Marketeers survival guide:

Over here at SquareThursday, we are such veterans of the market trading experience we thought we should impart some top tips, hints and words of wisdom should you ever find yourself in the position of selling your wares on a stall.

1)Stay warm. 

Particularly in winter layers are your friend. Lots of jumpers, coats, long johns, GLOVES, scarves, hats, hoods, vests, blankets, pillows, hell bring a duvet. Also wear as many pairs of socks as will fit in your shoes. Wear warm shoes. Also bring some kind of cardboard/newspaper/carpet scrap to stand on. This will stop the cold from creeping from the street and into your feet. Tramps have been doing this for years and they defo know how to stay warm. (If you must resort to drinking out of coldness/boredom aim to do it a bit later on, afternoon drunk is charming, morning drunk is frowned upon.)

2) Ignore the customer!

They may always be right but they are also timid. British people are a bit like kittens, inquisitive but easily spooked. I know everyone likes to invisage the quaint cockney stall holder ranting and hustling but unless you are some kind off mind control agent, (or a gab gifted cockaneeey) best to not speak unless spoken too.

3) "I'll be back... honest."

These are the words you never want to hear a customer say. 8.35 times out of ten, they wont be. Even if they have every intention of coming back any number of things could happen. They could be struck by lightning, abducted by aliens/ex-lovers, or have to hurry home because they worked out the answer to 7 down in the Guardian crossword from the day before and everything else faded into insignificance. Variations of the 'I'll be back' include: 'I'm going to think about it', 'I need to ask my spouse', and worst of all 'I'm going to go straight to a cash point.'  

4)Be prepared. 

A trading day can feel long as. Bring lots of snacks & some form of entertainment. This can be a: book, game, puzzle, craft activity, laptop or if your lucky a friend.

5) Speaking of friends...

Friends are great. If your as lucky as we are and have such wonderful, generous (and did i mention good-looking?) friends, they will come and keep you company, bring you treats, warmth and even buy your stuff. Even if they don't actually buy anything, friends are useful for posing as potential customers, this makes real customers feel less threatened & more likely to approach you!

Don't you just love friends?

Jasper
x

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Sunday Best

Hello chums!

This Sunday you will be able to find us at Sunday Upmarket at The Old Truman Brewery, East London.
We are very excited. Not least because this lovely market is indoors. Yay for warmth!

Secret Spy instructions for finding us there:

Arrive at the market. Jet ski or zip wire; the choice is yours.
Go in. Remain furtive and alert.
Locate some stairs and ascend. No tap dancing.
Turn left, then left, then second left then through the doors. Don't forget to check out everyone else's lovely stalls. Gathering intelligence is a vital part of your mission.
Left right right and there we are!
The secret code word is 'blancmange'.

Molly
x

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SQUARETHURSDAY @ PORTOBELLO ROAD

This weekend, weather, doughbots and transport permitting, we will be at London's one-and-only PORTOBELLO ROAD. This is "maje", Kate Moss sometimes hangs out there. There is also a super expensive vintage shop with famous peoples pictures outside, and Chanel handbags, but that's not swag enough. Really...it's all about clouds.

So come along and help keep us warm. A hug, mug of coffee or a blanket with fabric conditioner in (preferably) would be super nice, and we'll give you matez rates. They're good yeah!

ALSO, were so underground, we kinda forgot to say that we did a stall at Camden Lock the other week. Low level steez is how we like to roll over here at SQ HQ....

This was our business card section, but on second reflection, maybe the robot was a bit too protective. Props to his bouncer-like-ness in the cage. Man knows how to rock a glare...


BTW it's 3am, i'm really tired, and this is a guest post by Theresa, occasional PR, fan and according to Jasper, muse. Amusing.

LOVE SQUARETHURSDAY. XXXXX

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Mates Monday

It's Mates Monday again because I went to the best zoo in the world on Friday!

This week: Theresa Adebiyi

A wonderful blog by a wonderful gal. Theresa has not only been an integral part of making SquareThursday happen, but she writes brilliant posts on music, art, fashion, trainers and Twin Peaks. Do head over and have a read: you won't regret it.

This week (among other things) she has revealed her newest pair of trainers which have prompted me to seriously consider ruining our friendship by robbing her.



I want them so bad


Molly
xx

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Mates Monday

So, owing to me not posting it, there has been a delay on Friends Friday this week. For one week only we have Mates Monday!

This week: Bang Bang Crash

Our friend Jojo makes amazing animal onesies. Inspired by a costume style popular in Japan, she has created her own cosy, comfortable, magical garments ideal for festivals, parties or just lounging around at home. I have a purple and powder blue dinosaur and I love it! Who hasn't always wanted a tail to swish around behind them?







Buy them at her shop here.

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The Origin of Clouds

In line with the last post's heady mix of artistic commentary, intrigue and self promotion, I thought I might do a bit of the aesthetic background to our ever popular 'Cloud' series that also makes up the background of all our web based profiles. No it's not inspired by the generic Windows screen saver, nor just a tribute to the sky itself - the cloud imagery is a homage to the surrealist giant Magritte. I remember seeing some work by René Magritte when I was pretty young and thinking it was amazing. I particularly liked his paintings of clouds on people mainly because it was like some kind of crazy dream-world-surrealist-invisibility-sky-mirror-bodysuit/face mask, that a super hero might wear. 

So perhaps this association is what lead to the various 'Cloud' garments. I am pretty keen on super heroes as well as surrealist art, so hey, surreal art clothing!

 Good for superheroes to fly around in: camouflaged yet casual...

 A separate example of Magritte inspiration can be found in my garden. I found some mannequin legs in the street and did some sky on them.

Actually clouds on legs are pretty good... Molly - we definitely need to get on making those cloud leggings.

Jasper.x

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Robots: The way of the future

Robots are probably one of the best things in the world ever. Not in any practical real world sense, although I'm sure they have plenty. I'm coming from a purely aesthetic and fictitious perspective. They're in all the best movies; Terminator 1&2, Short Circuit, Star Wars... although actually both Terminator and Star Wars franchises have resulted in some of the worst movies in recent years and they did have robots in as well. So did that awful film with Haley Joel Osment in that was like Pinocchio only in the future and dreadful... AI...that's it!

OK so maybe there is no sure fire correlation between robots and awesomeness in films, but robots themselves are pretty awesome. Especially the boxy robots that they came up with in the olden days, that 1950's vision of the future that strangely looks like it could have been designed and made by a seven year old.

Two years ago Theresa gave me a book of tiny comics by an incredible illustrator called Tom Gauld. He pretty much encapsulates the best side of a robot - that strange blend of sadness, naivete, hilarity and potential dread...

The latest T-shirt I designed for SquareThursday is definitely something of a homage to Tom Gauld. Look out for it on our website soon...

Jasper.x

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