Interview with Avril Loreti

Website: www.avrilloreti.com

Shop: www.avrilloreti.etsy.com

Blog: www.avrilloreti.blogspot.com

Twitter: twitter.com/avrilloreti

What do you make and how?

I make accessories for modern lifestyles with a quirky play on everyday objects and pop icons. Me and my creative process like to spread out wide and juggle at least 5 things at once. In that swarm of activity there’s a little scanning and sketching, Illustratoring and Photoshoping, ironing and pressing, pondering and dreaming, and finally making something out of all that.

Tell us about your history as an artist/crafter? Have you always been involved in making things?

I’ve always been making things. In high school I took every possible creative arts class, and then on weekends, I’d be sewing up dresses to wear the following week. It was in first year university where I discovered my love for conceptual art. Trying to develop many layers of meaning in each art piece or putting two things together to create a new meaning just blew my mind. I’ll admit that after school I tried to get away from being an artist. I started going the route of retail design and arts administration, but the art just pulled me back in. I really believe that if it’s in you, you can’t deny it. It will always keep calling to you until you surrender to it and make that your main life’s work.

What does your practice look like? Do you work at this full time or part time?

I have a full time practice. I started as part time 2 years ago and sold mostly online through my Etsy shop and through some consignment stores across Toronto. I’m now starting to add more art and craft shows to the mix.

What inspires you?

Sunny days… watching people work hard… roller coasters… new fabrics… fresh colour palettes… noticing things for the first time even through I’ve seen them a million times before… Before and After shots… really amazing photography…

What are some of your favourite artists/designers/crafters in the city?

I just discovered Geneviève Jodouin recently. Her prints are so nostalgic and pretty. I always love everything that C1 Artspace shows.

Tell us about some of your favourite things/places/restaurants in the city?

I love this question! There are so many amazing things about Toronto. It’s really the best city to live in. Zoots café (Dundas W. / Gladstone) is amazing for breakfast. Tinto (Roncesvalles) has the best lunch and wifi. My all time favourite Italian restaurant is The Big Ragu (Lansdowne / St. Clair). Their gnocci is to die for and the waitress will give you a hug on the way out. I love Tiff. It’s always the best way to lighten the transition from Summer to Fall. Wynick/Tuck and Stephen Bulger Galleries are my faves!

Advice to emerging artisans?

Work on your “thing” for 15 minutes every day. When it’s all in front of you and you it seems so daunting and unmotivating. The little bit you do every day eventually adds up and it really does snowball from there.

Where else will you be selling your work?

Kid Icarus – Kensington Market

Shopgirls – Parkdale

Distill Gallery – The distillery district

C1 Artspace - Ossington

Talking with Moira of Sew Mo

Shop: www.SewMo.etsy.com

Blog:http://sewmo.blogspot.com/

Why do I create? Creating is my lifeline. I learned that first hand when I lost myself working in an office shuffling paperwork for 10 years. There is nothing like seeing a finished design and saying to myself - "Wow, I created that!" - I get a warm fuzzy feeling.

Sew Mo’ specializes in quality, durable, functional - and downright fashionable - bags & accessories for women that are environmentally sensitive. A one woman show based in Toronto, Sew Mo’ (aka: Moira) designs and creates all of the items you see in the shop by hand. A passion for sewing and design and careful garment construction is provided in every Sew Mo’ bag.

How are Sew Mo' bags and accessories environmentally sensitive?

1) All items are handmade in the little Sew Mo' studio right here in Toronto.

2) Sew Mo' often incorporates up cycled fabric combined with new fabrics

3) All new fabrics are made from natural fibres preventing more plastic from ending up in our landfills.

A bit about Pam from Lurearts Pottery

Shop: Lurearts.etsy.com

I am happy to have a home studio where I make functional pottery and ceramic jewelry. I love throwing forms on the wheel but I also use other techniques such as handbuilding and altering. I formulate my own glazes so that I can have control over the colour and strength of my glazes.

At the moment, I teach high school visual art and CyberARTS so I fill the rest of my time making pottery. I mainly sell my work at local craft shows and at Lurearts. Etsy.com I have embraced selling online and work to keep a strong online presence. I blog, I tweet, and have found a great online community of Toronto artists. I love that people all over the world can check out my work and I still get a little thrill when I pack up a bowl to ship to a foreign destination.

Some of my favourite Toronto places to hang out are independent coffee shops and of course Ed’s ice cream shop. One of my favourite desserts is Ed’s vanilla bean ice cream topped with a shot of Mercury espresso in one of my little pottery dessert bowls. Yummy!

An Interview with Jordynn MacKenzie

Website: www.jordynnmackenzie.com

Shop: www.jordynnmackenzie.etsy.com

What do you make and how?

I hand print textiles with colourful patterns, which I mix and match with new and used fabrics for my sewn goods: wallets, handbags, pouches and pillows. I also design sewing patterns.

Tell us about your history as an artist/crafter?

I've been a crafter for as long as I can remember. I graduated from toilet paper tube Christmas ornaments to sewing when my mom taught me how use her 1980s Kenmore sewing machine. I think my first project was a messenger bag made from an old pair of jeans. My job at a thrift store at the time started my huge secondhand fabric collection which fueled my love of sewing and textiles.

What does your practice look like? Do you work at this full time or part time?

I have a studio in the attic space of our home, where I work on my business somewhere between full and part time, also working as a freelance graphic designer.

What inspires you?

I'm inspired by almost everything in my surroundings: colour, print, and texture to name a few. I love old buildings, things made of wood, vintage cross stitch, pretty china teapots and kitty cats.

Where else will you be selling your work?

Winter Fling...A Craft Thing (Dec 5); and I also sell my items at Kid Icarus in Kensington Market

Andrew Kellner Pottery

Andrew Kellner is a functional potter who tends to make utilitarian household objects. Ranging from plates, bowls, mugs, cookie jars and much more. He gravitates towards the fun and simple in his work.

Interview with Alda and Carolyn of Beside Herself

Website: Besideherself.ca

Shop: Besideherself.etsy.com

Blog: Beside-herself.blogspot.com

What do you make and how?

We are printmakers and we make a wide variety of hand-printed things, from fine art editions to soft sculptures, cards, art objects and things we like. We feel like printmaking allows us the freedom to make almost anything and we approach our work with this potential. Anything is possible; everything can be printed.

Tell us about your history as an artist/crafter? Have you always been involved in making things?

We’ve both had artsy inclinations from a very young age. Beside Herself is really only a few months old. We met each other in university when we were studying fine art with a focus on print media. In that time we became familiar with one another's work and working habits. We’ve only started working in collaboration since we graduated.

What does your practice look like? Do you work at this full time or part time?

We work out of a tiny studio apartment that has been manipulated to meet our needs. Mostly everything is done in this space including screen-printing. We store light sensitive screens in a linen closet, expose them with a hooded lamp under a worktable and wash then out with a garden hose in the bathtub. When we need a press we rely on public studios. We make it work.

Our practice is full time as much as possible, hyper full time. At some point this may need to become part time so that we can pick-up additional jobs and save for a few critical pieces of studio equipment. This is our ideal job and we’re in it for the long term. We’ve got big ideas.

What inspires you?

We’re inspired by a lot of things… here’s a few.

Paper, printed ephemera, handcrafting traditions, fashion, interior and industrial design, packaging and merchandising, dancing, mass production, innovative installation, material potential, simulacra, diy, music, mortality, humor and more.

Where do you get your design ideas from?

We approach all our work as our artwork. Our designs are based on a conceptual theme that we develop over a number of pieces that respond to one another. Usually one of us suggests an idea in seed form. Over time and through conversation we take that idea and expand upon it until it feels complete and mutual. Then we add it to our current to-do list. We love lists and make them daily.

Tell us about some of your favourite things/places/restaurants in the city?

Gandhi’s is hands down our favourite place in the city. When we’re not eating their delicious roti’s, we’re thinking about them. It is our favourite place to recover after a long day of rummaging through the Queen west fabric shops.

Other amazing places are: 401 Richmond, Toronto Island, outdoor pools, parks and our tiny studio.

Advice to emerging artisans?

We will surely have words of wisdom to share one day, once we ourselves have grown and are no longer emerging. The only advice we can give at this time, just do it. It has worked for us so far.

Where else will you be selling your work?

We have our work in a couple of the cutest shops in the city, Bluebird Handmade at Bathurst, just north of Bloor and Love of Mine Boutique on Queen.

Interview with Akemi from Kozo Studio

Blog: http://kozostudio.blogspot.com/

Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=5066533996

Blog: http://wunderkammercabinet.blogspot.com/

What do you make and how?

I like to make all kinds of things, but my interests are centred around the Book Arts. I love making hand-bound books. It's meditative and quiet. I tend to be a bit of a traditionalist in terms of my supplies; archival papers and boards for the body and covers of books; linen thread for sewing; rice paste, methyl cellulose or PVA adhesives. I know these materials are strong and made to last.

My prints are made by hand. For my original prints I use linoleum or wood and pressure to create the images. I also love printing vintage letterpress images and type from my collection that I started about 20 years ago. These images find their way onto paper items that I make, like my cards and tags.

Papermaking has always been a love of mine. I use old cotton or linen clothing and fabrics to make rag papers. I also create Japanese style papers (washi) from traditional asian bark fibres. While I lived in Japan I also learned traditional techniques used to manipulate the character of washi papers (waterproofing, wrinkled textures, making thread, etc.). I love using my unique papers as elements in the books that I make.

Tell us about your history as an artist/crafter? Have you always been involved in making things?

I've been a "maker" since I was a child; beads from magazine pages; found object furniture for dolls; origami wallets and boxes for little keepsakes; punch card wreaths... and I'm still a "maker". I graduated from the Printmaking program at the Ontario College of Art and then apprenticed for three years with an artist/papermaker in Japan.

What does your practice look like? Do you work at this full time or part time?

I have a studio which is now located in Riverside (moved from the Distillery District) where I create and teach from. It's called KOZO Studio and is named after the fibre I love to use when making Japanese-style papers. The studio has a small retail and gallery space as well as work space for papermaking, letterpress printing, hand book binding and many other aspects of the book arts. At the moment I am there part-time.

What are some of your favourite artists/designers/crafters in the city?

Hmmm. I have SO many favourites! Emily Hammill, George Walker, Shinya Kumazawa, Tosca Teran, Thomas Suh and Vivian Lee, Fumiko Maehara, Frederica Tomas, Kyle Stewart...