Jamboree'd

So much for 'I'll post again about the Jamboree nearer the time'. What a liar. Truthfully I meant to, I just had no time. I was timeless, without time. Anyway, the Dundee Jamboree came and went with a splash and now, a couple of days later, all the little blogs and tweets and photos are rising to the surface. This will be a long one, mainly because I'm trying to get back in the habit of writing things and, I dunno, there's lots to mention about the night.

We arrived in Dundee in the afternoon and checked in to our home-from-home, the Holiday Inn (I've maybe mentioned this before, but have you seen the bathroom doors in that place? They're a really funny wee piece of space-saving design and one of several reasons I regret leaving my video camera at home). After we'd unpacked our smalls we headed off to Drouthys to set up our stalls.

The idea that a Drouthy Neebors could be home to anything interesting whatsoever is odd. I'm used to the one in Stirling which, although it's not particularly horrible, isn't particularly memorable either. The contrast between them made me happy and, in retrospect, a little depressed. Outside was my good friend Steven who'd come through to show support and, as he tends to do, had already been floating about for a few hours. He said he'd been for a haircut.

Inside, people were busying about putting all their stalls together. Here a bangle, there a badge. Here a zine, there a scary monster-thing. Everyone was really nice and friendly (despite me being on mumble-mode) and all the work looked fantastic. We ate a pizza (chicken tikka) and had some juice (Irn-Bru) and everything went mental.

Our stall did pretty well, Alex sold a ton of bunting and I shifted a load of stuff too. At the risk of sounding a bit sexist, the crowd was pretty girl heavy (a comment on quantity, not attractiveness or weight. You looked great ladies, jeez) and my new work is kinda grisly, so I was surprised to sell anything at all. Not that girls are necessarily out looking for pink butterflies and tiaras but, y'know, they mainly ain't the ones shooting each other on computers.

A big thank you to everyone who bought something, said they liked my work or even just had a look. Well, if you looked and kinda screwed your face up then I'm not specifically thanking you, but I guess thanks for coming along. It's always super nice to get feedback. I discovered I'm no salesman (I think I sold more when I wasn't beside my work) and that my friends and fiancée find it both bewildering and hilarious that I might have 'fans'. This also made me a little depressed.

As for everyone else - it seemed to go down a storm for them too. I really should've paid more attention to whose-name-goes-with-what-work (you don't do stuff like that when you've had a drink or two) because it makes giving shout-outs really embarrassing and difficult. Let's have a try at least. This might go a bit link crazy:

I do know I spoke to Lauren and Jen and Nikki, the organisers (although I'm sure I spoke more to Nikki's dad than I did to Nikki). I picked up the amazing Gentry / McWilliams Choccy Biccy pack and received a copy of Jen's brilliant WWAK zine too. I said 'hello' to twitterer Sanna Dyker and grabbed one of her a prints. Cathereine Barthram aka Paleface was on the next door stall and Rosie Barthram was across the way, both super nice (everyone was nice but I'll keep saying it). I can confirm John Alan Birch is the double of his Xbox avatar (and a nice fellow). My friends got a bunch of cool stuff to give as gifts from Sandra Cassidy of Ruby Loves Red as well as a beautiful pillow by Hilary Grant (both very nice). Amongst other things, (the very nice) Maddy Norval was selling some amazing creatures and Syrah Jay (also nice) had really ace textiles and jewellery. There was music by Jo Foster and I really loved the projections by Lesley Barnes, Sam Spreckley and Edward Shallow (I'm sure they were all very nice too).

That list could go on and on but I wanted to at least try to holla at a few folk. Forgive me if I missed you. Click those links by the way, I didn't just go hunt them out for the good of my health, those cats are doing good things. You can also check out the Dundee Jamboree twitter for a constantly updating what's-what about the night.

When the night began winding down, we had a wee drink at the bar and headed back to our hotel cubicle. Before we got the train home on Tuesday, we had some ice-cream and juice in the sunshine. I spent some of my earnings on a new computer game like a champ.

All in all, I'm really glad I took part. We had a great time, I'm sitting on a bunch of new work (more info to come) and I got to meet some really nice folk and see some really nice work. As a first time stall-manner, I've learned a few things, particularly that stuff needs to be securely displayed or it'll keep falling over. Thanks again to Lauren, Jen and Nikki and to everyone who came by. Oh, and if I spoke to you about anything whatsoever, get in touch. Man, that sounds a bit desperate. Hey, do what you like.

All the fantastic photos on this page are by Joanna Montgomery. I wish I'd used my camera more. I took like, three photos and they're blurry as hell.

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