Wanderlust: TEST Holiday Gift Guide for the Travellers and Adventurers

CUTdesignsrt maps of 3 cities

Still seeking that perfect gift for your favourite nomad? You can still buy handmade and vintage local treasures from your Toronto Etsy sellers!

Are they saving up for their next big adventure? Let them meditate on their destinations with a personalized gift of
CUTdesignsrt cut paper art maps of their favourite 3 cities!

Who says the practical traveller can't be stylish? Rest assured your wanderer will have all his or her papers and foreign cash safe and look great with FitzyDesign's Leather Fanny Pack!

FitzyDesign's Leather Fanny Pack!

Or help them keep their valuables close with sewlutionsbyamo's unisex leather wrist wallet!

one of sewlutionsbyamo's many clever unisex leather wrist wallet

Most important is his or her passport. Check out knottednest passport covers!

knottednest passport cover

All jet-setters know that the trick to avoiding jet-lag is a making sure you do get that necessary sleep. Your favourite nomad needs a ArentYouFancy Sleep Mask!

ArentYouFancy Sleep Mask

GraceDesign Kilim Bag

Her go-to boho travel bag can bring back memories of her travels, or inspiration for future ones, with the beautiful textiles incorporated in her GraceDesign Kilim Bag.

What's the quintessential boho travel garment? How about a vintage 70's poncho from FilthyRebena? vintage 70's poncho from FilthyRebena?

FilthyRebena's Sunset 70s Vintage Poncho

You know what packs easy, goes with anything, and makes a great wardrobe staple for your traveller on the go? BirdApparel's Riding Leggings in heather grey and black.

BirdApparel's Riding Leggings in heather grey and black

Send them packing their BonnieClydeVintage Vintage 70s Purple American Tourister Messenger Bag off on their latest adventure!

BonnieClydeVintage Vintage 70s Purple American Tourister Messenger Bag

You can check out the Etsy holiday hub for picks for personalized gifts or our own Toronto Etsy Street Team gift guides for all those unique -and sometimes hard to shop for! Stay tuned for more guides!

T.E.S.T. Interview: Tanya Harrison Photography

We hope to introduce you to all the great Etsy sellers to be found right here in Toronto. Here at the T.E.S.T. blog, we plan to interview them all. This is the 62^nd in our series with Tanya of TanyaHarrisonPhoto.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your shop?

I'm a planetary scientist (which means I'm a geologist that specializes in other planets — in my case, mostly Mars) partially turned photographer from Seattle, but currently living in Toronto. I've always loved photography, and when I was 18 I went to the mall one day to buy my first "nice" camera after having saved up for months. It just so happened that there was a game show casting at the mall when I arrived, and long story short I ended up winning some money on the show, which allowed me to purchase an even better camera than I'd planned. After that I began inundating Flickr with my photos, and over time I started getting requests from people to purchase photos. So, in 2010 I finally got around to actively trying to sell my photos, and ended up opening shop on Etsy in 2011.

You've been interested in photography since you were young. What do you think led you in that direction?

My mother and grandfather (who lived with us when I was young) were both into photography. Even though I was born in the 1980s, a lot of my early childhood photos are in black and white from film that my mother shot with her Minolta SLR. I remember always being really excited to see photos when they came back from the lab, so I think the love of photography was just ingrained in me from a very young age.

You have a very interesting day job. How do you balance that with your Etsy shop?

It's very difficult! My days are filled with analyzing data, writing papers and grant applications, and I have to (or should I say "get to?") travel a lot. On the one hand, this cuts into the time I would like to be able to devote to photography. However, as a geologist I get to travel to a lot of beautiful locations to study them from a scientific standpoint, and I can photograph them while I'm there. For example, most of the desert landscapes in my shop were taken during a 2-week geology field expedition in Arizona and Utah. Photography is my way of de-stressing from the science stuff.

You state you are based in 4 different cities. Why is that and how are you able to manage your shop then?

Right now I am a Ph.D. student at the University of Western Ontario in London, but I commute between there and Toronto. I moved here from San Diego, where I worked for a NASA subcontractor for a few years. My partner still lives in our house down there, and so San Diego is still "home" at certain times of the year. My family still lives in Seattle and so that is my other home at times, although I (regretfully) rarely make it back there anymore. All of this travelling can definitely make managing a shop tricky. I have access to printing equipment in both Toronto and San Diego, which allows me to fulfill orders quickly, but if I am out in the field or in Seattle then I have to put my shop in vacation mode or post a note in the listings saying shipping will be delayed until a certain date.

What does Etsy add to your life?

Etsy is a way for me to use the non-science side of my brain, which I find fun. It's also incredibly gratifying when someone purchases a piece of your art to hang on their walls—to know that someone was moved enough by a photo to want to display it in their home. I often get messages from my buyers saying they chose a specific photo because it was from their hometown, or held an emotional significance. In one case, a woman bought a photo that happened to be of the location at which her now-husband proposed. Another customer purchased a photo as a birthday gift for her boyfriend of a place they'd vacationed together earlier that year.

I've found Etsy to also be a great way to interact with other artisans with a wide variety of styles and backgrounds, from the local to the international level. There are so many amazingly talented people on Etsy!

Photo of Tanya Harrison by Jean Fillion

Check out the other items available from Tanya in her Etsy shop! You can find more of her work on her blog, Twitter and Facebook.

Interviewed by Judy of SewItWasByJudy in November 2013 in Toronto.

T.E.S.T. Interview: Sprouts Press Designs

We hope to introduce you to all the great Etsy sellers to be found right here in Toronto. Here at the T.E.S.T. blog, we plan to interview them all. This is the 34^th in our series with Carolyn of Sprouts Press Designs.

I've always been intrigued by hand crafted books, when and where did you get this love of creating books?

 
Well, I’ve always loved books.  I was always reading as a kid and stapling together my own notebooks and filling them with scribbles and drawings.  My first job ever, way back in highschool, was in a library.  Then at art college I got side-tracked from my pursuit of drawing and painting by printmaking, papermaking and book arts. I guess I started taking it more seriously after that.
 
Since repurposing materials is a huge part of Sprouts Press Designs, where are some of your favourite sources to find books to deconstruct?


Ha! Is this question like asking a Mainer to reveal what beach their naturally-tumbled, perfectly-shaped sea glass comes from? Or like asking a European where in the woods is the best place is to find truffles? Well guarded secrets are not so easily revealed! Seriously though, libraries are great sources of used books – just ask for the Discarded books. I’ll always support the library! Otherwise I just keep my eyes peeled when walking, looking for yard sales and book sales, I supposed it’s kind of chance really. I’m also someone who purchases supplies that appeal to me without a specific project in mind, trusting that ‘one day’ it’ll be the exact, most perfect thing I need for a project. I also love to start with things that aren’t books and turn them into books. Like turning cigar boxes into my Cigar Box Books. All my leather journals started as garments that were deconstructed and then crafted into books. I’ve even used old file folders, prints I pulled over a decade ago and even off-cuts of paper from other books. That’s how my book earrings, Paper Moon Earrings, came into existence - a desire for as little waste as possible.

The photography in your shop, and on your profile page, is lovely. What are your photography suggestions for great pictures?  

I just recently purchased a DSLR and still have yet to really get familiar with it. So most of the photos in my shop are done just with a little point and shoot. Natural light is the best, I just use a large piece of white paper for the background and I watched/read ALL the Etsy online labs and blogs about photography. After all that though, it really just comes down to taking a day to play around with different windows, backgrounds, angles and macro settings. I do use a tripod, but my best window is actually at the top of stairs so often I end up holding the tripod more like a Canada Arm to get the best angle. It’s a bit fiddly but I like the challenge.

I love the glimpse into your studio space, is it normally all neat and tidy or are you a 'hands on get messy' kind of creator?


When I’ve mulled a project long enough and feel it’s strong enough to move from an idea to a tangible thing, yes, then I’m totally a messy creator. This is especially true when working on a screenprinted project - it’s a full day commitment and at least a quarter of that is cleaning up! I do try to keep my space tidy though, as I tend to get a bit claustrophobic if clutter builds up. If there’s not a clean surface I find it very difficult to start a project.

I see you studied abroad, and I assume you've travelled a lot while in Europe. How do you think that's impacted you and your work?

I sigh and grow nostalgic every time I think back to life in Florence. The binderies in Italy are scrumptious, as are the stationery shops with Florentine papers. My favourites are in Venice and Florence. You can usually see Florentine paper in my Etsy shop in some form at all times, be it a hard cover journal or my Paper Moon Earrings. Before going there, I had never considered crafting leather-bound journals, or softcover books, which I’ve since learned and now love, especially the wrap-around softcover leather journal. I’ve had many versions of this book in my shop and I still have plans for it in the future, so many options! 

When I was studying abroad though, it was for drawing and painting. I have sketches and photos of things that I found visually appealing; observations of common/repeated shapes and materials in architecture that blew me away. Antoni Gaudi was mostly responsible for this. I loved his transformation of 90 degree angles in a building to a rounded, swooping, organic space. I also really enjoyed his translation of shapes and objects found in nature into architecture. One of the best ways to achieve great aesthetics is to take inspiration from nature’s designs, so why not incorporate them somehow? 

With my hand bound journals, I take a slightly different interpretation of this idea. Mostly it’s by respecting nature: I hand bind my books, with a needle and thread, no machines. I try to use my own handmade paper for covers whenever possible, which is made from such things as Hosta fibers (from the garden) and abaca. I also try to use a ‘head to tail’ philosophy when deconstructing old books or creating with new materials. This means that I try my darndest use everything and end up with as little waste as possible. (This is similar to the culinary ‘head to tail’ philosophy. Even better, books do actually have ‘heads’ and ‘tails’!)  Otherwise I find that my many colour observations from Europe lend themselves well to bookbinding when designing the covers and assembling the text block of pages inside. I love colour combinations that bring in texture: such as paper and another element, like beads or buttons so as to give both matte and shiny colours the depth that I found so inspiring.

I've travelled a lot in the past few years, much of it with my children, which makes for some challenging situations but also great stories. What's your best travel story?


I was travelling with another young woman who I’d met only a few weeks earlier, through a friend. We decided to travel to Sicily and southern Italy. We were on a budget so it was all hostels and markets for us, which was amazing. We had just arrived in Amalfi, after a very long day of trains, trains on ferries and then buses with schedules that no one seemed to follow. It was dark by the time we got to where our hostel was supposed to be. We were on the side of a mountain and there were something like 235 steps UP to get to the hostel and boy was I cranky. Our ‘room’ was literally carved out of a cave with only shedding walls to separate us from our neighbours. I thought it was the worst place ever, damp and freezing cold. However, the next morning arrived with sunshine and when we opened the window I couldn’t believe it! The view was amazing, there was mist around some of the other peaks, and a blue ocean at the bottom. Also, our mountain was a lemon farm! There was terrace after terrace of lemons, if we had wanted lemons for breakfast, we could have just reached out the window and picked some. Looking back it was the most unique place I’ve ever stayed!

Is Sprouts Press Designs a full time gig for you? Where do you hope to take your shop in the future? 


Right now Sprouts Press Designs is a part time thing for me. I quit my full time day job and have been focusing on the next steps of my career as well as growing Sprouts Press.  My ultimate dream is to have a studio space where I can create items for my shop, have shows and teach workshops and classes. 

For now though, I’m really enjoying the luxury of brainstorming a project and creating a line of items that might be seem totally different than the project I’ll be working on next week.  I love that I can create journals, but that I’m also free to think beyond the book and make things that I love to enjoy while using my journals.

Carolyn's upcoming shows:

• 28th Annual OCAD Book Arts Fair: Dec. 1, 2012 10 - 5pm, Great Hall, 100 McCaul St, Toronto, ON 
• 20th Annual Studio Show & Sale: Nov. 24, 2012 to Jan. 2, 2013 by Cambridge Libraries & Galleries at Queen's Square studio, 1 North Square, Cambridge, ON

Check out the other items available from Carolyn in her Sprouts Press Designs Etsy shop! You can find more of her work on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SproutsPress

Interviewed by Tara of SewTara in November 2012 in Toronto.

T.E.S.T. interview: Melanie Hillier

We hope to introduce you to all the great etsy sellers to be found right here in Toronto. Here at the T.E.S.T. blog, we plan to interview them all. This is the sixth in our series, an interview with MelanieHiller.

Your photographs are travel shots from around the world, and I've noticed some similarities between the pictures despite their geographical differences. The bold colours that you capture, both natural and manmade, are just wonderful. Are you drawn to bright, bold hues? Are there certain palettes that you find more attractive, as a photographer?

It's funny, because when I first started taking photos on a regular basis, on my first trip to Australia, I remember thinking how lucky I was because Australia's landscapes are just so beautiful. The bold red of the Outback, the beautiful tropical blues of their almost unending coastline...all I had to do was press the shutter! It wasn't really a choice to choose those colours. They were everywhere I looked. I think as a photographer I am just trying to capture what I feel. If something makes me stop dead in my tracks, I capture it. It doesn't always turn into a great photo, but I like to lead by intuition. If anything, I am drawn to architectural shapes and forms more than particular colours.

Contrasts between nature and man-made structures are also evident in your work. In "Paris Pink", for example, Notre Dame Cathedral is viewed through the gorgeous pink branches of April blossoms. Do you often combine or contrast these elements?

I do like to see these elements together. I'm inspired by architecture, and can get carried away photographing the shapes and lines of the structures. I love how nature softens them, and how well man-made structures and nature work together. I believe there is an interesting effect that manmade structures have on people, and nature has that same awe inspiring quality.

I noticed, also, an absence of people, even in the busy cityscape "Tokyo Nights". The bustle of nighttime seems somehow peaceful. Can you comment on this absence?

It's funny that you mention this, because it is something I discovered after taking a closer look at my body of work. I am trying to allow the viewer to feel like an observer through the lens, and I do my best to sneak photos without people noticing. When someone looks directly into the camera and isn't the subject of the photo, it almost ruins the mystery. I suppose it's a bit of voyeurism. I want the viewer to feel like they were exactly where I was when I took the picture. To disappear into the background and just enjoy it.

Is there a geographical location that you would deem more photogenic than any other?

Ooh, this is a tough one. I am a traveller by nature and can usually find something I love about every place I visit. But most photogenic? I'd have to say Australia. Its cities are just as beautiful as its vast deserts and beautiful beaches. It my favourite place on earth!

When did you first take an interest in photography? Can you tell me a little about how you became a photographer? Are you inspired by the works of any particular photographers or artists?

I have loved art my whole life, and first took photography classes in high school where we learned dark room techniques and all. I enjoyed it, but always loved painting more. I really got into it when my mum bought me a digital camera to take with me on my year abroad in Australia. It was meant to be used to document my trip, but became so much more! As for inspiration, I would say I am more inspired by architecture, nature, fashion and graphic design than any particular artist, although artists of all kinds inspire me just by being honest about what they are doing and seeing.

You mention in your Etsy profile that you are not travelling at the moment. Do you have any future plans for travel and/or artistic works?

Once a traveller, always a traveller! I don't have any firm plans to travel at present, but I am taking advantage of staying in Toronto by capturing this city as if it were a foreign place. I have always loved Toronto and it lends itself beautifully to photography. I plan to include some of these local photos in my etsy shop, and also on my new blog.

Check out Melanie's work in her etsy shop, on her blog and follow her on twitter.

Interviewed March, 2010, by foundlingsvintage