Saturday Morning Woodstock Farmers Market Setup...

Sometimes there'll be no teardown at the end of the market, the food vendors leave their shelves and coolers in situ and the rest of us non-food vendors leave our tables as is with cloths draped over everything.

I found out the hard way that I am located in front of double storage room doors and came back one Saturday morning to find at least two of my tables moved all over the place, the cloths and surfaces every which way, which means I now have to consolidate all my stuff onto the one table that is rarely moved.

What hides under the tablecloth. Any empty bins have to be stacked on top of the table, as well, for when the floors are washed.

Everything back in place. Takes me about half an hour to do this.

Ready to go. Yes, all that was hiding under the sheet! I'm off now to get coffee, visit and buy the week's groceries, and it's barely 6 a.m.

Unfortunately, this Saturday it was a full teardown. Next week I'll show you how I pack my bins.

Thanks for stopping by!

New Jewellery Showcase at the One of a Kind Antique Mall...

Yes! Finally filled up and running! Showcase 800/847 is now located just past the cash desk as you come into the main level of the One of a Kind Antique Mall. It's now filled with my jewellery and collectible beads and Nancy's great bone and pottery dishes among many other goodies.

We have a new partner in Booth 800/847. Judith (Vendor 822) contributes great vintage finds almost daily, including ladies' accessories and boudoirish doodads. Judith also has a showcase up at the front across from the cash desk full of vintage and collectible jewellery and odds and ends.

Here is a picture of our booth as of about 3:00 p.m. on Friday, 01 May 2015. The booth is filled to bursting. We have many gardening and cook books now, too. We're very easy to find -- directly across from the ladies' washroom.

We restock every couple of days. If you're looking for something in particular that we might come across on our travels, or you see something in the photos you're interested in and want to know the price or if it's still available, please email me. Personal shopping only for these items (the jewellery I can ship).

The One of a Kind Antique Mall is located in the three story brick factory at 97 Wilson Street, Woodstock and has three floors with over 80,000 square feet and over 500 vendors. Take the Norwich Ave exit north off the 401. Norwich eventually curves and then becomes Wilson Street. There's a huge parking lot on your right, just after the tracks. The mall is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. seven days a week all year round (except stat holidays).

Hope to see you there, and thanks for looking!

Showcase...

Here are the pictures of the showcase filled with my jewellery and Nancy's collectible bowls at the One-of-a-Kind Antique Mall in Woodstock. I think Nancy did a beautiful job laying everything out on Sunday. Yesterday, Wednesday, was my first view of it -- I got my truck brakes fixed on Tuesday after being permaparked for a week. Thankfully, it wasn't too-too big of a hit to the ol' piggy bank. However, the mechanic did say that it really wasn't worth spending the money to fix the oil drips... meaning it's long past time to start saving for a new vehicle. One more winter is all I ask and anything past this is a bonus. On the other hand, that's what I've been saying for four years now.

Looking the length of the showcase from the right end, as you walk in the front door.

Looking down the length from the left end of the showcase

View from the top.

It's surprisingly bright in here and I think the slightly coppery colour of the tablecloth I picked shows off the jewellery very well, particularly the turquoise. Initially, I was a bit leery that the stripes might make it too busy. Now to hunt down more of these tablecloths from Dollarama for my Gem Expo tables in Toronto.  

Closer view of some of the jewellery

Thanks for looking!

< = >

Less equals more according to Graham Hill. Yes, I have absolutely experienced what he's talking about while camping, whether it's in my truck in the mountains or on a friend's couch, and curtailing my acquisitive packrattiness during the three years spent living in Italy, knowing when I left I would be limited to two checked bags at whatever weight, so why buy???

But, oh, boy, are there ever some scary implications in his talk on Ted.com. Like, for example, how un-American he is, preaching the gospel of Stop Shopping. How dare he? Heresy!

I have read about what a growth industry the storage business is and anyone anywhere can see evidence of it: you can't drive anywhere in any large city or small village without seeing at least one storage facility, with new ones popping up every day. I remember reading a few years ago how people in their McMansions could easily have 5 or more garage-size storage units to hold the stuff they still couldn't find room for in those ginormous excrescences they called "homes": they just couldn't stop buying. (And that's after they'd filled their own garages to the rafters.)

Have you ever been in a position of needing to rent storage, even for a few months? Holy crap, is it ever expensive! I'd bet dollars to donuts what most people would want to store in the end the Goodwill would probably toss in a dumpster, and yet they're willing to add thousands upon thousands of dollars of storage charges on top of the "value" of the items they're storing instead of having a lawn sale and suck up making 10 cents on the dollar (if they're lucky). And how many people in the end end up walking away from their storage units because truly the truth is "out of sight, out of mind". Look at the classifieds: storage unit auctions abound -- there's another growth industry for ya -- and off these items all go, back into circulation, at 10 cents or less on the dollar.

Gawd... I feel positively monastic with my 20 or 30... okay, 40+ boxes of kitchen crap, books, art, art supplies and now jewellery-making crap. I've written before about my project to get rid of one single box or garbage bag of stuff per week. That's slowed waaaaay down. But now it's pyromania season -- I mean fall -- so a lot of my collection of useless paper things (like bills from 15+ years ago -- nope, I really don't think RevCan gives a rat's patootie about those) are finally being used as fire starter. I'm still left with what to do about my books, though. Those expensive art books...? You know, the ones I haven't even looked at for at least three years, if not since several days after I bought them over the past 10 to 20 years? The ones that I paid full price for new and I could buy now at 10% of the list price used on Amazon.ca?

I did discover a trick which I've heard other people telling me they do now, too -- put a book on an online wish list. They're like me: they come back a month or six months later to put another must-have book on the wish list and see the other ones sitting there patiently waiting to be ordered -- and wonder why they're there in the first place.

I have a lot of boxes just like the one Hill brought on stage in his Ted talk. Ones that were far easier and faster to move for the past 10-15 years w/o spending time and going through untold emotional angst looking through their contents. Gaaaah........ I don't need post-its with 15-year-old telephone numbers on them, dammit!

I have a long way to go and many boxes to dispose of, but yes, I would love to get back down into one room again, or better yet an RV's "one room" so I can get rid of needing two possessions: a vehicle AND a room.

I got to Graham Hill's post via here (and here for the original post) but in the meantime have lost the origin of the post by an artist who is struggling with this very dilemma of trying to downsize yet feeling compelled to create more art -- which really and truly is the worst stuff in the world to create, own, accumulate, display, store and/or move.

But then that ties into breaking the buying stuff habit versus buying experience or consumables, assuming experience and creation are equitable. In every recession, do you know what the primary growth industry is? Jewellery, and to a lesser degree accessories. Jewellery, as I've discovered, is such a visceral item to possess I don't think people are going to stop buying it against all logic or state of bank account any time soon. Art -- anything made by hand for that matter -- is equally a visceral occupation that feeds other needs, if not a creator's very essence (or need to eat).

Meanwhile, back in the real world, if I'm lucky today there will be no rush typing coming in so I can go make more jewellery to feed viscera; it's the market tomorrow, plus there are two shows to get ready for next weekend.

Less is more? Nah - more is more is always better...

Yesterday my friend Kathryn who occasionally gets fed up and rearranges my table for me at the Woodstock Farmer's Market complimented me on how nice my display was looking. Yay. I'm so clueless about how to arrange things and she's so good at it -- but I have discovered by taking photos it can help give a better idea of how it looks. Still needs a lot of tweaking. I'm sure I can cram more jewellery on the table if I concentrate hard enough.

In the next few weeks I will be bringing in a lot more pendants and components to sell to jewellery do-it-yourself-ers and (I hope) carry a wider range of interesting and cool stuff.

I have no idea how I'll display all the new things. I've put in for two tables once the market spreads out through two rooms later in the fall when the produce and flower vendors move back inside. In any event, I will be losing my primo spot between Chocolate Guy and the coffee pot that I've had for the past three years.

For now, this is what my display looks like. I especially want to thank Chris McGyver for building all my great display boxes and risers, as well as the anonymous donor to Value Village for the great bamboo display box. What a score that was! Then there are all my suppliers who've contributed to my explosion-in-a-bead-factory style. Since you can never have enough beads... I'll be baaaaack.

Meanwhile yesterday afternoon, back at the ranch (aka dead car lot) where I live I picked more berries and made another four jars of jam. Here it is noon and I haven't even stuck my nose out to see how many more berries are ripe. I think I'll get at least 8 more jars before they're all gone. I'm waiting now for the first Niagara peaches and the pitted sour cherries from Elberta's to come in. Those first peaches and the sour cherries make the BEST freezer jam ever. I can't decide which is my favourite.  All I know is, it tastes like summer in a jar all through the winter. That jam on Ace Bakery baguette toast and my Italian Lavazza Cream e Gusto make it worth getting up in the morning at 20 or 30 below. Oh, and Max wanting to go out. That, too. Hi, Max.

Crikies, have to do the typing that makes all the above possible. Deadline 9 pm tonight and another one tomorrow at 9 am. Happy Sunday, all.

first blog entry, first thoughts

Talking to the computer screen, portal to the world, rather than to myself, one face in the mirror.

"Artefact" was taken, so I came up with "Artefaccio" -- "I make art". I never could speak Italian properly.

I was making jewellery at a fair on the weekend, selling pieces when they were only half-completed. I have an art show coming up in six weeks, and I have to finish -- hah, start -- a lot of new paintings/drawings/whatever.

Here goes.