Beautiful Places to Shop for Handmade (in Melbourne)

I have been stumbling over a lot of very lovely places to shop lately - both online, and brick and morter.  The thing I like most about them is that they provide a way to bring handmade to the general public. They also help to promote those who have moved on from 'handmade' to what I like to call 'grown up handmade' - items that still retain the original handmade integrity intended, but can now afford their makers an income that allows them to work at it full time.

When we grow up, that's what we want to have happen to us!!

Take a little look at some of these fabulous Melbourne based (other States to follow) shopping experiences and enjoy :0)

Hard to Find

 

The Little Shop of Handmade

Meet Me At Mikes

 

 The Handmade Show

Markit Market

The Arts Centre market (Southbank)

What other handmade markets or specialy shops would you like to add to the list?

Here are some that have been mentioned by our readers:

Do Re Me

skism

in.cube8r gallery

Why it's Important to Support Handmade

How did you spend your Saturday?

I spent mine in the Oakleigh RSL, at a wonderful indoor boutique art and craft market called The Handmade Show.  Of all the markets in the world this one means the most to me.

Why,  I hear you ask?

It means a lot because it is coordinated by stallholders for stallholders - in particular Creations by Bobbie Mac (Bobbie), EP Designs (Elena), Vintage Sew & So (Kerri), Red Letter Studio (Samone) and moi.  Our aim is to create a small, sustainable market that stallholders enjoy being a part of and that brings the collective talents of the art/craft world to the suburban public.  

It is a great market to dip your toe in the craft market waters - give it a go, as they say - and have an opportunity to talk to other stallholders and increase your confidence.  It's also a lovely market for more experienced stallholders to share their talents.  We try to keep our stall fees very low to make it as worthwhile as possible for everyone involved.  We also want our stallholders to make sales and increase their exposure - of course ;0)

But we can't do it without your help.  Whether you be a stallholder or a shopper WE NEED YOU!  

In order to keep the interest up, we need you to help support our show and ultimately support the handmade community.  That means visiting us on market days, letting friends know that we are on, maybe even buying an item or two.  It is hard work bringing handmade to the community and many markets find it hard to sustain the momentum needed to do it - we are all mums, workers, crafters, artists, domestic goddesses, girlfriends, etc - so we do what we do because we love it.

But, we do need your help.  The next time you see an ad for a craft market, take a couple of hours out of your day and go and visit it.  Whether it be at a school, a church hall or a large town hall, someone has put the effort in to share this with you, so support Handmade and  help us all.

For more information on The Handmade Show click here.

The Handmade Show - Our Baby is Now Walking :0)

After obsessing about it for the past three weeks, I'm proud to say that our baby is no longer crawling, and is now walking :0)

We're still a little tentative - it's step-by-step, but we've got our pre-walkers on and we're giving it a darn good shot.  Despite the rain that threatened to wash us out in the morning, we all made it to The Handmade Show and we set up lots of fabulous stalls.  I was so proud to see all of the hard work that had gone into producing something that got lots of lovely compliments on the day.  There's still a lot of work ahead of us, but I think we did a great job today.

A big thank-you to all of our stall holders and my thanks to the committee lovlies: Elena, Samone, Bobbie, Jade and Kerri  - muah xxxx

And now for some photos!!

MooBeeTees (that's me!!)

Ladybugs and Daisychains and Red Letter Studio

Mignonne

Ladies who Lunch (at the best markets!)

We all hope to see you all at the next market on the
20 November 2010!!

The Handmade Show - Blood Sweat and, hopefully not, Tears!!

For those of you who may have been down a mineshaft with 34 Chilean miners over the last couple of months, you may have missed the fact the The Handmade Show is expericencing a rebirth.  The original concept of the wonderful Celeste Wong, The Handmade Show is a boutique crafters' and artisans' market which is now being lovingly looked after by a group of creative, hardworking 'nuts' including my good self.

(Note: Calling us 'Nuts' is, of course, a term of endearment!)

We are excited to be holding the first of these rebirthed Shows this coming Saturday, 16 October - at the Oakleigh-Carnegie RSL (Dummond St, Oakleigh, 3166).

As mentioned earlier, we are a boutique market so we are able to bring you some amazing items in a very intimate environment - no walking for hours to get from one end to the other - it's all in one spot AND it's INDOORS!!!  Particularly good since this weekends forecast is a little wet!

Some of the fantastic stallholders coming to the market include:

• Rosa May Creations
• Mignonne
• Ladybugs & Daisychains
• Spikey Rose jewellery design
• Jooce Bath n Body
• Found n Bound
• Vintage Sew and Sew
• EP Designs
• Holi Goddess
• Creations by Bobbie Mac
• Red Letter Studio

And did I mention there is a GIVEAWAY?  Just turn up and we give you the chance to win a Gift Voucher to spend at the November market.  Purchase something and we give you bonus entries in the draw for the Gift Voucher - how good is that???

I hope that we see some of you on Saturday - please come up and say hello - or I hope we see you as a stallholder in the future! 

Cheers!!

 

Sneak Peak!

The lovely and talented MooBeeGran has joined the team at MooBeeTees and is crocheting up a storm for the cooler months ahead (even if you are in the Northern Hemisphere, there WILL be cool months ahead!).  Here's a sneak peak of some of the groovy cloche/beanie/turban/juliet cap hats she has been working on:

My thanks to the lovely Glennys for sharing her Turban pattern with MooBeeGran and to the lovely MooBee who consented to having her photo taken yet again, whilst not appropriately dressed for the occasion!

Keep your eyes on my shop for lots more fabulous headwear (boys and girls) and don't forget you can visit MooBeeTees on the 8th May at the Modish Creators Market in Malvern :)