Sunday 26 April 2009

Stick to what you know!

Well! To say we are disheartened by our trip to London would be an understatement! We arrived at Spitalfields Market on Wednesday morning at about 9am . No sign of any organisers - nor was there until about 9.40! We were shown to our market stall and left to sort ourselves out. Other people started arriving all around us and eventually by 11am everyone within the viscinity was set up! Sadly lots of the stalls were not what we expected! There was plenty of jewellery and there was plenty of cheap imported fashion. (There was 1 stall close by which we actually liked - a lady called Lizzy making beautifully tailored waterproof raincoats, not cheap but very stylish!) however the majority of clothing stalls were not good!


What we saw of the fashion show looked fun - college students with briefs that they took to extremes, but from our point of view the effort had been pointless. We went back on Thursday and the day was no better, one of the stallholders was so upset that she started a petition to hand in to the organisers saying how disappointed we all were with the standards, we didn't bother going on the Friday so don't actually know how she got on! I have never walked away like that before, hope I never have to do it again, but the event was just so not what it was supposed to be!

Anyway onwards and upwards!! The weather has been so fine that we have actually attacked our garden - the grass has been cut and the apple blossom is fabulous - I wish I was artistic enough to create a picture of the apple trees this year they are so laden with flowers! Wonder if we'll be here to collect the fruit?!

The online guild dyeing workshop will come to a close this week - so we are doing the final dye, Brazilwood. I'll be in the dyehouse tomorrow sorting the last photos out for that and putting the instructions up. I have thoroughly enjoyed leading this workshop, it's made me go back and look at things I take for granted in my dyeing. Now of course I have to collate all the questionaires and put up a chart of results! That will probably be more work than all the rest put together!






3 comments:

Willington Weaver said...

Oh, Debbie, I'm so sorry you had a bad time at Spitelfields. This has happened to me once before, at a trade show. It's soul destroying. I don't blame you for walking away.

Alison

Helen said...

What a shame-but I think you did the right thing in walking away and putting it down to experience.

Debbie said...

Thanks Alison and Helen,
It does so leave a bad taste in the mouth to walk away - but sometimes it's the best option!! Looking at their website it's a really interesting show, being there was so totally different!

Never mind - onwards and upwards! Hope Wonderwool worked for you!