Shannon Donegan, owner of Bodylove Naturals, is the ideal person to be offering a line of all natural, vegan bath and body products. Not only is she a practicing vegan with lots of experience using varieties of all-natural beauty products, Shannon is also studying to become a Registered Holistic Nutritionist at the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition. [...]

I am excited to feature our March Monthly Maker, Patrick Cruickshank, the artist behind Cruickshank Creative. Cruickshank Creative offers a variety of handcrafted concrete and plaster goods, including my favorite pieces, the concrete plant pots (pictured below). Patrick’s collection features rustic and textured styles that echo nature at its finest. His ability to utilize cracks, [...]

While searching for environmentally friendly accessories for myself online, I discovered Vancouver-based Pinto Bags. The business reuses what companies consider ‘waste’ and transforms them into unique bags and wallets. Ashley Jestin, (pictured below) the creator of Pinto Bags was kind enough to share her passion (and a special offer for CAC readers!) for turning non-biodegradable billboard signs into [...]

Welcome to Monthly Maker! This is a column celebrating independent Canadian artists and their work. Each month I will introduce a new Monthly Maker (MM) who will share their skills, advice, goals and quirks with readers. Also, as a special treat, each MM will offer either a tutorial or deal specifically for CAC readers. MMs [...]

With the holiday season fast approaching, many people I know expressed interest in buying handmade and local as their holiday gifts. The holiday shopper is an excellent way to build your business, especially with the increase of local craft and Christmas markets. So how can you, a small business owner, stand out from the sea [...]

Hoopla: the Art of Unexpected Embroidery, by Vancouver-based artist Leanne Prain, introduces readers to an alternative world of embroidery. A world where embroidery is not just limited to dated pieces found in your grandma’s living room, instead it features an array of artists and artworks ranging from Ray Materson, an ex-con who learned how to [...]

…Spins & Needles, where have you been all my (adult) life?! Aimed at the nightclub demographic, Spins & Needles is mobile art party that produces events that are a mash-up between a bar scene, dance club and art show. Over the past 6 years, Spins & Needles mobile art parties have been held worldwide in [...]

There is an abundance of female sellers and female-friendly products in the craft industry so I wanted to write an article representing men that make various crafts. However I couldn’t find a wide enough variety of male crafters locally, not to say that they don’t exist, they are just hard to find. Instead I turned [...]

Inspired by the work of Lacey Jane Roberts, (an artist who connected queer theory and craft very eloquently: listen here) a group of Vancouver-based artists called Textile Group want to spread the word about craft. Textile Group wants the world to know the stigma about crafts being a ‘lesser’ type of an art-form is not true. Crafts are not [...]

Vancouver, known for its abundance of creativity, has few independent and locally owned shops that focus on fueling crafty inspiration. Sadly, the numbers are about to dwindle further with the closing of RubyDog’s Art House at the end of the summer. I frequently go to RubyDog’s if I am having a creative block and I [...]