That was a close shave! Just as daylight was fading on Friday night, Mrs S pronounced Ginger Jenkins, our latest arrival, fit to travel with us on the Saturday morning, to the Craft & Vintage Market in Glastonbury Town Hall.
We were a motley crew, but drew many admiring glances – Ginger in his flying leathers, Wizard Widdershins glaring enviously as other wizards’ staffs outshone his own, Eliza the tiny toffee apple seller, the two young glamorous ladies (Holly displaying rather too much of her scarlet fishnet stockings for my liking), dependable George the tinkerer and Cecily and myself – Gwendoline – engaged in a tea duel in our favourite little café. Mind you, I do think Cecily should cut back on the amount of gin she secretly adds to her tea.
“Just a nip, my dear, to keep me alert,” she insists, but she slid from her chair on numerous occasions. Rather unseemly.
Still, all in all, it was a delightful affair and Mrs S was very pleased with our takings.
We will be returning to the same venue on March 26th and hope to meet more lovely customers then. Meanwhile, Mrs S is busy adding Ginger, and a few items of jewellery to the Etsy shop, which you can visit here.
Obviously Valentine goodies will be featured – from steampunky stuffed velvet and leather hearts with keys, clocks, chains and more or less anything else that came to hand, to heart-shaped pendants decorated with cogs or crystals.
Perhaps under the cover of those mists we mentioned last time, a selection of tiny bottles has washed up on our banks. (Avalon is, after all, an Isle, if only in name at present.) Each contains a couple of sparkles or tiny gems and a mysterious message, intended only for the eyes of its new recipient. That’s if they can manage to get it out of the bottle… not easy but possible. We’ve tested them.
No peace for us. We’ve been busy replenishing stocks – trying hard to remember just how we made those lines that sold out last year and, obviously, inventing new ones. Once again, we’re happy to announce, there are over 100 lines for sale at the 
The first of those is fast approaching – Saturday 12th February (so just in time for Valentine’s Day!) at the Craft and Vintage Fair in Glastonbury Town Hall, Somerset from 10.30.
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Arborius Widdershins – alchemist, magician, man of letters and all-round white wizard.
We have a brief respite now until our last sale of 2021 at Glastonbury Town Hall on December 18th, then a winter break until February. The 
Mrs S has enjoyed herself thoroughly and is kept busy creating new stock in between all the sales. Here she can be seen showing off the Case of the Apothecary’s Shop and some of the Clockton-upon-Teas buildings. We have a very few of those left for the next stall, then we’ll be raiding the recycling box for more packets and bottles to upcycle ready for next year.
Having been gifted many boxes of vintage Swiss watch parts – from the days before batteries, back when the clockwork mechanisms were wound by hand – Mrs S spends many happy hours at her desk, picking out one tiny piece after another and deciding what, in that strange mind of hers, they look like. Here, for example, you might be able to spot a gecko driving a combine harvester, Rudolf the wonky reindeer, a flying griffin, a bird on wheels and a turkey… or not! It’s very much in the eye of the beholder. 
Our current favourite is this little horse. Odd that watch parts lend themselves to such an interesting range of designs, including animals. Mind you, we’ve recently been asked if there’s an otter… even watch parts have their limits!
“Ah,” they say, “but when you finally arrive and are unpacked – then it’s all worth it! You’ll be placed ever so carefully in just the right spot to display your fine costumes and intricate details. Fairy lights and spotlights will illuminate the stall and people will come to stare, to gasp, to admire… and sometimes to buy and take you off to a new home.”
We had almost given up hope of experiencing a fair ourselves, but now we have FOUR to look forward to before the end of the year!
Some of our favourite finds are the little packs of boot and shoe eyelets we pick up for a fairly modest price (and an excellent cause) from the local children’s hospice charity shop. They are leftover stock given to the charity by Clarks – the famous shoe manufacturers a mile or two down the road.
There are all manner of fancy designs, though. It didn’t take us long to realise that they would be ideal as miniature candlesticks.
An amazingly small magic wand with a real crystal in the handle. It even comes in its own little gift box! Each is a one-off design and wands and boxes are all made inhouse. The wands measure between 1 and 1.5 inches.
Ye Book of Spells and Potions would make a very special present. Each page of this tiny, leather-bound book has been individually hand-distressed to make it look ancient. The cover has a metal trim and can be tied shut with the contrasting lace. (You can never be too careful with ancient spell books!) The spells and recipes can all be read with the aid of a magnifying glass or phone camera zoom. The book is 1.25 inches tall. 
A perfect gift for anyone who dabbles or dreams of dabbling in making steampunk oddities: A tinker’s shelf, complete with an array of tiny, but very useful, items. You’ll find a book, a bottle of something interesting, a box of odds and ends, a tool, along with a glue pot and brush. 
The holographic mirrors are always popular. You can buy them with a ring on the top, for using as a pendant or charm, or without one if you’d prefer to give it as a miniature for a dolls’ house or ornament. 
Charles decorated the stages, creating backdrops, curtains, wings and so forth. I set to work with copper wire, coffee stirrers, cocktail sticks and pins to create the movement. Soon we had several little theatres with beechwood sliders to move Lucy’s figures across the stage, rocking swings and even a metal balancing beam for a tumbler to turn around on.
The good people of Clockton-upon-Teas and all the inhabitants of the Towers came to watch our performances. Ava found some splendid musical renditions to play on her phonograph and while Charles and I moved the sliders back and forth and twiddled the knobs, the audience gasped and applauded in a most gratifying manner.
Steampunk - Shrunk! 