Last Day at the Market

Saturday was my last day selling at the Peterborough Famer's Market. It was a good day in spite of the fact that it was just below zero for the first hour. In fact, I don't think it got above four or five degrees before 11:00 AM. It is really hard to spin wool with fingers that are numb from cold.

It was in so many ways a sad day. A number of people came by to talk for a bit and to wish me luck. While it has never felt as if I was becoming friends with the other vendors (there really is so little time to just have a chat with them) , I realized that I did know quite a few of them. So it felt good that people knew who I was, that I was moving to Vancouver Island and that this was my last day. I would not want to suggest that anyone was particularly sad at my leaving but it was nice to know that my presence at the market had made some sort of impact.  

A number of my "customers" also dropped in. While I, of course, wished that they had bought more things, it was nice to hear that they were still enjoying the rug or the shawl that they had bought a few months ago. I never thought that I would enjoy selling as much as I do. It is a bit of a show that I put on as I sit there and spin, talking to the little kids, some of whom seem to be mesmerized by the wheel spinning around and around and around, answering questions from people who want to know how it all works (they never seem to believe me when I say it is sort of like magic or that I really don't understand) and telling my story of how I wash the wool in my bathtub and then card, spin, dye and weave it all in my apartment. It is immensely gratifying when someone spends a $125.00 or more on one of my larger items. It is nice when a relative says thank you for a gift that I have made, but it is more exciting when someone says they like something enough to pay for it.

It was a good day in part because I sold a couple of rugs and a shawl or two. It was not my best day in terms of sales but it was pretty close.  It certainly, in spite of a very slow start in May and June, was my best year ever.  My goal was to earn enough to pay for my food for the year. I think by the time I pack everything up, I will have earned enough to pay for my food and most likely my hydro. That feels pretty good. I am not getting richer, but at least, in spite of being retired, I am not getting any poorer.

I am immensely grateful that I took the plunge and started to sell at the market. I would never have done so if I had not had a few friends who encouraged me and one in particular who helped me make the right connections. It has been a very rewarding experience, not just in terms of money but because my network of relationships has expanded, my "social" skills have improved and perhaps most of all, I have had hundreds of people, regardless of whether or not they bought something, say how beautiful my stuff is. It feels great to have one's work validated.

Selling has also allowed me to articulate a philosophy of why I do what I do. I am not an "artist", in fact I am not that great of a spinner or weaver. There are hundreds and hundreds of Canadians who have taken classes, worked incredibly hard and have earned the right to call themselves master spinners or weavers. I am quite simple someone who makes things that people can walk on and to wear. I make basic, simple, perhaps even plain items that are functional. So to the doctor from somewhere on Vancouver Island (who was here on holidays), to the people from Nova Scotia (it was a present from their son), to the elementary school principal from the Cobourg area ( her office was cold and she wanted a shawl for the warmth) to the lady from England (her father is the farmer from whom I buy wool from) and to the hundreds of people who have stopped, asked me questions and perhaps bought something large or small - thank you.