Tag: Carters Steam Fair

Travelling Show

Carters Steam Fair

We try to visit Carter’s Steam Fair every time they come to our local park, and this weekend was no exception. I wanted to take lots of photographs of the typography. (I still haven’t saved up enough money to go on Joby Carter’s signwriting course, but one day I will. One day.)

Carters Steam Fair

The rides feature two main styles of artwork – the intricately carved and decorated work of the 19th century…

Carters Steam Fair

…and the streamlined Art Deco style of the early 20th century.

Carters Steam Fair

This gorgeous Morris JB van is from the late 1950s. Every time I see it, I mentally drive it away and use it to travel around selling lovely things. Fortunately for the Carters it’s extremely unlikely that I’m ever going to learn to drive, so their ice cream van remains safe for now!

One day I must be brave and ask for permission to photograph some of the fair’s living vans. (There were people doing that, but it seemed a little bit rude. They are people’s homes, after all.) The Carter’s website has some more information about them, but not about the one I fell most in love with, which was a very streamlined caravan, which you can catch a glimpse of from their Facebook page:

Post by Carters Steam Fair online.

I must admit, I’d gone to Carter’s looking for magic, and didn’t find it there this time. (Not through any fault of the fair, which I absolutely love, but more to do with my own frame of mind at the moment.)

hedgespoken_logo_button

So, I was very excited to go online yesterday morning and find out about Rima and Tom‘s new project – Hedgespoken. It’s going to be a travelling performance space and home all in one! Please watch the film, it’s absolutely gorgeous, and explains their hopes and dreams beautifully.

I’m hoping to find a little money to send their way at the end of the month, and I’ll be following the project’s progress with great interest.

I’m always a little bit nervous talking about my interest in magic and liminality and travelling life (particularly when I don’t travel myself!), for fear of being thought even dafter than most people think I am already. But in a world as horrible as the one we’re currently living in, I can totally understand the need to create your own magic, and to share it as widely as you can.

Holiday Germs

Corn Stores Indoor Market

It turns out that my brain’s still full – this time with germs.

I had five days off work at Easter, spent four of them working on the Emporium, and the fifth in bed with a chest and sinus infection. What a lovely relaxing holiday! This is our little stall at the Corn Stores Indoor Market, the first event of its kind. Unfortunately the combination of a quiet town on Easter Sunday and the absolutely pouring rain meant that it wasn’t terribly well attended – but we made a few sales, and had a lovely day chatting to the other stallholders. Hopefully it will be busier next time.

Carters Steam Fair

The following day (despite feeling terrible and having to hobble around with my walking stick), I forced Paul to take me on my annual pilgrimage to Carter’s Steam Fair. We stayed less than half an hour in the end – partly because the weather was terrible, and partly because I should have really been in bed!

Carters Steam Fair

We usually have a go on the arcade machines (neither of us being big fans of the actual rides), and Paul fancied winning this little chap to go with his ever increasing collection of miniatures to paint. Unfortunately the motor had broken so the crane didn’t want to work… until a nice man with a huge chain of keys came along and opened up the machine and poked it with a screwdriver until it sprang into life!

Carters Steam Fair

Paul seems quite happy with his winnings!

Carters Steam Fair

This dapper gent (half soldier, half carousel horse) doesn’t seem too bothered that there’s a giant chicken giving him a funny look…

Carters Steam Fair

…and I think this is the best advice I was given all weekend.

It may not all be going to plan (you may not even have a clear idea of what the plan’s supposed to be!), but if there’s nothing you can do about it, why worry?

(I worry a lot. I’m working on it.)

I love Twitter.

Now to save up my pennies, so I can afford a place on the signwriting course!

Running away to join the fair


Image © Carters Steam Fair

Yes, I know the circus is more traditional. But ever since I moved to Reading almost twenty years ago, I’ve been in love with Carters Steam Fair. On a whim, I wondered what sort of job a person of my skill range* could do as part of a fair, so I went to their website to have a look.

That’s when I discovered that Joby Carter, son of John and Anna who originally started the fair in 1975,  runs courses in signwriting and coach painting. He also has an additional business called White Waltham Restoration, which specialises in the restoration, conservation and use of vintage machinery.

Now that, I could do!

In fact I went to a signwriter and printer for my school work experience at the age of fifteen… although they didn’t let me actually paint or typeset or do anything, and I spent the entire week designing my own letterhead (they printed an entire ream for me, I think I still have some left) and drawing an extremely detailed picture of a hawk moth that was later hung in my parents’ hallway.

But I digress.

It seems as though my degree in typography and my (admittedly limited) experience of painting pub chalkboards would stand me in good stead for not making too much of a pig’s ear of a signwriting course. I’m good at hand-lettering (if I do say so myself!), and learning how to work in the style of the Victorian fairground would be fascinating.

And how absolutely wonderful would it be to work for a company that has its very own Victorian Roller Disco, complete with a live pianist in the middle?!

 

So, here’s my latest New-And-Improved Life Plan:

Step One: Book a place on Joby Carter’s signwriting course.
Step Two: Get a job with Carters Steam Fair or White Waltham Restoration**.

What could possibly go wrong…?

 

*Can’t drive, can’t lift heavy things, can’t operate or repair machinery, fairground rides make me sick…
**Yes, of course I know it’s not as easy as all that. Stop spoiling all my fun, will you?!