city of craft news

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2010-03-08T05:22:00.001-08:00

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Dates! 2010 Dates!

2010-02-08T12:14:00.000-08:00

That's right, we have some dates for 2010.

Go check it out on the blog.

Love and Rummage 2.

2010-01-25T07:16:00.000-08:00

That sweet time of year has come back around and we at City of Craft (in collaboration with Karyn at the workroom) have assembled another sampling of sweet handmade and rummage vendors to fill your darling's heart with joy this Valentine's Day. Check out the web page for vendor links and/or the blog for breaking news, sneak previews and interviews.

Thank you, 2009!

2009-12-30T23:34:00.001-08:00

photo by sweetie pie press

Thank you to all the organizers, volunteers, vendors, installation artists, helpers, shoppers, and others who made City of Craft 2009 such a great hit. We are all very tired and looking forward to some much needed rest.

Also, big thank you to Katie Muth for designing those awesome cards and letting us have a few.

See you all in 2010!

Get your swag on.

2009-12-10T17:35:00.000-08:00

Heads up to lovers of awesome stuff:

Arrive early on Saturday to be one of the first 100 visitors to receive a swag bag featuring the winning design by Shannon Lea Adolph of coucou salut. Swags bags include graphic novels from Drawn and Quarterly, goodies from The Paper Place, iron-on embroidery patterns from Sublime Stitching, gift certificates from Coriander Girl Florist, indie press publications and coupons and vouchers for free stuff from City of Craft vendors to be used at booths during the craft sale. You will not be disappointed!

These go super quick (no joke!) so do not dawdle.

Come Party With Us, Crafty Style.

2009-11-29T10:55:00.001-08:00

It's true, we are having a pre-show party and opening for the curated group show Home and Away (and In-Between) - curated by the lovely Tara Bursey - this coming Friday.

Friday, December 4th. 7-11pm
Exhibition runs December 3-13, 2009
Cream Tangerine Café
At the Great Hall
1087 Queen Street West, Toronto

Read More on our blog, cruise to the webpage or check it out on facebook.

Installation Write-ups are Alive!

2009-11-24T19:47:00.001-08:00

All Citizens Postcards photo(s) by Serena McCarroll

Come one, come all and hear ye, hear ye:

As we draw nearer to the big, big day, our installations page has finally come alive on the website. Shoved full of valuable and dazzling information amassed and compiled by our installation curatrix (too cute?), Tara Bursey, it is a veritable treasure trove of large scale craft/art goodness.

And if that were not enough, you can also check our the installation features on our blog for Tara's in-depth profiles of individual artists and their work(s).

Keep your eyes peeled, crafty citizens; The streets around the Theatre Centre will start to be dotted with City of Craft Installations as early as next week!

Volunteer with us!

2009-11-22T05:59:00.000-08:00

Handmade homesteader, or lonestar craft cowboy, you’re on call to join us on the radical-craft frontier to build this City!

We need people to help out with set up, tear down, vendor assistance, installations & workshops, among many other things. Volunteers are essential to raisin' this barn!

Mosey over to our blog for full details.

Winner of our Swag Bag Contest: Shannon Lea Adolph

2009-11-15T05:26:00.000-08:00

The votes are in and it's official: our 2009 Swag Bag Design contest winner is: Shannon Lea Adolph.

Check out her Toronto skyline-inspired design - so clever & cute!

Shannon is a Montreal-based crafter who makes adorable art pillows and dolls screenprinted with her illustrations. They are available through her etsy shop, cou cou salut.

Shannon's winning design will be printed (in colour) on cotton totes, stuffed with crafty goodies, and available to the first 100 attendees of City of Craft.

Swag Bag Design Contest - Deadline extended to November 10th!

2009-11-02T16:30:00.000-08:00

2008 design by Shannon Gerard, printed by Studio XIX

Those of you who meant to enter the contest but saw the deadline come and go, take heart. We're giving you an extra chunk of time to get your original designs that reflect a unique, handmade aesthetic out of your head and into our inbox!

If your design is chosen, it will be printed on cotton totes which will be handed out to the first lucky 100 attendees of City of Craft 2009 filled with fantastic goodies from local and international craft artists and indie publications. People line up before we open our doors in the freezing cold to receive them, so we want to give them something special this year to take home.

The winner will be rewarded handsomely with crafty prizes* and fame via our website, blog & other press outlets.

Designs should be no more than 8.5 by 11 inches at a high resolution. We accept jpegs and pdfs. If you aren't sure what sort of line thickness is needed for silkscreening or you have any other questions just let us know.

If you think you have the winning design, let us know by sending your submission to swagbag@cityofcraft.com by November 10th.

Good luck!

*Prizes = badges from Lee Meszaros, ceramic shot glasses from Krystal Speck, an amazing class gift card from The Workroom (at a value of $50), a button set from and diptych print from Sweetie Pie Press and a pair of mittlets from Anna Zygowski.

City of Craft at Canzine TODAY!

2009-11-01T07:09:00.000-08:00

Head over The Gladstone to check out Canzine and our General Store themed City of Craft room!

This year, City of Craft is teaming up with the good folks at Broken Pencil Magazine to bring a brand new 'art room' to their annual celebration of indie culture, Hotel Canzine. Our room, The City of Craft General Store, will be a one-day jam-packed old-timey shop to delight all your crafty senses.

Sunday, November 1, 2009
1pm - 7pm
The Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen St. West (Queen just East of Dufferin)
Toronto
$5 admission comes with a free copy of the Fall issue of Broken Pencil Magazine

The City of Craft General Store features selected works from...

Bespoke Uprising
Bettula
Tara Bursey
Damned Dollies
Shannon Gerrard
Lee Meszaros
Misanthrope Specialty Co.
Mr. Skona
Nightjar Books
The Pinpals
Resurrection Fern
The Sweetie Pie Press

Visit webpage for details.

Pure Rummage Trunk Show, this Sunday!

2009-10-13T23:56:00.001-07:00

Photo by Roisin Fagan

Read all about it!

Installations ga-lore!

2009-10-05T11:42:00.000-07:00

Lizz Aston, Beginning to Macrame

Tara, our brilliant (and tireless, it seems) installations coordinator has posted a sneak peak of what City of Craft 2009 attendees will encounter at the show on our blog.

A full-sized crocheted skeleton! A giant piece of interactive macrame! Crafty stop-motion animation! An enormous knit tornado! Text-based public space interventions!

More pics & info here.

Vendors announced for 2009.

2009-09-30T11:17:00.001-07:00

photo by greasy chicken face

What a month! We are tired.

Go look here for the full vendor list. Or here for links and pretty banners.

Swag Bag Design Contest!

2009-09-17T19:26:00.001-07:00

photo by city of craft

For the first time ever, we are opening the call for designer to the city at large. Feel like pimpin' out our 2009 swag bags? Read more here.

New look, etc.

2009-09-15T23:12:00.000-07:00

Read all about it on the big blog here.

Last Call.

2009-08-31T06:16:00.001-07:00

photo by sweetie pie press

Just to be clear, applications for 2009 vendors and installations close tonight at Midnight, Eastern Standard Time (Toronto/New York).

Thank you to all who have already applied. We have already broken submission records.

Good thing we have a bit of extra space this year. Wait, am I saying too much...?

Applications Coming to a Close.

2009-08-26T11:50:00.001-07:00

With applications for both vendors and installations already reaching record-breaking numbers, we are starting to feel like gluttons for punishment in continuing to spread the word so actively. But every new submission just reminds us how talented the makers are in our area (and beyond - our applicants our stretching even further away this year).

But it is true, this is the last splash of summer and of City of Craft application time.

We close the flood gates on Monday, August 31, 2009 at midnight sharp.

Be there or be square.

Applications can be found here.

Applications now live for 2009 Installation Proposals.

2009-07-28T20:37:00.001-07:00

City of Craft is looking for crafty artists and artsy crafters to create installations for this year's City of Craft, which will take place both in and around The Theatre Centre during the weekend of December 12-13, 2009. This year's installation programming will be greatly expanded to include more installation artists and even more fantastic Queen Street West venues. For this year's installations we hope to include a wide range of crafty approaches, which reflect the diversity and conceptual richness of contemporary craft practices. Several venues will be available to artists for City of Craft installation programming this year, from Queen West galleries, storefront windows and public spaces to the nooks and crannies of City of Craft's fabulous and historic venue, The Theatre Centre.

Some ideas for proposals could include (but are certainly not limited to!) the exploration of:
- crafty public interventions
- 'digital craft' (craft + video, craft + kinetics, etc)
- crafty performance
- textile-based installations
- participatory craft-based installations

To propose an installation, go here.

Do It!

2009-07-21T22:12:00.000-07:00

Applications Alive for 2009 Show!

2009-06-22T11:40:00.000-07:00

We have some very big news from City of Craft HQ. Really big!

Our little show has finally stretched its wings to encompass two whole days! We owe a massive thanks to everyone at the Theatre Centre for working so hard to accommodate us. Franco was especially helpful in making this happen.

Now that that is out in the open, we are also happy to announce our 2009 application has gone live. Please, please, please read the 2009 FAQ before filling out your online form (another thank you is due to Graeme "Tough Love" Bunton for making the form happen). FAQ's are full of answers, just full!

Okay, flood gates, you are open. Bring it on!

Time for a Garden Party.

2009-06-17T11:28:00.000-07:00

Time to do some gardening? or just freshen up your nest for the swelling of summer? Then put on your sun bonnet and shimmy on down to the workroom on Sunday, June 21, 2009 for the Garden Party Trunk Show.

Featuring the wares/rummage of:

Bespoke Uprising
Brit Boutique
Keri Rounding
Krystal Speck
Kid Icarus
Lunar Craft
Old Weston
Operation Sock Monkey
Pleasurecraft
Resurrection Fern
Snap & Tumble
Tara Bursey
Willow Dawson
the workroom

Free snacks!

Kraut Krafting

2009-05-17T11:38:00.000-07:00

City of Craft has crossed the ocean again and is helping sponsor the first ever Bastel Brigade production.

Bastel Brigade is a new crafty networking collective formed to help bring crafters in Berlin together to pool resources and help promote craft culture in the city.

This event is all about recycled and remade fashion. Workshops and live music in the courtyard during the afternoon and a special screening of "Ein Traum in Erdbeerfolie" (German only) in the evening.

Bring a piece of clothing you want to reinvent, or just come out and create your own accessories!

Collective sponsors for this event are:
Linkle - http://www.linkle.de
Stitchalicious - http://stitchalicious.com
City of Craft - http://www.cityofcraft.com
La Bastellerie - http://www.myspace.com/labastellerie
Eiszeit Kino - http://www.eiszeit-kino.de
Modular - http://www.modulor.de

Date announce for December 2009

2009-04-27T13:28:00.000-07:00

It is true! We have just confirmed our date for 2009 - Saturday, December 12th!

There is lots on the go around City of Craft HQ with all sorts of potential announcements brewing, not the least of which is a hopeful possibility towards expanding the show to two days this year. While we are not able to confirm this yet, we do know that at the very least a bigger, badder-assed City of Craft will dominate that icy Saturday in December.

So pull out your calendars and take note!

Handmade Nation tickets on sale today!

2009-02-17T00:15:00.001-08:00

As of 11:00am, tickets will officially be on sale for the Canadian Premier of Handmade Nation at the Ontario Craft Council Gallery at 993 Queen Street West in Toronto. Scoop 'em up. Seating is extremely limited.