Minouette at the 5th Etsy: Made in Canada at MaRS Discovery District

Find me at Table 32 at Etsy: Made in Canada, September 29, 2018 (photo credit: Peter Power, 2016 show)

This Saturday, 10 to 6, find me selling at Table 32 for our 5th Annual Etsy: Made in Canada show! This year we have 130 fabulous handmade artists and artisans selling in the airy and history MaRS Discovery District Atrium. I will have a selection of my linocut prints and stuffed toys, with natural history, science prints, and hints of magic! This is always a great show and I hope you'll come join us. Stop by and say hello!

Etsy: Made in Canada & UnNatural History plus Dinovember

This Saturday, September 23, we're returning to MaRS for our 4th Etsy: Made in Canada show! 

This year, I'll be selling my prints and hand-printed textiles at Table 38 in the west side of the Atrium off University Avenue. I'm enjoying stepping back a little, playing a role in the organizational committee but not being the leader. I've handed over the reigns to my friend (and show neighbour at Table 40) Emma of Landfill Designs is the ringleader this year! So, I get much more opportunity to simply enjoy one of the biggest and best shows of the year. Show up early for a chance to get one of our fabled swag bags! There will be a great juried selection of 125 local artists, artisans, designers, vintage purveryors and makers. Hope to see you there! Click on the maps to see larger images and plan your route.


I'm also excited to announce I'll be taking part in An UnNatural History! Local multimedia (metal and glass) sculptor and jewellery maker Tosca Terran of nanopod is curating an international group show which takes inspiration from the history of the artistic representation of natural history to investigate the unreal including "hybrid organisms, fictional fungi/botany, distant imaginary worlds, unusual geometry, otherworldly life, geography, animals, minerals, astronomy, genetic mutations." This subject dovetails with my own investigations of fictional science and my "Unnatural history" series of prints and I'm excited to see my work in context of this group and others' interpretation of these fascinating ideas. Tosca is also planning some fabulous events to coincide with the show including a Halloween party Opening, bat skeleton articulation workshops and Dias de los Muertos themed sugar skull workshops all at the Toronto Etsy Street Team Gallery!
 

Then in November, I'm curating the DINOVEMBER show, celebrating all things dinosaurs! This exhibition will feature art in all media and handcrafted items about everyone's favourite extinct behemoths*, the dinosaurs! For Dinovember we are seeking dinosaur items from imaginative artworks to scientific illustrations to handmade toys and other goods.

Other non-dinosaur Mesozoic creatures are also welcome! We love flying and marine reptiles, prehistoric fish and more.

*Diminuative dinosaurs are also welcome. Find out more here.

Etsy: Made in Canada Toronto III

It's me at the minouette table (photo: Peter Power)

Central atrium with suspended
critters by LoveLetteringToronto (photo: Peter Power)

So we made it through our third year of Etsy: Made in Canada Toronto at MaRS! We had a great turn-out, and despite some signage snafus and unplanned early morning musical tables (like musical chairs, but with craft show locations and no music), it went really well and together with my fellow organizers we pulled this feat off once again! This takes months of work and planning to make an event like this happen and really I just want to sleep for a week. You can read my post about the show here - but let me reiterate my thanks especially to my team of organizers, our volunteers, staff, workshop teachers and everyone who came out to see the show!

I put my marine geophysicist's skills of "how to lower things on ropes" and tie proper knots to work suspending our decor with fishing line from catwalks on the second and third floor of the soaring MaRS atrium (pro tip: don't look down or get yourself locked in an elevator) on the Thursaday evening prior to Etsy's Press Preview on Friday. Etsy wanted me to meet their new COO, who visited the show on Saturday and bought a 'Raccoon Greetings' print for her office, which was pretty nifty.

My parliament of 150 owl linocuts I made for swag bags!

Preparing for this show is why I've been pretty quiet here; in recent months it's really taken all of my time not spent caring for Gabriel. Our team had some bad luck this year, with members and their loved ones having a variety of health problems, which meant that we had fewer people doing more work. It's really imperative that people do put their own health first, and I'm glad that those who needed to do so stepped back. But, that's left me with the unenviable role of finding and picking up the slack and taking on a bit too much. I need a better approach in the future. I got off easy with one minor trip to Emerg, having cut right through a fingernail chopping onions (because I was over tired). They glued me back together, gave me a tetanus shot and sent me home. Others had far more serious issues to contend with... but all of the above are the signal that things will need to change as we go forward.

Being interviewed by What She Said about Etsy: Made in Canada

In the lead-up to the show I did get some exciting press. I was interviewed on What She Said (which has a large listenership here in Ontario) about Etsy: Made in Canada (and you can watch the whole thing on YouTube at the link). I was also on CBC radio's Here and Now. They did a great little feature not just about the show, but since their Arts reporter was intrigued by the idea of a geophysicist/printmaker, about me and what I do!

In less MIC-related press, I was interviewed by the CBC for the local newscast earlier this summer about the impending (and mercifully avoided) postal strike and its potential impact on small businesses like mine. They also took a clip of that - and to our surprise - played it on the national radio news the next morning. I've been so busy, I didn't even mention that here.

Also, early this summer, I had the pleasure of meeting Gloria and Caroline of RogueStories, a series about people who have made unexpected bends in their career path, especially women entrepreneurs. Check out the great article they published about me.

Now... I'm going to go take it easy for a while! Happy autumn all!

Minouette at Etsy: Made in Canada Toronto 2015

Me at the minouette table at Etsy: Made in Canada, September 26th at MaRS (photo credit: Peter Power)

Well, we pulled it off for a second year running! I'm really proud of the tremendous show we put on this Saturday. Totally exhausting, but it looked fabulous, there was a great crowd and a great feeling to the show. I love seeing that thousands of Torontonians come out to see our great local (and some farther afield Canadian) sellers and shop their handmade and vintage wares. I had several people stop and talk with me and when they realized I was an organizer of the show, volunteer that they felt it was the best craft show in the city.

Our enthusiastic fans began arriving at 5:30 am for a chance at getting a swag bag! This is the line outside MaRS at 7:30 am, when we already had 69 lucky people who would get one of the 100 swag bags. The swag bags were pretty awesome. I saw some of the incredibly generous donations from sellers before the bags were stuffed and was blown away... in fact, I started to worry that my swag offerings were inadequate. Some people really outdid themselves. (photo: Ele Willoughby)

photo credit: Peter Power

photo credit: Peter Power

photo credit: Peter Power

Throughout the day, there were eight workshops, free to the public - both DIY handmade items and how to assess and care for vintage items. I'm so impressed with what people will take on. One teacher volunteered despite also getting married and having her honeymoon this month. Another teacher sadly had a family emergency, but handled the situation with consideration and grace and quickly helped us find one of her friends and colleagues who could take her place. I'd like to thank all the workshop leaders and these three in particular (you know who you are!).

We had some minor snafus (last minute security requests for tables to be moved, brief electrical disruptions, missing chairs), but nothing we couldn't handle and we were able to get help from our hosts.

The crowd was as engaged as last year. I got questions like, "Is this woodcut? And this chine collé?" which pretty much tells me they are educated about printmaking. One shopper got excited and asked if a portrait was of Jane Austen. I had to tell her though it was the right era, the portrait was of astronomer Caroline Herschel, to which she replied, "Well, that explains the comets." There was a great mix of people of all ages. At one point, I ran into my son's pediatrician, who asked, "What are you doing here?" and I replied, "I'm running the show!"

photo credit: Peter Power

I think I should maybe sleep for a month now! But no rest for me. I had the Big Magic pop-up market already, on Monday (more on that soon), and I have my sights on the One of a Kind Show in November.

I've written a longer post about Etsy: Made in Canada Toronto on the team blog here. You should check out our #EtsyMICToronto hashtag on Instagram to see some of the amazing things which were there.

Thanks to everyone who came out, and made this possible! Especially my super fabulous collection of fellow organizers from TEST and 416Hustler, who are the best. Period. Thank you to all the talented vendors who made the show look and feel amazing and for all your kind words. I really appreciate it. Thank you to the volunteers (especially Becca, who helped me in particular), Pete for the great photos, and of course, Etsy Canada, MaRS, and our sponsors.

Storms and coffee, raccoons and books

Oh, poor neglected blog! I'm sorry I've been so busy. I spent much of August travelling through New England and the Maritime provinces and I'd love to share some photos (as soon as I have some more time and can get them from my husband's computer, where we dumped the data while on the road). After that, it's been non-stop Etsy: Made in Canada planning! We've been working on it since January and now it's practically here. Please do come out and see the show this Saturday, September 26th, 10 am to 6 pm, at the MaRS Centre Atrium at Collge and University if you're in Toronto. If you're not, you can find 33 other shows at cities across the country.

I've even failed to mention other shows. My portrait of Charles Keeling was in Art.Science.Gallery's show about climate change, 'From the Mountains To the Sea'.

I have a coffee-themed linocut which will be exhibited as part of the Coffee Art Project at The New York Coffee Festival from September 25^th – 27^th 2015. The Coffee Art Project is a competition and sale, with proceeds going to Project Waterfall which brings clean water to coffee growing regions in the developping world. (If you're in NYC and want free tickets, drop me a line. I can't use mine.)

Last weekend, I participated in my first outdoor show, the DECAF show in East Lynn Park (bit of a coffee theme here...). Saturday was, frankly, terrifying. RJH encounted some difficulty as the advance party, sent to set up my borrowed 10' tent

(thanks to some unsolicited but well-intentioned "help" we ended up with a broken frame).  I was managing okay with our jerry-rigged set-up until after lunch, when the light rain turned to violent, gusting wind and a sudden storm. It was the sort of weather where all sane people go inside. I was there by myself and called RJH for help. I didn't even have proper walls; we had suspended tarps. We ended up with the two of us holding the tent down, so it didn't fly away with the baby in the stroller in the middle of the tent to stay dry and safe. When the rain let up a little, I ran home with the baby and called my mother for help. She was able to babysit, so I could return... but by that point everyone was closing for the day and all I could do was mop up the mess. While I had to go through all of my prints and dry them off, damage was minimal because they are sealed in plastic envelops. It was just nerve-wracking. My friend Queenie said it was her first and last outdoor show. Maybe the risk of weather just isn't worth it for those of us who make paper goods. Luckily, the Sunday was beautiful. RJH re-jigged the tent with new and more thorough tarps. Hilariously, I had a raccoon visitor in my tent, presumably there to check out my raccoon high five prints.

After Etsy: Made in Canada I have one more thing to do before I can relax, and take a break. Next Monday, Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love) will be in Toronto at the Elizabeth Bader Theatre to discuss her highly-anticipated new book, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. I'm going to be there as part of the Toronto Etsy Street Team pop-up market before and after the event! Penguin Random House Canada sent me an advance copy and it's really great. I enjoyed it much more than I imagined I would. I'm always a bit dubious of the bestsellers or blockbusters, because sometimes wildly popular means less than challenging, or middle-of-the-road and I haven't read Eat, Pray, Love. I also didn't think I needed a pep talk about welcoming creativity, but I think now that even those of us driven to create can learn to be more gentle with ourselves and open to creativity. We're also likely to enjoy thinking about the very concept. Big Magic reads like having a frank, free-wheeling discussion about creativity and what's she's learned about being an artist (both before and after acheiving fame and financial success). It's also a sort of caring, empathetic manifesto for why and how you should do everything to welcome creativity into your life. Her experience with creativity is as a writer, so she writes a lot about writing, though she defines creativity quite broadly and includes examples of everything from ice skating to ecology. I love the idea of celebrating a book about creativity by hosting a hand-made market at the book reading. It promises to be a interesting night. The reading is sold out, I'm afraid... but she's got some great things to say. You can catch some of her take on the creative life today on the Etsy Blog.

High Five Elle!

A friend emailed last week and said, "You may already know this but I just saw it in the August issue of Elle Canada :) Just wanted to share with you in case!" I did not know and was very excited! She included a pic from her iPhone so I got a peek... but I've been wanting to scan it and share it.

I walked several kilometers with the baby in the stroller, visiting multiple stores, but every one was still stocking the July issue. Finally, I got a hold of one. It's fabulous. It's in with an article called 'Elle Radar Canadian Special' about the 'next generation of artists, musicians and social-medial stars who are redefining Canadiana cool'. It's on a page with what's hip in Canadian whiskey (apparently), and facing Shad's music picks. It's the beginning of their 'Art & Design' section. So it's the perfect place to direct Canadians to come visit their nearest Etsy: Made in Canada this September 26th. Also, it's amazing to be singled out amongst that talented crew! I like their succinct review, "colourful block prints that are equal parts history lesson and tongue-in-cheek vintage Canadiana."