Why I'm not at Bowerbird Market this year ...

Handmade (not just 'designed')

I've been doing Bowerbird since 2017. That's not nothing. It's been a good run, and I'm genuinely grateful for every person who came looking for me there over the years.

But markets evolve. And Bowerbird has shifted - gradually, then noticeably - toward 'Australian designed', which is a different thing to handmade. Designed here. Made elsewhere. Which is completely fine - it's a legitimate business model, and there's beautiful work in that space. But it's not the same thing as what I do. And I'd rather be honest about that than pretend the distinction doesn't matter.

And it's not just me - I have spoken to many makers who are disillusioned with the stall next to you selling items for the same price, but they are not handmade 😢

No shade. Just honesty.

What handmade actually means

Every scarf I sell was woven by me, on my 8-shaft floor loom, in my Adelaide studio. Not printed. Not produced in a factory run. Not outsourced. Thread by thread, pick by pick, from warp to finished cloth. It takes time. It takes skill. It takes a body. That's the whole point.

When you buy a Threefold scarf, you're not buying something that was designed in Adelaide and made somewhere cheaper. You're buying something that only exists because I made it!  And that distinction matters to me enough to be the filter I use when deciding where to show up.

The world got a good look at what cheap really costs

Temu. Shein. The endless scroll of factory-made everything, arriving in plastic envelopes from somewhere you'll never know, made by someone you'll never meet. Post-pandemic, I think a lot of people started asking different questions. Who made this? How was it made? Will it last? Does it mean something?

The tide is turning. People are choosing markets specifically because they want to meet the maker, touch the thing before they buy it, and know their money is going somewhere real. I want to be in rooms where that's the whole point - not competing with factories. I'm not trying to.

So I'm being deliberate about where I show up

This year I'm focusing on markets that genuinely celebrate and support handmade - the kind where the ethos of the event matches the ethos of the work. And I'm leaning into my stockists, who already get it. Fleurieu Arthouse, the Jam Factory, Fossick, Fabrik, Gallery M - these are places that understand what handmade means and why it matters.

Less spread. More intention. Which, honestly, has always been the Threefold way.

Everything I make is still here!

If you've been coming to find me at Bowerbird - thank you! Genuinely. It means everything that you kept showing up. You can still find me. Just in different rooms.

Online at threefolddesigns.com.au. At my stockists across South Australia. At my studio at Collective Haunt in Norwood every Saturday. And at the markets that feel like home.

Slow and considered. That's where I'll be. 🌿

PS - I'm not saying I'll never do Bowerbird again - I'm just watching to see if they change, and feel more supportive.