Despite awkward pedestrian access from the city centre out to this corrugated tin monstrosity, I ended up making friends with some lovely creative fanatics from Ringwood along the way. So, we navigated together, which essentially involved following an edgy looking girl wearing red velvet pants, and arrived safely.
And boy, was it worth the walk!
Lovingly assembled junk jewellery cried out to me from their mounts on old singer sewing machines, tea boxes and tree branches. Owls, clocks, foxes, telephones and rabbits in particular, were out in force. Crafters gazed out from their stalls onto a mass of people, sporting their felt hats, recycled record pendants, hand knitted scarves, spruking notebooks covered in old lounge upholstery, zines made from recycled newspaper, cutlery earrings. So much handmade genius! It was as if you were wandering about inside the stomach of a big fat Etsy monster that had vacuum swallowed all of Melbourne's top crafty people.
Some of my favourites included the vintagey fabric fashionings of okt-ober dee, Betty Jo's cute and quirky lino-cut jewellry, and the stationery lover's equivalent to Colombian cocaine in Bespoke letterpress boutique. I also loved the knitted wares of the stall pictured below, but I lost their little card! I hope I can find it.
And finally, just to cap off a perfect day, I was overjoyed to discover that a friend of mine had secretly lined up to play a set of his beautiful music. Lok Tan's mix of beats and tunes went down a treat. Oh I do hope this is just the beginning of many more live appearances!
