess that I was taking note of how they displayed their jewellery, so I could get ideas of how to display mine when I share a table at the end of the month at the Great Train Weekend (more on that in another post!)

Lithgow Highland Pipe Band