Market Day Draws In Crowds

The Garden City Market Day in Raiwai was the perfect place for Amelia Aiden to showcase her handmade flower products yesterday.

“I’ve always been passionate about my flowers which is why I make all the products by myself at home,” the 22-year-old said.

“My products are mainly local-based and some of the flowers I weave them myself.

“It is nearly a year since I started and I’m so glad and thankful that God has brought me this far.”

Her main goal is to invest for future studies.

“I’m actually investing a lot in my business because I’m saving up for my studies later on. This is actually a side business as I currently have a full time job,” she said.

Ms Aiden said business started blooming after she moved to Suva.

“I used to work in Nadi, but due to COVID-19, my markets and products were affected so I moved to Suva and this is where my business got big,” she said.

“I really benefit a lot from this business,” she added.

She is currently based at Shopaholic Fiji where she has also done the shop’s setup using flowers.

Some products made by Ms Aiden include hair clips, head lei, hair bands, Moana head lei and Veikau Lei for men.

ROC market

Maria Canty, 53, travelled all the way from Nadi to Suva, in order to showcase her talent for crafting items made from broken mirrors, at the ROC Market yesterday.

Broken mirror craft has been Ms Canty’s passion for a while now. She became inspired to get into this craft by her sister-in-law who is a mosaic artist in New Zealand.

“She gave me two hour lessons and I started doing it, never looked back. That was like 10 years ago,” Ms Canty said.

“I used to make it at home; I started off with tiles and now I’m doing the coloured glass.”

Edited by Jonathan Bryce