Salamanca Market

Lots of locals like to pooh-pooh Salamanca as being full of tasteless crap catering only to tourists, and yes, it's true that there are a lot of tacky souvenirs available, but you just can't beat it for atmosphere.

On a sunny, blue-sky day, the many spreading green lawns, the buskers, the food stalls, and best of all the Hobart City Council mini-tractors that are left with keys in the ignition, kids crawling all over them and the council workers happily turning a blind eye, make a morning spent mooching around the market a very pleasant one indeed. I usually make sure to scrape up $3 for a bag of Oliebollen, the delicious Dutch fruit donuts made fresh on-site at one of the stalls (their tempura mushrooms are also excellent!). For an outing with kids, you've got loads to see, Princess Park just around the corner, the docks a stones throw the other way, and the CBD a stroll away.

There's a reason it's famous around the world. It's noice.


Oliebollen: DO NOT miss out on these.

PS: I've labelled it as pram-friendly, but you have to pick your routes. There is loads of space to park a pram and lay about on the grassed areas, and it's not impossible to meander through the stalls with a pram, even a Hummer like ours, but be sensitive to the fact that you're taking up more space than the average punter, and watch out for those ankles!

World on fire at The Market!

The Market is on again at the Masonic Temple on Sandy Bay Rd in Hobart. Lots of fantastic wares to be had, including a range of candle lanterns from moi, Zando Design. The orginal "Manhattan" series will be available, as well as the newly completed "Hobart Deco" series, featuring three iconic Hobart art deco buildings known and loved by locals. Hobart is more than just settlers cottages and overlords mansions, you know!



Where: Masonic Temple, Sandy Bay Rd, Hobart (opposite St David's Park)
When: Sunday August 2, 10-3
What: hot soup, great coffee, nibbles, cards, badges, bags, bears, jewellery, hair accessories, and heaps more!

The Winter Beach Market

The Beach Market is up and running again for its winter session this Saturday, at the hall on the Blackman's Bay Esplanade, 9-2.

Zando Design will be there with badges and cards, hopefully some new bib+washer sets, and some of these little babies...



... they are my new pride and joy, where I run away and live in miniature. Tea-light candle shades - completely original illustrations and all hand-cut.

The Market #1 - post mortem!

Well, it was a hectic day all up. The Masonic Temple turned out to be a fabulous space, although a bit hot and stuffy with spot lights and many bodies, and it was chock full of stalls...you couldn't swing a handmade recycled vintage bag without hitting some eye candy, hair candy, or kid candy. Generally a very good standard of products though, and extremely well thought out presentation. Me mum and me felt pretty intimidated at first, but we soon bucked up when we realised that at least we were two of the few with out the uber-trendy folk-art-esque birds, ponies, spots and stripes. Though maybe we should jump the money-train band-wagon, cos those things were selling like hotcakes.

For a shopper, I would highly recommend The Market, as it plans to rotate stalls each month, with only four spots per stallholder available each year, so the monthly market should be a different mix each time, and hopefully any repeat sellers will bring new stock each time. As a seller I think for the same reasons it's a great opportunity. Go for it! Apply! Keep this great new market alive! And tell your mates...let's help it become a regular Sunday haunt for Hobartians and visitors alike!

Just a note: prams were a real issue today. Hopefully the aisles will be widened for the next market, but it is worth noting that one pram can block a whole aisle, and there isn't a whole lot of room to park them in the foyer.

Where: The Masonic Temple, 3 Sandy Bay Rd Hobart
When: first Sunday of every month, I think. Check the blog for details.

The Market

Hobart's newest art+design market, simply called The Market, debuts next Sunday, April 5, in the Masonic Temple at 3 Sandy Bay Road, Hobart.

I have a small stall there along with my fabulous mum, maker of t'Art bags and Tuff Tedz. I've stream-lined my presentation, so come along and see what's going on!

Where: Masonic Temple, 3 Sandy Bay Rd, Hobart
When: Sunday April 5, 10-3

And it aims to run on a monthly basis, so you'll see fresh rotations of designers and makers! Fantastic!

The Beach Market - the day after...

I'm going to go ahead and declare the first Beach Market a raging success! Despite our publicity needing a bit of work, we had a steady stream of people through all morning, and I certainly did much better business than I expected...partly because I am deeply insecure and have low expectations to start with! I was thrilled to have such great responses to my Stella images, the badges went pretty well, especially the loose ones (some fantastic treasure-hunting by teenaged boys!) and some of my bibs sold - phew! I think lots of us have some great ideas to bring to future markets (next one coming up in early June...watch this space for details, or go to The Beach Market blog) and I'm super-excited to be a part of it!
The Blackmans Bay hall, while looking a bit grim from the outside (grey besser bricks reminiscent of public toilets), is a lovely space inside, with a fenced kids playground right out the front, a skate bowl for the biggies, and the beach of course, right across the road. A stunning locale for a friendly market, and we were enormously well received by the largely uninformed locals.

I also had the delightful pleasure of running into an old friend from high school, whose work I loved!

Big thanks go to Julie, who began it all, and worked very hard all day making coffees for all, as well as manning her own stall!

Here are a few pics of some of our stalls...
Mine, of course:


(I'm working on better presentation methods [though I love my wooden bib boy and am very proud of my bandsaw efforts!], and have learned a valuable lesson about stock - that is, have enough!)

My mum's:



my mate Jacquie's:

The Beach Market

Saturday March 14, that's NEXT Saturday folks!, is the first Beach Market, held in Blackmans Bay, just south of Kingston. It's a new market, selling locally created craft and design, fresh produce and funky stuff. I'm in it. So please come along, oh invisible and silent readership!

Here is a sample of what I will be selling...




Where: Blackmans Bay Hall, Ocean Esplanade Blackmans Bay
When: Sat March 14, 9-2

Odd + Even Makers' Market

The Odd + Even Makers' Market ran yesterday in the Peacock Theatre and the adjacent courtyard, at Salamanca Place. A great location, a wide range of stalls from Tasmanian designers and crafters and a relaxed vibe. Some gorgeous things were on sale, often by the makers themselves. The products ranged from jewellery, cards, clothes, toys, homewares, bags...you know the drill!

It's great to see yet another locally initiated opportunity for small-scale designers and makers to tout their wares and meet the peeps. I love to look, and occasionally fondle (the products, naturally!), and one day at the end of the rainbow I would love to shop!

(The interior of the Peacock Theatre...the natural rock wall of the old quarry is built into the theatre. Cool!)

Island Markets

Island Markets in Moonah is an undercover market housing a small selection of stalls (naff crafty stuff, some overpriced flea market things, plants, eggs + honey, handmade chocolates) with a fruit/fish/meat section (the live fish in the tanks are a huge hit with the kids - both big and little!) and a fantastic liquidation outlet selling clothes, DVDs and books. I can't go in and leave without a new addition to the home library! There's also a manchester liquidation outlet which I haven't yet looked at.

The fruit and veg section usually has some great specials on a few things and always very competitive prices on everything else. There's also a cheese store by the carpark entrance (Wicked Cheese Co.) which does a mean chilli camembert!
A fun outing, some good shopping, books agogo... if only there was some lawn outside for the restless toddlers, you could make more of a day of it!

Where: 54-56 Gormanston Rd, Moonah (accessible from the Intercity Cycleway)
http://www.islandmarkets.com.au

Royal Hobart Showground Sunday market

The Sunday market at the showground is a bit of a mixed bag. There are several second-hand dealers charging their optimistic second-hand prices, a few drop-ins trying to clear the house of junk, and a fair whack of kitsch (the bad kind!), tat and crap, including the widest range of awful skull-art tees I've ever seen. I'm mesmerized every time by the lolly stall chock with sherbet bottles, White Knights and many other sugary concoctions. It brings out the 10-y.o. in me, and she begs in ever-increasing tones for two bucks to spend! Most of the stuff is overpriced, but if you hunt and don't have high expectations, you can find a bargain still. It's populated mostly by slightly scary northern suburbs types (of which I am now one!) and can be a bit of a freak show, but for an entertaining Sunday outing, a mere 10 minutes walk along the Intercity Cycleway from Glenorchy centre, I think it rates OK.

Just a word on dagwood dogs. I made a mistake, alright? The first bite was kind of delicious in a greasy, nostalgic way, but by the end I knew that baby done a bad bad thing.

Where: Howard Rd, Glenorchy


(I got a novel, kids book, two cars and a Fisher Price Xylophone for $8.50 total. Not a bad haul!)

Designed & Made market

The Designed & Made Market, run by the Furniture Designers Association, ran through the day in the IXL external courtyard today. I thought it was going to be quite a bit larger for some reason, and whilst most of the fare was fashionable and interesting, I was disappointed to see the old Huon Pine spice mills making an appearance. The courtyard itself seemed more space than the number of stalls required, so it felt rather windswept and short on people both times we ducked in. I wonder about the wisdom of a market in a spot that is otherwise very quiet on a Sunday. Having said that, it still gladdens the heart to see designers and makers out and about with contemporary work.

Mothers' Market

The Mothers' Market is a collective of creative, skilled and motivated Tassie mums who who wanted an outlet for sharing their wares. This weekend's market was held in the St Georges Church Hall in Cromwell St, Battery Point. An utterly gorgeous venue, the hall was a perfect setting for a delight of a market. Well- stocked, but not uncomfortably jam-packed, there was the usual fare of bags, baked goods, kids clothes, prints, fabric buttons, stuffed toys, cards, Christmas decorations and jewellery. Lots of the imagery that is very in-vogue at the moment: silhouettes of deer and bare trees and bold animals, leaves and retro prints. But all extremely pleasing to look at and touch and imagine owning. (Or indeed buy if you had any spare spondoolies!)
I had the delightful surprise of running into a very old school friend, and the performance piece de resistance had to be the woman who made and served excellent coffees one-handed with a baby on her hip! The essence of the Mothers' Market!

Next market is supposedly March next year. Watch this space for details. Perhaps I will be part of it!

Meredith's Orchard

A few minutes drive south of Margate, Meredith's Orchard has a good range of fresh produce, from fruit and veg to eggs and honey, as well as some organic and gluten-free products if they float your boat, and for very good prices. I was delighted to walk away with a huge box of stuff, including free-range eggs, fancy things like mangoes and asparagus as well as the bog-standards like carrots and spuds, for less than $50. Supplies for four for a week. Pretty good I reckon!

Where: Channel Highway, Margate