Vagabond Bags & Gifts

My favourite season begins! Aside from the cooler temperatures and lovely colours of fall, people are back from summer vacation and ready to spend again! Vendors at the market know Sept. to Dec. is our best selling time.

June has decided to move on. After covering for me during the summer so well, she's devoting her time to painting lessons and playing in her bands. I've asked several vendors to share my space with me and will take the best fit for Vagabond Gifts. Bryan and Dave also want to vet my choices because they want to keep a nice look for the "power corridor" of the market.

I did just two festivals this summer. Canterbury Festival in Ingersoll was new for me. I shared a big tent with Peggy who brought her sewing. The fair was really good for sales! People in Ingersoll must be doing better than Londoners in this economy because, by and large, they seemed relaxed and not uptight about shopping and buying some "luxuries". The fair surprised me by being bigger than I anticipated but not as overwhelmingly huge as Sunfest. There was a nice mix of artisans and vendors, and everybody was different.

A couple of weeks later, it was London's Annual Ribfest. I went in there with Velle again, and also with Melissa, a co-worker and my boss who also happens to referee a women's roller derby team in London. She and other members of her team passed out flyers and information about their club so our fee for Ribfest was split three ways.

Velle did roaring business, I did okay too but that penny-pinching aspect was noticeable. When will people all have well-paying jobs again and I can raise my prices?

I marked prices down this summer so I could move some of the slower pieces. The discount plus the fact my prices included the HST meant a pretty slim margin for me. Dave has hired a full-time marketing manager to promote the Farmers Market and has no need for me to do graphic design for him anymore. Starting this month I've got to pay rent on my double booths which is why I'm looking to sublet some sales space.

I've begun to charge the 13% HST separately, on top of my prices because there's no way I can keep afloat otherwise. I have a nice mix of merchandise right now and got some weavings (tablecloths, runners, and bags) from Guatemala recently.

This is exciting because this is my first direct-from-the-artisan purchase, instead of going through a fair trade importer. A customer at the market introduced me (by way of emails and pictures) to Aida Perez, a woman in Guatemala who supports her extended family with her hand-done weavings. He got to know her and her family from doing church work in her area.

I placed an order in June and Ton (our mutual friend) brought back the weavings in July since he visits there annually. He brought back a selection of other weavings of hers that weren't part of the order and they're so lovely I ended up buying everything.

This made Aida very happy as she says the economy is bad in Guatemala and she can't sell much when the tourists aren't there. I'm happy to have a direct source of handicrafts and to bypass shipping and customs charges!

My part-time job at Sun Media in Woodstock is going well. I'll be picking up some freelance work from Orchestra London soon, and just did a brochure for Robert, a new photographer at the market. He's renting a double booth and actually put up walls and created a pretty office and gallery. There's about a half-dozen people at the market who are using their space daily to work out of.

I've been thinking about buying a laptop and working from the market too. I want to try making digital portraits and need to flog my graphic design and writing business more.