Vintage on line

I have bid a fond farewell to the craft market I used to attend once a month in town!

(Sorry I think this is going to be a long rant of a post today!)

I have attended for a year with a friend, we shared a stall as we both sold jewellery, and 10 feet of table is a lot to fill with jewellery, so we decided to share and have a 5ft table each, which worked well as we both did different style jewellery and presented it differently which complimented each other.

It went very well I used to sell generally 15 items a day and made between £100-£120 each market! But then a few months ago the market allowed another handcrafted jewellery stall attend, which my friend wasn't happy about at all, and it was around this time that I decided to sell the 'Vintage' side of Vintage Amethyst and bring along handcrafted homewares in a french, country, shabby style, which I had previously also sold on the internet, so this wasn't a big change for me really, and have this alongside my jewellery, and so wanted to get a stall of my own as I thought it would be best.

Anyhoo we discussed this with the market managers, and they said 'well instead of getting another tent (stall) why not use the wasted space that we don't use in our tent at the moment but of course if I wanted I could have a stall of my own, it was up to us'! So my friend and I thought it was a good idea to still share as it kept our costs down, which is what we did for a few months. But last month we decided to get a stall each as my friend had expanded her range into bags too. I must point out at this point that another jewellery stall had been allowed to attend the market in the meantime too!

So I put my application form in, only to be told the next day that I wouldn't be allowed to sell jewellery as it isn't fair to the other stall holders, and that my other items would also have to be checked to make sure there wasn't anything too similar to what is already being sold!!!! Hmmmmmm, now the problem I had was this, I had been selling jewellery from the very start, and yet they had allowed other jewellery stalls to attend, but now I wanted a stall of my own I was the one going to be the one penalised!
Also if they had any problems with what I was selling on my 'own' stall, why didn't they just check over the 3 months I had actually been selling it!!!! I was furious to say the least!

I contacted them and told them that I didn't want to attend anymore as if I couldn't sell jewellery it didn't make any financial sense to me to continue, to which the solution that they gave was that my friends and my stall be together so that they looked like one stall and that I place my jewellery to one side so that it looks like it is part of her jewellery range, so as not to upset the other stall holders!!!
Now for one, is this concept all about face? ~ Bizarre!
And two, with no distrespect to my friend, I want my jewellery to be recognised that it is handcrafted by myself and part of the 'Vintage Amethyst' range, and not anyone elses, is this so wrong!?!

So I made the desicion to bid farewell to our towns craft market, as I also had issues with how they (or don't to be more precise) advertise it! ( A year on people still didn't realise it was a monthly craft market ~ all they had to do was put a couple of big signs up around it on the day saying monthly craft market on today and every second friday of the month ~ surely!)

So all in all, I feel this was the right decision at the right time, so after all this ranting and annoyance why a fond farewell?
Beacuse I have enjoyed my year with the monthly Craft Market, and will miss my time spent there with the other stall holders, and I've met some great people, but I do feel this is the right time to leave and the right decision for me & Vintage Amethyst.

Oh and if you're wondering what the picture above it is, it's an old photo of our town and where the market is held ~ to the right alongside the right of the tram!