It Takes a Village

Aways back we presented on forming a craft collective at a symposium, and it made us think more closely about the value of being part of a group like the Beehive.  Faced recently with a craft conundrum, I  sent out smoke signals to the Bees and they responded in full-force.  I was reminded of how lucky I am to have them in my life, ready to lend a hand, brainstorm ideas, and offer feedback that I trust through and through.

The result: a most adorable window installation in one of the heritage vitrines at the Lister Block (28 James Street N), launching tomorrow as part of the January Art Crawl.   The scene is a whimsical wintertime village glowing with colour, warmth and light and nestled in vintage quilts.  Above the paper houses made by the Bees (and friends) are suspended thread "scribbles" by Amanda McCavour, emulating snowflakes falling on the village.

This is all to promote Hamilton Winterfest (February 1-9) a community driven event program coordinated by the City that encourages people to get out, get together, and celebrate the beauty of the wintertime in Hamilton.  Details at www.hamiltonwinterfest.ca.

If you happen by the Lister Block, come in from the cold and enjoy our little village!

A New Dress

I'm not totally sure how, but as a mother of three small children I can find time to sew - usually things for the kids. Projects range from clothes, bibs and quilts to dolly diapers and dress-up costumes.

I was recently given a gift from a friend who specifically said that I am always making things for everyone else, so now I can make something for myself. I was so excited to recieve a Colette Pattern, not only to make something for myself, but also because these patterns are simply beautiful to look at and hold. Well printed on good paper in a compact little booklet. The pattern was simple enough for a hobbyist sewer to follow.

The Macaron Dress has what they call a "sweetheart top with a contrasting top yoke." I just call it cute.

I like the pattern so much, I decided to trace it onto freezer paper before cutting it out. This took more time, but I think it was well worth it. Within two days, I had assembled the dress, with a few little distractions.

My favourite part in any dress is finding out it has pockets, so when I noticed the pockets in my pattern I was over the moon. When I finally tried it on, I found it a little tight in the bodice, but letting out the seam allowance fixed it up great.

I am very pleased with this pattern, and I am definitely going to sew it again and again, now I am just searching for the perfect material.



I would highly recommend Colette Patterns, and if you head on over to their website they have a lot of really informative tutorials.

And if you live in the Hamilton area, You can check out Needlework, rumour has it they will be carrying Colette Patterns! Their grand opening is February 10th at the James St. North Art Crawl.

On The Brain

We are busy busy busy busy bees (how many times can we make this joke?). Our knit installation for Supercrawl has been taking up all of our time for the past couple of weeks. Knit knit knit knit knit knit knit. We'll finally be installing the whole thing tomorrow, and it will be available to view tomorrow evening at the art crawl and all day Saturday at Supercrawl on the facade of The Brain at 199 James Street North.

Over 70 knit scarves, 2 knit window boxes, a knit sign for The Brain, half a dozen crocheted flowers, 18 constructed wood frames later and we're ready. It's going to be incredible. We do hope that you'll be able to check it out. It couldn't have been possible without the local crafting community stepping up and pitching in. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Okay. Back to knitting for us. See you this weekend.

Surfacing

This past weekend marked a highly anticipated event in the Beehive calendar. It was the opening of Surfacing: contemporary textile and craft objects at James Buttrum & Son gallery on James Street North. Comprised of the work from eleven graduating students of Sheridan College's Textile program, this show aimed to illustrate and encourage discussion on the topic of contemporary crafting; specifically in regards to textiles and fibres.
 
I had some downtime during my own art crawl preparations at White Elephant (which never happens) and I knew I wouldn't get the chance to check the show out later in the evening, so I stopped by Friday afternoon, camera in tow. As each of these artists studied under one of our very own Bees at Sheridan - Thea Haines - I knew that this show would not disappoint. 

Sabrina Parrish

Katherine Cordero

Katie Walker

Keiley Stewart

Left: Rachel Morrison   Right: Melodie Flook

Barbara Romanovsky

The students demonstrated a wide and impressive range of skills from hand-stitching to quilting to paper-making to machine embroidery thread drawing and natural dyeing. Keiley Stewart's wet and needle felted animal heads provided an interactive and amusing element to the show. Her partner, Owen, was nice enough to take an instant photo of Jane, my sister Nicole and myself, and he would continue to do so all night of patrons trying on the heads, as a part of the piece. It's funny because afterward we all discussed how all three of us each had huge grins on our faces as the camera snapped, realizing after that our faces were totally obscured.

Being a part of a craft collective, I may be biased in thinking that this was one of the best shows I have seen in recent history as a part of the art crawl. I think that a lot of times people equate crafting or fibre art with folk art (which is not necessarily a bad thing) and Surfacing served to redefine that view, exemplifying that textiles can be exquisite and delicate and detailed and fantastic and fun all at the same time.  Beautiful work, beautiful show. I can't wait to keep an eye on each of the artists involved in the show as they continue to grow and fine-tune their respective crafts.

Location Location Location

When we started planning the summer fair we knew we wanted its location to be on James Street North. It was not just because we wanted our Friday night opening to be a part of the art crawl, but also because we are so excited about the wonderful restorations that are happening to many of the old storefronts in the area, and we wanted our fair to be a part of it all. Plus, I think the decorations we have planned will look pretty great set against the exposed brick walls and tin ceilings characteristic of many of the old restored shops down here. We were all thrilled when we received confirmation on the location and today I am so excited to announce that the fair will be help at the old Friendship Shop at 118 James Street North.

This building has undergone some major transformations since its new owners purchased it in February 2010. The building had been owned and occupied by a family for the previous 15 years or so, during which time its facade was covered in white aluminum siding.

This is the building today. The facade is just one of its major transformations. It's still under construction, but well on its way, and the floors that are finished are stunning. Hollie did a feature a while back on the architect firms office on the third floor- click here to view this beautiful space.

The craft fair will be held on the first floor, in the vacant storefront shown above. Although currently under construction, this really is our dream space for the event. The store that had previously been in this space was called the Friendship Shop. We all feel a little giddy inside that we get to say our fair will be held at the old friendship shop.

If you are interested in being a vendor at the fair, please remember that the deadline to submit your application is next Saturday, April 30th. Visit our site to get all the application details.

Photos courtesy of Jenna

Ta Da!

Why, hello there! We are finally here! "We" are the Beehive Craft Collective, and boy, are we ever glad to be able to share our endeavour with everyone. We've been bursting at the seams trying to keep somewhat quiet about this for the past couple of weeks. Get it? Seams? Textile joke...

We formed at the beginning of 2011, and hit the ground running immediately. An exciting and fulfilling and fresh project for a new year. Not just one of us, but multiple ladies have expressed their desire to be a part of something like this for their entire lives. And now we are. So we wasted no time and began to hold meetings and start organizing and planning all the logistics of our very first summer craft fair, to be held in conjuncture with the James Street North Art Crawl this coming August. Lots to do, lots to do.


Note-taking and books on needlepoint and coffee filter poufs and floorplans, oh my!

The process for holding a craft fair at times holds tedious tasks like finding a location, and figuring out how many vendors will fit, and inquiring about insurance and accessibility and determining costs. But we're an enthusiastic and capable bunch of ladies pursuing our combined dream, so it's not really work. It's like we're all floating along on cloud 9 the entire time.

We're totally more excited for creating the decor, and coming up with ideas for gift bags and planning the party that will coincide with the Friday night portion of the show though, to be perfectly honest.


We also get pretty excited about delicious treats and beautiful backdrops. Our next order of business was to move our weekly meetings from an ordinary boardroom to the stunning Mulberry Street Coffeehouse, now a fixture in beautiful Hamilton, Ontario, where we are all currently based out of. An inspiring location for an inspiring project. And we hope to somehow work with Mulberry Street for the fair.

We've still got months of planning ahead of us, to take us from winter to spring to wonderful summer, and we could not be more excited. We'd be so thrilled if you joined us for the ride. We're just so very pleased to make your acquaintance.