‘So wholesome’: Students show off their creations at Massey Halls market day

A Wellington Massey Hall market day was a safe space for students to show off their artistic creations for the first time.  

Students sold crochet, crystals, paintings, drawings, jewellery, and much more at a market day at first year hall, Kāinga Rua, on the 16th of May.  

Flatmates Tamar van Niekerk and Anovshka van Boekhout-McKenzie were drawing one-minute portraits for $2 dollars each.  

The pair were inspired by Wellington market, PARK(ing) Day, where an artist was doing one-minute paintings, “I thought it's something we could do,” Boekhout-McKenzie said.  

Niekerk said it was their first time ever doing a market stall and it made it fun having people they knew around, “It’s not too intimidating.”  

The artists had their two other flatmates at the stall supporting them. “It's been so wholesome”, Niekerk said.  

After such a good experience, they wanted to do more markets together.  

Phoebe Ingram started crocheting a year and a half before deciding to sell a table full of chunky yarn beanies and more.  

“We saw that the halls were doing a market day and my mum told me, ‘You need to get involved’.” 

“It's a nice introduction to a larger scale market,” she said, “It's a cosy start off kind of thing.” 

Ru Allpress had her business called Ru Creates for five years, starting in Year 9 with scrunchies, and evolving into jewellery and tote bags.  

Her table had a range of handmade treasures, from her own artwork, to earrings, to knitted scarfs.  

The business revolved around whatever she wanted to create, evolving with her new hobbies and interests.  

She loved trying lots of hobbies and crafts, “I have way too many art supplies”. 

“I love Spotlight. Going through the bead aisle is so fun,” Allpress said. 

Danica Waters and Lucas Omidyar had almost completely sold out of their crochet creations after an hour.  

Waters said, “We were really worried we weren’t gonna sell anything.” 

“It's nice having it as a smaller event, it's nice having people you know around.” 

Eli Armstrong had been running a crystal business for 3 years.  

While he used to do around 12 markets a year, it was his first market since starting university.  

He said it was a chill event to get back into it, “It's not a stressful environment.” 

The business, Celestial Creations, all started when Armstrong was bored in Year 10 and went to Spotlight and bought beads to make jewellery.  

In 2022, his small business won him the Young Enterprise Scheme and he left high school a year early to study at Massey.  

Originally from Palmerston North, Armstrong felt it was nice to bring a piece of home to Wellington and show his hall friends. 

Second year student, Tay, was sharing a table with the creations of her three flatmates, Jaisy, Will and Bell.  

With her hall’s bedroom filled with plants, Tay made 60 cuttings of a golden poco plant.  

Tay said she would do another market day at the halls, “It’s fun here”.  

It was design student Lucia Stoneman’s first market day. She was selling cat stickers, “They’re doodles from my books, really obscure little cats”.  

Stoneman’s said she’d not only enjoyed the market but learnt a lot.