to market, to market

"The markets gave us direction and taught us to sell and relate to the customer – it also taught us that lots of small customers are better than a few big ones. "

Some high-profile businesses reveal how their market beginnings helped them launch into the big time.

It's a little-known fact that distinctive Australian resin jewellery and homeware business Dinosaur Designs didn't start out primarily as a jewellery designer. The business began at Sydney's Paddington Markets as a fashion label, and made jewellery on the side to accessorise its clothes.

Alexandra Cain from The Age has written a very inspirational article about how small labels turn into giant brand .To read the full article, please click here.

more calendars

I didn't expect the calendar sell this well so i've made more for the shops and the markets. Place an order this week at my etsy store and get free delivery or you can buy it at the Kirribilli market next weekend and Wollongong Art and design market this weekend.

See you at Wollongong

Marrickville Festival

A Little Bazaar!

Teaching

Photo was taken by Julian Gallardo.

I love to see how kids learn and being creative. I was making lots of rubber stamps to give away at the market. It's definitely not a silly thing to give rubber stamps away, a rubber doesn't cost much anyway, but when you see people's face light up or when you see young kids willing to learn how to make stamps and how to be creative. It's really really rewarding.

winterland festival

Hello everyone! Just want to drop a line here to say THANK YOU to everyone who came to my stall this week. And BIG THANKS to all those people who said I am clever and like my works.

The Winterland festival was a success and thank you very much for coming and taking my cards. My friends and I had a very good time and I enjoy all my time there knowing my customers.

I will upload more photos and writing later today! Just want to say thank you to all of you before my day actually start.... back to bed now...

wollongong

Went to Wollongong today for a market/exhibition held by Emma-Lee from the Milk Thieves Art & Design
Most of the people think that I m crazy to spend 2 hours on the road for a 3 hours exhibition
But I think it's definately worth to go
At the market
You meet different people, you have the first hand information from your customers, who like your stuffs and who doesn't
You get chances to talk to them, tell them how you make things
When I heard "I really like your designs" or "Julian is such a great photographer"
My heart melted
And then you gotta know creative people around you, like Sarah and Lauren from Thread and the lady who had the stall opposite to mine, who was a radiographer 5 years ago, I can't remember her name but she is the nicest person I've ever met

Meeting all these people
You feel not alone
To be honest, doesn't matter how many friends you have, none of them can understand exactly how you feel unless they're in the same industry
To be able to talk to the local designers is like a stress relief for me

Crafters/ Designers and the crowd in Wollongong are so different from Sydney
although we're in the same state
people are so much different there at Wollongong especially the customers
You feel so much more welcomed and appreciated

Well
I think it's worth to come all the way there

I rather spend my whole day at the stall instead of at the office
doesn't matter if i made money or not
it's my business, it'y my money, it's my stocks, it's mine, it's all mine

Thank you Emma-Lee and all the other people for today

PYD designer market

This is the first time I sell my fabrics in public and I've received very good feedback! The only thing about the fabrics is that they're a bit expensive. Most of the people who go to this market arn't crafty people so they have no idea how unique my fabrics are. I mean, if you're not a crafty person, you won't really know the difference between mass produced fabrics and one of a kind...
Anyway, I am happy to see people's reaction when they saw my fabrics. I love to listen to their little chit chat with their friends about my fabrics and also about what they're going to do with them.

I didn't prepare well for the market, my table weren't very organized and compared to all of the great designers in the market, I feel a bit embrassed...

I am very happy about the way Tamptation goes now, a bit more professional and a bit more about designs, about my drawings, about colours. I feel different this time, handmade is not the only selling point but also the uniqueness of the products. I am happy to see Tamptation on this track.