STUD FARM: Hiatus

For those of you who follow my blog (I wonder, is there anyone...), apologies for the lack of posts. It's been a crazy time for me. For the last six months I have been studying in the US. And now I'm finally a journalism graduate, an unemployed journalism graduate...

For the last month or so I've been traveling Mexico with my boyfriend. What an amazing place it is! The people, the food, the culture AND THE JEWELLERY!

I've done quite a bit of traveling and I have always dreamt of stumbling across amazing markets with beautiful handmade goods and vintage jewellery. Unfortunately, almost all markets just have the same shit. Basically the Vic Markets in a different country.

But Mexico, oh Mexico, it's everything and more. Beautiful knitted hats, scarves, gloves for under $3 - the Native women sitting there sewing in front of you. Cute handmade toy animals, which you would pay $100 for but only cost $3-5. I felt horrible paying so little for what would cost a small fortune in Australia. Going to Mexico? Make sure you go to San Cristobal, Chiapas.

Handmade leather bags for under $20

I love this hat and it only cost $3!

Then in Mexico City we went to brick-a-brack markets. I swear I have never been so hyperactive. Imagine, over 50 stalls of the most amazing antique jewellery. I wouldn't even classify it as 'vintage'. It was beyond trendy, just amazing. Each stall had 100s of one-off rings, necklaces, bracelets, made from jade, gold and silver. Unfortunately, Mexico City was our last stop so we had hardly any money. And the markets are a lot more expensive than we had thought. Of course comparatively they are dirt cheap. But after paying $6 for a beautiful hand-knit jumper, paying $40 for a silver necklace seemed like $1000 dollars to us. But something similar in Australia would easily cost $150-200. It was actually painful to look at all the jewellery that I would never own. Next time, I'm reserving funds just for the markets.