Ontario Craft Road Trip

Originally hailing from Toronto, one of the most gratifying side-effects of my move to Hamilton has been the removal of big-city blinders regarding the rich cultural life of smaller cities and towns in Southern Ontario. So I was super pumped when asked by the Ontario Crafts Council to travel across the province to uncover regional issues for makers practicing outside of large urban centres. In November of last year I visited Picton and Bloomfield to the East, Kitchener and Waterloo to the West, and Thunder Bay to the very North. While super interesting, it would be far too long-winded to go in to my findings on craft-life in these places here. Instead I would love to share some travel highlights; perhaps you might become inpired to explore Ontario further, to expand your understanding of the place where you live.

The high point of my visit to Prince Edward County was tea and chats at Spark Box Studio, an artist residency, education centre, and professional resource project located on farmland and inside a renovated century farmhouse on the outskirts of Picton. Owners Chrissy and Kyle were kind enough to let me poke around in their well-outfitted print studio as well as their home, complete with three art-filled (and pretty darn luxe) residency bedrooms. Such a calm and beautiful spot, I absolutely believed Chrissy when she said that city folk get converted to country living when they stay here and make art.

Should you find yourself Kitchener-Waterloo way, do visit the Joseph Schneider Haus Museum and Gallery, a Pioneer Village-eque spot in downtown Kitchener. The central building is a Georgian farmhouse built by one of the area’s first pioneers, Joseph Schneider, a Pennsylvania-German Mennonite c. 1816. The rooms are filled with gorgeous woven Menonnite blankets and quilts, linen feedbags, super heavy duty functional ceramics, hand woven baskets, wool spinning wheels, and fellows stitching up cotton sausage casings for an upcoming butchering bee. The museum also hosts a Folk Artist-In-Residence program “designed to support the efforts of local artists and artisans working in traditional crafts and trades”. So cool.

While experiencing some serious cultural regeneration in the Bay & Algoma and Waterfront districts, much of Thunder Bay has a definite “land that time forgot” vibe, which I would describe as very, very awesome. One example would be the Kivela Bakery, established in 1910, a great spot to pick up Finnish cardamom bread and have this dapper gentleman show you his oven. The strength of Finnish culture in Thunder Bay (public saunas! a Marimekko store! Finnish pancake houses!) came as a big surprise to me in a city full of surprises.

Can’t wait to go back to all of these places and uncover more.

The Bees at Home: Projects in Progress II

We're into January now - one of the best times for crafting. There's snow on the ground (sometimes, at least!), and the air is cold, so sometimes it's nice to just stay in and make something. We thought we'd catch you up on on what's going on in some of our craft spaces...

First, Jen is making this amazing 'junk mail cross-stitch'. She brought it to knit night on Wednesday, and was explaining some of her reasoning behind this little project. One of the 'men of the beehive' is a mailman, and it's really personified the postal system for her. Thinking that the postal workers probably see a lot of 'no junk mail' posters', she wanted to add some personal time and energy to her sign. It also relates the very tactile quality of sending mail and that of cross-stitch. It's so great, Jen!

(The book she used for the alphabet patterns can be purchased here.)

As you might know, part of our identity in the Beehive is 'homesteading' - participating in a lifestyle of  sustainability and self-sufficiency. It's been amazing to see different members of our craft collective tackling these amazing and practical art forms of old, like canning, mending, natural dyeing, farming, and now weaving! Hollie is in the middle of a weaving class and has so far wrapped about 1700 metres of textile, prepped the loom, and should start weaving next week.

In other very exciting news, our very own Jenna Rose was a Featured Seller on Etsy last week! Jenna's handmade housewares and accessories are so beautiful, and regularly and proudly sported by members of the Beehive. Everything she makes is hand screen printed in house, and the illustrated designs are thoughtfully created by Jenna as well. I could go on and on, but the Etsy interview is a great read, so make sure you check it out here.

Lastly, you can always count on Kate to be working on at least one (but more likely three or four!) amazing project...this time it's paper piecing with hexagons. Basically, paper piecing is a hand-sewing technique that is used to improve accuracy when working with shapes that have difficult angles. You fold lightweight cotton around paper templates, and baste them in place. Once everything is whip-stitched together, you press the whole piece, remove the basting, pop out the paper pieces and voila! Super cute quilt top/pillowcase/placemat/table runner/whatever you want.

So, there are a few things that are going on in the background, here at the Beehive. We'd love to see what you're working on at home, or which projects you have on your radar. Just post your link in the comments. Happy crafting!

(You can see 'Projects in Progress I' here...)