The Arts Village Big Christmas Market 2016 January 4, 2017 19:13

Hey there! Welcome to our very first blog post for 2017. I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season with beloved friends and family! Hubby and I did a lot of tramping and explored the region a little further. Thankfully we had some good sunny weather over the new year weekend!

For this post I thought it might be nice to write about the very first craft market that we attended in Rotorua. Held at the Arts Village, which is an amazing community-run arts organization and venue, the Big Christmas Market was a showcase of beautiful goods by talented local makers and artists. It was supposed to be held on 10 Dec but it was postponed for a week due to inclement weather.

hanakrafts big christmas market

That's our stall! Ours was indoors, next to one of the inner doors leading to the lawns outside. That meant lots of sun and people-watching for us! 

hanakrafts big christmas market display

A closer look at our stall. We had a few new features--we added boxes for more height in our display, and we also put out a sign-up sheet for a mailing list which we were thinking of starting in 2017. Also, from previous experience at other markets in NZ, people aren't so sure what money envelopes are because they aren't as ubiquitous here as they are in Singapore and other Asian countries. So I thought it would be good to put up a brief explanation of what they're good for--that they can be used not just to present money, but also gift cards and vouchers. That was put in the little black frame right in the middle of the table. The market was also a good opportunity to sell our new 2017 planners and journals =)

hanakrafts big christmas market lawns

There was a small hula hoop booth on the lawns outside so the kids were having fun playing around! These Japanese kids were really enjoying themselves as you can see. (I really love that little girl's outfit by the way. So chic!)

My most interesting customer of the day was this guy, who looked like your typical All Black, who came to my stall and started admiring our journals. He then called his mum over, and then later his wife and daughter, and went through our whole range of items with them, all the time saying that the items were so beautifully made and unique. In the end he bought some cards, left the stall, and then a few minutes later came running back because he'd forgotten to take our namecard, haha! I was pretty pleased but also quite stunned because that's not at all how I imagine my target customer =D feels good to have a new fan of our work though! 

Big Christmas Market hanakrafts

Photo courtesy of The Arts Village

Another heartwarming experience was the camaraderie that I felt among the vendors. The vendors next to me were 2 ladies who sold an assortment of vintage items, including clothes and dolls, as well as paper flowers. The lady who made the flowers had baked some fruitcake for the day and gave me a whole slab to take home! Another vendor was an old neighbour of a colleague of mine and she sold really beautiful shibori scarves and cushion covers. Unfortunately, she was going to close down her business, so she was just selling her stock off at the market. I got myself one of her shibori scarves in a pretty peach colour, and got a linoprint free! Of course that wasn't my only purchase at the market--some of the items sold were just too gorgeous to resist--I also got myself some pottery and plants! I think it was a really good market for me both as a vendor and a customer, and it was also good to make some new friends at the same time. Can't wait to check out the other local craft markets I could potentially sell at!