Tasmanian Markets

Made With Love Market Bazzar is coming up on its third  birthday! Can you believe it? I cant. 

What started as a small group of makers on the North West Coast of Tasmania has grown to encompass the local farmers market and so many talented makers from around Tasmania.

We are still a smallish makers market in Tasmania but we are truly blessed to have so many people support us each month. We get to present out lovely handmade and homegrown products to the north west Tasmanian region and and now with this blog, the wider beyond.

Locally, since we have lost the Chickenfeed store, our visitor numbers have fallen (and also to many other local business). With the arrival of Shiploads in the old Chickenfeed building we are hoping that it will again give us the extra boost we need. With the upcoming busy period arriving with the Tulip Festival and Christmas period we want to look at ways to completely support our local and Tasmanian Makers.

I have been thinking about the effect the change in signage may have had on the market. I was told the other day that people are less likely to notice our brand new signs, given the outlay on these new signs I was extremely disappointed. I also liked the old signs, they were hand made and suited us but, oh my word, were they a shocker to put up and down. The repairs on these signs was also happening on a monthly basis and completely driving me crazy. The same person also told me that they don't buy the newspaper any more (in which we spend money advertising in every market Saturday) so I was wondering... how do we reach people? I want to make sure we spend our money and our time in the right way to reach people.

Have you noticed the new signs? How do you think we could reach more people with out lovely handmade and hand grown message? What are the local advertising strategies that you notice and read?

We love servicing our local makers and fulfilling the need for a handmade market in North West Tasmania, but we want to do it as best we can.

If you would like to remain confidential in your reply please email madewithlovebazaar@gmail.com with your response. We are also looking at beneficial partnerships between the market and the local community or business to increase the visibility of the talent in our local area of Tasmania. Especially if its home grown or homemade Tasmanian. Please also don't forget to apply to our Great Tasmanian Maker, we would love to present you and your making to the wider world. Let us support you just as you support us :)

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Stallholder Chat with Lisaloo

Name: Lisaloo

Location: Somerset, Tasmania

1. What do you make? A whole range of different homewares, mostly. Ranging from bags cushions to bunting. My favourite materials to create with are natural and recycled materials. In fact, I rarely use anything that hasn't had a life before. 
2. What/who inspires your work? Often it is my materials, in the first instance, that inspire me. I'll have something to hand and  it just comes to me what I'll make with it. But I do also have a very bad habit of checking out way too many blogs and other handcraft sites and so forth. Especially my favourite at the moment is Bespoke magazine. They send inspiration and stories every day.
3. How does your location in Tasmania affect your work? I think it's something about the atmosphere here that is conducive to being creative, that laid-back lifestyle where you've got the time and there's so many other people around who are so inspirational. Also, being somewhere I can go to op-shops and things like that is another thing about where I live that makes it all happen.
4. If you could give one piece of advice to someone thinking about setting up a regular market stall, what would that be? How you present your stall and having some kind of consistency or theme, would be a really good place to start. Have a think about what it's going to look like as soon as people see it.

Many thanks to Lisa for agreeing to be our first MWL Stallholder Chat! Make sure you have a look at her website and say a big friendly hello to her next time you see her at the market!

Naomi x

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MWL Market Bazaar August 2013

So, you guys - it was pretty wet for Saturday's return to the Made With Love Market Bazaar after our winter break. Which I guess is to be expected, it is after all ... winter. Occasionally the sun poked its head through gloomy grey clouds - which was nice to see every now and again.

Below you can peruse at your leisure a whole bunch of photos I took on the day. Not all of them though, I went a little cray-cray with the clicking finger. It does tend to happen after a break away from the market. If you'd like to see the rest of the photos and have Facebook, check out the whole album here.

And I'll stop there before I get too carried away! Do make sure you check out the whole album in the link above - plenty more to see there.

There's also something pretty exciting coming up soon on the MWL Market blog (at least, we think so!)  It's the first of a new regular feature for MWL. At each month's market I'll be doing a short interview with one of our stallholders. They'll be talking to us about making and creating in Tasmania and sharing handy tips for getting involved in local markets, just like MWL. This month we're having a chat with Lisaloo - check back later in the week to have a look!

Naomi x

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