Collective Buzz: How To Form A Craft Collective

A while back we were approached about presenting something at the 'Craft and the New Economy' Symposium which is put on by the Ontario Crafts Council. We were super honoured, and jumped at the opportunity, but it wasn't until we sat down to plan our workshop that we realized how nervous we all were! We very quickly figured out what we could talk about ('How To Form A Craft Collective'), but who was going to say what? Who would go first? "Are you nervous? Because I'm so nervous!"...

Well, it came and went, and we did just fine! We had a great turnout at our workshop, and we walked our attendees through an English Paper Piecing tutorial as we went through what we consider the five key steps to starting a craft collective in your own community.

Step 1: Find a group of like-minded people.

This might be a group of friends that you already have, or it might mean that you need to get creative! Put up posters, join/start a knit night, look for local craft blogs...do whatever you need to do to find
some people who are just as passionate about this idea as you are.

Step 2. Create a vision for your group.

Every craft collective will have it's own unique identity. For us, we were looking to connect with like-minded people and participate in skill-sharing and large-scale craft projects. For you it may be something very different. When you meet with your collective be sure to share the things you are excited about, because you never know what might come of it!

Step 3. Delegate tasks.

For the Beehive, the tasks 'fell' pretty naturally. Each of us volunteered for certain tasks, based on our interest and schedules, and the tasks that were left over seemed to naturally fall into place as well. It's important in a collective, where no one is in charge or specifically taking the lead, that you're very aware of sharing the load. One thing we've all appreciated about the Beehive is that there is an honesty and graciousness about what each of us can take on a different points throughout the year.

Step 4. Get busy!

Do the things that you want to do! There was a reason you started this collective - now, get to it! Host a craft fair, share your skills, start a garden, put on a workshop, create a collective art piece...there are so many different things you can do with your group!

Step 5. Share the love.

If you're part of a craft collective, there are lots of people who want to hear about it! Start a website, create a blog, share pictures, put together tutorials...there is so much to learn and so much we can all be inspired by.



Those five steps pretty much sum up our process, which we would all say has been a great success! We've got some exciting projects on the go, one of which we'll be looking for help with soon! You'll hear about it here in the next few weeks...

If you have a collective of your own, we'd love to hear your story! Or maybe you're thinking of starting one and you have some questions about our journey. Just leave your comments and questions below or send an email to beehivecraftcollective@gmail.com, and we'll be happy to give some more insight. Thanks for reading!

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.