I got Covid again. This variation was a lot different from the last. Last time I struggled with my breathing for months, coughed constantly and was exhausted all of the time. A few weeks ago I thought I had a cold. I felt groggy, my sinuses were inflamed and my eyes hurt. By the end of the day I had a fever and my body ached, like pins and needles. When explaining this similarity to a friend she asked “like when it goes numb?” and I responded with “not quite. Like when you have pins and needles and someone flicks you and it feels like thousands of tiny pins are stabbing you.” That’s what my body felt like. After about two weeks, I felt much better. This time I did kinda lose my sense of taste. I could feel textures and temperatures, then just salt or just sugar but no flavour. It’s taking a while and a lot of chewing but it is slowly coming back. (Unfortunately I can not stand bitter tasting things. I was obsessed with coffee and dark chocolate. Every cup I have had since has made me flinch in disgust and have been avoiding my beloved dark chocolate just in case I have the same reaction.)

During this time I’ve had an unintentional Social Media break. Yes I know, I was sleeping a lot so obviously, but I feel so much better for it. My head feels so much clearer and after all of the changes to Instagram (no I do not want to see endless Reels and adverts on my feed) I have been in two minds about even staying on it. Constant scrolling overwhelms my senses and makes me feel so disconnected. At the same time, it is my main source for connecting with other creatives. The idea of getting back to scrolling and ‘content creation’ was making me wince. My senses are still healing. I’m taking it very slowly, easing myself back. I’ve hardly been on Tiktok. My art Instagram has purely been used to engage with friends or artists and collectives I want to catch up on. I’m still finding it difficult to find a balance but I feel a lot less pressure to be on there and am reconnecting with physicality.

What better way to get back to the physical than a market? For those who have been following me for some time will know I attempted an Etsy store last year. It proved harder than anticipated as my main audience was in the UK and the postage prices from Sweden are insane. Along with my local tax, the prices of my pieces shot up and thus, no sales (and it didn’t help I am terrible at self promotion). Online wasn’t working so I decided to move to the material world.

I had signed up to do this market ages ago and all the preparation I had done for my online shop had made a huge impact for my market prep. Almost to the point where I didn’t have much to do or buy! One of my jobs was closing down so I picked up a chalk board and some bits and pieces for the stall. I had also seen a lot of beautiful Cyanotypes in the past done on fabric but I didn’t have a lot of space so ended up with a sort of patchwork effect (which I really liked anyway!) for my table cloth. I headed to one of my cafe jobs to borrow the printer to print some information about the Cyanotype process, some tips about caring for the pieces and was ready to go!

The day of the market came and it also happened to be Moving Day. I said good luck to my partner and headed out into the thick, humid morning. I arrived at the park and realised I had royally fucked up. I thought I had signed up to the 1000m Konstmarkad which is the 1000m Art Market that they hold in Huddinge every year. However it turns out it isn’t on this year! Instead, I had signed up to a Loppis or in other words a flea market/carboot type affair. I was placed between two stalls selling children’s clothes, who looked at me with bemusement when I began pulling out my artwork and signage. I stuck out like a sore thumb with prices that should never be seen at a Boot sale. But I sat at my table, smiling to myself because to be honest I was just happy to finally get around to doing a Market. I really needed the practice and my combination of years working in customer service and being able to ramble about things I love, put me well at ease.

Luckily I had already tried to plan a few prices variations to suit a variety of incomes. I had made a “Pay What You Want (or Can)” box of smaller Cyanotypes and bookmarks which is what I only ended up selling on the day! Totally understandable! Lots of people came and went, and in very stereotypical Swedish fashion (that it made me giggle to myself) was that they all drifted towards the tea toned items. Swedes love their beige’s and browns! Although not a monetarily successful day, I thought it was good over all! I got good experience, made lots of notes of what I need to improve or change for next time and ultimately got out of moving house. When I packed up, I bought some lunch and headed to my new apartment!