bloorcourt arts & crafts street fair.

heyho!

i will be out in the world, in the elements, in toronto - this very weekend. please come by and say hello at the bloorcourt arts & crafts street fair. the sweetie pie booth will feature buttons, zines and a whole bunch of sundry projects culled from my studio clean-up efforts. i will also have some cool vintage finds and weird stuff! plus, once you have checked out my stuff, there are over 100 other booths and things to check out (like wrestling, a bouncy castle, screenprinting wars, a bookmobile...)

it all goes down this saturday from 11am-7pm on bloor street from dufferin to christie. wow!

ps - poster design by sandi.

crunch time.

if a messy work space indicates a troubled mind then what does the above picture say about me? that heap indicated the dishevelled state of all of my home, mind and schedule these days in preparation for the impending city of craft weekend. at least i have been getting lots done, though!

there will be both new and old stuff on my table for the show, too. i just got some long out-of-print button sets returned from consignment in rural saskatchewan, so there will even be some rare old chestnuts on offer.

speaking of which, i should get back to everything!

see you on the weekend.

city on the horizon.

city of craft 2011 poster by sandi falconer

this week i am all city of craft all the time - organizing, plotting, planning, emailing, blogging and, of course, making stuff to stock my own table. if you don't come out next weekend you are missing some serious magic!

pom pom power.

i spent a few hours yesterday laser cutting little stacks of hardboard donuts at the workroom. why? well, to use as template for pom poms, of course. the city of craft decor is going decidedly pom pom this year. what's more? you can help! we are hosting a little mixer and craft party next friday to generate the massive heap we need to adequately decorate our two venues this year. you can read more here or see the event posting here.

puff it up, friends!

boxed in.

so far, my one boxing day outing was a bust. my legs are too long for the stockings i wanted. it's okay; i am happier to putter around the house in holey yoga pants, anyway. there is still a year's worth of craft debris to sort through and clear up.

in the spirit of post-holiday deals that can be had from the comfort of your own underpants, city of craft is having a boxing week giveaway. up for grabs are some great 2011 letterpress calendars from dutch door press for etsy among various other awesome goodies. and you can easily enter online.

you can even win extra entries by posting about it on your blog (except i can't, because i run city of craft).

a word to the wise: read the entry instructions. they are very easy to follow. following the rules is the only way to win.

the meaning of objects (a city of craft report on acquisitons).

as this weekend wrapped up and city of craft 2010 drifted into the past i realized that i had made out with far more stuff than usual. with that many like-minded folks under one roof, there is always much swapping and shopping to be done. some of this stuff will stay with me and some will not. i am not going to say what is what right now so that there will be a modicum of surprise left is my meagre holiday gift giving. but i will share the genius of the city of craft brain trust with you here. first off is the laser cut and screen printed pocket knife by beside herself. the beside herself ladies were also responsible for our huge sign at city of craft. they have a minute attention to detail that stretches from projects both large and small which really boggles my mind.

all vendors got these awesome laser cut pencils from old weston's 'read&write - the pencil project.

sexy tea towels from bespoke uprising. these are part of a swap we have both been spacing out on for a year. i as really tempted by her new doily prints but decided that boobies and legs might appeal to my sweetie more. he has been inordinately kind about the preponderance of doilies in the apartment already (even making over-the-top displays of them when he rearranged the apartment while i was in europe). hopefully, this balances the scales back a bit.

drawings from greasychicken face. these weren't even out. they came from under the table like drugs! this made the whole exchange feel even more special. i love these gals.

this year, city of craft had two cosmetics vendor, ella's botanicals and sacred circle herbs. i was so happy to find their products as complimentary as i thought they would be. i got a moisturizing product from each of them - a lotion from ella and a balm from sacred circle. i've been using them both daily since the show. crafting and hot water heat make for very dry hands and body. the balm is greasier and works really well for my cracking hands (too much crochet and paper work). the lotion i have been using post-shower on my whole body. they both smell great!

money from midway artist, miriam grenville. late sunday, i offered to take the first bill offered to me from her counterfeiting booth at face value. turns out that people really feel the value of a dollar when they make it from themselves. even the guy who made to hundred dollar bill didn't spend it. miriam came through, though, and we did some swapping. or is it shopping? i saw a few of these trades go down which makes me think she has actually succeeded in making currency.

print and ornament and tank from sandi at deadweight. okay, these are for me. the print is important for secret, mystical reasons; the ornament is going on my tree; and the tank will hopefully keep me from melting into a northern european puddle if aitor and i agree to make another trek south in the summer. i never find tanks that fit, so this is especially exciting. plus, i love all of sandi's design work. all of it!

from the maple ridge. drew was our only international artist this year coming all the way from philadelphia to my apartment. judging from all the blogs he has popped up on, this was a good trip for him. this illustration, i think, is perfect. we all live in contradiction.

petit hibou par les pin pals. sara habit en colorado maintenant et cela pose quelque questions a propos de la futur de leur collaboration. j'etais assure que leur futur est plein de nouveaux projects, quand meme. how's my french? i tried. i can't find all my accents on this keyboard, though. i don't know why i did that. they aren't even francophones.

a drawing by caitlyn lemonade. i love it.

also by caitlyn in collaboration with amy borkwood. as if giving props to flannery o'conner isn't enough, i got to feel like amy was around more this year. work has stolen her away from city of craft and we all miss her very much.

two small vessels - one in glass from patrick fisher and one in porcelain from rcboisjoli. white on white on white on grey? who am i? anabela?

and, finally, a silhouette portrait from danijela's booth. if you missed out this year, you may not have a chance at one of these again. one of the amazing thing about the artists at city of craft is how fast they can be on to the next project. we wouldn't want them all gathering moss, would we? this ephemeral nature of the event is one of the things i like so much about it. it reminds me of the theatrical world i come from, where the circus would roll into town and it was an event.

good year, everyone! i was blown away as per usual by the mountain of talent this city (and thereabouts) has to offer. of course, this talent goes far beyond the seams of city of craft. in these last few hectic days of shopping, i encourage you to look towards your locals, too wherever you are.

look:
city of craft bricks-and-mortar shopping guide (toronto)
fieldguided local gifts guides 1 & 2 (toronto)
little mountain gallery free store & art auction (vancouver)
craftland (providence)

basket case.

as i did some very important post-craft-fair tape surgery to the city of craft merch suitcase, i couldn't believe i didn't submit it to for keeps.

this used to be aitor's (which he will never let me forget) then i toured with it for years as a performer (which explains all the airline tape) and it has even been shipped across the continent once or twice.

needless to say, they just don't treat luggage like they use to. the innards of this guy are made of wood and all the dovetailed joins shattered immediately - let's be fair, this wasn't amish hardwood dovetailing. still, i feel a real need to keep this guy alive. now it houses all of our shirts, totes and pinback buttons and generally lives a sedentary life in our storage area in the basement of the workroom.

sleep tight, little kicker.

an annual tradition.

2010

2009

2008

karyn takes way better photos than i do.

sleepy city.

well, it's over. city of craft, the craft fair that consumes most of my fall, wrapped up yesterday evening. it was another magical year full of brilliant makers and new human interactions.

i am pretty tired today (that's an understatement; i feel like my head has been hit with a hammer) but the glow from the show is still making me beam through my fatigue.

pictured above is my bud, shannon under the glow of the amazing illuminated sign that beside herself loaned to the show.

tirelessly wirelessless (and other pressing matters).

i am currently very unexcited about the fact that when i got up today (after a very late night and too little sleep), our phone (and thus internet) was dead. this is really not what i need right now. regardless, i still have small news and photographs to share from this roncesvalles avenue cafe.

yesterday evening, i went by the trip print press to pick up our vendor call flyers from nicholas. he was weirdly apologetic on the phone about some defect is saw in them. he's nuts; they are so beautiful. i posted a more verbose account of the whole thing here (but the pictures are the same). note the button love in the last image. when are we going to do that letterpress artist set we were talking about, nicholas?

trunks.

i'm exhausted.

the trunk show today was entirely lovely. i was especially happy to get to vend beside some folks who we've been wanting to involve in city of craft stuff for a while - stitchface, argyle acorn, arounna...

i only snapped a few pictures that turned out (i used to be so good at documenting - maybe the skill will return). but karyn took a bunch of great shots with her new camera.

i am trying to pare down these days, so i really had to hold back when it came to bringing things home. there was some fantastic stuff, too. i really liked the laser cut birdhouses that melinda's partner, chris, made. and all the great prints from repeat. who am i kidding, i would take one of everything if i could. some samples:

i ended up with just one print and one card from deadweight. the print is from sandi's unimpressed ladies series. it will join a growing collection of portraits that is currently seeking a permanent home in my apartment. i think i have just the wall...

spring loaded.

a late note to tell you, the world, of the wonders that will behold you tomorrow (sunday) at city of craft/the workroom's spring trunk show. the vendors are amazing, i know i have gathered some of my own vintage rummage, and spring is in the air. if you are in toronto, you should probably hop on a bike and mosey on down to the workroom tomorrow.

on a website.
on a facebook.

business trip.

another visit to the trip print press (this time at sunset) to pick up some way-ahead-of-schedule city of craft business cards. nicholas is amazing. there is a greater account of what he is up to on the city of craft blog here.

these city of craft artist collaborations are great in that we give our annual designers a lot of free reign and creative power (in exchange for ludicrous heaps of work). this means that seeing their designs is always a great surprise. in the case of a letterpress designer, you also get to walk out of the workshop with actual stuff.

love and rummage 2.

some images from the trunk show...

top to bottom: tara bursey, krystal speck, leah buckareff/the coldsnap bindery, cecelia hayes, tara bursey.

field trip.

today i went to visit nicholas at the trip print press to discuss some serious city of craft business. there is always so much to look at there. we also talked about our shared fears of being hoarders. but if he is, doesn't he do it with style?