Best New Product Winner!

Just to let you all know that the winner of the Best New Product Competition, that Olive Tree had on Facebook leading up to the June 2nd Market, was won by Paisleys on Harrison/ Ceramics by Sandra. That means that the stallholder Sandra will have a free stall at the July Market and that one of the voters Emma Guy will win a $50 Olive Tree Voucher to spend at the July 7th Olive Tree!

Seeing we are on the topic of Sandra here is the product that was submitted plus a little more of her work. If you are looking for Sandra's work at The Olive Tree Market she is situated under the big Figtree near the first Union St Entrance. Sandra has also opened a gallery in Cardiff.

Market week!! That crazy time of the month!

We have a little Competition this week! I've asked our stallholders to submit images of their New Products for this Saturdays Olive Tree. So!! I will post the images on  Olive Tree Facebook Page for you to have a look see!

Then you can come to the Organisers Table on Saturday and Vote for your Favourite Product!! One Lucky Person will then WIN a $50 Olive Tree Voucher!!

The Stallholder with the Most Votes will then Win their Stall at the Next Market Free!!

I'll put up some more information about Saturday's Market mid week! Including music etc etc

Here are a few of the submissions so far!!

Vintage Rings by Blossom & Cat

Coconut Body Oil by Lhami

Vintage Kimono's by Wanderlust Clothin

Back on deck! I think! And new stuff!

It's been a really busy few months and my blogging has gone out the window!! Sometimes family life takes precedence and it seems the blog is the space that suffers in my life anyway. Perhaps because I'm still trying to find my blogging voice for Olive Tree. Do I talk only about the market, focusing on stalls and all thing Olive Tree or do other aspects of life come into the mix that are connected to the spirit of the market but a little left of field?! Haven't really worked that out as yet!! If you have a view on that let me know. To start things off here is some new stuff from this months market that I loved!!

Etched Glassware

Very cool earrings!

Shiny Bag

I want to ride my bicycle

Unbelievably its mid May and June's market is on the horizon!! The last few markets have seen lots of new things happening at Olive Tree! New stalls, a bigger food section and a new partnership with Lizottes who have started organising the music each month with acts that will play at Lizottes Newcastle Venue and also emerging artists. To add to this we will continue to have our drumming from local groups like the fabulous Earthen Rhythms & young ensembles like Sorella Strings and our talented little trio of harpists.

Its great having the new gourmet food stalls but I'm still trying to source a great bread and pastry stall!! I want something really special with delicious bread and goodies made from high quality, and if possible, organic produce. So if you are reading this and have an idea or know of such a stallholder please let me know. For all of your food lovers we now have lots of delicious take home food products/stallholders: Little Cossack Kefir who make a totally amazing drink think Ginger Beer full of spices, Wozz! Kitchen Creations, Pureblends, Arolyn Grove, Wattlecreek, Bon Chai, Tea by Grete, Riverflats plus all our regular food stalls.

I went on a little twenty four hour trip to Melbourne before the May Market and was lucky enough to visit the Finders Keepers Market which has found a new home in Melbourne at the absolutely beautiful Melbourne Exhibition Building. Talk about the perfect location for a indoor market! If only I could wish such a place into being in Newcastle. We have some wonderful old spaces in Newcastle that could be fantastic if some major money was put into making them safe spaces to use but money is always the issue..  Places like this!

Anyway! It was my first visit to Finders Keepers and it was totally fantastic. Great Stalls, wonderful atmosphere and interesting people to speak with. As happens within the first few minutes I ran into some Olive Tree Stallholders! Jo Dyer from Happily Ever Afternoon, Robyn McPherson from Miss Print and Helen from Blossom & Cat!! Collective consciousness is a funny thing! We are having a bit of a 'creative' migration from Olive Tree to Melbourne at the moment, as happens when young artists need to spread their wings, but this always makes room for other upcoming artists so things do go full circle...

I'll make sure I blog a little more this month and let you know what will be happening at Junes market. I had a meeting with Di Jones from Sketch & Jones, Zoe Tjanavaras from Oscar & Matilda and Bec Carver from  Frankie Small last week and we brained stormed about the market and what we can do better and how we can make it more interesting. Trish from Miss Fancypants and Wanderlust Clothing was there in spirit and sent notes! It was a fun meeting and some great ideas were discussed so stay tuned on that front!! Anyway! We met at Bank Corner Cafe and if you haven't been there yet you should check it out. It's a very cute little hole in the wall cafe started by the original creator of Golbergs in Cooks Hill. Great coffee, food and good music to be had. Don't leave it to long as its becoming very popular.

Thats it for tonight...

Olive Tree has had a great start to 2012 with our first market for the year on February 4th. As usual the weather gods kept us guessing but it turned into a gorgeous day with a big audience visiting us throughout the day- which is always great!! The Olive Tree Stallholders had been making lots of lovely new work and I think 2012 will be really exciting year at Olive Tree. Stay tuned for more announcements very soon!

We had lots of new stallholders in February and it's always exciting to see what their stalls are be like in the 'flesh'!! We have an application process at Olive Tree but much of this happens online these days so often  we only meet our new stallholders for the first time on market day. One of our new stallholders is the lovely Ms Shana Dennis or 'Doll Eyes'!!

Shana makes very cute tea light candles and sells her photographic work and original illustrations. Shana was also responsible for running Newcastle's Silent Film Festival last year. If you can't wait until the next Olive Tree Market on March 3rd you can buy Shana's Tea-lights from one of Newcastle's most original shops Blackbird Corner here If you haven't been there before you should!!

We had a 'guest' appearance from Sydney Illustrator Nicholas Beckett whose black sense of humour caught my eye last year when I ran the This is Not Art Zine & Artists Market. Anyway, Nicholas has visited Olive Tree twice now and you should have a look at his work here!! I'm hoping he will hop on the train from Central with his suitcase full of zines and illustrations sometime soon!!

I'm also loving the work by illustrator and jeweler Angie Goto. She doesn't have a website or Facebook Page at the moment but you can meet her at the next Olive Tree on March 3rd. She makes funky wearable art and I really like the quirky characters she creates!!

Nick and Liesl played throughout the day on February 3rd. They always bring a strong central Coast following with them and its great to have so many people coming to the market from other areas. We are always so lucky to have Nick & Liesl at Olive Tree. As well as being wonderful performers they are always so generous with how many sets they perform at the market and create a really fantastic vibe. You should check out their Albums here if you don't have them already!!

Last Market for 2011 this December 17th!!!

Well its been a big year at The Olive Tree Market!! My partners Bec & Ally moved onto their new project One Penny Black Cafehttps://www.facebook.com/pages/One-Penny-Black-Espresso-Bar/144805218888240 which has been doing amazingly well! I miss them but am proud of them for following their dream. You should check out One Penny if you haven't!!

Olive Tree has been growing and we have had some amazing new stallholders join the market. Frankie & Frida who make gorgeous cedar jewelry, graphic designer and artists Angie Goto, The Hare and the Tortoise who make very funky kids toys, Elkhorne with beautifully hand screen-printed home-wares and handmade cards from Blueberry Paper to name a few.

We have had great music at every market from Grace Turner, Sorella Strings, Earthen Rhythms, Jack Dawson, Scott Gelzinnis, Zoe Klemenczuk, The Do Riders and more!!! At the last market we some great backpackers from Germany the Jammin' Johnny's and I really wished you had all seen them as they rocked the house with the amazing energy!! It was the end of the day so not as many people were at the market which was a pity!!

We will have some of our favourite stallholders move onto new things after our last market of the year! Julia from Frejj is off to have her second child, printmaker Robyn Mcpherson will move to Melbourne to attend Victorian College of the Arts and Emily Rose will move to Sydney to study. It sad to see them go but it also means we will have some great new stallholders in the new year. So you really should come to Olive Tree next week on December 17th and snap up some of their amazing work!!!

Make sure you come to Olive Tree on December 17th and support your local Handmade Community!! There will be lots of lovely work on offer and beautiful work from the hands of the people who make them for you to give to the people you love this Christmas!! 

Hope to see you there!! Make sure you tell all your family and friends and come and enjoy the extended hours from 9am-6pm and take in the atmosphere of people who love what they do!!

Don't forget our December Markets-3 & 17 December 9am-6pm!!!

Blueberry Paper at The Olive Tree Market

Just a little post to let you know that we have two markets this December!!! The dates are December 3rd & 17th and both have extended trading hours from 9am-6pm!! A lovely long day for you to choose when you would like to come!! Breakfast, lunch or early dinner!!! We are very keen to get the BUY HANDMADE message out for this Christmas!! Support our own very talented community of artists and designers and send the message that YOU LOVE unique and handmade work that comes from the hands of the maker to the hands of the people you love!!! More on that front very soon!! These beautiful cards are from Blueberry Paper and can be found at Olive Tree!!!

the ebb and flow of markets...

Markets are a funny old world. Although there is a lot of organisation that goes on, in some ways you have to be fluid in the way you approach the whole shebang, otherwise you'd go nuts!! As an organiser you see artists come and go, and that is a good thing in the long run, as people need to go away, travel, take a break or whatever else they do to get the creative muse happening.

Some of my favourite people are heading on back to Olive Tree this month which is great!! Carl Brett from Scrounge Art is back after having time off to work on new projects and have exhibitions.

The lovely Alison Bodman, one of the first Olive Tree stallholders, is back from Melbourne and its great to have her back in the hood. Alison is also working at One Penny Black and Makespace no shrinking violet is she!

Emily Rose is back after travelling in Europe with a beautiful series of work titled Sleepy Europe.

We also have some great new stallholders this month which is always exciting but potentially dangerous to my moneybox. The Blissful Brush will be there as will Eddie Botha and Flamboyant Joe. Hope to see you all under the olive tree- rain, hail or shine!!!