Workshops and Markets

Hi…
I had my first Cruise Ship Market last Wednesday and it went really well.
I was a bit nervous… more just wanting to know about location and setting up etc.

The Burnie City Council with a lot of volunteers, arrange this for the 42 cruise ships visiting town over the next few months.
Not only do they have the market, but they have a spot for tour vendors to meet clients and go on local adventures and other volunteers are visible around the Burnie streets to ask questions or directions.
Even the Mayor (My cousin Teeny!!) greets them off the ship in the morning!

I enjoyed having the gazebo up… even if it needs a little taping up now haha
It gives me a shop like feel under the canopy and I could hang my lovely banner.
(Note lengths of flax to make into cordage for those moments of not being busy…)

In this location we had a lot of local passers by too which was fantastic.
People on the cruise ship were a real mix… Mainland Australia, Canada, USA, Europe.
Everyone was super friendly and ready to chat and seemed to be having a wonderful time.

I think my ego might have gotten a wee bit inflated though as I had so many wonderful comments about my soaps. Felt pretty nice!

OK… I did get one grumpy person and one busybody annoying person.
The grumpy one didn’t seem to understand my ‘Cash Only’ status. (Not owning a mobile phone means no electronic payments no matter what card you wave at me)
Busybody annoying person took it upon herself to butt into the whole transaction-that-wasn’t by forcefully telling me I would HAVE to get a phone and HAVE to get a square etc etc before marching off feeling her civic duty done.

Wish I could tell her I did my best ever sales at a local market… in cash that day… (so ner ner)

Most people had a giggle at my Cash Only sign … the second line if you cant read it in the picture says “Soap maker Lives in the Dark Ages”

In fact… a few people loved my soaps so much they went on a cash finding mission just so they could purchase some! Very heartening.

Overall so far, I miss out on very little sales wise due to only having cash transactions. If Maureen is with me, she has a square to use and kindly lets me use it for my customers.
But for now… I will stick to my dark ages. There isn’t that much margin in the sales – adding one more cost isn’t something I really want to do… not least trying to learn how to work the thing and relying on coverage in rural areas.
The only times I ‘suffer’ from not having a mobile phone is when I am dealing with Telstra or the bank.

Actually my next investment is going to be a 4 wheeled cart. I made 64 trips to the car loading, unloading, reloading and unloading for the last market.
Thats silly. And annoying. And I get sweaty! (lucky I am surrounded by pretty smelling soaps haha)

Above… soap workshop soaps!!
Saturday was excellent with 4 ladies coming in to learn soapmaking. One lady returned to do it all again. She has made soap at home but was feeling she would benefit from coming again.
An extra lady popped in in the afternoon to watch some batches being made as she did the course a while back but was feeling less than confident about forging ahead alone.
She went home, made soap and sent me pics today and they looked great!

Jacki… who also does the cruise ship markets selling her fabulous reversible bucket hats did the above very bright and pretty soap!

Maddi wanted to go all natural with lovely clays to colour her soaps.

Dawn (my repeat student) wanted to know how to do layers…also with lovely natural clay colours. She had fun getting the offset layers which looks so effective

Terrianne wanted to do a drop swirl but also wanted a chunky built up top… which ended up working really well. She even added sprinkles to the top!

Some had mixture left over so we filled pretty moulds

My Demo soap to cut was Blueberry Jam and it worked out pretty cool

Then my demo show off soap showing the cool design technique

I love cutting these ones!

Planning to deliver most of the students soaps on Friday morning.
And in the interests of keeping stock up since I have 6 more cruise ship markets and a church market next weekend, I whipped up a simple quick batch yesterday… Saffron and Honey with the saffron to colour… no fancy work at all!

Hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend

xxx