Canberra Arts & Crafts Market – A Unique Experience + Haul!

Canberra is known for its bustling sights and cultural diversity.  Matt and I simply love Canberra despite the isolation as everything just seems to be easily accessible. Malls, schools, day care, and all other venues are just too close to home. Among the places we happily go to are the Canberra markets held during special times of the year – mainly on a scheduled basis, usually every two months. As a fanatic of all things handmade and artsy fartsy, I specifically love going to the the arts and crafts Canberra markets.

A couple of Sundays ago, Matt, myself, and our friend Lauren went to the Budawang and Coorong Pavilion where the handmade market was held. It’s an indoor market that was designed to support Australian designers to help them showcase and sell their handmade products. The products range from art and design, homemade edibles, fashion, dainty items for children, clothes, and a whole lot more.

Luckily, we arrived there by the time it opened, otherwise, we would’ve meandered through the entire facility like sardines in a can – which, by the way, we’ve completely experienced towards the end of our spree!

This is what the venue looked like early on. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take photos of the area AFTER lunch time as the whole place was just cramped!

Now for the (more) fun part… What’s the point of going to a Canberra market without purchasing anything, right?

So we examined each and every stall, every product display, and spoke to stall owners/sellers who were more than happy to accommodate inquiries. Some also gave us a brief history of how their products came about or their experience about being artists. It was indeed a very enriching experience.

Here are some of the items we bought

Honey & Glow

Erin and Marty are bee keepers and permaculture farm builders from Canberra, Australia. Honey & Glow specialises in Beauty & Health products that feature either their raw honey or Australian Beeswax. Their product range Includes balms, candles, and soaps; each specially formulated with the least number of ingredients possible – staying true to nature.

All Honey and Glow products are handmade in the couple’s home studio. All other ingredients used in their products are Australian Certified Organic.

You can visit their website at www.honeyandglow.com.au

Item bought: The Cinnamon, Honey, Almond meal soap is just divine! I love the smell and the wonderful feeling it gives your skin afterwards.

Yano Designs

Yano Designs is a brainchild of a Melbourne-based duo who creates laser-cut, handmade, and hand-painted range of homewares such as coasters and pots, as well as accessories and jewelry. They also offer custom laser cut services for those who are after a more personal touch.

Bamboo is the company’s primary material for a number of eco-friendly reasons but particularly because it is a renewable resource, absorbs greenhouse gases, versatile and has an amazing growth rate with no fertiliser, pesticides, or herbicides required.

Here are but a few items from their product range

Bamboo coaster set. Comes with six laser etched coasters that are housed within its holder. The coasters can be popped out and used while the holder acts as a trivet. Each piece is cut and etched using a laser cutting machine, and then assembled and finished by hand. Laser etched coasters also available in a 4 pack without the holder.

Hand painted bamboo earrings. Laser cut, hand painted bamboo stud earrings come in a variety of colours, designs, and shapes. Made of hypoallergenic surgical steel posts and backings.

Handmade concrete pots with plant. Decorated with a unique swirl design, or painted in pastel or metallic colours. The pots are carefully paired with a succulent or cactus plant. At markets, customers are able to “pick & mix” their choice of pot, plant, and laser cut topper on the day.

Clocks. Minimalist bamboo clocks, available in light or dark bamboo, features white hands with a silent mechanism.

Ear rings. Laser cut & etched designs, and come in a variety of colours, designs, and shapes.

You can visit their website at https://www.yanodesigns.com.au/

Item bought: Coasters. I’ve been putting off getting coasters for a while as I couldn’t fin any that would match our bamboo placemats – until I found these!

Tinta Crayons

Tinta Crayons was founded by two Melbourne mums who wanted to produce environment-friendly, safe, and natural crayons without using paraffin, soy, or palm waxes. Their products only use organic waxes and their packaging is 100% recyclable. Their goal is to encourage imaginative play, colouring, and drawing with their different shapes of colourful crayons.

Paper Elephant

Nykke & Troy are a husband and wife team behind Paper Elephant. Nykke is a designer with over 15 years of experience while Troy is mostly the mastermind behind some of their quirky illustrations. Their passion and expertise resulted in a beautiful range of well-priced, unique and luxurious letterpress custom printing stationery and notebooks straight from the Blue Mountains in Australia.

“Ella” – by Tusk Books

Nicole is a Canberra-based author, speaker, founder of Tusk Books and has also recently taken on the role of being the ACT coordinator for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

Creating beautiful picture books that tell the lives of different animals is her passion.

As a writer and an animal rights activist, Nicole had been toying with the idea of creating a series of picture books to tell stories from the perspective of various animals. Her decision on what animal would be first was made for her when she visited an elephant sanctuary in Thailand and had the privilege of meeting a herd of elephants. Seeing the physical scars such as land mine injuries, blindness, broken backs, and maimed limbs, all caused by humans, plus learning the realities of elephants working in tourism made it an easy and immediate decision. Being with these incredible souls sowed the seed for her. The story of Ella started to take shape straight away and there was no going back.

Nicole set up Tusk Books as a small publishing company with the aim of helping children learn about the lives of animals who don’t have a voice of their own. To do this, she knew that she had to create captivating stories with beautiful illustrations that kids love to read again and again. Ella ticks all these boxes. Ella was launched at the Canberra Writers Festival in August 2016. It tells the story of a baby elephant working to entertain tourists. Little Ella escapes and sets off on a heart-wrenching journey in search of her mum. Nicole teamed up UK-based artist Demelsa to create Ella. The results are magical.

Nicole visits many schools to talk about Ella and elephant conservation and is energized by the insightful and often entertaining observations and questions from children about the book and elephants. School visits leave Nicole with great hope for the future of the planet.

Nicole has also established strong ties with international elephant sanctuaries who benefit from sales of Ella.

The product range at Tusk Books currently consists of the picture book, Ella and Ella themed greeting cards.

Nicole’s second book is well underway and will be released in the first half of 2018. This book features a little dolphin that children will fall in love with as much as children have fallen in love with Ella. It highlights the many issues dolphins face from being caught in driftnets, being held captive, and being greatly affected by ocean pollution.

You can find out more about Nicole and Tusk Books through www.tuskbooks.com and https://www.facebook.com/TuskBooks/

Personal thoughts: Ella has become my toddler’s favourite bedtime story. The book was worth every cent as it demonstrates how elephants belong to nature, in the wilderness as opposed to being locked up within manmade confinements for the sole purpose of entertainment. Thanks Nicole for your words (and for your autograph!)

Goose on the Loose

The mass-produced supermarket products full of “substitutes’ and preservatives, as well as the passion for small goods, pushed the people behind Goose on the Loose to produce the only the best Salami and smallgoods produced in Australia. Their constant mission is to bring their clients nothing less than premium quality produce at the best prices.

Item bought: Pork Salami w/ black truffle and Calabrese. One word: YUM

The Chilli Effect

The The Chilli Effect was established in 2015 in hopes to share their passion for hot and tasty chilli sauces. From their humble beginnings sharing fresh and flavoursome hot sauces, today, The Chilli Effect is now a community that adores chillies, beers & BBQs. who work together with local producers to put Australia on the map as one of the best producers of quality chilli products. Manned by Mark and Daryl.

Item bought: Chilli and Lime Harissa. I love hot, spicy food. And when it comes to Asian cuisine, the heat is just a must! (or maybe that’s just me) This is simply a charm to work within my dishes.

Beau Wylie

Cam Beau Wylie Foster is an Artist/Illustrator who solely runs Beau Wylie Illustration in Sydney Australia. Cam loves to draw, paints, cuts, and pastes in his little studio and inspired by slippery squids, squeaky old bikes, hearty meals, runny paints, frothy dark beers and the whimsy of life. His pieces can go for playful, enchanting, silly and sometimes a little melancholic. In 2012, Beau Wylie Illustration started producing cards and art prints for sale.

Item bought: Octopus Couple. This has found a place in our living room. Love this unique piece and the vibrancy of colours used.

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