Toronto Craft Alert

Spark Box Studio

With TCA wrapping up in just a few short days (whoa!) I wanted to try to squeeze in some pics from my Ontario craft odyssey to Prince Edward County, Kitchener Waterloo, and Thunder Bay this past November as part of an Ontario Crafts Council funded project to uncover regional issues for makers practicing outside of large urban centres. The trip was a real eye opener to this Toronto native about different cultures of craft thriving outside of the Big Smoke and I would encourage everyone to get out there and explore for themselves. If you’re interested in hearing about some of my findings, I’ll be presenting at the Craft and the New Economy Symposium coming up March 10.

I’ll start with my first stop in Picton where I had the pleasure of checking out Spark Box Studio, an artist residency (and more!) located on farmland and inside a renovated century farmhouse. I am going to stick with pictures but you should most definitely visit the Spark Box website for more info on the project and also to access their generous collection of professional and business development resources for artists.

Chrissy Poitras, co-owner of Spark Box, in the Studio building

Printing press in Studio

One of the three lovely residency rooms

And I can’t post about Picton without sending fibre peeps to the Rose Haven Farm Store, THE most extensive fibre arts supply shop I have ever laid eyes on.

Rose Haven carries Habu yarns from Japan in unusual materials such as silk & cotton paper, copper bamboo, linen wrapped stainless steel, and pine.