The last Browns Bay Craft Show

Sadly, this is the last time the Browns Bay Craft Show will be held, due to the greatly increased cost of hiring the hall. It also rained heavily for most of the day, which added to the 'despondant air' in the hall. It was sad that the show did not have a 'festive buzz', to finish the year on a high.

A rumour did start going around that the RSA hall across the road could be an alternative venue for next years shows - we will have to see if this happens. This aside, I need to continue looking for other sales venues and in the New Year, when I have made some more stock, I plan to set up a store on Etsy.com. I need to do a lot more research and reading over the Christmas break on selling on the internet.

Christmas Countdown

I finished my two week contract last Friday so, in theory, had all this week for creating but various appointments and Christmas shopping seem to have reduced this down to about two days.

I have just finished making more HANGAs for the Browns Bay Craft Show tomorrow - this is my last event of this year. Unfortunately I did not enough time to try making some HANGAs with the photo transfer technique. I had taken some photos of Pohutukawa flowers which I thought would have made good 'festive' HANGAs - I will have to try this for next Christmas.

Coatesville before Christmas

This was my last Coatesville Market before Christmas. I now have a permanent indoor place in the hall, which is great, and using their table gives me plenty of room for display, as it is quite a bit longer than my own one.

As I took all my best HANGA designs to Craftworld, I felt the display I had here was a bit dull. I wonder if I would have sold more if I had had less of the plain coloured ones? I need to make some replacement stock for my last event before Christmas and must concentrate on making more with interesting surface designs.

Out of action for two weeks

Today I have started a full-time contract for two weeks, so I will not have any time for creating.

The HANGA at Craftworld

This photo shows the mini display I have made for Craftworld. I took it there today and it looks good in the display cabinet. I will be interested to see how things go in the next few weeks before Christmas.

New 'splodge' technique

Here is a HANGA I have made with a new surface decoration technique. Tiny pieces of different coloured clay are placed randomly on a sheet of pearl clay and then it is rolled through the pasta machine several times. I love the abstract, painterly 'splodges' of colour.

This one has been made by cutting narrow strips from some clay, created as described above, after running it through the pasta machine several times. The strips were randomly placed on a sheet of pearl clay and then rolled through the pasta machine to create a flush surface. These light colours feel good for Summer (here in New Zealand), so I shall have fun making some more.

Browns Bay (November) Craft Show

This craftshow has been my best yet. The HANGAs are selling well and I will be extra busy next week making more to replenish my stock, as well as those that I am proposing to take to Craftworld

Investigating Craftworld

Today I went to Craftworld (www.craftworld.co.nz) at Westgate Shopping Centre, where I met with the Managing Director, Carl Dysthe. Carl approached me, after seeing my stall at Coatesville Market, with a proposition for getting some of my work in the store. He showed me the display cabinet he had mentioned, where I could set up a small display, as a trial, before committing to a rental booth.

I am keen to try this as a different selling venue for my HANGAs and feel the best time to do it is now, to catch the run up to Christmas. I made a commitment to go ahead with this and put a display in place before the end of the month - this means I am going to be very busy for the next couple of weeks!

The HANGA at Coatesville

The HANGA made its first appearance at Coatesville Market today, and again was very successful. My stock is now quite low so I will have to get busy making more for the forecoming events I have planned before Christmas.

The end of full-time employment

Today, was my last day as a full-time employee. It was sad to leave the great group of people I worked with but now such an exciting opportunity awaits. I have promised Colin (my husband) that I will have a week off with him before I set to work on my creative enterprises.