Spring Edition!

Hi guys!

Just popping in to make sure you are aware that the First Ever Spring Edition of City of Craft is taking place this coming Saturday at Trinity St. Paul's United Church. If that dead zone between the winter holiday season and summer fairs has got you down, City of Craft is here to help with what promises to be a show budding with fresh goods!

This is a blown up version of the craft and rummage trunk show that goes down periodically at the workroom, with 40+ vendors bringing you the best in local art, craft, design, supplies, rummage, vintage, housewares, children's goods, and more.

Other awesomeness you can expect:

• Interactive fun like the free photo booth by Have & Hold Design
  
• A few visitors from afar
  
• Kids' Row for youth vendors 14 and under
  
• Studio supply clear-outs from Toronto indie craft's top makers
  
• Dazling decor
  
• Hot tunes all day from DJ Clean Teen
  
• The Toronto Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef
  
• Surprises!
  

City of Craft Spring would be a great place to get something sweet for your mom, treat yourself to spring craft supplies, work on your art collection and maybe even score some deals.

See you there!

City of Craft Spring!
Saturday, April 21, 2012
11am-6pm
Trinity St. Paul's United Church
427 Bloor St. W.(West of Spadina)
Toronto, ON
$1 (Kids 12 & Under FREE)

Spring Show Needs Volunteers!

Happy spring crafty citizens! I must say I'm pretty excited to be making a call for volunteers so early in 2012, thanks to CoC's first big spring show.

As I'm sure you can guess, 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 21 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
• 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
  

It's really that 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). As always, City of Craft shows its appreciation to its volunteers by thanking them with great (and sometimes limited edition) swag. It's win-win!

So if you have 2 to 3 hours to spare on April 21, send a short e-mail to cityofcraft[AT]gmail[DOT]com and be sure to mark CoC down in your calendar. Here's the event page on Facebook so you can get all main the info right away.

Next week, we'll send out an e-mail to volunteers to ask about their scheduling preferences.

Thanks Citizens!

Stay crafty,
Michelle
Volunteer Coordinator

Strange Brew.

Our friend, former (and maybe future) installation coordinator, and DJ for the upcoming spring show, Tara Bursey (aka DJ Clean Teen) has just launched a monthly shindig at The Embassy in Kensignton Market.

And guess what! The first Wednesday of the month is this Wednesday. Who wants to cut a rug to 60's/70's music?

Looking for a Few Good Youth Vendors.

Ella nearly sold out at the workroom's Holiday Trunk Show 2008.
Photo by Alison Westlake.

Although there was no general vendor call for the upcoming, first-ever City of Craft Spring show (vendors were invited from the Winter 2011 waiting list), we do have a few very special spots to fill. With this Spring show being all about first-evers, we will be supporting a brand new initiative: a special section for vendors 14 and under! Yup, we are creating space for the plucky upstart youngsters who will someday supplant us.

Details:

4ft of table space

$40 ($41.50 incl. payment fees)

Youth vendors must be selling work they make

Youth vendors must have an accompanying adult on site at all time

City of Craft Spring

Saturday, April 21, 2012
11am-6pm
Trinity St. Paul's United Church
427 Bloor Street West
(one block West of Spadina)
Toronto, ON

Applications will be accepted on a first-come-first served basis. We will only reject submissions if they do not fit in with our criteria (handmade by the applicant, applicant must be 14 or younger, adult must agree to being on site). Collaborations are also entirely acceptable.

To apply, please copy-and-paste and answer the following in an email to cityofcraft@gmail.com

Name of Applicant:

Age of Applicant:

Email of Applicant (if any):

Website, blog, shop (if any):

Phone Number:

Adult Contact Name:

Adult Contact Email:

Phone Number:

Does this adult agree to be on site for the duration of the event (including set-up and clean-up):

Type(s) of Crafts Made:

Do you make these crafts yourself?

What process do you use to make these items?

Price Range:

Anything else you would like to add?

Please also attach 2-5 images of the work. If accepted, these images may be used on our website, blog and other online outlets.

For this event, we have an incredibly limited number of spots (8) and have no idea what the response will be, so get those emails in quickly (but make sure to fill out all questions). Don't worry, if the response is huge we will see what we can do about making youth opportunities again in the near future.

We really look forward to seeing what everyone is making!

We would really like to thank our friends at Crafty Wonderland in Portland, Oregon, for inspiring us to this and for providing guidance. If you are ever in the Portland area, you should check them out!

Cormarama (A Fundraiser for Derek McCormack).

Citizens, we were just alerted to this important call to action via various friends in the City of Craft network. Local author, bookseller and Hallowe'enologist, Derek McCormack has fallen ill and requires an extensive treatment and recovery time to get better. Seeing as how he has worked in arts and retail, he doesn't have a huge financial cushion to support his recovery time.

To gather him a little breathing room, some friends in the art community have come together to create a triple-action fundraising plan. There's a shindig, an online art sale (with a very impressive line-up) and an easy set-up for making plain old donations.

Mr. McCormack is a fantastic contributor to art and literature in this city (the country and the world, too). His collaborations in the craft and design worlds have also set the bar really high for cheeky/thoughtful hybrids. If talent and output lead to money, he would already be a millionaire. Let's help normalize the scales and get him through this rotten patch.

If you have not already, you can read up on his past work here.

Spring Show!

Oh, it's on. The first ever City of Craft Spring event is exactly one month away.

With vendors invited primarily from the December 2011 waiting list, this show will be a hearty mixture of handmade, vintage and supplies. Like our ever-popular Trunk Shows but on a much larger scale than ever before!

40+ vendors, a Kid's Row of vendors 14 and under, all day tunes by DJ Clean Teen, and more!

There is much more to share, but I will just leave it at that for now.

Y'all can check the vendor list here as it grows like so many bulbs in a flower bed. See you in April!

City of Craft Spring
Saturday, April 21, 2012
11am-6pm
Trinity St. Paul's United Church
427 Bloor Street West
(one block Wets of Spadina)
Toronto, ON

Craft Toronto: Collective Noun Linocuts by the minouette.

True fact, I am personally a sucker for collective nouns, in all of their ridiculous linguistic glory. That's why this series of inspired linocuts (which can be found here) by Ele Willoughby has me so beguiled.

The Craft Toronto photo pool is a rolling stream of craft projects being made in the city (and thereabouts). It is an initiative hosted by City of Craft and reflects more makers than any of our real-world events ever could. What's more? You can join!