Day At The Kit Fair
Posted on Monday, 26th May 2008 at 10:10pmI attended the Craft & Quilt fair on Saturday and went to see Indiana Jones on Sunday. It was the first weekend in months that I’ve gone somewhere that was fun and not stressful.
As I walked around the Perth Convention Exhibition Centre I listened to the crowd, overhearing bits of conversation amongst strangers, people say the funniest things when they assume their conversations will be lost in the noise.
“I tried lampworking once and burnt off my eyebrows.”
“There are a lot of men here today. They’re either gay or selling something.”
“Someone should make a quilt to put in her mouth.”
“I loved my last enema.”
“If I buy this I won’t be able to pay for my weekly erotic massage and bottle of wine.”
“Before we go I want to check out the stall with the crap bags”
I noticed that most items for sale at the fair were in kit form; bead kits, quilt kits, teddy bear kits, knitting kits, kit kits, kitted kit kits, etc. In amongst the craft stalls was the token guy with the iron shoe that no one pays attention to. I was saddened at the lack of creativity. Sure, it’s creative in a sense. You are making that quilt or beaded necklace. But the pattern isn’t yours, and I personally wouldn’t feel a sense of accomplishment that comes with creating something unique that is a reflection of your creativity.
I started beading when I was ten. Back then there were no kits for sale, I learnt how to string a simple seed bead bangle from a friend and was hooked. Soon my friend and I had our own store at the school fete, our items - although simple and cheap - sold amazingly well and we made hundreds of dollars during those years. Which is large sum for a ten year old. The only problem was that all proceeds were meant to be donated to our school, a rule which I decided to bend, because I didn’t feel our hard work should go unrewarded. When the vice principal came over to collect our takings - much like a pimp - I handing her a jar containing $20 of coins and kept the notes that added up to $100 hidden away. She was surprised. “Oh no” I thought, “she knows and I’m going to have my kneecaps broken with plastic baseballs bats hired at lunch time!” Then she said, “you’ve done well, $20 is a lot of money!” I nodded and smiled. Later that day I went to the local store and bought as much junk food as my $50 cut could buy. It was delicious.
I tell you this devious story not because I want you to know I was once a kid who totally owned my pimpish vice principal, but because it was my grounding in beading. Where my love for beading blossomed and was allowed to take form without the need for a kit.
No photography was allowed at the fair, which struck me as odd rule for an event which is meant to inspire. Why is no photography allowed when kits and patterns are for sale? I was personally inspired quite a few times, not by an entire work, but by little things. The way a clasp was attached or a stringing method. But the inspiration was lost amongst the cluster of everything I saw that day.
A few items and products did stick in my mind…
- Microwave kilns - They entice me to finally purchase a lampworking kit and try making my own lampworked beads.
- Shop in a Qube concept store - If you want somewhere to sell your products, check it out. It’s quite an interesting concept.
- Beading supplies - I purchased some interesting glass beads and some half price gemstones.
- Clover wonder knitter - It looks like a toy, but once it was demonstrated to me I had to have one.
Before I left I decided to buy a late lunch, as I had been walking around for a good two hours while my stomach protested every few minutes. The best option for a cold winters day was hot chips. Alas, the chips tasted like six month old oil, looked like deep fried carrots, cost $6.90 and were possibly the worst food item I’ve ever consumed. At least they weren’t selling them in kit form.
12 Responses to “Day At The Kit Fair”
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Keg comments: May 26th, 2008 at 10:17pm
You bead pimp you!
And omgwtfenema!
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Candice comments: May 26th, 2008 at 10:20pm
Bahaha! this entry made me laugh lol I remember those days, we used to spend all recess on those. I blew my share of the money on Wildlife Cards :/ (I think I bought TV Hits magazine too) it’s amazing what you can get away with as a kid. Ahhh! how things have changed.
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Lulu comments: May 26th, 2008 at 11:06pm
That crap-bag stall sounds awesomely crap. But seriously, I’m interested to see how the “Clover wonder knitter” thingo turns out
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Fiona comments: May 27th, 2008 at 5:24am
Good to hear from youI guess if it’s a whole fair of these things, you shodn’t be mostly seeing kits, as most people there aren’t beginners.. I may buy a kit, but that would be because I’ve never made anythign before, and from there I would expand on things…
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Luckydevil69 comments: May 27th, 2008 at 6:18am
$6.90 for chips, pah! pathetic! Here in the UK i just paid the equivalent of $12.89 for a hot dog and coke at a sports festival. At that price i did actually think it may have been the hard stuff re-packaged so i tried snorting the coke but alas the bubbles made me sneeze. bummer!
Colin
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Kitta comments: May 27th, 2008 at 3:57pm
@Fiona: It should be a mix of all levels. The kits available weren’t suitable for beginners, they were quite advanced. I agree that a kit could be helpful if you are starting out, but they’re so expensive, you could buy the same supplies for half the price and spend the rest on a class, where you could gain hands on experience and learn a lot more than following a kit.@Candice: I still get away with things as an adult.
Looking back, we should have spent some of the money on supplies to invest in our business model of ripping off the school.@Lulu: I was thinking that I should do a video demonstration of the Wonder Knitter to show what it does. A few friends have been quite confused by it.
@Luckydevil69: Are you calculating the exchange rate?
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@Kitta: ooh I like this reply to script, but that’s not necessarily on-topic… what are you using for it?
Anyways… Yeah, “advanced” shouldn’t come pre-packaged.. I’m trying to think of a baking analogie… but can’t
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@Kitta: Found it
Thanks for the inspiration
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- @Fiona: You’re welcome. I recently installed the comment reply and the author highlight plugin. I contemplated threaded comments, but the Twitter style @reply did the job better.
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Michael - iBserious Dot Com comments: May 27th, 2008 at 5:27pm
Cool blog. Congrats on being nominated for the “sexy geek” award. {ninja vanish}
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Bob comments: May 27th, 2008 at 7:16pm
Make me something out of beads Kitta! I command it!!! errr pretty please….
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Well honey, according to http://www.xe.com/ucc/ ………………… it’s 1.00 GBP =2.06092 AUD.
But the rip off factor was that i paid £6.25 for maybe £1.50’s worth of food, i love these captive audience events that just feel they are able to charge whatever and if i wasn’t so close to starvation. Glad to see that they’re a universal phenomenon.
Anyway honey, are you ever going to start selling your shizzle?
Mail me if you are……you know you want too
Ps. Good to hear you smiling again
Colin
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