Sunday at the Lazy Sunday Club at the LTB Showrooms was 80s vibe day. More importantly for me, I had a stall to sell affordable art. Usually, my art is produced by creating a digital image influenced by photos I’ve taken which can take months to create. Next I have to be printed either as canvas or prints and are not that cheap. For this, I decided to create a series of hand-painted, hand-drawn postcards and canvas. Making sure that they were affordable and quick to produce.
I arrived at 11.15 am to set up my stall at the LTB Showrooms and was greeted by the Lovely organiser, Julia Gandy, who presented me with a space and a table to set up. I had been warned that the lighting was challenging, and sockets were limited due to the nature of the venue, but I was placed in the front section of the ground floor with a lamp, so my work was actually pretty well-lit. And the table was large, and I felt I could have easily had much more stock on display.
The market officially started at 12 noon, which is when the 80s music began and the doors opened. With about 20 stalls, it was well populated, and most people seemed to have brought some of their own arts and crafts to be doing while they were quiet.
The weather was nice, but the forecast had predicted rain, and footfall past the venue was low in the early hours but picked up later on. We had several busy bursts where people came in in waves, which was nice as people were interested in chatting about the artwork, the venue and the market in general.
Window Shopping the Other Stalls
I chatted with other stallholders during the quiet periods towards the end to learn more about their experience and sales.
Stalls outside seemed to do really well, Alex Nelson, of Curly Art, a fantasy landscape oil painter had sold about 4 of his painting.
Inside was much quieter, but most people had made several sales, but the smaller items seemed to be popular. I sold mostly postcards, and was selling printed cards (£5 for three) or handpainted cards (£10 for three) which made them attractive to people, but had no interest in my larger pieces. I forgot to create price labs before I came to the market and felt this may have been helpful for next time so people felt more committable buying.
Towards the back of the venue were various craft and art stalls, including Jules from Fallen Masque, an old hand in art fairs. She creates alternative clothing and accessories such as gloves and wands. Her style is gothic and her stall looks amazing but hadn’t felt that there had been the right type of people through the door (although I was very tempted with the lacy Madonna gloves to go with my 80s get-up).
Fallen Masques:
There were a few newbies and start-ups that came along to the Lazy Sunday Club to try their hand at selling. This is the perfect place to get started, as a stall costs only £5 and is dramatically cheaper than other local regular fairs.
“Bit Sketchy” and “Art by Maria” with are both ladies who have only recently got up the nerve to sell their art, and have both come in to create small art at affordable prices. “Bit sketchy” produces cute tiny pet portraits and tiny pieces of things like plants. Whereas Maria created colourful abstracts on wood and canvas as well as framed pieces.
Bit Sketchy:
Art by Maria:
One of the higher-end stalls was a self-trained silversmith who had started his business during the lockdown and progressed his skills. He talked to me at length about his love of creating custom pieces, and I loved his idea for creating men’s jewellery with a bit more personality such as the herringbone chain and anchor charm. The joy of this type of vender is that it’s about gaining commissions at a later time. Those big birthdays, or life events, are remembered by the visitors. But also cute earrings and rings that are inexpensive for the ladies which gives the interest of now sales.
A stall that falls in between the two types of stalls was “Mix Me” a cocktail-in-a-box company that created 4 quality fresh cocktails ready to mix at home. Each box contains everything needed to be a mixologist at home. The boxes available were the most popular cocktails such as espresso martini, but the quality of ingredients and the way they were presented made them a perfect gift for beginning a dinner party. With a special offer on the day, they looked very tempting.
You can see there was a vast array of creatives at the Market, and something for everyone and every wallet. All in one awesomely creative place. Set below three floors of art, sculpture, projection and corridors of surprises. Many visitors had no idea about ht volunteer-run gallery and went off upstairs to have a look around. This venue is set for demolition in November to make way for new development, and the market will run till then, every Sunday.
Doing it for Charity
The final category of stallholders is the people whose profits go to charity, and raise awareness of the cause. The two stalls which fall in this category were very different. The first was hair bows whose profits were sent to Sierra Leone and the Schooling of Children. The second was “Body Beautiful You” which were hand-poured soy candles raising awareness of breast cancer with pink body-shaped candles and LGBTQ+ rights with multicoloured flag candles.
Returning Stallholders
As well as all the stalls mentioned, there were a few stalls that have returned. Of course, “Be A Flamingo Art” is there weekly as it is run by the organiser. Paul Desson-Baxter of “Sysiartist” has had a weekly stall since the beginning as well as “Just Like Ivy” and “Eve’s Ruin” were back (and will be back every third week).
You can read our first feature article about the Opening Event for the Lazy Sunday Club here.
Get involved at the Lazy Sunday Club
Stalls are available for anyone who makes their stuff (no resale or franchises) for only £5 a week. But each week offers the chance to win a free stall for the future, by dressing up in the theme. This week had been 80s vibe, which got me excited as I am an eighties baby, and love the music. I was lucky to be the winner (although Julia, the organiser, always does the theme amazingly!) I will be back with another stall in a few weeks with some more affordable art for sale.
If you would like to book a stall for future events, email: beaflamingoart@gmail.com or join the Facebook group and drop her a message.
You can see what future themes the Lazy Sunday Club have in store and keep up to date on dates on our ‘Guide’ section or you can pop in every Sunday and just see what it’s all about.
Excellent blog post. I certainly appreciate this website.
Keep it up!
Thank you so much!