Photo by Lisa Max

Good news (unless you’re sick of me posting about CandyCult, in which case you might want to leave now)! The artist merchandise, including my crafts, that was sold at the Candy Cult opening was such a hit that we were asked to sell them again at the Northbridge Festival this weekend.

I’m not completely sure of all the details, but all the stalls will be on James Street from Lake Street to William Street, and should include a really fun and eclectic range of sellers. There’s also performers around and an inflatable igloo apparently! Should be lots of fun. The stalls will be running from 1-11pm on Saturday 1st November, and I’ll be manning the CandyCult stall between 3-6pm so come say hi if you can! More details on the Northbridge Festival website.

I think something like half of my crafts and buttons are still available and there’s quite a few bits from other artists too, so please come along!

Also a quick reminder: the CandyCult exhibition is closing this Sunday, so if you haven’t already please go check it out. Details here.

There really is nothing that motivates better than last-minute panic. Which is why I was frantically putting finishing touches, photographing and packaging my crafty things for the Candy Cult opening the morning of the exhibition.

Here’s what I had in the end:

I think I have the whole process down pretty well now (and have actually found a lovely satin varnish that works). I’ll be selling the left over items either through ChiGarden or Etsy, so if you missed out stay tuned!

I also ordered some 1inch button badges which arrived just in time! I couldn’t resist keeping a few of them and some were sold, but the rest will be available here soon and I’d like to get more of the ones that sell out.

The Candy Cult exhibition I’ve been posting about for a while now finally opened!

When I dropped by on Saturday afternoon before the opening, I was really impressed with the setup. The curator, Karen, and her helpers had all the cutout pieces hung on the white walls with small blocks of wood to make them seem to pop out at you. The variety of work is fantastic - besides the artists being from all over the world, the different styles from cutesy to creepy to downright strange meant there was something for everybody. Karen told me at the opening that she really wanted it to be something different, something people can relate to better than fine art as well as promoting pop-art as an artform. Judging by the huge crowd that showed up and how impressed they seem to be I think she did an amazing job!

In the end I had two pieces exhibiting - the Chisa and Mojo illustration that I posted earlier, and the yellow mushroom seen here, who I decided to name ‘Mooshy’ for lack of better ideas. ‘Chisa and Mojo’ sold within the first hour or so! I was honestly expecting to buy them myself (not that I’d mind having awesome big cutouts of my characters on my walls), especially when my work was surrounded by that of really incredible artists. It feels fantastic to know that someone liked my work enough to buy it. As far as I know Mooshy is still available for sale, if anyone is interested. Most of the pieces seemed to be snapped up during the opening, so everyone did really well!

Chisa and Mojo (the girl with the paintbrush and monkey) by me!

Mooshy the Mushroom, by me

I also sold some of my crafts (which I will put in another post) and bought an adorable button badge by Studio Aiko and pranced around talking to my friends and family who showed up to support me (thankyou!). I’m going to pick up the bits that didn’t sell this weekend, so you may see an online store appearing on ChiGarden soon.

Overall this was an incredibly positive experience - possibly because all I had to do was provide my artwork, make the website and some crafty things, roles which I’m quite comfortable in. I don’t think there’s anyway I’d be able to have s solo exhibition, but I definitely want to attend more exhibitions by other artists and maybe look out for group exhibition callouts in future. This exhibition wouldn’t have been possible without the work of Karen, Lisa and all their helpers who made it easy for an amateur artist like me to participate in their first exhibition.

More photos from the event can be seen on my Flickr page, and Lisa has some really good photos too.

Candy Cult will be open until the 2nd November at the Breadbox gallery (details here) if you haven’t had a chance to check it out already. I’ll be there from 3:30 - 5pm this Saturday if you’d like to come keep me company!