Boulevard of broken seams

Okay, so this rather wonderful and witty title is actually borrowed from the name of a alteration and clothing store on College where I tried to get the vintage dress I just bought fixed. It was closed. So instead I enlisted the help of Karyn at the Workroom to help ME fix it and I now have a dress which skims not suffocates. Right now I am feeling rather pleased with myself having mended a pre-loved dress and saved myself a buck or two.
More news soon. Meantime, I am busying myself at the desk my boyfriend has lovingly dubbed 'the button station' creating everlasting button bouquets, clocks and such for the fast-approaching Valentines Trunk Show.

Questions for Crafters

Some of you may have noticed the Questions for Crafters section I have started writing for Toronto Craft Alert. A weeklyish addition to TCA where we give the interesting crafters, shop owners, galleries and co-operatives of our city the third degree, each profile attempts to to find exactly what out exactly what kinds of crafting goodness are getting interviewees inspired, wired and tired.
In case you don't check that wonderful blog spot, you can check it out here

Sustain in the brain

It was at an unGodly hour this morning that I found myself heading out to Owen Sound's Tom Thomson Gallery for the Making Matters: Sustainability and Craft Practice symposium. (Being up for a 6am departure was always going to be a tad painful, and sure enough I was frantically running to the TTC having barely dragged a brush through my tousled hair - only in Canada would the train be pulling into the station as I arrived!)

Thankfully my bleary mind was greeted with a lively and inspiring debate around the issue of sustainability and craft, which was well worth the winter white-out which the car had to suffer on the way.

The event was programmed to coincide with the Makers Return exhibition - a show documenting the activity of Makers, an craft co-operative run by local artists and craftspeople between 1981 and 1985 in downtown Owen Sound, who upheld the philosophy of handmade production. A small, but lovingly curated show, it brought together the suprisingly undated ceramic, silver and cloth work of the 14 members, of which only two continue as full time craftspeople.

Most interesting was how it was not only the favoured eco footprint buzz words which came into play, but issues surrounding how to sustain a craft business/co-op, craft as a form of resistance and how craft can bring together the earth and art and inspiring and inventive ways.

Sweet thrills

Button-mania is upon me again. I have been accepted to vend at City of Craft's Valentine's Trunk Show over at The Workroom. Organised by Becky Johnson of Sweetie Pie Press with Karyn Valino of The Workroom, it's a pint-sized informal craft sale where all 15 vendors have just one suitcase in which to squeeze their wares. I must say
the list of talented creatives involved is a little intimidating, but at least I only have only one wee suitcase to fill!

A New Year's Eve Tranzac - tion

Okay, so missing the 2008 countdown during the push towards Tranzac's main space was a little anticlimactic (a belated Auld Lang Syne and complementary bubbly soon got festive cheer flowing again however). Similarly, last orders at two was met with disdain (my friends had only just begun the construction of large, interesting shapes on the dancefloor). But, all in all, a merry time was had by (almost) all, it seemed.
A sparkly tie-sporting Gentleman Reg was certainly alluring, but Laura Barrett (think female Jeffrey Lewis with a side order of sugar cubes) had to be the highlight. Witty, beguiling and open to audience heckles, the kalimba-wielding, sweet-voiced folk songstress was perfect antidote to the onset of seasonal affective disorder with her cautionary tale of nylon tails and clockwork hearts, Robot Ponies.
Oh, budding Tranzac washroom graffiti artist (work pictured) take note.