Wordless Wednesday

Beep Art

Ilee

Mimi Shop

Ellis Designs

Etsy Canada

As you browse the shops of Etsy, you may notice that the majority of the sellers are from the United States. As a Canadian I have been constantly trying to connect with other Canadians on the site as well as elsewhere online. I believe in supporting local and national sellers whenever I can so that our own home grown talent gets the recognition it deserves. In my own opinion, I feel that we don't appreciate the creative people we have in Canada until that talent leaves for south of the border and is recognized there.Well, Christina of Akane Designs seems to feel the same way and has been a constant supporter of Canadian Etsy sellers. Through various blog posts, forum threads and Facebook pages, Christina has initiated connections between Canadian sellers over and over. Christina's most recent contribution to the Canadian Etsy community has been the formation of the Etsy Canada NING social site. Through this site we've been able to connect easily and more visually as a group. I love the NING networking format and I find it very easy to navigate and search on topics and discussions. Feel free to browse the site and get taste of the talent that's available north of the 49th parallel.

Below are some picks of my own within the Etsy Canada group. Enjoy.

Bovine Bubbles

Sunnyside Ellen

Twisted Poppy

Peace of Pi

Tiny Fig

Gilliauna

Whoa Mama Vintage

Wordless Wednesday

Caged Tomato

Nature Mandalas

Mia Sophia

Swan Mountain Soaps

Wordless Wednesday (Etsy Canada)

The Eye

Tippy Toes Knits

Potato Bird Studio

Always Inspire

It was a Handmade Halloween

It's been a week now since the ghosts and goblins went searching for candy but I had to share with you some of the photos I took that day.

Near where I live we attended a trick-or-treating event that all the local businesses put on. The kids get dressed up and visit all the participating shops for candy. Even though the forecast called for rain, the sun shone beautifully and made Steveston the place to be Halloween day.

What struck me this year compared to others was how many costumes were handmade. These costumes weren't the usual homemade outfits like "business man" or "hippy" that you usually see. There were so many costumes made with a lot of time, care and creativity that I'm proud to say that it looks like the "Handmade Movement" is alive and well in this part of the world. Below are some photos of the handmade Halloween I saw.

Hand-carved pumpkin

"Dorthy" at Splash Toys

Where the Wild Things Are and Tree with Owl

Piece of sushi with chopsticks

Zombie Cake by Chocolate Lover Cakes

Wordless Wednesday

Carambatack

A Second Time

Bohemian Cats

Solana Graphic Studio

Print Zero Exchange

Well, it finally came. My Print Zero Exchange finally made it into my hands. I had done the above print for this international exchange based in Seattle back in May of this year. As this was my first international exchange, I was very excited to see what I would get in return. Well I waited, and waited, and waited and waited some more. I had almost lost all hope after hearing that some printmakers had received theirs. It looks as one thing after another delayed the mail-outs which was coupled with the fact that they had almost double the amount of entries as they did last year. Nearly 400 editions! I can imagine organizing that many entries was quite an undertaking.

As this exchange was an open call and not juried, all levels of printmaking expertise were present. Each printmaker was asked to complete and edition of 15 to exchange. In the edition that I received there were quite a few prints that looked as though they were beginner editions. Below are a couple of prints that found to be the best in the selection. I can't accredit the artists because most of the prints just have signatures without names or contact info on them. This is something I'll be sure to include in my next exchange because I would have loved to be able to see more of these artists' work. A complete list of artists will be set up on print Zero's Flickr page.

Although I found this exchange to be rather frustrating, I have faith that Print Zero Studio will be able to redeem themselves with future projects and exchanges. I would love another opportunity to visually connect with other printmakers from around the world. Next planned exchange: Year of the Tiger 2010.