From Maker to Making a Living (May 7-21, 2013).

This just in from our friend Jacqueline at SOAK Wash (pictured on the right above) - she is hosting another in her series of crafty business workshops, From Maker to Making a Living, throughout the month of May. Jacqueline is a wonderfully thoughtful businesswoman and very adept at many facets of marketing and business structuring. Having her brains on hand for picking would serve any independent start-up or hopeful.

From Maker to Making a Living is a workshop series designed to guide craftspeople through the process of understanding, designing and building their individual businesses. Led by maker and award winning business leader Jacqueline Sava, attendees will be guided through an eight-part series of lectures, exercises and activities focused on the development of their own craft-based business practices. 

The knowledge and skills obtained in these workshops will allow makers to successfully balance their personal craft philosophies with the realities of marketing, selling and profiting from their businesses. At the end of the workshop series, each craftsperson will have a custom plan to ensure a successful transition from where they are to where they want to be, and balance their personal craft philosophy with the realities of marketing, selling and profiting from business.

From Maker to Making a Living

Next Toronto Workshop: Tues/ Thurs May 7, 9, 14, 16, 21

Registration on the Soak site:

http://www.soakwash.com/workshops/maker-to-making-a-living-workshop.html

Feminist Zine Making Symposium (April 25-27, 2013).

As you may or may not know, many of City of Craft's earliest vendors, founders and inspirations have deep roots in both the zine scene and myriad feminist movements. Although this may not always be overtly obvious as the show evolves, we would not be much without our solid grounding in these spheres. That is why the She Said Boom Feminist Zine Making Symposium is such and exciting happening, especially as the craft scene seems to feel increasingly adrift in a sea of commercial competition. And it doesn't hurt that so many of our past and present collaborators are involved!

It is coming up this weekend, too! Full listings can be found here. To read a more thoughtful, poetic and personal run-down of the event, check out record holder for most-jobs-at-City-of-Craft-ever, Tara Bursey's, blog post on the subject.

Spring Photo Booth Images Online Now.

Hey, Citizens!

The images from the spring photo booth are now online! Go check 'em out at Have & Hold Design. Big thanks to stylist and prop-designer, Samantha Dubeau and photograpger, Becca Gilgan, for making the booth such a splendid part of our spring event!

Thank You!

Photo by Serena McCarroll

Thank you so much, Toronto, for braving some truly awful last-splash-of-winter weather and making our second annual City of Craft Spring such a fantastic day! What a day! What a crowd! What a rush!

Big ups also go to our entire staff - our designer, Kirsten McCrea; our publications manager, Arounna Khounnoraj; our maven of decor (and other things), Kalpna Patel; our volunteer coordinator, Michelle Renaud; our master of music, Mark Andrada; our prodigal co-founder, Leah Buckareff; and all the volunteers who helped run, decorate and tidy up the event.

I'd also like to thank Trinity St. Paul's United Church for being such a lovely venue with a staff full of truly community-oriented, friendly and helpful staff.

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

See you all in the winter,

Becky

Ring Leader

City of Craft

Spring Photo Booth Preview.

As the minutes, hours and days count down to our big spring show we are happy to bring you a little stream of previews to get y'all super excited. Above is a preview of the spring back drop for our ever-popular photo booth by Have & Hold Design. Ever a stickler for details, Sam has also promised us all-new thematically-inspired spring props for lucky visitors to pose with. Even we don't know what she's cooking up! But we do know that she is a photo booth pro. What's more? It's free for all attendees!

And if all that is not enough, the photographer for this show's booth is the talented and wonderful Becca Gilgan, a very good friend of City of Craft. What could be better?

Sakura Spring.

Above is a little preview of the spring decor planned by our ever-beguiling maven of decorations and head thug, Kalpna Patel.

Last year, Kalpna filled the Trinity St Paul's gymnasium with April showers but this year they seem to have given way to May flowers by way of hundreds of delicate paper sakura blossoms. You'll just have to come out Saturday to see it all yourself!

For more wee previews of all sorts, feel free to follow us on twitter.

Who else is getting stoked?

Spring 2013 Look Book.

With City of Craft's second annual spring show just around the corner (Saturday, in fact), it is time to release our spring Look Book. Take a gander, browse a sampling of our vendors' work and start strategizing your weekend!

Huge thanks to Arounna Khounnoraj for doing the design, concept and layout and to Kirsten McCrea for her design for all of our spring materials. Now, get flippin' through those pages!

One More Week!

Just one more week until the big spring show. Can't wait? Why not start perusing our preview board on Pinterest?

Oh, and that poster? Designed by the ever-talented Kirsten McCrea.

At City of Craft, the volunteers are YOU!

 

 (Gorgeous art work by Kirsten McCrea)

Happy spring crafty citizens! (Just ignore that freezing rain outside and hopefully it will go away!)

I feel like almost every time I post here, I am asking for something, but I guess such is the role of the Volunteer Coordinator.  So here is my semi-annual call for volunteers!

Volunteers are a super important to City of Craft and helping out at a CoC event is a fun way to support Toronto's awesome craft community. The spring show is Saturday, April 20 from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm and we're looking for volunteers to help out in the following ways:

• setting up and tearing down tables/chairs before and after the show
• helping put up some amazing decorations
• taking admission
• helping out vendors by watching over their tables when they need a washroom/food break
• being generally helpful, friendly and welcoming to the City of Craft

So easy! In exchange, volunteers get the chance to be part of a fun creative event and meet great people in Toronto's craft community (and beyond). This is my fifth show as Volunteer Coordinator and I can assure that it's always a great time!

So if you have approximately 3 hours to spare on April 20, send a short e-mail to cityofcraft[AT]gmail[DOT]com and be sure to mark CoC down in your calendar. I'll be in touch with volunteers soon to tell them how they can get on the schedule and other helpful information.

Thanks and see you at City of Craft!
-Michelle
CoC Volunteer Coordinator

Poster Power.

Just a little teaser from the good folks at Kid Icarus who are currently hard at work printing the posters for our upcoming spring show.

The posters are design by Kirsten McCrea and are...pretty outstanding. You'll see.