Today I braved the freezing weather to go to my first Antiques and Collectors fair at Ardingly show ground. I've never been to anything like this before so I wasn't really sure what to expect, but to sum it up briefly it was immense, random and cold.
Theses fairs happen all over the country and there seems to be one at Ardingly every couple of months. If you love stuff, GO. There was so much of it; furniture, silverwear, ceramics, more silverware, jewellery, all manner of different stuffed animals. Everything you could ever want, it was there.
I wasn't looking for anything in particular, it was really nice just to walk around (well apart from the fact it was bitterly cold - I imagine it would be much better in the spring). It was an amazing place to take photos, there were so many weird and wonderful things to photograph, but I did feel a little inhibited taking them of peoples stalls mostly because no one else was. As a result I did miss some great photos, next time I will be more bold, or perhaps sneaky.
Most of the fair is outside, but at Ardingly there is also a lot inside, and this was mainly the smaller stuff which I didn't find as interesting as the bigger random bits outside. But there were some lovely things to be found.
I was hoping to find some lovely vintage fabric, but there wasn't a great deal of textiles. I did find a few stalls selling old bits of lace and old clothes and scarves that had potential. There was one lovely stand with some dress patterns, loving the illustration on these.
Also, if you live in a flat and need some pointers on how to survive, it may be worth trying to find this book...
There was some beautiful hardware to be found, great if you were trying to refurbish a Victorian house, these door handles looked so pretty all lined up...
One little stall had a tonne of sewing notions and equipment,
Random seller award to this guy, old school footballs, wooden skis and a toy car. All it's missing is a stuffed badger, but not to worry, there were plenty of those elsewhere, along with stuffed squirrels, ferrets, deer, birds, foxes, next time I go, I will played stuff animal bingo, want to play too?
In the end I bought nothing, the only thing I came close to buying was a french book of kids clothes from the 20's/30's which would have made an amazing source book but it was incredibly expensive.
Exciting other random occurrences from the day, my friend and I turned a corner to see money everywhere fluttering all over the path. People were picking it up and naturally we pitched in too. Most of the crowd dispersed quickly leaving us with the money we collected and that of an old lady who was keen to hand it over. We handed it in of course, much to the horror of the stewards who we asked for help. We found £250, I think at least double that was blowing around.
Also, we saw actual Cath Kidston, carrying around some pretty textiles for inspiration, of course, what else would she be doing? stuffed animal bingo maybe, I expect she has been before.
