The Toronto Craft Alert is a community hub for craft-related art, DIY, and design activity happening locally. It is an independent project run by a handful of volunteers committed to bringing crafty news and content to the Toronto-area craft community by:
- Informing readers about local designers, craft fairs, projects, exhibitions, material suppliers, and learning opportunities;
- Supporting local makers by promoting their work, exhibitions & sales; and
- Connecting those engaged in craft loving & making through on and offline activities as well as an online forum
The Toronto Craft Alert is not just a listing service! We have have developed a number of unique columns, found on our Browse page. We also work with businesses and organizations such as the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, The Ontario Crafts Council, The Textile Museum of Canada, the One of A Kind Show & the workroom in presenting innovative crafty initiatives.
The TCA plans many of their offline activities in collaboration with City of Craft, a craft collective that aims to build community amongst crafters in Toronto, support independent craft businesses, and encourage the larger community to get involved with crafty happenings in the city. View the City of Craft website for the latest.
TCA Team
CREW
Jen Anisef : Founder - Project Director - Contributor
Jen first experienced the power of craft upon spending a year in rural Japan in and was blown away by the importance of handwork in the lives of everyone from little kids to the elderly. Upon returning to Canada she has been involved in a whirlwind of crafty activity which included writing a Master’s thesis on indie craft culture, co-founding the Montreal Church of Craft & City of Craft, and spawning TCA.
Angelune Des Lauriers : Technical and Design Coordinator – Special Projects
Born in Montreal, raised in the Yukon and settled in Toronto, Angelune comes from a long line of arts & crafts women. Angelune has always been interested and involved in crafts in one way or another, and currently enjoys sewing, quilting, crocheting, and promoting the craft community through the TCA.
Rosalyn R. Faustino : Links Manager – Listings Contributor
Specializing in art history and art studio in sculpture, Rosalyn has always been interested in the arts and craft. She tries to scope out the crafty happenings and crafty individuals in our lovely city and surrounding area. Her current loves are crocheting, patchworking and quilting, embroidery, sewing and soon to be installation. She likes pretty, detailed things.
Ayoola Fumilayo Silvera : Forum Manager
Ola was raised in Toronto among entrepreneurial artists, where the necessity of carving paths along non-mainstream routes was a given. She appreciates the power of community and sharing when it comes to making a life and a living doing what one loves. Ola founded Handmakers in Business Local 416, a meet-up group for Toronto creatives. She supplies music box parts and accessories to other crafters through her shop Tuned Teeth, and sells her own creations through her site My Secret Music Box. Her home is filled with books and vintage mechanica.
CONTRIBUTORS
Becky Johnson
Becky has just about no formal background in craft or visual art and spends almost all her time involved in both. She runs the sweetie pie press (producer of 1″ buttons, zines, crochet, ephemera and miscellany), helms City of Craft (a big indie craft show and a string of related programming) and collaborates on several improvised/comedic performance projects (catch23, The Sufferettes, IRON COBRA). She also finds herself involved in innumerable impromptu projects and passing fancies. All this junk – and the places that art, craft and performance take her – is usually chronicled on her trusty sweetie pie blog.
Tara Bursey
Tara is a multi-disciplinary artist, crafter, avid self-publisher, record collector, and aspiring curator and art writer. She has exhibited extensively throughout Toronto, from tattoo shops to the Textile Museum and in group exhibitions in Halifax, Saskatoon, Berlin and Copenhagen. Her projects have included coordinating The Portable Library Project, programming a window gallery on College Street, helping run the Toronto Zine Library and organizing installation and exhibition programming for City of Craft.
Help Wanted
Spread the word
We are always grateful if you could spread the word about the resources offered by the TCA far and wide. In doing so, you are supporting local makers, independent businesses & the craft/DIY/design community as a whole.
Besides telling all of your friends, family, co-workers & people you pass on the street, you can promote the TCA by adding it to free arts & culture listings, posting about it on message boards that you participate in, profiling the project in student & other local publications, and linking to us on your website.***
Our Facebook group can be found here, you are invited to join up and share it with your friends! Or follow us on Twitter right here.
***Add the TCA megaphone icon to your site (which links back to ours) using the following code:
<a href="http://www.torontocraftalert.ca" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3344/3212540173_8f7c7f3dfb_o.jpg" width="144" height="86" alt="craft_alert_button" /></a>
Toronto Craft Alert button
FAQ
What’s this project all about?
How long has the TCA been around for?
Who are you guys, anyhow?
What are the best ways for me to stay on top of crafty happenings in the Toronto area?
Can I submit my event for consideration for listing on the TCA website?
How do you choose what to feature on the site?
How do I submit a link to the site? Does it cost money?
I want to get involved in the TCA — what can I do?
I am having the hardest time finding X craft supply/class/other crafty service in Toronto — can you help me?
I’ve recently moved to Toronto and want to get involved in the craft community here— what do you recommend?
I want to start a crafty business but have no idea where to start — Help!
I want to get in touch with one of the galleries, show, artists, etc. listed on the site — how do I do this?
What’s this project all about?
See a lowdown on the TCA project up here.
How long has the TCA been around for?
Our first post was February 2, 2006.
Who are you guys, anyhow?
Thanks for asking! See TCA team info here.
What are the best ways for me to stay on top of crafty happenings in the Toronto area?
There are a few ways to make sure that you don’t miss out on craft related exhibitions, shows, rentals, sales, classes, and projects happening locally.
Check out the TCA forum – this is the best place to find out about a wide range of craft activity, organized by type.
Join our Facebook Group – another venue where some crafty locals spread their news.
Follow us on Twitter – where you’ll be notified when new posts go up on the main site, and we share some local crafty tidbits too.
Subscribe to our RSS feed with your feed reader.
Can I submit my event for consideration for listing on the TCA website?
Yes, we are definitely interested in hearing about what you are up to, or about stuff happening out there that you feel other readers might be interested in. We invite everyone to post a blurb, an image and contact info on the TCA forum which we will check regularly for interesting content.
Here is a short checklist to increase the chances of having your event posted on the blog.
Does your forum post include:
- A description of your event/project/etc.?
- An accompanying image (that you have permission to use)?
- Contact info such a website, email, or phone number?
How do you choose what to feature on the site?
While we enthusiastically support the wide range of craft related activity happening locally and are proud of Toronto’s diverse craft scene, in order to keep ourselves engaged in this volunteer-run project we post about shows, projects, and people that are interesting to us. We tend to be attracted to initiatives and individuals that are pushing boundaries, that revive craft traditions that may otherwise be lost, and that reflect a DIY spirit.
How do I submit a link to the site? Does it cost money?
Links listings are totally free! Mosey over to our links page to submit your own.
I want to get involved in the TCA — what can I do?
If you are looking to play a role in making the TCA magic happen, check out our Help Wanted section to see if we are looking for volunteers or new interns. Since TCA is volunteer run by people with full time jobs or craft practices, unfortunately we don’t always have time to take on and manage new people, though we are super grateful for offers to contribute! We are always looking for help promoting the site content and resources to a wider audience.
If you would like to write for TCA, please get in touch via our contact page here and let us know what you have in mind.
I am having the hardest time finding X craft supply/class/other crafty service in Toronto — can you help me?
Check out our Ask Crafty archives to see if your query has been covered. If not, ask away on the forum and hopefully another local can share their wisdom.
I’ve recently moved to Toronto and want to get involved in the craft community here — what do you recommend?
The forum is a great way to stay on top of opportunities to get involved – you’ll find calls for volunteers for fun crafty events, vendor opportunities & calls for submissions (if you make stuff yourself), workshop and class listings, and general event notices. Don’t be shy – just get out there as much as you can and soon you will find others that share your passions and interests and love of craft.
I want to start a crafty business but have no idea where to start — Help!
Check out our Crafty Business archives, perhaps your question was asked by another reader. Also, check out our links page for small business resources.
I want to contact one of the galleries, show, artists, etc. listed on the site — how do I do this?
We try whenever possible to list a website or contact info in each post – if you don’t see it or cannot find it using a search engine, get in touch and we’ll try to help you as best we can.
