As a beadmaker or jewelry designer, have you ever sold your wares at an outdoor market? Last year a thread on one of the glass boards encouraged jewelry designers to try the market. So I did some research and found a local market and reserved my space.
If I were a fiction writer, the outdoor market would be the place to do character research. The market is a true feast of the collective American persona. That persona is quirky, very quirky. It may be unfair to think someone's personality is represented by their Sunday morning clothing, a Tweety t-shirt, a pair of lime green terry shorts that are too tight and worn out or the straw cowboy hat. But it seems that some aspect of personality is evident Sunday morning despite the fact it's 8 30 am.
A 60ish woman wearing a pink floppy hat, pink lipstick and fuschia linen shirt walks over to my table. I feel awkward and out of place with my table full of simple single bead necklaces. Most of the tables here are vegetables, flowers, antiques, garage sale items and baseball cards.
I break eye contact with the Pink Woman to see a 50ish man walking by wearing a a white shirt with a diagonal print of guitars. Wonder if he has a velvet painting of Elvis at home? Or does he make guitars?
The woman in the pink floppy hat looks up from my table and says, "Pretty" with her pink lips and walks away. I looked down at her feet, she has on cotton candy pink Crocs.
Characters, Americans are characters.
