Kate and Thomas have exhibited their work together since they graduated from their Masters programs in Cardiff, Wales, U.K., in 1996. They have recently started to collaborate on a series of one off ceramic pieces. Thomas creates the thrown forms in porcelain and Kate embellishes the surfaces with drawings. The form of the ceramic inspires the design layout.

The images for this year’s Cabbagetown Arts & Crafts Sale were developed on an artists’ residency in Denmark in June. Thomas and Kate were inspired by the blue and white Royal Copenhagen ceramics, the medieval church frescoes in the village church of Orslev, S.W. Zealand, and the Tivoli Panotomine, which include the characters of Harlequine, Columbine, and Pierrot. Other historical sources referenced included the history of sewing, Robert Herrick poems, and Persian bowl forms, and tile designs.

Ph: 705-652-1845
e-mail: takh@nexicom.net

“I was born in Mexico, but I now live and work in Toronto. I completed my B.A. in Visual Arts at the University of Nuevo Leon in Monterrey, Mexico, and also studied at the Instituto de Bellas Artes in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. I have exhibited extensively in Mexico as well as in Spain, Australia, and Canada. My first solo exhibition in Canada in March 2004 at Palace Fine Art and Craft Gallery, Toronto, was followed by my work being selected for the exhibition, From Hands to Lips, at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, Waterloo, Ontario. My work is now part of the gallery’s permanent collection. In Toronto I am represented by the gallery Muse and I continue to participate in exhibitions locally and internationally.

“My work is inspired by the sensuous and spiritual aspects of nature and humanity’s close relationship to it. In creating my sculptures I examine seeds, plants, and fragments of the bodies of animals and refer to the ceremonial articles used in the rituals of various cultures. Juxtapositions of form, texture, and colour create a universal language suggesting different emotional states, and dream-like, poetic messages from a subconscious level. Each unique ceramic piece is hand built and sculpted in earthenware, stoneware, or porcelain, using coils and slabs. The spontaneity of the results of combinations of clays, glazes, oxides, and different types of firing methods adds to this combination of process and product reflecting the power of the natural and spiritual worlds that surround us.”

e-mail: miguelderaszapata@sympatico.ca
Ph: 416-538-8978

“My jewellery career has evolved through a circuitous route. Having always loved jewellery design and taking part-time courses, I nonetheless went to university as an English major. After leaving university, I became a computer graphic designer. However, my love of jewellery led me to leave graphic design and return to school completing a three-year goldsmithing course in Toronto at George Brown Colllege. For the past 12 years I have run a jewellery studio in downtown Toronto.

“Although my jewellery is strongly contemporary, and often narrative in nature, I favour techniques that are centuries old. Forging, fusing, lost wax casting, and fabrication. Fabrication involves sawing, filing, shaping pieces by bending, soldering, and drilling. The methods that I use are all ways of working with metal that have long histories and have been employed by many cultures.

“When I began to study jewellery making I found the perfect forum to express myself. I was able to draw upon my graphic design background and my love of working with my hands. I am always cognizant of the thread that connects me to metal workers of the past, whose work and ideas exist today in the objects that they have made. The fascination with, and possibilities inherent in working with metal keep me constantly exploring. Both technical and aesthetic concerns are equal partners in my jewellery making.”

www.lizkain.com

Fidoodle is a design and production company building artful objects out of sustainably harvested wood, organic cottons, sheep wool, and recycled fabric. Fidoodle products are story-based, and built to feed imaginations in creative and interactive play. They are produced entirely in Toronto, Canada.

Fidoodle is the work of Jen Bulthuis, artist, eductator, and mom. Her objects are inspired by the imaginations of the children and young adults she has met throughout her teaching and arts facilitation career. These days, she’s equally inspired by the half-crazed journey of her own child’s growth.

Fidoodle advocates play for all ages - even for the big people.Fidoodle is a design and production company building artful objects out of sustainably harvested wood, organic cottons, sheep wool, and recycled fabric. Fidoodle products are story-based, and built to feed imaginations in creative and interactive play. They are produced entirely in Toronto, Canada.

Fidoodle is the work of Jen Bulthuis, artist, eductator, and mom. Her objects are inspired by the imaginations of the children and young adults she has met throughout her teaching and arts facilitation career. These days, she’s equally inspired by the half-crazed journey of her own child’s growth.

Fidoodle advocates play for all ages - even for the big people.

www.fidoodle.com
e-mail: info@fidoodle.com

“I was trained in traditional photographic and darkroom techniques and methods while attending the University of Toronto, School of Architecture in the early 1980s. Since then I have taken various courses and seminars in photography that contributed to my development as a photographer over this past twenty-five years. As a Visual Sociologist I am called upon to exercise my skills as a photographer. I have built up a considerable body of work that I am working toward organizing for exhibition. However, I do consider myself to be self taught in both photography and painting in terms of composition and the development of my esthetic.

“Though I have not formally studied art history, through my academic studies as a Visual Sociologist and in Cultural Studies, as well as through my natural interest in art, I have read extensively on the area. As a Docent at the Art Gallery of Ontario, I am continually challenged to expand my knowledge base, as well as surprised as to what I have already accumulated. Though my interest in art has been life long, it has not been until three years ago that I embarked on making the practice of art a career. This has been a slow and often tentative process, but the desire and will is strong. To make such a change in one’s life is not a commitment that I have taken lightly.

“Though void of the human figure, the images I take are full of humanity and the stories of individuals through time. Where some photograph man-made and natural disasters, or landscapes that are manufactured, I capture light through the decay of time and neglect. Here is a beauty, a stillness, a timelessness in what many see as derelict and dirt. Forgotten and passed by, these edifices are a testament to the social past. In these capsules of brick and marble are encased the struggles of workers and industrialization; the transformation of traditional ideologies and the stagnation of those institutions; where wealth and class are manifest and tangible. This is a process of Photographic Anthropology and compliments my work as a Visual Sociologist.”

www.russellbrohier.com
e-mail: russell.brohier@gmail.com
Ph: 647-244-3973

"My professional background is in theatrical costuming and shoemaking. It started in Montreal, where I studied haute-couture for three years and worked as a costume builder for dance, theatre, circus, and opera productions. I came to Toronto to apprentice as a shoemaker and then perfected my skills studying in Texas and working at the Stratford Festival.

"In 1995 Shoe Babou was born when I created a pair of blue suede shoes for my friend’s newborn girl, Rowan. What began as a whimsical gift has grown into an ongoing refinement of my line of children’s footwear. I now have four models of shoes, as well as a line of shearling slippers/booties and a line of shearling hats to accompany the booties. Every piece I make is one of a kind. The baby shoes are made of suede, lined in fine leather, soft and yet structured, individually detailed, and come in an infinite array of colors. The booties are made in small quantities, using the best pelts in beautiful and often surprising colors. I do all the stages myself, from the design to the cutting and assembling. My passion for textures, shapes, and colours have found a home in Shoe Babou and continue to provide inspiration."

www.shoebabou.com
e-mail: shoebabou@sympatico.ca

Originally from Buffalo, New York, my husband Gary (‘Sox’) and I now live in Fort Erie. With a background in painting, pottery, and fibres, my art career has developed from weaving to papermaking and, more recently, has evolved into mixed-media collage and assemblages. Endeavoring always to blend colour, texture, dimension, and fibre in my work, I add papers, beads, threads, hardware, wood, and found objects to create a more unified work of art. Often my family or friends will give me things that they think can be used in my work.

I have a history of ferreting out old and unusual boxes, photographs, papers, metals, stamps, threads, books, natural objects, and other ‘stuff’ from everywhere. I work with a variety of different kinds of materials, collecting and sorting intriguing items from all over; often unsure at the outset what eventually will come from them. My work is very textural; I love the feel of different materials. The boxes evoke attachments to the past, for me and also for those who enjoy them.

Recently I have developed an affinity for old wood foundry patterns. Some of these patterns have very unusual shapes; some have the pattern number stamped into them and some have previously been painted. Finding the ‘perfect’ patterns has been challenging as well. I have been refinishing them, using a variety of mediums to do so and have been adding small pieces of wood, metal, bone, stones, and other objects to create something a bit more unusual.

www.pattiharris.com
e-mail: pharris6@cogeco.ca
Ph: 905-991-1252

Kalyna Pidwerbesky is a Toronto-based fibre artist who creates fibreworks using handwork techniques. She graduated from Sheridan College and the Ontario College of Art and Design. Kalyna is a member of the Ontario Crafts Council and the Etobicoke Handweavers and Spinners Guild. Her work has been exhibited in regional, national, and international exhibitions of fibre, textile, craft, and art. Inspired by transitions in nature, the creative process, and yoga philosophy Kalyna creates this work as an offering of warmth and joy.

“The unifying force in my work is the harmony of colour and texture as fibre becomes both paint and building block. Felt-making lies at the core of my work. The transformational process of turning individual fibres into a new, cohesive cloth and the freedom to sculpt any shape and form is a joyful experience.

“Textile-making techniques including felting, embroidery, and beading and their repetitive nature provide moment-to-moment opportunities for quiet reflection and contemplation on the theme of transformation.”

www.kalyna4.com
kalyna4@yahoo.com
416-509-7087