Fullarton’s Wattle Street Market popular with designers to get new home
LOCAL designers and artists will set up shop in the front yard of a Fullarton home for the final time on Saturday.
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LOCAL designers and artists will set up shop in the front yard of a Fullarton home for the final time on Saturday.
However, it will not signal the end of the popular Wattle Street Market, instead marking a new beginning for the event which will move to another house less than 100m away.
Market co-director Helen Bennett is selling her home at 77 Wattle St, which doubles as the marketplace at least three times a year, because she wants a “lifestyle change”.
Ms Bennett and daughter-in-law Bec Rodenburg have handed the reins to neighbour and stallholder Jacqueline Meaney, from homewares and jewellery brand JLM Designs, to keep the event alive and local.
“It has been great, but it is time to move on,” Ms Rodenburg, of Clarence Gardens, says.
“The stallholders always say, if they have had a good (trade) day or not, they were always happy to be here.”
Ms Bennett and Ms Rodenburg, who own childrenswear label Miss Vintage, started the market in 2013 after noticing a lack of opportunities for designers.
The duo wanted a more relaxed, affordable place to sell their products and realised the family home could be the right place.
“We had been to a few markets and I remember one we did in Unley where you had to pay $95 to go, and we sold three dresses (at $25 each),” Ms Bennett says.
“I thought why don’t we have (one) at home.”
The market went on to launch the careers of designers and artists including Ettie Ink designer Michelle Fogden, who recently opened a studio in Goodwood.
Ms Meaney started selling resin homewares and jewellery at Wattle Street Market in 2015.
After learning Ms Bennett and Ms Rodenburg were calling it a day, she decided to take over the event and host it at her home, four doors down the road, to continue to give designers opportunities.
“It will still be a curated market with local handmade artists … but I plan on bringing something new to every market to keep it interesting and varied,” Ms Meany says.
The Wattle Street Market is at 77 Wattle St, Fullarton, on Saturday, December 2, from 9am-4pm. Details: facebook.com/WattleStMarket
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