(no subject)
So yesterday I spent all day at Camden Lock Market manning a market stall with a friend.
For a while now we had been talking with a friend from work about trying out sharing a stall in a market to see how it went. I make a variety of stuff. I started off with greeting cards to move onto to notebooks and lino prints and now I am experimenting with scarves. My friend makes notebooks so far, but she might branch out. Because we work weekends, and because stall prices on weekends are higher we wanted to try out a weekday.
(image from wikimedia)
In the end we decided upon Camden Lock Market yesterday, Wednesday. It ended up being a bad call. It seems like the very middle of the week is a bad time. Also it still is too early for christmas shopping to have picked up. But we didn't know that.We woke up before the sun rose, because it takes a while to get to Camden Town by bus and we had to be early. We lugged suitcases along with not only our wares, but also the long list of equipment we had been told to bring - more than half of which we ended up not needing - and carried a chair in the other arm. When you don't have a car, everything is difficult. (And my god was it difficult carting all that stuff across the city! I wanted a hard cover suitcase and mine are all soft, so I ended up taking one from the junk we have in the garage. Only it turned out to be a very awkward uncomfortable case to wheel along, and I had a lot of walking to do. I have ended up with aches and pains on my neck and back from twisting in weird ways to drag it along and both my legs are covered in bruises from where it repeatedly hit me.)
(image from wikimedia)
For those who don't know London, Camden Town is an area of London known for it's alternative culture. It used to be the home of young actors and musicians and has a number of well known pubs and clubs that play live music. There is also a vibrant high street that used to be full of alternative, punk and vintage shops. Things have now changed. Prices have gone up making Camden an expensive place to live. Tourism has gone up too, and a lot of the shops on the high street have become tourist shops or chain-stores.
But Camden Town was also known for it's markets. It actually has more than one markets that are open all week round - even if the busiest time is the weekend. Out of all the markets, the biggest and the best are Camden Lock Market and The Stables Market. They are big, busy, vibrant markets where I remember going as a kid and finding all sorts of intriguing stuff I couldn't find anywhere else. Things have become a lot more mainstream and cheaply mass-produced since then, but you can still find unique handmade and vintage items if you look.
Camden Lock Market Hall
(images from wikimedia)
Camden Stables Market
(images from www.coolplaces.co.uk)
Wednesday was a miserable cold and rainy day. But when we left the house before dawn we were still going by the previous day's weather forecast that was saying that the rain would clear by midday. We managed to get a stall inside the big Camden Lock Market building, so we were sheltered, but not warm.
This was our first ever attempt at a market so we had the bare minimum with us. I had been hunting around for cheap, light-weight and easily package-able ways to display my items but hadn't managed to come up with anything. So our display was severely lacking.
(photos taken in a rush with my ancient smartphone)
Yesterday was such a bad day, that even if we had the best display it wouldn't have saved us. Even the long term permanent traders with a repeat clientele hardly made a single sale! It was a horrible day! Hardly anyone came, and those who did just walked right past everything barely sparing a glance. So I ended up out of pocket from the whole adventure. My friend made some sales, but that was to a friend of her's who came round to see us.
The upside was that I was sharing with someone else and there is nothing like spending a whole day with someone and trying out new things together to bond with them. We also chatted with the permanent traders and got some useful tips and insights.
We were left wondering if Camden Lock Market was a good fit for our kind of wares though. My friend thinks we need a more craft orientated market, and I think we need one that attracts more hipsters. We should look into Spitalfields Market and Brick Lane.
If anyone has any ideas or proposals, feel free to share them!
Also I haven't yet shared my new scarves with you!
First I tried out some leaf scarves.
Then I went onto owl scarves.
For a while now we had been talking with a friend from work about trying out sharing a stall in a market to see how it went. I make a variety of stuff. I started off with greeting cards to move onto to notebooks and lino prints and now I am experimenting with scarves. My friend makes notebooks so far, but she might branch out. Because we work weekends, and because stall prices on weekends are higher we wanted to try out a weekday.
(image from wikimedia)
In the end we decided upon Camden Lock Market yesterday, Wednesday. It ended up being a bad call. It seems like the very middle of the week is a bad time. Also it still is too early for christmas shopping to have picked up. But we didn't know that.We woke up before the sun rose, because it takes a while to get to Camden Town by bus and we had to be early. We lugged suitcases along with not only our wares, but also the long list of equipment we had been told to bring - more than half of which we ended up not needing - and carried a chair in the other arm. When you don't have a car, everything is difficult. (And my god was it difficult carting all that stuff across the city! I wanted a hard cover suitcase and mine are all soft, so I ended up taking one from the junk we have in the garage. Only it turned out to be a very awkward uncomfortable case to wheel along, and I had a lot of walking to do. I have ended up with aches and pains on my neck and back from twisting in weird ways to drag it along and both my legs are covered in bruises from where it repeatedly hit me.)
(image from wikimedia)
For those who don't know London, Camden Town is an area of London known for it's alternative culture. It used to be the home of young actors and musicians and has a number of well known pubs and clubs that play live music. There is also a vibrant high street that used to be full of alternative, punk and vintage shops. Things have now changed. Prices have gone up making Camden an expensive place to live. Tourism has gone up too, and a lot of the shops on the high street have become tourist shops or chain-stores.
But Camden Town was also known for it's markets. It actually has more than one markets that are open all week round - even if the busiest time is the weekend. Out of all the markets, the biggest and the best are Camden Lock Market and The Stables Market. They are big, busy, vibrant markets where I remember going as a kid and finding all sorts of intriguing stuff I couldn't find anywhere else. Things have become a lot more mainstream and cheaply mass-produced since then, but you can still find unique handmade and vintage items if you look.
Camden Lock Market Hall
(images from wikimedia)
Camden Stables Market
(images from www.coolplaces.co.uk)
Wednesday was a miserable cold and rainy day. But when we left the house before dawn we were still going by the previous day's weather forecast that was saying that the rain would clear by midday. We managed to get a stall inside the big Camden Lock Market building, so we were sheltered, but not warm.
This was our first ever attempt at a market so we had the bare minimum with us. I had been hunting around for cheap, light-weight and easily package-able ways to display my items but hadn't managed to come up with anything. So our display was severely lacking.
(photos taken in a rush with my ancient smartphone)
Yesterday was such a bad day, that even if we had the best display it wouldn't have saved us. Even the long term permanent traders with a repeat clientele hardly made a single sale! It was a horrible day! Hardly anyone came, and those who did just walked right past everything barely sparing a glance. So I ended up out of pocket from the whole adventure. My friend made some sales, but that was to a friend of her's who came round to see us.
The upside was that I was sharing with someone else and there is nothing like spending a whole day with someone and trying out new things together to bond with them. We also chatted with the permanent traders and got some useful tips and insights.
We were left wondering if Camden Lock Market was a good fit for our kind of wares though. My friend thinks we need a more craft orientated market, and I think we need one that attracts more hipsters. We should look into Spitalfields Market and Brick Lane.
If anyone has any ideas or proposals, feel free to share them!
Also I haven't yet shared my new scarves with you!
First I tried out some leaf scarves.
Then I went onto owl scarves.