After a lovely week, we woke to a blustery cool day with an ominous sky. As the morning progressed (and the rain began bucketing down) I found myself happily safe inside the main Stitches and Craft show super-tent at Flemington Showgrounds, jostling amongst the grannies, quilt-makers and daggy teen knitters. There was some ghastly stuff on display – I would say 90%, but the goodwill and camaradarie was palpable.
The far more interesting indie-craft / design shops were located on a side row, highlighting even more the awkward coupling they’ve made with the traditional bead-making, embroidery and cross stitch sorts of places that my mum would spend her time at normally. We grabbed coffees and watched a fun 65 minute movie Handmade Nation which was exactly the limit of my attention span, and marvelled at people’s sheer creative energy, and about whether the move away from mass produced items is just a fad or a long term trend. Still undecided on that one.
On leaving, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for all the people who paid their 100+ bucks for a Sound Relief ticket to be one of 80,000 at the MCG. Many seats weren’t under cover, and let’s face it – we’ve all seen Midnight Oil and Hunters and Collectors live footage anyway only this time they would be the size of a postage stamp – I’ll watch it free on TV in a few weeks for sure. It’s amazing that bands who hadn’t played for over 10 years would be inspired by the difficult times the bushfire victims are going through, and offer their services. I’m really happy that despite being a federal politician, Garrett doesn’t feel it means he can’t rock on like the old days and wear embarrassing yellow outfits. He IS minister for the Arts after all.
Had a snooze on the couch for 30 mins and did some Sopranos watching and finally some old-world BC instances with Ben, Oui and Doug. We absolutely destroyed 7 instances in about 2 hours before timezones and the effects of wine intervened. A fun day.
My mum lives and breathes craft shows and has for as long as I can remember. I’ve been dragged to so many I honestly couldn’t count them, nowadays I feel totally at home strolling into one with my mum and hanging out with her while she marvels at the creations of others.
I don’t think craft shows have any more momentum than they did 25 years ago, when they were so boring and uncool, though.