Grounded Pleasures Café at DMM!

More great news - starting at the 5 June market, Grounded Pleasures will be at the market serving awesome coffee, hot chocolate and tea to thirsty shoppers.

Craig and Sophie make the best coffee we've tasted in years, you might have met Craig teaching barista skills around Daylesford including at the Neighbourhood House, as he is a total coffee freak.

His coffee comes from Social Roasting, a Melbourne company we love because of their commitment to ethical sourcing and providing employment to long-term unemployed people, plus of course they have damn fine coffee that they grind themselves by hand. Come along on June 5 for a brew, there are lots of great coffee options in Daylesford but we guarantee you wont find anything better than this!

Grounded Pleasures have their own range of quality African Red drinking chocolates, check out their website, perfect for a Daylesford winter. There'll also be tea and delicious biscotti to keep you fuelled as you browse the lovely wares you'll find at the June market (of which more soon...).

Vintage coffe cup image by MayaLee.

Ben Riddle at DMM!

We're chuffed to tell you that Ben Riddle will be playing at the June 5 Daylesford Makers Market! Catch him from 11.30 at the Town Hall.

Bookings now open for new Market dates!

You can now book online for the Daylesford Makers Market events from July through to Christmas.

You'll notice a lot of improvements to the booking process - you can now book different sizes/types of stalls depending on your product.

The venue is also going to be even better. We're opening up the foyers and stairs, improving the lighting, and also featuring a great café, watch this space for more details! We are currently looking for artisan food producers to be part of the café and market so let us know if this sounds like you.

Bookings are already coming in thick and fast so please don't delay or you could miss out! Book here. We'll be approving the first round of applications on 18th May.

Bookings update

Thanks to everyone who has expressed an interest in booking markets from July through to Christmas!

We're making lots of improvements to the market at the moment based on your feedback, one of which is to offer stallholders more flexibility in choosing the preferred locations for their stall, so we're currently working on an online floorplan and a better booking system which should be ready in about a week's time. We'll post an update on this blog and also email existing stallholders as soon as bookings are open!

Marketing Organisers News: please join us!

The Daylesford Makers Market is a community event and there's no better time to get involved, either as a stallholder, a volunteer, or both.

We're currently looking for people to join our new committee or help with the Market, for example distributing leaflets, setting up the Town Hall or helping out on the day. If you're interested please email us: hello@daylesfordmakersmarket.com.au

As a committee member you'll get to come along to our monthly meetings over a glass of wine, have your say about how the market is run, get involved in finding and selecting stallholders, and share your skills.

Until we appoint the new committee, the interim group is made up of Gaynor, Allison (Lark), Paul (Moederkip), Nicole (Emerald Green), Tess (Lark), Merrilyn (Threadneedle) and Zoe (Purl's Palace).

Thanks to everyone who has volunteered so far, we couldn't do it without you! Please get involved!!

June Market - bookings closed

Bookings are now closed for the June 5 Market - thanks to everyone who has applied! Once again we have been inundated with requests, so if you haven't been successful this time we are sorry, we do need to keep the mix fresh and include new makers.

If you have been successful you will have received an email from us today - please note that the system for bookings and payments has changed. because we have more makers than sites we'll be allocating stalls on a first-paid basis. Please pay your invoice asap to avoid missing out.

We received lots of feedback after the last market - most of it really great (yay!) but also some constructive feedback highlighting potential issues like draughty doors, people flow and dark corners. We're looking at all of these issues and have decided to hold off opening bookings for July onwards until we have been able to resolve them, so that everyone can have a great market experience. Watch this space!

Easter Market

We hope to see you at the Market next weekend, Easter is a great time in Daylesford! For the first time we will have over 50 stalls, with many new makers as well as favourite crafters and designers from around Victoria.

Easter Market Update + July Onwards

Hi everyone, just to let you know that the Easter market on 3 April is now FULLY BOOKED and any new applications will be placed on a shortlist. If you already have a stall booked, please pay by the start of next week or you risk losing your spot. We're squeezing in 50 stalls at the Easter market, so it's going to be a HUGE bonanza of crafty goodness.

5 June is also filling up but there are a few spots left if you are interested. Priority will be given to applicants making jewellery, paper goods, adult clothing and homewares, as we have sufficient makers in all other areas for this market. Please apply through the market website.

There is no market in May.

The dates for markets from July onwards are below. Applications for these new dates will open on Monday 5 April. We will be offering 60% of the stalls on a first-come basis, with the remainder being held until a few weeks before each market, to accommodate new makers and to maintain a great mix of products.

Saturday 3 July (Daylesford Craft Experience Event)
Saturday 4 September
Saturday 2 October (Spring Market)
Saturday 6 November
Saturday 27 November (Christmas Market)

Big thanks!

Thanks to everyone who helped with today's market: Gaynor and Tanya for giving your time; our lovely sponsors at Thaw, Threadneedle and Purl's Palace, Geoffrey Williams for entertaining us, the Town Hall staff, ChillOut, the awesomest stallholders and everyone who came to shop. See you next month for the big Easter weekend!

Big Day Tomorrow

Don't miss the Daylesford Makers Market tomorrow from 10am at the Town Hall - it's going to be huge, with over 45 stalls for the first time. We've filled the main hall, the Seniors room, the entry and two outside spots, eek! Geoffrey Williams will be performing and Thaw magazine will be giving out free copies to early birds. There will be many new stallholders as well as old favourites. Come along and say Hi to Gaynor, Allison or Tess at the Info Stall, see you there!

New poster for March

Next week our new poster for the March (CHILLOUT) Makers Market will be going up all around Daylesford. Our latest recruit to the organising team will also be out and about at local restaurants and venues distributing leaflets with all the market dates on. If you can help with getting our posters and leaflets out in your neighbourhood or at other makets you attend please let us know! And feel free to put this poster on your blog or website.

ChillOut Market

The annual ChillOut Festival takes place in Daylesford on the Labour Day weekend (5-8 March).

This year we're collaborating with the festival organisers to hold a special ChillOut Daylesford Makers Market. It's taking place at the Town Hall on Saturday 6 March and will feature 48 makers from around Victoria.

All proceeds from stall fees will be donated to the CFA Glenlyon Group, supporting local bushfire brigades who protect lives and property in our area.

There are lots of fantastic makers and designers, including many first-timers. Geoffrey Williams will be performing throughout the day.

Hope you can make it along. ChillOut is a huge event in Daylesford, loads to do for families including the Street parade, Carnival, Twilight Cinema, music, horse riding, picnics and heaps more. It's the best fun. See the ChillOut website for details.

Stalls are pretty much booked out for the ChillOut Market, but if you are interested please apply through the Market website and we'll try and squeeze you in. We're confirming stalls this week, so if you've already applied you'll hear from us soon. The April Market (another biggie, as it's held on the Easter weekend) is also nearly full, so get your application in fast!

The Daylesford Craft Experience

Very exciting times in Daylesford. As well as our Makers Market going from strength to strength, there's talk of a new craft club in town, whispers about some exciting projects, and there are lots of collaborations happening between the various crafty and hand made businesses. Lots of meetings over coffee or wine, lots of ideas being hatched. New crafty people moving into town, new craft blogs. One of the most exciting things to come out of all this crafty collaboration is the Daylesford Craft Experience, a two-day retreat in the gorgeous Peppers Springs, set to take place the first weekend of July.

There'll be workshops with some top crafters including Jodie Carleton of Ric Rac, Melanie Hurlston of Melly & Me and Anette Eriksson. Lots of fun to be had meeting other crafters, sharing ideas and learning new skills. Threadneedle Craft and Purl's Palace are hosting the event and you can find out more here.

We'll be running a special Daylesford Makers Market on the Saturday (3 July) to welcome all the crafters into town, and it will be open late for post-workshop drinkies! Booking for this July craftastic market will be open soon, watch this space. Exciting times!!

Thanks for today!

A big thank you to everyone who took part in today's market, and also to the lovely visitors who made the effort to come.

It's the first time we've held the market in February and we've been worrying for weeks - will there be enough stalls, will the weather be too hot, will anyone come at this time of year? But everything went wonderfully today.

We arranged for access through the front of the Town Hall on Vincent Street, which brought in a lot of extra people.

We had listened to the feedback from the last event and really pumped up the marketing and publicity this time.

We featured a lot of new stallholders and there was an instant camaraderie between them. Several people remarked on how nice the makers are at our market compared to others! It does have an easygoing vibe, maybe from being in Daylesford. But sales were also good and pretty much everyone was surprised at how well they did, given the time of year.

For most of the day, until the afternoon, the hall was full of people. A great sign, as the March and April markets are being held on very busy weekends (ChillOut and Easter), so goodness knows how busy we will get!

We made some great new friends today and are really looking forward to the market being a regular monthly event. Yay for craft in the country! xxx