Where can you buy real things these days? Real things sold by real people who are not just shop assistants programmed to smile, say 'Have a nice day!' and 'Is there anything else you want?'
Answer: Cambridge Market on a Sunday.
Besides my stall there are numerous other stalls worth a visit.
Here's a couple [more next week]:
Paul Neeve's book stall. A real book stall where you can get real books. Where you might find something unusual not just the predictable stuff that Waterstone's , for example, sell. Paul is real book seller not a business that happens to make its money out of books. He has nice jazz and blues playing in the background and you can get into an interesting conversation, if you wish, with Paul or his clientele.
The Cambridge Chilli Sauce Company. Tim's chilli sauces are delicious. My favourite is his smoked scotch bonnet and red pepper sauce. If you want a challenge you can try his 'Ghost Pepper 10'. Tim is a very knowledgeable botanist as well, an expert on hellebores, who makes regular trips to the Balkans in search of new species. He's a really nice guy! [He's going to hate me for saying that!].
Yes this is a kind of advertising. But in the old fashioned sense of bringing to your attention something worth knowing about in this cased small traders who sell good stuff and who, like us, struggle to be make themselves heard because of the cacophony generated by the retail juggernauts that dominate our dreary High Streets.
Monday, 3 March 2014
Driving home after Cambridge Market. March 2nd
Starlings above the A 14.
After a dull day in Cambridge -prosaic overcast weather, switched off punters ...even King's College Chapel seemed lacklustre- needed something to perk me up. Felt drowsy, too, from having little sleep last night due to stranded inebriated son requiring rescue ....
Driving home. Dusk. A 14. Just before Huntingdon tens of thousands of starlings espied. Forming a unified entity. Whirling in complex geometries. Convolutions, involutions, Fibonacci ecstasies!
Avian delight.
Who are what should be thanked for this?
Certainly not the abstract thing 'Nature', nor the sexist old curmudgeon, Jehovah.
After a dull day in Cambridge -prosaic overcast weather, switched off punters ...even King's College Chapel seemed lacklustre- needed something to perk me up. Felt drowsy, too, from having little sleep last night due to stranded inebriated son requiring rescue ....
Driving home. Dusk. A 14. Just before Huntingdon tens of thousands of starlings espied. Forming a unified entity. Whirling in complex geometries. Convolutions, involutions, Fibonacci ecstasies!
Avian delight.
Who are what should be thanked for this?
Certainly not the abstract thing 'Nature', nor the sexist old curmudgeon, Jehovah.
Saturday, 1 March 2014
Browsing seed catalogues at the moment....
A lot of people will probably find it hard to understand the pleasure I derive from buying vegetable seeds.
The process evokes....
... visions of summer salads accompanied by your favourite chilled white wine sipped in the lingering dusk of midsummer.
...visions of voluptuous autumn harvests turned into hearty meals washed down by a luscious, stronger than I realised, red that induces a grinning stupor.
...visions of reassuringly sturdy winter vegetables ...parsnips, kale, leeks...hot, aromatic, freshly cooked, and a rib of beef anointed with mustard and horse radish...preceded, perhaps, by a glass of vintage port [sorry I'm starting to sound like an alcoholic!].
...the benign vibes of old friends present or not.
...and that sense of old the wise old country folk that have lived on this land over the centuries who left no record but can be felt in the rich soil of my allotment, their traces hinted at by shards of medieval pots, fragments of clay pipes and pieces of blue willow pattern crockery...
The process evokes....
... visions of summer salads accompanied by your favourite chilled white wine sipped in the lingering dusk of midsummer.
...visions of voluptuous autumn harvests turned into hearty meals washed down by a luscious, stronger than I realised, red that induces a grinning stupor.
...visions of reassuringly sturdy winter vegetables ...parsnips, kale, leeks...hot, aromatic, freshly cooked, and a rib of beef anointed with mustard and horse radish...preceded, perhaps, by a glass of vintage port [sorry I'm starting to sound like an alcoholic!].
...the benign vibes of old friends present or not.
...and that sense of old the wise old country folk that have lived on this land over the centuries who left no record but can be felt in the rich soil of my allotment, their traces hinted at by shards of medieval pots, fragments of clay pipes and pieces of blue willow pattern crockery...
Wednesday, 26 February 2014
Wilko Johnson: a short note of appreciation....
Thank You Wilko!
I know this is not directly to do with our crafts but this blog would be somewhat tedious if all I went on about was the items we make.You, the reader, no doubt, want to know about the people behind the the jewellery and pewter work that you buy, that is, us, Phil and Sharon, the real live human beings! What books do we read? What do we think about what's going on in the world? What music do we like?
Music [Phil talking here] I like a very broad spectrum of genres. Each as its place. I like some elegant classical music for when I'm doing routine tasks, Beethoven or Bach perhaps. I like intense rhythmic music for when I'm drawing. Recently I've been listening to Aguas Da Amazonia by Philip Glass and Uakti...great stuff
And for when I drive home, chugging up the A1 on Sundays, tired, and feeling a bit ragged 'Stupidity' by Doctor Feelgood featuring the raw energy of Wilko's guitar! I love it!
Here's my Facebook post:
I know this is not directly to do with our crafts but this blog would be somewhat tedious if all I went on about was the items we make.You, the reader, no doubt, want to know about the people behind the the jewellery and pewter work that you buy, that is, us, Phil and Sharon, the real live human beings! What books do we read? What do we think about what's going on in the world? What music do we like?
Music [Phil talking here] I like a very broad spectrum of genres. Each as its place. I like some elegant classical music for when I'm doing routine tasks, Beethoven or Bach perhaps. I like intense rhythmic music for when I'm drawing. Recently I've been listening to Aguas Da Amazonia by Philip Glass and Uakti...great stuff
And for when I drive home, chugging up the A1 on Sundays, tired, and feeling a bit ragged 'Stupidity' by Doctor Feelgood featuring the raw energy of Wilko's guitar! I love it!
Here's my Facebook post:
23 February
Thursday, 16 January 2014
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to everyone!
Last year was a good year, a very enjoyable year in many ways. It was good to do special commissions for customers and enjoy their pleasure in buying an original art work from us. You have to earn your living but unless you give satisfaction the whole business of making things seems pointless and empty. Merely working for profit seems an impoverished approach to life and business.
Despite turbulent weather we had some excellent days on our market stalls which I [Phil] do. Cambridge Market on Sunday was a delight to do as ever. Thanks to all those people who stopped to chat, who brought me news from all over the globe and who gave me insights into all sorts of abstruse fields of study. It's as good as going to college standing Cambridge Market!
Thanks to those I've got to know on Loughborough Market for being good company. Thanks in particular to Keith who lets me nip off to the loo when he comes past and keeps me informed on matters archaeological and historical. By the way, Loughborough Market is great for fruit and veg!
Stamford Market has been quiet this year but, nevertheless, still a pleasure to do. Stamford is worth a wander around. Great old buildings, independent shops and good places to eat.
I bang on about markets because I think they are wonderful places. A bustling market feeds the soul in a way that a shopping mall never can.
Sharon has produced new designs over last year and we are both working on new ideas quite intensely at the moment. We've a fresh range of pewter brooches nearly ready which will be on our Etsy site and our website shortly, so keep an eye out for these. There are also some new Green Men shaping up nicely which will manifest themselves in the form of pewter pictures, and some new mirrors showing oak trees going through the seasons. I've done one for 'The Winter' so far [see pics].
We are looking forward to meeting you all in the New Year and, hopefully, it will be a good one.
Best Wishes to you all!
Last year was a good year, a very enjoyable year in many ways. It was good to do special commissions for customers and enjoy their pleasure in buying an original art work from us. You have to earn your living but unless you give satisfaction the whole business of making things seems pointless and empty. Merely working for profit seems an impoverished approach to life and business.
Despite turbulent weather we had some excellent days on our market stalls which I [Phil] do. Cambridge Market on Sunday was a delight to do as ever. Thanks to all those people who stopped to chat, who brought me news from all over the globe and who gave me insights into all sorts of abstruse fields of study. It's as good as going to college standing Cambridge Market!
Thanks to those I've got to know on Loughborough Market for being good company. Thanks in particular to Keith who lets me nip off to the loo when he comes past and keeps me informed on matters archaeological and historical. By the way, Loughborough Market is great for fruit and veg!
Stamford Market has been quiet this year but, nevertheless, still a pleasure to do. Stamford is worth a wander around. Great old buildings, independent shops and good places to eat.
I bang on about markets because I think they are wonderful places. A bustling market feeds the soul in a way that a shopping mall never can.
Sharon has produced new designs over last year and we are both working on new ideas quite intensely at the moment. We've a fresh range of pewter brooches nearly ready which will be on our Etsy site and our website shortly, so keep an eye out for these. There are also some new Green Men shaping up nicely which will manifest themselves in the form of pewter pictures, and some new mirrors showing oak trees going through the seasons. I've done one for 'The Winter' so far [see pics].
We are looking forward to meeting you all in the New Year and, hopefully, it will be a good one.
Best Wishes to you all!
Friday, 6 September 2013
Grantham. Car parking. Anger. Why we wont be shopping in Grantham in the future.
A couple of weeks ago Sharon parked in a South Kesteven District Council car park. She paid her money and put the ticket on the dashboard of her car. Unfortunately it was a blustery day and a gust of wind blew the ticket onto the front seat of the car. She didn't notice this so when she returned she found she had been given a £50 fine. She contacted the relevant office and sent in her ticket with an explanation of what had happened. They did not let her off the fine, however.The ticket wasn't displayed clearly according to regulations. She still had to pay the fine.
Naturally we were not pleased. We could have taken our appeal further but decided not to. This was because we have learned from long experience that getting involved in this kind of process eats
up your time and when you are self employed time is money. So we have paid the fine. The man in the office has won and no doubt he is pleased with himself for grabbing some cash for the South Kesteven coffers. Parking fines are such a convenient source of revenue!
Off course this business has a knock on effect that is not so beneficial to those coffers. Because we are angry -what did Sharon call them *%~** & **@**?- we are deterred from going into Grantham to shop now and certainly will not be using the South Kesteven Car Parks. They will be getting no more revenue from us so they are going to lose a lot more than £50 in revenue.
I'm not just talking about this because of our personal anger but because our experience is rather too common. Negotiating the one way system in Grantham is not easy and parking is difficult. Grantham used to have a bustling town centre and a wonderful market. Sadly there are few independent shops there now and the market is a sad remnant of what it used to be. I would like Grantham to be a thriving market town again that would be a joy to walk around. But it is unlikely to prosper unless The Council start making us feel welcome rather than making us feel like criminals or undesirable guests who are, in effect, being taxed to visit.
And, of course, this story is being repeated in towns up and own the country, in towns that used to be called 'market towns' because people used to go to them to shop.
Naturally we were not pleased. We could have taken our appeal further but decided not to. This was because we have learned from long experience that getting involved in this kind of process eats
up your time and when you are self employed time is money. So we have paid the fine. The man in the office has won and no doubt he is pleased with himself for grabbing some cash for the South Kesteven coffers. Parking fines are such a convenient source of revenue!
Off course this business has a knock on effect that is not so beneficial to those coffers. Because we are angry -what did Sharon call them *%~** & **@**?- we are deterred from going into Grantham to shop now and certainly will not be using the South Kesteven Car Parks. They will be getting no more revenue from us so they are going to lose a lot more than £50 in revenue.
I'm not just talking about this because of our personal anger but because our experience is rather too common. Negotiating the one way system in Grantham is not easy and parking is difficult. Grantham used to have a bustling town centre and a wonderful market. Sadly there are few independent shops there now and the market is a sad remnant of what it used to be. I would like Grantham to be a thriving market town again that would be a joy to walk around. But it is unlikely to prosper unless The Council start making us feel welcome rather than making us feel like criminals or undesirable guests who are, in effect, being taxed to visit.
And, of course, this story is being repeated in towns up and own the country, in towns that used to be called 'market towns' because people used to go to them to shop.
The Last Evenings of Summer.
The last evenings of summer.
In my garden wasps swirl around the grapes I picked and laid
out for the sun to turn into raisins. I’d Googled it, but it didn’t work. All I got was mouldy,
vespid masticated globules . Blotchy. Disturbingly scrotal. Most definitely
inedible. Not fit for mixing with my morning porridge oats.
Nature is not kind, it is not PC. Nature bites, stings, and
dribbles and allows God denying
parasites to thrive: guinea worms, tape worms that encapsulate in the
cerebral cortex, fungal infections that provoke hot sweats and itchiness
in inaccessible regions of one’s
anatomy, liver flukes, toxoplasmosis, unrecognised spores that colonise the central nervous
systems….the theological implications
are immense.
Yesterday walked down the back lane. In the hedgerow I plucked
at succulent blackberries. The last one that I raised to my mouth was topped
with a grub that was so remarkable for its vivacity that I just had to
stare at it…a Naked Lunch moment…Not
sure whether my inner feeling was one of awe or one of horror. Or Sartrean nausea. [Sorry spellcheck doesn’t
recognise ‘Sartrean’].
Round the next bend, just beyond the Devon Brook, lay a dead
badger. Snout crushed by a car.
Grotesque, mocking grin. Vortex
of blowflies hovering above it, gyrating elegantly in the odd puff of breeze. The badger was
female. It was, clearly, pregnant.
I was glad to reach the top road where the air was fresh. But I had to dodge rat-running Range Rovers that seemed intent on provoking me to
play chicken. I observed further road kill there, and, amongst the rough
tussocks and thistles of the verge, the junk food detritus of modern England.
Interestingly there were more Red Bull cans than Coke cans, and more Chinese
take away cartons than Indian ones.
There were, also, Foster’s cans, Old English Cider cans, Budweiser cans
and Stella Artois cans. But I searched
in vain for the Carlsberg Special cans that the late and much missed Andy K.
used to leave. This made me feel sad.
There is so much going on that your average watercolour artist misses. Like the impossibly delicate
and detailed cirrus clouds that I observed
this evening, like the young
swallows that were swarming
around the village church’s spire, twittering excitedly in anticipation of their
long trip to Africa and like the bumble bees being busy, as they are
proverbially supposed to be, on the lavender on my neighbour, Martin’s,
ironstone wall.
I come in, pour a glass of Port. I want to be on my own. I want to be with people. It’s that
time of year: my birthday [I don’t celebrate it anymore], the drawing in of the
nights , the final croppings of runner beans and courgettes. Ideally I would
like to open a bottle of Malt whisky and sit up till four in the morning with a
sympathetic friend and talk about life, books, the minutiae of early
memories, my wild speculations about
pagan gods, my innermost feelings and fears, about art, about cats, about events and incidents that are in
danger of dissolving into the void and above all, about people, both the
loathed and the loved.
It’s that time of year…and I’m going to pour myself just one
more, small, glass of port. I’m feeling that feeling that is one part
nostalgia, one part sadness, one part euphoria and one part something else that
I haven’t got the slightest
comprehension of.
Saturday, 31 August 2013
Seamus Heaney
Friday Thoughts...
How do you tell good poetry from bad? Use the synaesthesia test. Does it invoke multi-sensory visions? Yes? It's good! Seamus Heaney passes the test.
You can also use the 'Does it make me want to write poetry test?'. Seamus passes again.
You don't have to show your poetry to anyone. You can leave it in a drawer [that's what I do] or burn it. Like drawing, the act of writing sharpens your consciousness and, even if it doesn't produce anything worth sharing, that enhanced consciousness is of inestimable value.
Then there is the magic test. Does the poetry transmute ordinary experience, by some alchemical process, into something marvelous and sublime? Seamus...you had the Philosopher's Stone!
Earlier looked out at the sunset. A small patch of Cumulus cloud was the colour of Double Gloucester cheese. Next to it was a patch of sky, corn flower blue gradually mutating into turquoise...There were a few minutes of something marvelous and sublime. I wish I could have grabbed and hoarded it...but then dull clouds drifted over and it was gone.
The nights are drawing in and old Seamus has departed.
How do you tell good poetry from bad? Use the synaesthesia test. Does it invoke multi-sensory visions? Yes? It's good! Seamus Heaney passes the test.
You can also use the 'Does it make me want to write poetry test?'. Seamus passes again.
You don't have to show your poetry to anyone. You can leave it in a drawer [that's what I do] or burn it. Like drawing, the act of writing sharpens your consciousness and, even if it doesn't produce anything worth sharing, that enhanced consciousness is of inestimable value.
Then there is the magic test. Does the poetry transmute ordinary experience, by some alchemical process, into something marvelous and sublime? Seamus...you had the Philosopher's Stone!
Earlier looked out at the sunset. A small patch of Cumulus cloud was the colour of Double Gloucester cheese. Next to it was a patch of sky, corn flower blue gradually mutating into turquoise...There were a few minutes of something marvelous and sublime. I wish I could have grabbed and hoarded it...but then dull clouds drifted over and it was gone.
The nights are drawing in and old Seamus has departed.
Tuesday, 20 August 2013
Thursday, 15 August 2013
Sunset 9th August. Crepuscular relaxation.
We spend as much time as we can on summer evenings sitting in the gazebo I built in our back garden just watching the birds, the clouds and the sunsets. It's more interesting and more refreshing than electronic distractions ...and its free of advertising and propaganda! I do worry about the way the sky is often scarred by contrails, though. But that apart, I recommend crepuscular relaxation as a remedy for stress and depression and as a way of stimulating the imagination for creative purposes.
After sitting outside I wrote the following on my Facebook page which my friends liked so I've pasted here below:
After the pink clouds of sunset come the pale silver clouds which look as though they are the platforms on which cherubs and Olympian Gods should be sitting and supping ambrosia as they chuckle about the foibles of mortals. This is the time the crepuscular creatures emerge-bats, barn owls, badgers- to forage and make their tweets, their hoots and their grunts. This is the time I sip a glass of port, listen to some music -tonight Sandy Denny , wistful and bittersweet-and allow my mind to meander and contemplate past times. Tonight I think about the Scottish summer evenings I witnessed when I was ten years old, when the gloaming went on for ever and their seemed to be, beyond the sleeping kings of the Isle of Arran, a glowing summer land where Celtic souls sang and celebrated some deep joy that I knew was possible but which would always elude me.
Apologies to those who failed to get a response from us via our website!
Due to a combination of glitches and misunderstandings on our part we have not picked up on messages sent to us via our Archives Crafts website.
We would like to apologise for failing to get back to customers and enquirers. We will be in touch.
The best way to contact us is through our Etsy site: www.archives.etsy.com. But you can also now contact us through our website now that we have sorted out the problems we've had with it.
If you have picked up one of our business cards use the Email and phone numbers it gives to get through to us.
Thank you everyone who has been a customer this year. After an uncertain start, it's been a good year for us and we have really enjoyed meeting you all.
Best Wishes,
Phil & Sharon
We would like to apologise for failing to get back to customers and enquirers. We will be in touch.
The best way to contact us is through our Etsy site: www.archives.etsy.com. But you can also now contact us through our website now that we have sorted out the problems we've had with it.
If you have picked up one of our business cards use the Email and phone numbers it gives to get through to us.
Thank you everyone who has been a customer this year. After an uncertain start, it's been a good year for us and we have really enjoyed meeting you all.
Best Wishes,
Phil & Sharon
Monday, 11 February 2013
Mary Portas comes to Loughborough Town
Mary Portas came to town last Thursday. She swept through the market surrounded by a flock of well polished local dignitaries and media folk. Ignored me completely. I was ready to voice my opinions to her but did not get a chance to. I did however glimpse her talking to the woman who sells school clothes. I was impressed by her bright flame orange hair from which, as I said to my Facebook chums, a strange power seemed to emanate. What was it? Celebrity seems to create a kind of magnetosphere around those that possess it. Everyone around her orientated themselves to her as though they were an iron filling caught in the power of a magnetic pole. I found I wasn't immune. I was craning my head in Her direction. I've got to confess that I wanted to be part of the action.
I had to make do with the secondary excitement of being interviewed by East Midlands Today.Asked about what I thought would improve trade in town centres, I said that cheaper parking was needed. I wanted to go on to say more but was not given the opportunity.
On Saturday lots of people said to me 'Saw you on telly!' They seemed rather excited about seeing someone they knew on TV. It was as though a tiny sparkle of the magic of 'Celebrity' had settled on my shoulder for the day. I didn't watch my ten second appearance myself. That would have been too disturbing. Was my hat on straight? Was there a crust of dry soup visible on my moustache? Did I display some kind of speech impediment of which I was previously unaware?
It's good to see some kind of work being done to save our markets and town centres. Some Councils, such as Cambridge, are doing little to support their markets but Loughborough seems to be interested in improving trade. I'm impressed by the two market supervisors on Loughborough Market, Jean and Mister Bird. They are both genuinely concerned about traders and about the future of the market. It's sad, but such positive attitudes are not common in the field of market management.
Phil
Phil
Monday, 4 February 2013
Tesco's versus Swaffham Market 1977
As you might expect, Sir Terry Leahy's remarks about supermarket shopping being 'progress', didn't go down too well in this household. 'Progress' is dodgy word. It's always used by politicians and businessmen to present some kind of change that will benefit them but not us, as both wonderful and inevitable.
Let's look at the experience of supermarket shopping: you go through the doors into a brightly lit non-place with no individuality and glide about with your trolley in what I call a 'shopping trance'. I suspect if brain scanning techniques could be applied to shoppers as they go round you'd find that areas of the cerebral cortex to do with personality, and rational thinking are subdued or inoperable. I notice that if you meet close friends in the virtual reality of the supermarket, you rarely have a meaningful human contact with them. Usually you exchange tepid 'Hi's', talk a bit about the awfulness of the weather or the virus you've just had and then drift off to check the prices on Whiskas or beef/horse/mystery animal burgers. It's not living; it's the afterlife. Has anybody been able to write anything interesting about - you can't really call it 'the experience'- the 'non experience' of the supermarket?
Two of my favourite poems are set on market days: 'Miss Thompson goes Shopping' by Martin Armstrong [ my favourite as a kid -Google it!] and Tam O'Shanter by Rabbie Burns. It's hard to imagine a visit to Tesco's prompting such delightful poetry.
Personally I find myself recalling my summer in Norfolk in 1977 when I 'did the gaffs' with my friend Michael Rockerfeller [sic]. We sold gemstone and silver jewellery on a weekly circuit of markets. The 'Crown Jewell' of this circuit was Swaffham Market on a Saturday. It was like a huge party. People bussed in from outlying villages and hamlets, the pubs were open all day long, a noisy auction would be taking place, local shops would be bustling. If you stopped and listened there was a tremendous hubbub of conversation, shouting and laughter. You could observe people exchanging greetings and banter, gathering in convivial knots and then moving on. The stalls were very diverse, and this I think is crucial, you could not predict what you would find next as you walked round. At that time there were all sorts of people from different backgrounds, such as myself and Mike, having a go at running a market stall. There was a sense of optimism and adventure in the air that is hard to imagine now. I think that is an objective fact, I don't think I'm looking back with rose tinted specs. The experience of that Saturday market was rich and juicy and life enhancing. It made you feel ALIVE.
Now consider this. In your life you have visited a supermarket on thousands of occasions. Can you recall on of those? Do you draw a blank? I know I do! So is supermarket shopping, from a human perspective, the perspective of the quality of personal experience, progress?
By the way markets, the ones that have not been destroyed by 'progress', are still cheaper for most goods than, supermarkets. Every Thursday I spend about a tenner on fruit and veg on Loughborough Market and struggle to carry all the bags I end up with. My fruit and veg bill is probably a third or a quarter of what it would be if I shopped for the same produce in Tesco's.
One of the problems for markets is parking. Often car parks are too far away from stalls, or just too expensive. More on that issue another day.
Phil.
Let's look at the experience of supermarket shopping: you go through the doors into a brightly lit non-place with no individuality and glide about with your trolley in what I call a 'shopping trance'. I suspect if brain scanning techniques could be applied to shoppers as they go round you'd find that areas of the cerebral cortex to do with personality, and rational thinking are subdued or inoperable. I notice that if you meet close friends in the virtual reality of the supermarket, you rarely have a meaningful human contact with them. Usually you exchange tepid 'Hi's', talk a bit about the awfulness of the weather or the virus you've just had and then drift off to check the prices on Whiskas or beef/horse/mystery animal burgers. It's not living; it's the afterlife. Has anybody been able to write anything interesting about - you can't really call it 'the experience'- the 'non experience' of the supermarket?
Two of my favourite poems are set on market days: 'Miss Thompson goes Shopping' by Martin Armstrong [ my favourite as a kid -Google it!] and Tam O'Shanter by Rabbie Burns. It's hard to imagine a visit to Tesco's prompting such delightful poetry.
Personally I find myself recalling my summer in Norfolk in 1977 when I 'did the gaffs' with my friend Michael Rockerfeller [sic]. We sold gemstone and silver jewellery on a weekly circuit of markets. The 'Crown Jewell' of this circuit was Swaffham Market on a Saturday. It was like a huge party. People bussed in from outlying villages and hamlets, the pubs were open all day long, a noisy auction would be taking place, local shops would be bustling. If you stopped and listened there was a tremendous hubbub of conversation, shouting and laughter. You could observe people exchanging greetings and banter, gathering in convivial knots and then moving on. The stalls were very diverse, and this I think is crucial, you could not predict what you would find next as you walked round. At that time there were all sorts of people from different backgrounds, such as myself and Mike, having a go at running a market stall. There was a sense of optimism and adventure in the air that is hard to imagine now. I think that is an objective fact, I don't think I'm looking back with rose tinted specs. The experience of that Saturday market was rich and juicy and life enhancing. It made you feel ALIVE.
Now consider this. In your life you have visited a supermarket on thousands of occasions. Can you recall on of those? Do you draw a blank? I know I do! So is supermarket shopping, from a human perspective, the perspective of the quality of personal experience, progress?
By the way markets, the ones that have not been destroyed by 'progress', are still cheaper for most goods than, supermarkets. Every Thursday I spend about a tenner on fruit and veg on Loughborough Market and struggle to carry all the bags I end up with. My fruit and veg bill is probably a third or a quarter of what it would be if I shopped for the same produce in Tesco's.
One of the problems for markets is parking. Often car parks are too far away from stalls, or just too expensive. More on that issue another day.
Phil.
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Late at Tate, 7th December
We will be selling at Tate Britain on Friday Evening, 7th December. Please come along if you are in London. The event is called 'Late at Tate'.
There will be another nine craft workers, all selling top quality craft items.
Sharon has also contributed a blog entry on the Kelmscott Chaucer, 16th November 'Makers on Makers'. See below...sorry couldn't find a way to get a live link to the blog set up...sorry...
[ technophobic] Phil
http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/blogs/makers-on-makers-sharon-dickinson-archives-crafts-on-kelmscott-chaucer
Wednesday, 14 November 2012
The difficulties of photographing mirrors.
This is one of our new Surrealist inspired mirrors. 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe'. And that's not a camera.
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
Avoid Talktalk !
Please note that our E mail address will be changing very soon so that the address on our business cards will no longer be valid. We will post our new address ASAP.
Our service has been through Talktalk. We have just spent the best part of a day trying to get answers from Talktalk to simple questions about why they are overcharging us for a service that is not working properly and our contract with them.
Every time we have phoned we have visited a different country: South Africa, Thailand, India, even the UK. The responses we have had to our questions have been, in general, incomprehensible and misleading. It was impossible to reach someone who could talk normally. Their staff must be trained to obfuscate, fobb off and ignore customers. All Talktalk want is your money. Our contract with them, which we can't obtain, involves a penalty for our premature termination of it. But we are quite prepared to pay this to get away from them. No doubt we could contest issues to do with the contract but we just can't afford to waste any more time on this subject.
So be warned: avoid Talktalk.
Our service has been through Talktalk. We have just spent the best part of a day trying to get answers from Talktalk to simple questions about why they are overcharging us for a service that is not working properly and our contract with them.
Every time we have phoned we have visited a different country: South Africa, Thailand, India, even the UK. The responses we have had to our questions have been, in general, incomprehensible and misleading. It was impossible to reach someone who could talk normally. Their staff must be trained to obfuscate, fobb off and ignore customers. All Talktalk want is your money. Our contract with them, which we can't obtain, involves a penalty for our premature termination of it. But we are quite prepared to pay this to get away from them. No doubt we could contest issues to do with the contract but we just can't afford to waste any more time on this subject.
So be warned: avoid Talktalk.
Wednesday, 31 October 2012
Does the National Trust support British Crafts?
A while ago I sent off an Email to the National Trust asking them what their policy was on stocking their shops. I wanted to know how much of what they sold was imported and mass produced and whether they actively supported British crafts. I didn't receive a reply.
My question was prompted by our visits to National Trust properties. At the end of your tour you are often funneled into 'The Gift Shop'. Sharon and I have never bought anything in these shops first of all because the prices are too high and, secondly, because much of their contents appears to be imported and mass produced. There does not appear to be much that is locally produced or of a genuinely craft origin. It's shiny, packaged and bears all the hallmarks of slick marketing strategies and all that nasty 'business' approach where the only thing that matters is the bottom line.
The properties owned by the National Trust were built by skilled stonemasons, carpenters and bricklayers. They were filled with and adorned with beautiful furniture, sculpture, porcelain, fabrics and so on. These items had to be made. They required high levels of skill to be produced. Everything you see in a National Trust property was produced by an individual's hard work and mastery of their craft.
The National Trust spends a great deal of money on preserving the buildings that it owns and the objects they hold. However, does it support the crafts tradition that made these things and encourage it to flourish and grow?
The National Trust Gift Shop 'Experience' is not encouraging. I suspect that the mindset of those that control National Trust retailing is formed by the same 'marketing' ethos that has reduced shopping in England to such a dull, dehumanised level. I suspect that few of them have a ever worked for themselves or made anything with their own hands.
What would we like to see? We would like to see the National Trust actually sell and promote the work of British craft workers.They are part of the tradition that produced the stuff that the National Trust looks after. This tradition needs to be nurtured by the Trust.
It would be nice if the National Trust shops sold a little less twee confectionery and overpriced bead jewellery and more locally made quality crafts.
The biggest problem those of us who are full time craft workers face is the cost of selling what we make. Most of us could never afford to rent a shop, good craft fairs are expensive because hobbyists, who have other sources of income, inflate demand for stalls, with on line selling it's hard to get noticed, and traditional markets [where we sell] are in decline. However good what we make is we have to spend an inordinate amount of time and money trying to find our way to our customers.They, equally, want to find their way to us and struggle to find somewhere that sells the individually made work they want.
It would be wonderful if the National Trust used it's shops to help solve this problem.
My question was prompted by our visits to National Trust properties. At the end of your tour you are often funneled into 'The Gift Shop'. Sharon and I have never bought anything in these shops first of all because the prices are too high and, secondly, because much of their contents appears to be imported and mass produced. There does not appear to be much that is locally produced or of a genuinely craft origin. It's shiny, packaged and bears all the hallmarks of slick marketing strategies and all that nasty 'business' approach where the only thing that matters is the bottom line.
The properties owned by the National Trust were built by skilled stonemasons, carpenters and bricklayers. They were filled with and adorned with beautiful furniture, sculpture, porcelain, fabrics and so on. These items had to be made. They required high levels of skill to be produced. Everything you see in a National Trust property was produced by an individual's hard work and mastery of their craft.
The National Trust spends a great deal of money on preserving the buildings that it owns and the objects they hold. However, does it support the crafts tradition that made these things and encourage it to flourish and grow?
The National Trust Gift Shop 'Experience' is not encouraging. I suspect that the mindset of those that control National Trust retailing is formed by the same 'marketing' ethos that has reduced shopping in England to such a dull, dehumanised level. I suspect that few of them have a ever worked for themselves or made anything with their own hands.
What would we like to see? We would like to see the National Trust actually sell and promote the work of British craft workers.They are part of the tradition that produced the stuff that the National Trust looks after. This tradition needs to be nurtured by the Trust.
It would be nice if the National Trust shops sold a little less twee confectionery and overpriced bead jewellery and more locally made quality crafts.
The biggest problem those of us who are full time craft workers face is the cost of selling what we make. Most of us could never afford to rent a shop, good craft fairs are expensive because hobbyists, who have other sources of income, inflate demand for stalls, with on line selling it's hard to get noticed, and traditional markets [where we sell] are in decline. However good what we make is we have to spend an inordinate amount of time and money trying to find our way to our customers.They, equally, want to find their way to us and struggle to find somewhere that sells the individually made work they want.
It would be wonderful if the National Trust used it's shops to help solve this problem.
Thursday, 11 October 2012
Elephant, cosmic...
We are doing a series of animals enjoying Cosmic Consciousness. A little less expensive than our usual pictures with a lighter frame, which is still wood, though. Each one is still hand done and each one will be different. Size of frame approximately 11" by 5.5". Price: £35 plus P&P. Alternatively visit our market stalls. To remind you these are:
Lougborough Market: Thursday
Stamford Market: Friday
Grantham Market: Saturday
Cambridge Market: Sunday.
Stamford Market: Friday
Grantham Market: Saturday
Cambridge Market: Sunday.
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