So… ensuing to my last post about the Meister’s Markt… things went very well.! Despite to a rainy start to the day, the show was still very well attended and Mum and I managed to make nearly $600.

The big sellers of the day were the buttons and linens… mostly sold to other vendors (but you won’t hear me complaining about that).  Mum sold all of her tins (visible on the right side of the photo above on the left). I sold some clothes and the french ivory box I bought a few weeks back (for $0.25) sold for $7.00! The clothes that sold were the blue suit (above right), the orange dress (above left) and a tan sport coat (top left). The coat sold to Juul Haalmeyer or Homemade Tarts (a costume rental for film & television). All told the clothing made $100.

Naturally, being myself I needed to buy something… I came away with a cute cocktail hat trimmed with large velvet pansies, a few “little blue books” (titled How to Become Mentally Superior, How to Think Logically and How to Develop Your Sense of Humor) and a Viewfinder Stereoscope with photo reels of Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon, Dancing Chimpanzees and the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

At the end of the day we still had a fair bit to bring home with us, but we’ve got 2 more sales lined up for this summer this summer… the MGVC Bits & Pieces Craft Supply & Car Boot Sale (May 28) and the Nobleton Market (date TBD).

As I mentionned previously, this was our first time doing a sale of this nature. Our 10 x 10 foot booth cost just over $70.00 and was well worth the price. The event staff was helpful during the load-in and throughout the sale. Other vendors were kind and cordial. I don’t think we’d do this sale every time it comes around, but I would certainly consider doing it again and I would recommend this sale to others who are looking for a venue to sell their antiques and collectibles. For those who are looking to try this kind of sale I would strongly recommend reading the vendor’s agreement because there are a lot of booth options and incidental costs that can add up if you are not careful.

THE 2nd ANNUAL MEISTER MARKT SPRING ANTIQUES AND COLLECTABLES SHOW AND CAR BOOT SALE
MARKHAM FAIRGROUNDS – SATURDAY, APRIL 23
10801 McCowan Road (NE Corner of McCowan and Elgin Mills)
8am-4pm rain or shine (if the weather is bad ALL vendors will move inside)
Admission is $5 (kids 12 & under are FREE with an adult), with lots of FREE parking. Visit
the Meister Markt show office and fill out a voucher to receive a coupon worth 25% off
multiple purchases. For additional information, visit www.meistermarkt.com

Tommorow morning (Saturday April 23) Mum and I are going to be participating in our first ever antiques market… the Meister Markt at the Markham Faigrounds. We’ve put together a very respectible booth full of glass, ceramics, procelain dolls, vintage textiles and miscellany. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed collecting and displaying these pieces, but we’re hopeful to find new loving homes for them all.

Here’s a snippet from the show’s press release describing what the show has to offer

With over 150 vendors selling all types of cool and unique antiques and collectables in over 43,000 square feet of indoor space and 150,000 square feet of outdoor space, there’s sure to be something for everyone at the Meister Markt. Find vintage advertising for a loft space, rustic Canadiana items for the cottage, a beautiful mid-century lighting fixture for a condo or perhaps a solid oak bookcase for a home office. This show offers the ultimate in green living and recycling.

The vendors set up earlier today (from 3pm to 7pm) and once Mum and I were finished putting up our booth I had a chance to walk around & I can tell you that if you do have time to come to the fair tomorrow you will not be disappointed. There is truly something for everyone. I spied a couple of deco lamps that might just have to come home with me… and there was a fellow with a booth full of hooked rugs that I’m going to have to peruse tomorrow.

Now I only thought to take some photos after we had covered everything up for the night, but here’s a sneak peek of a little bit of the booth. The photo on the right showing our linen rack also features some of Mum’s pillows which she has made to re-use and display re-purposed lace. I will post updated photos to my twitter account throughout the sale tomorrow and following the sale I will recap the show on this website.

Hope to see you all tomorrow. Rain or shine it promises to be a great show!

This week the Markham Guild of Village Crafts celebrated their 40th anniversary. In high style the ladies kicked off their celebrations with their monthly meeting and a gallery show.

This past Tuesday at the monthly meeting, the guild executive (shown above) sliced into the anniversary cake lovingly designed by my Mum. The guest speaker for the month was Debbie Blair from Homespun Designs in Stouffville. The meeting was very well attended and the ladies shared many of the crafts they had made in guild classes from when they first joined the guild (many of whom joined nearly 40 years ago).

The gallery show was held yesterday and sadly I was unable to attend. The show was attended by the mayor, Frank Scarpitti, town councillors and many other members of the community. I am told they put on a grand show… good job ladies! Leslie Wooton was kind enough to take photos for me and I will post them here shortly.

For more information on the Markham Guild of Village Crafts and the classes they offer, please visit their website at http://www.guidingstar.ca/MGVC/

Recently I’ve received a few questions regarding the new site design. Primarily people have wanted to know what services I use to keep my page going and do I have a web designer.

Once upon a time, when I was first on the web (circa 1995) I had a series of websites with interlog, geocities, tripod and other free providers that I had built myself from the ground up… I even wrote all the code using MS Notepad as my text editor.

A few things have changed since then. I purchased the domain name Thursdayschild.ca back in 2001 (yep, its been 10 years) and began blogging using Movable Type. That was back when CSS was still newish and I was somewhat able to understand some of the principles of themeing, but not anymore… for the most part web design has gone so far over my head that I don’t even try any more. I can still look at design codes and glean a basic understanding of whats going on (enough to know what will and will not work for me), but I don’t know enough to build anything from scratch any more.

So what do I use now?

These days I’m using WordPress (a blog style content management system) to build and manage my own conent. I was able to get it installed by Site 5 (the service that hosts my webiste). Once I log in to WordPress I can write pages and insert images in much the same way as one would use a word processor… so easy my Mum could do it. WordPress also makes it easy to upload media files (images, music, video, pdf, etc.) and manage comments. Now that’s all stuff that I can see and manipulate from a password protected area, but what are you seeing?

The design that you’re seeing is called a Theme. There are many designers out there who are making themes for WordPress. Many of these themes are free and they’ll give you a nice background, a well designed text area and one or two navigation menus which you can customize to meet your own needs. The theme that I’m using is a little more complex than that.

Every page you see on this website is part of the same theme package. I purchased this theme package for $35 from Themeforest.net. The theme is called Factory and it was designed by a fellow whose screen name is Brankic1979. What’s really lovely about this theme is that its not just a blog theme – there are serveral page styles that will help you create a purpose built launch page, galleries, portfolio pages, contact forms, etc. These pages are made using the same simple editor that I described earlier, but look like they took a lot of time and effort to achieve a common look and feel. If you want to see the complete live preview of this theme, check out this demo.

I had never paid for a theme before, but this one has been well worth it. The support that has come along with it has been superb. I needed to modify the theme if a few places to meet my specific needs. In some cases the designer guided me through making those changes myself and in one instance he scripted the change for me and sent me a whole new file with instructions on how to upload the modifications. So pleasant.

If you’ve never had a site before and you’re interested in trying WordPress for free you can sign up at WordPress.com and start building your site / blogging today.

Last Winter (or thereabouts) I attended a Wool Felting Workshop at the Markham Guild of Village Crafts. Spanning the course of the morning, the class was taught by Christine Alexiou and covered the basics of felt making and dying with Kool Aid and All Purpose dyes.

There are several ways to make felt and different methods lend themselves better to different projects and desired results, but they all work on basically the same principles – agitating warm wet fibres.

The materials required are as follows:

• wool rovings or tops
• warm water
• a few drops of dishsoap
• nylon mesh
• bubble wrap
• a bamboo placemat
• a towel to absorb excess water
• a plastic covered workspace

Step 1: Laying out the Tops / Rovings

Start my covering the bamboo mat with the nylon mesh. The mesh should be about twice the size of the mat so that the mesh can be folded to cover the loose tops. Tops are then drawn out and laid parallel and slightly overlapping . Each subsequent layer is placed perpendicular to the last. This is demonstrated quite clearly on EBSQ’s Online Art Magazine. There should be a minimum of three layers. Be certain that the fibres in each layer are evenly distributed or weak spots or holes may occur (though that may be a design feature, if so, control your fibre distribution as desired).

Additional fibres can be added while layering, either between layers or on top of the final layer. The coloured fibres shown below were dyed after the fleece was washed, but before carding so they retain their curly texture. If additional rovings are silky they may not felt well in which case they should be placed beneath a layer of wool or they may require additional felting with needles at the end.

Once the fibres are laid out as desired, fold over the nylon mesh and saturate the sandwiched fibres with soapy water. The water should not be too soapy or else the fibres will slide and fail to mat. By wetting the fibres with warm soapy water you are raising the cuticle (the outer layer of the fibre) which makes the surface look much like the hook side of a piece of velco (on a microscopic level). By agitating the fibres against one another while the cuticle is raised, the fibres will stick to one another.

Step 2: Hand Fulling

Fulling is the process of rubbing the fibres back and forth against one another. Start by just rubbing the surface of the nylon mesh with your finger tips. This will allow you to lightly adhere the fibres and control the positioning of any additional coloured fibres you may have added. Open the nylon periodically to check the progress of your felt. If pieces are still dry, sprinkle some more water. You should also try lifting the felt up from the nylon mesh, this will keep the felt from adhering to the mesh and if it comes up easily, you know you are ready for the next step.

Step 3: Fulling with the Bamboo Mat

Re-sandwich your felt piece in the nylon mesh. Lie the covered felt flat on the mat and roll it up. Once rolled you can take this piece to the nearest sink and squeeze out excess moisture. At this point you should also lay out your towel on your workspace. Now pick up your  rolled mat and roll it between your hands. Make sure you move your hands along the whole length of the mat. Occasionally unroll the mat and rotate the felt piece 90 degrees. This process further mats the fibres and some shrinking occurs. By rotating the felt inside the mat, shrinking will occur more evenly. To the left is a photo of my mother performing this step.

Step 4: Finishing

Once you have rolled the felt using the mat and the nylon mesh for about 5 minutes you will want to unroll the mat and remove the mesh. Place the felt directly on the matt and place the piece of bubble wrap (vaguely the same size as the mat) bubble side down on top of the felt and roll it back up. Roll again. This gives the felt one last vigorous felting. Once this is complete you can rince your piece of felt in the sink until the soap runs out. At this point your felt may be finished, or you can dye it to create additional interest.

Here is a sample which I dyed using Kool Aid. On the right is a photo of a finished purse made by the instructor, Christine Alexiou. More of Chistine’s work can be seen in magazines such as A Needle Pulling Thread. Christine also appears regularly at CreativFestival as a instructor.

Judy’s exhibit, titled When Women Rule the World runs until September 7th 2009. The Textile Museum of Canada is located at 55 Centre Avenue (Toronto, Ontario), for more information see the museum website at –> http://www.textilemuseum.ca/

My dear friend Sharon sent this link my way –> Stitchin’ Fish: Crafting Seafloor Biodiversity on the Scotian Shelf

The project describes itself as,

Stitchin’ fish is an Ecology Action Centre project celebrating the beauty, diversity and fragility of our Northwest Atlantic seafloor.

What it appears to be is a creative collection of colourful critters which are knit, crochet or otherwised stitched in a wide assortment of fibres. Each piece is crafted and contributed by a different artisan and as a whole the menagerie appears to be breathtaking.

Sadly I won’t be making it out to see this one… if only it had been on a bit sooner I might have taken it in before I returned from Nova Scotia, but that’s not going to stop me from giving it a plug.

Stitchin’ Fish can be seen at the Museum of Natural History @ 1747 Summer St (Halifax, Nova Scotia). The exhibit runs until February 28th. For more information call (902) 424 – 6099.