Monday, June 2, 2014

People Watching - or how we spend our time



For the past five Saturdays I have been going to the Peterborough Farmer's Market to sell my weaving. The weather the first few weeks was pretty miserable. One Saturday it was so windy that vendors were having to hold down their awnings (in spite of everyone have weights dangling from the corner poles) so that they were not blown away. I solved the problem by running ropes from my car to the awnings and my rug racks. The following weekend it was just barely above freezing (which is tough when you spin in bare feet). The last two weekends however, have be just grand.

It is also a fair amount of work getting set up. For me it means loading the car the night before - making 5-6 trips up and down the wooden staircase to my second floor apartment. Given that I have a rather small car it has taken a bit of practice to get the racks and product into it. It is sort of like playing Tetris in a three dimensional environment. Setting up at 6:00 AM at the market feels rushed and what one thought would work in terms of display, never is quite right. Packing up at 1:00 is just as much work as setting  up The carrying of all the stuff back up the stairs is even harder than the carrying down.  None-the-less the whole experience is a surprising amount of fun.

Shoppers at the market seem to come in waves. There are those who come just for the food. Some of them are there before 6:00. They seem quite focused, knowing exactly what they are going to buy and appear to seldom deviate from their mission. They quite frequently shop alone without partners or without children. It is not that I don't sell anything before 9:00 or have people stop and chat but it is definitely a slow time. At some point around 9:00-9:30 it starts to get busier. Families start to appear in greater numbers and in general people seem to be less in a rush. For the next three hours, on a nice day, the isle can be crowded with friends stopping to chat, dogs making new friends and people walking along looking at most of the vendors' displays. Because I am spinning, I sometimes attract  a fair amount of attention. Older people walk up to me and say "I can remember my mother or grandmother doing that" or others saying "oh - is that how it works". It is surprising how many men stop and watch me. I suspect that a many of them would  probably not stop and watch a women do arts and crafts stuff but because I am a guy - they get curious and we talk about the "machine" that I am using. One gentleman this past Saturday actually got down on his hands and knees to see how it worked!

The most fun is when kids stop and watch. I make sure that they get a chance to feel the wool and if their parents have time, I talk about what I am making etc. Unfortunately some children are clearly interested but never get chance to watch as their parents are in a rush to find the best price of asparagus. I feel sorry for these kids.... parents should pay attention to what their kids want to look at. Perhaps even worse are those parents who drag their kids over to my wheel and either explain what I am doing (sometimes erroneously) or else make the kids ask me what I am doing. All the while the parents are totally oblivious to the fact that the kid is bored stiff and does not want to talk to this bearded stranger. 

Generally speaking between 9:30 and 12:30 is when I sell the bulk of my weaving. By 12:00ish the crowds are thinning and by 12:20 some of the vendors start to dismantle their displays. While I am always amongst the last of the vendors to start the packing up process - I am quite glad it is over. I am tired. I have given my standard speech "I buy the wool from the farmer in Indian River, wash it in my bathtub (wait for gasps of shock from some) and then card, dye, spin and weave it in my two bedroom apartment in downtown Peterborough" a hundred times. Depending who is looking at my stuff the speech gets longer or shorter. I have explained again and again how the wheel works (not that I really understand myself), where wool comes from and how and why I use the dyes I do. I have shared with people some history of spinning and weaving. Hopefully there may even be a few people who may take up the craft themselves. I have had a number of invitations to speak to groups of people and at least two requests to take on an apprentice.  On a good Saturday morning I sell a couple of hundred dollars worth of weaving, I have had chance to visit with some friends as they walk by and I hopefully have taught/demonstrated an ancient craft.

I don't like selling - I would be happier if I could just give it away. But it is immensely validating when people look at the weaving, perhaps come back a few times to look at it and to touch it and then finally to buy it. I have started to get a few repeat customers "I love the shawl I bought last fall and now my mother wants one too", and even when people don't buy anything they almost always complement me. It is nice. It is well worth the cold toes, the early mornings and the numerous climbs up and down that wooden staircase.

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