Art news: Open House for the Artist's Health Alliance

The Al & Malka Green Artists’ Health Centre at Western Hospital, will be hosting a 10th Anniverary Open House on November 6th from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm. The AHC can be found at:




The Al & Malka Green Artists’ Health Centre

Toronto Western Hospital
3rd Floor, West Wing
399 Bathurst Street (at Dundas)
Toronto, ON M5T 2S8
416.603.5263

The Artist's Health Centre is run by a not-for-profit charitable organization with the name Artists’ Health Alliance (AHA). From their website,

Founded in 1997, AHA continues to be the only organization in Ontario whose mission is to promote the health and wellbeing of all professional and emerging performing and creative artists. ...

The Artists’ Health Alliance is a one of a kind organization. We are about partnership between the artistic and medical community for healing, strengthening and empowering the creative community. We are accomplishing this through the work of the excellent clinicians at the Artists’ Health Centre, through the work of volunteer committees and the educational and outreach initiatives of the Alliance.

AHA has been the bridge connecting artists to the Artists’ Health Centre since its doors opened at Toronto Western Hospital in 2002. We continue to work in close partnership with the AHC to this day and will soon celebrate 10 years of integrative healthcare for artists.

T.E.S.T. own's Carolyn from Sprout's Press Desings serves on the Artists' Committee for the AHA and reports that their workshops for "creative types to prevent injury, healing, physio, etc. ... are fantastic". The Open House is a good chance to learn what they are all about.

Vendor Call: OCADU Book Arts Fair

The first Saturday every December it's time for the annual Book Arts Fair.... in time for the holiday season. Visitors can peruse and purchase hand-printed and bound books, prints, artist multiples, handmade paper and cards, buttons, totes, letterpress posters and much more!

Fifty to sixty book artists, printmakers, very small publishers, ‘zine’makers, OCAD students, professional artists, letterpress printers, papermaking and printmaking suppliers, and cooperative print shops will all be on hand offering unique gifts, collector's items and other treasures. The OCAD Book Arts Fair is a long-running annual venue for showcasing book arts, a passionate, underground form of visual arts that has been growing in popularity.

"In a culture that increasingly sees the Book as obsolete, artists are contemplating the Book's role as an information vehicle,” remarked Book Arts Fair Co-founder and OCAD Printmaking program faculty George Walker. “The Book has stood the test of time but will it survive the new digital information revolution? It must! See how artists meet the challenge of creating in the book format and addressing the issues of the role of books in our future."

In addition to browsing the items for sale, visitors can tour OCAD’s five printmaking studios to watch and to participate in student and guest artist demonstrations in printing, binding and papermaking. Proceeds from mounting the Fair, and from donations support student book artists and printmakers in OCAD’s Printmaking program.”

The OCAD Book Arts Fair Facebook page. APPLICATION DEADLINE IS NOVEMBER 23rd.

Date: December 1, 2012
When: 10-5
$40 for a full table, $25 for a half table.

Vendor call: For What It's Worth

May 9 - June 9, 2013
The Guild Shop
118 Cumberland Street

Apply Today! CLICK HERE

Deadline for Entry: March 15, 2013 at 6:00pm

Jewellery has long been synonymous with wealth and luxury. From the inherent value of the materials to the physical display itself, jewellery communicates these qualities in various ways. Value also comes in the form of sentiment and an emotional connection between the piece and its wearer, sometimes independent of monetary value. As trends in jewellery continue to evolve, as both makers and consumers become more educated in issues such as sustainability and ethics, and as we continue to adjust to a new economic climate, how does jewellery fit in? Is bigger still better, or discretion and ‘stealth’ more appropriate? What motivates the consumer’s choice of what they wear, and why they wear it? Are the properties by which the value of metal and stones are defined still of importance today?
For What It’s Worth will examine what defines jewellery in the 21st century.

This exhibition will run concurrent with the 2013 SNAG Conference “Meta Mosaic” in Toronto.

Conditions of Entry:

• The call is open to all members of the Ontario Crafts Council.
• Wearable jewellery or objects for body adornment in all craft-related media will be accepted for review by the jury.
• Each applicant may submit a maximum of three works. All works submitted must have been completed after January 2012.
• Submissions must include an artist statement describing how the works submitted interpret the exhibition theme.
• Submissions must include digital images of completed works (see the image requirements section
for more information). Renderings, both computer generated and by hand, will not be accepted.
• Submission to the Call for Entry grants The Guild Shop and OCC permission to use images of accepted
works for The Guild Shop and OCC-related promotional purposes including web and print material.
• Late or incomplete entries will not be accepted.

Exhibition Information:

• A total of 25 works will be chosen for the exhibition by the jury.
• Works included in the exhibition must be for sale, and will be sold under The Guild Shop
consignment arrangement of 55% for the artist and 45% for the shop.
• The Exhibitor will be responsible for insuring all work during shipping and delivery.
The Guild Shop will insure all items for theft and damage while on the shop premises.
• Works accepted for exhibition will be delivered/shipped to The Guild Shop at the Exhibitor’s
expense by Monday, April 29, 2013. At the conclusion of the exhibition the Exhibitor must pick
up/ship all unsold work from The Guild Shop by June 14, 2013.
• Application materials will not be returned.

Time Line:

• Deadline: Applications must reach The Guild Shop no later than Friday, March 15, 2013, 6:00 pm.
• Notification of Acceptance: All applicants will be notified of the jury’s decision via email by
Friday, March 22, 2013. Please make sure your email information is correct on the Call for Entry form.
• Delivery: Successful applicants will be required to deliver selected works to The Guild Shop
no later than Monday, April 29, 2013, 6:00 p.m.
• Dates and Opening Reception: The exhibition will take place from Thursday, May 9 to
Sunday, June 9, 2013, with the opening reception on Saturday, May 11, 2013.

Questions? Please contact Monica Hayward, mhayward@craft.on.ca or 416-921-1721

Craft News: United Way Fundraiser at Metro Hall

This Friday, check out the art and craft show at Metro Hall! You can get your favorite canine decked out for fall since vendors include TEST's own Karen from ShoedawgzK9Apparel.

City Clerk's Office - United Way Fundraising
Art and Craft Sale
Metro Hall Rotunda,
55 John Street.
Friday October 26, 2012
8 - 5 PM.

Vendor Call: St. Pius X Bazaar

The 2012 Vendor Application for the Christmas Bazaar is available to download and print.

Applications are due October 30th.

We do have limited spots available and we will be looking for applicants that appeal to elementary age students, their families and school staff. Product should be available at price points suitable to these groups.

Please email your completed applications and photos (jpegs please) to:
stpiusbazaar@yahoo.ca

Bazaar website

Toronto Etsy Street Team meet-up

The last TEST meet-up of 2012 that took place on October 19 had a great turnout and was terrific in terms of information-sharing  and engaged discussion.

More frequent meet-ups in 2013:

There will be more opportunities to meet face-to-face next year, as the meet-ups are set to happen monthly, with a rotating schedule of weekday/weekend and day/evening meeting times around the third week of each month. Hopefully, this will give all our team members the chance to attend a few meet-ups that fit their schedule best! 

The suggestion to alternate discussion, social, and workshop meetings, as well as holding a Spring and a Winter TEST craft shows was also enthusiastically greeted. Keep your eyes open for announcements of meeting dates and topics starting in January 2013.

Some of the workshop ideas which we discussed are:

photography (Nada is working on a photography workshop for Etsy Canada)
SEO (search engine optimization and how to get noticed on-line)
Getting noticed in Etsy Browse
Tips for participating in craft/art/vintage shows
Accounting/small business information
Work/life balance
Carolyn of SproutsPressDesigns volunteered to run a bookbiding workshop!

Have more suggestions? Let us know below!

Team tag:

The official tag of the TEST team is "Toronto team". Adding this tag to your Etsy listings helps us promote each other by making it easier to find team members' products and shops for treasuries, referrals, etc. 

An additional advantage of using the "Toronto team" tag is that people searching for "Toronto" as a keyword will also find your listings, as individual words within tags are searchable on Etsy.

Mobile payment solutions:

There was a lot of information sharing around seller experiences with mobile payment solutions, such as Square, Kudos, Payd, and others. A blog post detailing all of these is coming soon!  For now, you can refer to the TEST team forum on Etsy, as there are at least two discussion threads with recommendations on this topic.

Team showcase widget:

Kevin of BetaRays has created a great tool to help us showcase the team's products in one place. It is a widget you can add to your website or blog that loads a random selection of products from the TEST members' shops.  You can see it in action below, as well as on this blog's new TEST Team Showcase! page.

The random selection of products is a fun way to browse team member's shops, put together treasuries, and stumble upon surprising new creations by TEST sellers. To quote Michelle from Thunderpeep: "It's like a loot bag!".

You can get the code needed to add the TEST Team Showcase to your own blog on Kevin's site here: http://kmbray.com/etsy-team-showcase/ 

TESTy Showcase



Other topics
We also discussed funding opportunities for committee-based arts organizations, like the TEST Handmade segment of our team. We would love to hear any ideas about increasing participation amongst our almost 500 member strong team. Last, but not least, we highlighted the opportunities for members to volunteer for the team. Would you also like to be a team Leader? Blog or tweet for the team? Post to our Facebook pages? Participate on the team's pinterest? Help organize shows or events? Let us know!

By Natalie from fragmentalist with additional information from Ele from minouette

Vendor Call: Sassy Little Holiday Craft Show

As we enter another season of holiday craft shows, we are here to offer you a late afternoon/early night of selling your crafty items at the Sassy LIttle Craft Show. Bring your friends and come enjoy some eats, drinks, and festive holiday tunes. We hope you will join us, and you can be sure we will be decking the halls with seasonal goodies!

Here is the call for entries for the Holiday edition of the Sassy Little Craft Show:

It's a Sassy Little Holiday Show!

Date: Sunday December 9th 2012

Place: The Central

603 Markham Street (Bloor and Bathurst, near Suspect Video)

Time: 3pm-9pm

Cost is $30 per vendor. Tables are available 2x2ft, each vendor will have approx 3ft, so displays need to be kept small. We suggest items under $50.

If you are interested in a table, send an email, with a short description, web presence and 3 pics to thesassylittlecraftshow@gmail.com

Deadline to apply is October 25
We will confirm participation by October Oct 29

Find the Sassy Little Holiday Craft Show on Facebook

Vendor Call: Winter's Love Craft Market

February 2012

Winter's Love Craft Market

Express your love through your crafts and let love bring warmth to the mid-winter season (Eh? See what I did there? ;))

We are opening this event to up to 20 crafters so sign up asap! The cost is only $45.

We are specifically looking for gift items that can be given on Valentine's day or just to cheer up friends and loved ones during this time.

Knitters, please apply early, as we will have limited spots for knits.

Hot chocolate and coffee vendors, you are most welcome to apply as well.

The charity we are helping through this event is Safe Families Canada.

To apply, email us using the form

Vendor call: Nacho Mama's Craft Show

Nacho Mama's Craft Show at Sneaky Dee's on December 8th

"JOIN US!
Interested in becoming a vendor? Please fill out the application form >

We are looking for one of a kind crafters. Space is limited!
Upon acceptance your space will be booked and details of payment will be sent to you via email. If payment is not received by the date specified, your booth may be reserved by another crafter.
The vendor fee is $75, with a portion going to Sketch.
Why do you want
to be a vendor?
Well. You will get:

to participate in a really cool show with really cool crafters
a 4' by 30" table
COFFEE! And a cookie.
a small ad that links to your website/blog/email on our homepage"

APPLY HERE

Vendor Call: Sorauren Park Fieldhouse Holiday Show

A message from TEST's own gift of my hands:

HEY T.E.S.T! I'm going to be throwing a small handmade gift show mid december and I think your Here are the details. Message me if you're interested.

The event will take place at the Sorauren park fieldhouse. It's on sorauren between queen and dundas. The sorauren area is a pretty tightly knit community of a lot of young families and it's close to roncesvalle village. It will take place on Dec 15th from 10-7. the show will go on from 11-6 giving you an hour on each end for set up/take down.

I plan on having 25 vendors. So a small show. I'm looking for all different kinds of vendors. We are currently half booked.

It came about because I find that applying for shows is really difficult and expensive especially for new businesses. To have to drop $150-$1000 to be in a show is generally out of the budget. That's why this show is $55 and that includes your table (6ft) and chair. All you have to bring is something to cover your table. No worries about lighting and all that jazz.

I plan on advertising on multiple craft sites . I'm going to poster ronces and parkdale like crazy. Hopefully make postcards that I and other vendors can hand out. I plan on making a site and with your permission add your site and etsy shop links up there so people know what kind of things they can see at the show and potentially order things prior to the show so that they can pick it up there. I'm also very open to hearing suggestions

If you are interested please let me know and I will e-mail you the contract and we can sort out payment and all the finer details.

nici.shipway@gmail.com

If you have any other questions please feel free to ask.

shop around town

As a big fan of the shop local movement, when I first moved back to Toronto it was really important for me to find shops that specialized in locally handmade products, for my own shopping habit and for my company. I thought it would be great to start a blog series and share some of the wonderful shops I discovered. First on the list is Beadle, in the emerging DuWest/Brockton Triangle neighbourhood, owned by TESTy's own Cherie Lunau-Jokisch who also makes one of a kind jewellery and a delicious line of bath and body products under the name Beadle.

Beadle 
1582 Dundas West Street
just west of Dufferin
easily to get to by subway and streetcar! 
Open Tuesday to Saturday 12:00 - 6:00
www.beadlestore.com
facebook.com/beadlestore

Tell us a bit about your shop 
Beadle is a tiny little gallery style boutique. I have the pleasure of selling items by artists and designers that are mainly home based or small scale businesses who create handmade items. I love having the personal connection with each 'maker' and my customers really enjoy hearing about the person behind the creations they are buying.


What is your background as a maker/artist
Well, where to start. Do you have a few hours? I come by it naturally. Both my parents were creative in one way or another. My parents encouraged me to be creative from a young age – mostly because it made me sit still and be quiet. I was a rather active and curious child.

What lead you to opening up your own shop and to focus mainly on locally made goods
Honestly I was tired of doing shows with little success but loads of work setting up, tearing down and blindly creating products I was never sure I would sell. Plus my husband was growing tired of stepping on beads and my use of our sofa as our office. We came up with a budget and started looking for a studio workshop with the intentions of me just having a place to create from. It was part luck and part accident that I found the perfect little space to work from but also to create a store in. From there I quickly realized, even though the space was small, I needed more than just my own designs to help fill it up. Couldn't have done it without my husbands support.

What are your biggest challenges in running a shop that focuses on local makers?
The biggest challenge at the moment is finding cool handmade products for men. The other is wanting to order from small companies but their minimums (either $ amount or quantity) don't often work for my shop. The other big one is artists/designers who decide to move on to other things and not make their lovely products anymore. Like this amazing woman Mary who used to make beautiful baby bibs, blocks and blankets. They were so adorable and sold really well too. I haven't found anything can even compare to her beautiful creations. Do you know of anyone? Lol! The third thing is trying to find unique items that other stores similar to mine don't carry.



What shops/neighbourhood (other than yours) do you like to shop for locally made goods?
I really enjoy shopping in the Junction. So many cool shops. Wise Daughters Craft Market is a must see when you go to the Junction. The owner Mary is the Queen of workshops. The neighbourhood is a real fun mix of shops. Antique lighting stores to art supplies and everything in-between. Not at all like shopping in a mall where the stores in each one are the same chains no matter which mall you are in. Yawn... malls are so boring. Seriously though my favourite thing to do is go walking with my friend Barb, our dogs Billy and Chip, to discover different independent coffee shops and cafes in and around the West End. Luckily my favourite shop is close to home/Beadle - BIVY cafe - and it's right on my block.

Why is the handmade/shop local movement important to you?
Wow, that's a hard one to put into words. So many reasons... It's so close to my heart because I've been making and selling my own designs for years. I, like any creator, puts my heart and soul into each thing I create. Seeing the joy in someone discovering my shop for the first time never gets old. I really enjoy telling them about the store, the artist and how things are made. Watching them walk away grinning ear to ear, thrilled with their purchase is exhilarating. To be able to support other artists in their creative journey by giving them a space to sell their items is a huge honour. I've become a real part of the community in the 'hood and it feels like home, unlike any other place I've lived/worked.

How do you find items/artists?
I am lucky that most people either come to me via email or in person or through personal connection.

What do you look for in new products?
First, before anythingI really look for a quality product. I also take cues from my customers. If people are asking for something I do my best to take that as a sign I need to find someone who makes them.

Best piece of advice you would give new artists looking to get there goods into shops

Be organized and prepared. Bring your best pieces, not the leftovers from what didn't sell at the last show you did. Get a bio/artist statement together, take great photos or your work. If you are contacting a shop (via email or in person) take some time to do some research, at the very least learn the shop owners name, it's more often than not on their website or Facebook page. Whenever possible be respectful of their time, make an appointment with the owner or manager – sometimes as much as we would like to to we don't have time for pop ins. Be patient, but if you haven't heard back from a shop owner in a week don't be shy, send a polite reminder or follow up email. I've accidentally deleted emails (or had some go to my junkmail folder) and then not be able to find it later when I wanted to get in touch.

Thanks Cherie!



If you're a team member and want to suggest a shop that you sell in, shop in or own email me peep@thunderpeepdesigns.com

Vendor call: Holiday Art Market

Holiday Art Market

It’s almost that time of year! A time of holiday celebrations and finding the perfect gift!

Artscape is now accepting submissions from visual artists, craftspeople and designer/makers who wish to participate in the Holiday Art Market at the Artscape Wychwood Barns, taking place December 9th & 16th, 2012.

Deadline: October 19, 2012 at 5pm

The Holiday Art Market will feature 25+ exhibitors on Sunday, December 9 and Sunday, December 16 in the Covered Street Barn. Artists, craftspeople and designer/makers have the opportunity to utilize a 10’ x 10’ space for which they need to supply their own booth structure and/or display equipment. Participants in the Holiday Art Market will be selected by a professional jury, with consideration to diversity of medium and quality of work being sold. Artists are invited to participate in ONE of the market dates.

Vendor Call

Application

Vendor Call: Norman Ingram Public School

Norman Ingram Public School will once again be hosting their ‘Mistletoe Magic Craft Show and Sale’ on Thursday November 29, 2012 from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

This boutique style craft sale is Don Mills’ own “One of a Kind” show with something for everyone and every budget. Last year's show hosted more than 35 artisans from across the GTA.

We are looking for crafters/artisans to sell their original crafts at the show. Tables are $60 for a 6 foot table or $70 if electricity is required. Spaces are limited in each category so please register early to secure your spot. We do not accept re-sellers at this show. We are sorry but all of our jewellery spots are sold out unless you make jewellery for pets.
We commit to sending out over 3500 flyers through Canada Post and other distribution streams provided through the TDSB.

If you are interested in learning more, receiving a registration package or reserving a spot, please contact susannahfindlay"@"hotmail.com.

Vendor Call: The Wheel in Dundas Square

If you would like a tent at The Wheel: art & music for pagan Toronto, November 3 in Yonge-Dundas Square, or more information check out their Facebook page and event page or apply at the website.