Stitches & Craft Show - Volunteers Wanted!

A year ago I had the most wonderful day out at the Stitches & Craft Show at the Melbourne Showgrounds. I went to a felt doughnut workshop and met Holly Two Cheese Please*, then at a PVC wallet workshop I met Jodie Ric Rac of the selvedge frock, and little did I realise at the time but one of the crafters I sewed next to went on to become Miss Sandra Pepperberry! I was awed by the talent shown in the Incubator section, by far the most out-of-the-box stalls at the show. There was a refashioning zone, skill displays by lacemakers and feltmakers, and sooo much to buy. Looking at 2009 photos on participants' blogs today is getting me excited all over again.


Two Cheese Please's Incubator stall, 2009
I've spent the last twelve months counting down to 2010's Stitches & Craft (and vowing to take along more cash next time). The big event will hit Melbourne from Wednesday 5th to Sunday 9th of May. And I've just found out from Jodie Ric Rac's blog that they're looking for volunteers!


Ric Rac's lifesize selvedge projects via Whip UP
If you can hand sew, crochet or embroider and love to share your skills, the Craft Bars need you! Craft Bar volunteers will teach visitors new skills and have a laugh while doing so**. In return for you hard day's crafting and teaching you'll be rewarded with two free tickets to the show! That means that as well as spending one day at the Craft Bar, you can spend another two attending workshops and shopping! Or if you're feeling altruistic you could give one to your bestie and spend a crafty day together. I advise leaving your kids with a babysitter***.


2009 Craft Bar photographed by The Lark
If you'd like to find out more about this opportunity get in touch with the organisers via enquiries(AT)stitchesandcraft(DOT)com(DOT)au.

* There's an interview with Holly in the latest Mixtape, which you can buy this Saturday at the Northside Makers Collective Table!

** Laughing is mandated. Or I may have made that up.

*** Says the woman who didn't get to see the Handmade Nation doco due to the demands of her friend and herself shepherding a six month old and 19 month old all day long. I did however manage to schedule a breastfeed during a presentation on building a craft business. And the parents room was quite well appointed apart from the lack of a change table.

Northside Makers Market : An illuminated page

f we can think of one person or group's craft experiences as a story, be it adventure, romance or comedy, then each project or event can be thought of as a chapter, and the end result as a single page in that story. A beautiful page with illuminated lettering and a gilt edge, written painstakingly in ink by near-blind monks.

The inaugural Northside Makers Market was such a page in the burgeoning story of the Northside Makers. A delight to read, to behold, to experience. The sun shone warmly and birds sang in the trees. The only smudge on the page was the very late cancellation of the sausage sizzle, but our other food suppliers Melbourne Epicure and Cafe Koula rose to the challenge and liquid papered over the mar. (Can I shelve this analogy now?)

We organisers were genuinely moved by the number of stallholders who arrived first thing in the morning to help us set up. After all the tables were set up we hurried off the set up our own tables. The first time we returned to the hall and saw the visual offering our stallholders had prepared, the sight was breathtaking.

With all the months of planning and organising we had put into this day, it would have been for naught without the talent and quality our stallholders brought to the event. You are what makes us great!

Of course our outdoors stallholders were equally a delight to behold.

One innovation of Northside Makers Market was to offer our members the opportunity to display their work even if they didn't have enough to fill a whole table themselves. The result was a diverse Collective Table with six makers contributing stationery, accessories, screenprinted bags and more.

We received a lot of comments about the family-friendly vibe of the day, which was one of our top goals. The face painter and kids craft table proved a valuable distraction while parents shopped or relaxed in the shady courtyard with a coffee!

We'd love to post every photo from our new Flickr Pool here, but they would cripple your bandwidth. Instead we invite you to click through and take a look for yourselves, and even join up to contribute your own market day photos. It would be satisfying to sign off this post with a photo of we exhausted yet happy organisers - anyone take one?!

See you again on November 28th.

Jennie, Jay & Margaret

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