red bamboo is created!

It all started with an opportunity to become part of a temporary Artist Store at Portside Wharf on Brisbane's river late last year.

There some wonderful Artists involved, some of whom are great friends, and it seemed a great chance to 'dip my toe in the water' and see if people would like what I created.

We had a fantastic space, rent free courtesy of the kind Portside Wharf Body Corporate, and it became a co-op venture with everyone helping to man the store when they could.

It was called 'Schmik' and the idea was to showcase local talent and handmade items. We had jewelllery from gifted people such as Marisa Molin, Eliza Tee and Pia Robinson, paintings by Simon DeGroot, digital artwork by Janice Kuskowsky (sorry if I have spelt your surname wrong Jan!) and photography by Romy Willing, plus much more. What was originally a 2 month timeframe stretched out to almost 6 and so Artists left and new ones joined.

My original product line included Body Lotions, Soap and Lip Balms in Chocolate & Fig and Vanilla and Red Grape varieties. After consistantly good feedback, this grew to include Body Polishes, Candles and then more varieties of Soaps. Such fun!

We each had a great space to display our works within the store. Mine seemed to keep growing as I added more products.

The biggest trick seemed to be not to let my imagination get away from me and end up creating dozens ot differnet soaps and lotions!

The feedback I received was great, even if it was something a person didn't like. It gave me information to build on.

I started looking out for another way to get my products to the public and began researching different Weekend Markets. I orignially found one that sounded just right over at Everton Park, called Designers Emporium Markets. I just missed out on getting in with them, as they had another lady doing similar products, and so I moved on to the Manly Creative Markets.

Since I am still working and often have different courses on, I needed something that wasn't every weekend and was affordable for someone just starting out. Manly was perfect.

The other stallholders are a great bunch and we have a lot of fun down there. My range grew more and more and continues to be ridicuously fun to create.

I hope I can continue to shape and grow my little business and I look forward to seeing what else I can create in the near future!

Love and light

Annie