This weekend's assault on London's fairs turned into a fairly bleak affair, and has left me battered and bruised.
Friday I was at Spittlefields market, which was indoors so at least I didn't have the weather to worry about. I did get a quick snap of the stall on my mobile (so quality is a little poor as I forgot my camera) . Despite the clothing stalls near me doing slow but steady trade, it was pretty quiet. I'd hoped the nearby office workers might be around, the weather was a nice crisp spring day too, but I did very badly. By the end of the day I'd only sold one pendant, and that was to the stall holder next to me, which didn't go near covering my costs of the stall and travel.
I had better hopes for the next day, when I took myself off to Camden to take a place at the craft/fair-trade market. Despite leaving extra early I was scuppered by London Tubes. After carrying my huge case- it's about 4ft tall and 16inch square - which contains all my stock, stand, and covers, down various stairs in Moorgate station I found there were signal problems. After ten minutes the tube moved to the next stop, which then stayed there with no idea of how long it would take. I needed to be at Camden before 9, and at 8.30 I lugged my case back up to the surface (more stairs!) One bus to Camden turned up, but it was packed, so I tried looking for a cab - but there were none. About to give up and walk back to the train station to return home I spotted a cab and was on my way. At 9.05 and £15 lighter I got to the meeting point, and was lucky enough to get a stall, and it was indoors!
I tweeked the stall layout, putting up a bright purple cloth backdrop to hide the wall and piller behind me, and had plenty of people looking, but the rain and cold kept alot of people away, although I did get to chat to some nice people who liked what I did. At the end of a very long day I had just covered my stall and travel expenses (but not the extra £15 cab fare!) I didn't get home till 9.30, and originally had planned to do Sunday as well, but by this point two days of standing and then carrying a huge weight had done me in. I may well try Camden again in a few weeks when it's more 'in season' but for now it's some Radox and deep heat for me! And then looking at cases or trolleys with bigger 'stair-friendly' wheels!
Aww, sorry to hear you had a bit of a downer of a weekend :( With regard to your carrying issues - I carry a lot of equipment around when I teach and I've found wheeled cases etc just don't last long - wheels get torn off or they're simply not strong enough for the weight; linings tear and zips break with alarming regularity (I've gone through four in as many years). So now I use a huge "Really Useful Box" lashed to a sturdy garden trolley with bungee cords! How that would translate to using the Underground I don't know, but it works ok for me - even when heavily pregnant!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a good idea, I've seen a couple of those trolleys and might invest. Hopefully when I've found the place I want to sell from regularly I'll find somewhere local to store some of my kit
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