OUR FIRST MAKER’S MARKET
An outdoor George Gray Centre stall at a market features a green tablecloth with the GGC logo and slogan, "Creating Opportunities." Handmade crafts, like fabric items and painted mushrooms, are displayed. A banner promotes their disability support services. Three women are behind the table, smiling and engaging with the setup, with other market stalls in the sunny background.
We had an amazing time at the GGC Makers Market, and we can’t wait to share all the fantastic moments with you! Held at the George Gray Centre on May 1st, the market was a celebration of creativity, craftsmanship, and community spirit. Our talented GGC participants showcased an array of beautiful crafts, intricate woodwork, and vibrant plants.
The atmosphere was buzzing with excitement as visitors explored the various stalls. From handmade jewelry and art pieces to finely crafted wooden toys and furniture, there was something for everyone. Our artisans took great pride in their work, and it was heartwarming to see so much community support.
One of the highlights was the plant stall, offering a stunning selection of potted plants and garden decorations. These green beauties, nurtured by our dedicated gardening crew, were a hit among visitors and added a lovely touch of nature to the event.
We were thrilled to have ABC Gippsland join us to chat about the market and highlight the incredible work of our participants. Their segment has already aired, and we’re excited to share it with you – have a listen below!
The GGC Makers Market wasn’t just about shopping; it was about bringing people together and celebrating the creativity and hard work of our community. The smiles, laughter, and positive energy were infectious, making it a truly memorable day for everyone involved.
A huge thank you to everyone who came out to support the event. Your enthusiasm and encouragement mean the world to us. Stay tuned for more updates and events as we continue to create opportunities and showcase the incredible talents within our GGC community.
Until next time, keep crafting and supporting local creativity!
Audio Transcript
Peter: Peter Green, CEO of George Grey Centre here in Maffra. And today we've got our open market day where we can sell to the public some of our wears that our participants make during the year, anything from knickknacks to heat bags to plants that they've seeded and cultivated that type of thing.
Rachel: And who came up with the idea for this?
Peter: Oh, it's been a thing that we did pre-COVID, And we thought the times come to do it again. And we hope it evolves into a semi-monthly opportunity with a farm gate feel to it. So, we get going might sell some things that the guys have made or do some trading there to give guys job skills, etc. And just get the guys used to interacting with the community. Everything here has been made by ourselves or grown ourselves. There's things from the Men's Shed, the arts and crafts, woodworks items, etc.
Jeff: I’m Jeff, I do o a lot of woodwork, making things out of the men shed, furniture.
Rachel: And how did you learn this? Did you come from a family of people who make things out of wood?
Peter: Dad’s pretty handy. Isn't he? You and dad work in the garage.
Jeff: Garage a bit.
Rachel: What's the trick to working with wood? What do you have to be good at maths and getting all of the bits even?
Jeff: Even and banging the nails in.
Rachel: Have you ever had an accident?
Jeff: No.
Rachel: Oh, you’re lucky. Touchwood,
Jeff: Touchwood.
Rachel: Probably cause you are touching wood.
Ash: So I'm Ash. I look after George Gray’s marketing; everything from social to the website. Our websites Georgegrey.org.au, or our Facebook page is George Grey Centre and the Instagram page is George dot Grey dot Centre. And we post regularly about what we've been up to and anything coming up.
Rachel: There’s quite a good turnout here today. I noticed there's a few different online shops and op shops going on. Is there a bit of a trail developing here of markets and op shops that you could all coordinate together and have a special up shop Saturday or something?
Ash: I definitely think that would be a great idea. We're always looking out for new community partnerships and building George Gray's presence in the community. So definitely will be something we should look at doing.
Rachel: Maybe there's some graphic designer out there who can draw a map I think they did that in Bairnsdale. They had like a map you could go to all the different little local.
Ash: Yeah, it'd be a good idea.
Tim: I'm Tim. I do a lot of art picture frames of birds, and I do some of that at the Men’s Shed. I work on those trucks have a doing and I do a lot of planting, putting stuff in pots and all my craft work I've been doing.
Rachel: You sound very handy.
Tim: And the mushrooms are tracked by I make it came put a plant inside the truck and I done a green truck. And I did that at Men’s shed. Yeah, and I put it in the Sale show and I prize. A ticket thing, a river the picture thing, I make a picture of an owl and I won that too at the Sale show.
Rachel: Oh gosh, you’re a triple threat,
Tim: And I’ve busy and I'll put all different prices on everything to buy.
Rachel: Have you sold anything yet?
Tim: Yes. My sister bought a couple mushrooms and Cindy bought my owl to put it in her garden and also bought a mushroom thing I made. And over there we got all our gardens stuff. I've done a lot of planting, water all the plants down, its my job to keep busy, I’ve got a straw broom to do all the sweeping the leaves away, so I do a lot of cleaning up at Mens shed. Sweep all the stuff laying on the ground and pick it up and put it in the garbage. I go there every Tuesday. Got morning tea there. Got all our tools there, drills, hand saw, sanding and doing a lot of sweeping up, cleaning all the rubbish I am a cleaning man
Rachel: You're a dream come true.
Wendy: Wendy McLaren at the George Grey Centre. I'm one of the Programme Management Team working with everyone basically in both Maffra and Sale and love all the crafts that the participants have made. They’re just amazing.
Rachel: They're very inventive and obviously salvaging some recycled materials and making them into owls and butterflies and wind chimes. How many classes do you have?
Wendy: So, we have a lot of classes running daily. But the recycled art program runs on a Wednesday and they are incredibly creative. We'll be incorporating soon, brickmaking with recycled newspapers and paper so, that will be a great thing for people who've got open fires or they've got canaras and things like that. And they'll be available at our farm gate when that opens, coming up. So that's another little project that the guys are working on. Just fantastic for winter, everyone's looking to do their bit in recycling items, reusing stuff that, you know, once upon a time was all thrown away. We're getting back to that. And I think this has been a really great focus for our participants here. And they've come up with some amazing, useful things that we've got, you know, little card holders that are over there. They're made with old CDs. I mean, you don't see CDs much anymore. So what happens, we throw them out. They make fantastic card holders for the little kids or other people who have trouble with their fingers. They can hold the cards without any issues.
Rachel: There's a lot of community events going on at the moment. And I've noticed people are really getting behind them. I've never seen so many people really want to support local initiatives. Have you noticed that as well.
Wendy: Yeah, I feel like after COVID that's been a really big thing that everyone's really focused on is the local community and sporting, which is fantastic for the participants here to be involved in community and feeling that what they've made and what they've put all their hard work into. People actually appreciate it. And it's useful. The guys on a Monday they do their fabric artwork, which is all their quilting and amazing art projects that they do. We've got an art group that's done canvases, the horticulture group which has done plants, our Golden Beach Men's Shed that have made all the wooden items a bit of everybody has put into this. It's not just been one group. It's the whole of George Grey and the community that supports it, so Golden Beach Men's Shed have been amazing. The thing is Citz, centre in Sale, where we hold some of our groups have been really supportive with some of the sewing projects. The ladies there are amazing. Lots of people that pop in and offer their support for running little classes so the guys can learn new skills then sell them on which is amazing.