Vendor Profile #9: Laura K Watson

Tell us about your creative work and what we can expect to see at Handmade Hamilton. 

    I am a drawer, writer, embroiderer, and printmaker. At Handmade Hamilton, I’ll be selling cards, postcards, zines, paper dolls, and prints, made with digital printing as well as more traditional forms of printmaking like silkscreen. In my writing, drawings, and prints, I tend to focus on the minutia of my daily life, but I like to mix it with elements of folklore or magic.

What are some of your favourite podcasts or music to listen to when you create?

    If I’m struggling to get through a print run when I’m screen-printing, I like to put on Kate Bush’s album, The Dreaming. It has so much wild energy and I love picturing Kate Bush making that when she was so young with this incredible level of confidence.

What are your favourite books?

    I couldn’t choose just one or two so I made a list of ten.

1. We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson

2. Here - Wislawa Szymborska

3. Everything by Jane Austen

4. Everything by Kazuo Ishiguro

5. Tess of the D’Ubervilles - Thomas Hardy

6. The Gorgeous Nothings - Emily Dickinson (a beautiful collection of her handwritten poems on envelopes and scrap papers)

7. The Witch’s Handbook - Malcolm Bird (a children’s book from 1984 with no narrative or real information but amazing, amazing illustrations)

8. All the Harry Potter books

9. Everything illustrated by Arthur Rackham

10. The Colossus - Sylvia Plath

If you have any advice for any emerging artisans what would it be?

    I think that if you want to be able to make things as your full-time or part-time job, you need to treat it like a job. Keep a regular work schedule. Have a designated work space. Set deadlines for yourself. But I also think this has to be balanced with a certain level of flexibility that allows you to be creative. You don’t want to become a production line. You want to make things that are exciting to you. Sometimes this means getting an idea at midnight, working on it all night, and throwing off your whole schedule.

http://www.laurakwatson.com/

https://www.instagram.com/laura.k.watson/

Vendor Profile #6 : Glib Designs

Tell us about your creative work and what we can expect to see at Handmade Hamilton. 

I’m excited to be a first-time Handmade Hamilton vendor! I make greeting cards, both by ‘hand’ and designed digitally. For the holidays, I love getting out stamps and watercolours to make one of a kind cards. For this show, I’ll also be showing some 8x10 prints, an easy gift - just add a frame! 

What inspires you to create the work that you do?

I am always looking to spread positivity and seeing the smiles people have when they browse my cards is super motivating! I am constantly inspired by other stationary designers, artists and book covers. Even window displays can get me thinking. 

What are your favourite books?

As a librarian, this is a very difficult question but let me try to give you a couple really good titles I’ve read this year. My usual read is fantasy/sci fi and I loved Cruel Prince by Holly Black. If you’re a creative type, I’d also recommend Amy Tangerine’s Craft a Life you Love, part workbook and part motivational book. 

If you have any advice for any emerging artisans what would it be?

Make use of your community - take classes, go to art crawl, meet people, use the library. Hamilton can be such a great place for artists. 

Instagram: @glibdesigns 

https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/glibdesigns

Vendor Profile #7 - Artist Nancy Benoy

Tell us about your work and what we can expect to see at this years Handmade Hamilton?

Delighted to be bringing colourful abstract original waterclour cards and paintings to give, to hang, to enjoy. A selection of my Itty Bitty paper paintings “Birds and Buildings” will be for sale too. 

What does your process look like? 

First I set up my space. I work from home, usually in the kitchen, the light is good and the coffee close.  I bring out the oil pastels, watercolours, inks, fill up the water dishes, grab brushes, gather the things. The process of the set up ritual is the beginning of the possibilities that lie ahead. I experiment with the materials, play with shapes, line and colour.  I let my mind wander until I am in that blissful state of nothingness.  That is where it happens for me. 

Tell us some of your favourite things about Hamilton?

I have lived in Hamilton for over 14 years and it has changed a lot but the things I like about Hamilton remain the same. It is a city in its own right. It is a 20 minute drive to glorious country side. It is a 20 minute walk to see a friend, pick up food, find a cool shop. It is a 5 minute walk to trails and trees, perfect for dog walking.  It’s my home. 

                

How has Hamilton's art and craft scene changed in the past 5 years?

So many more artist, crafters, shows and openings! 

Vendor Profile #1 : Bailiwick Studios

Bailiwick Studios

Tell us about your work and what we can expect to see at this years Handmade Hamilton?

I am a printmaker working with lino block and primarily in black and white. I’ve branched out this year to include small, unique home décor pieces. You can expect block printed holiday ornaments and cards, upcycled animal planters and a variety of original art prints.

What does your process look like?

My process is SO scattered these days because I am very busy chasing my 11 month old around! It’s difficult as a creative to only have these small windows of time to work on your art, but it is very important for me to be present when its family time so developing that balance has been very important. Printmaking, although takes time, can be a nice mindless activity sometimes! 

Tell us some of your favourite things about Hamilton? 

Hands downs, the sense of community. Not only amongst artists and makers, but between local business’s.  

Many makers listen to podcasts.  Do you? and what are some of your favourites?

I just recently started and love it! I listen to How I Built This, Revisionist Historyhttp://revisionisthistory.com (among others) but I am currently obsessed with Being Boss!  

INSTAGRAM - @bailiwick.studios 

FACEBOOK - facebook.com/thebailiwickstudios/

Vendor Profile: Ruth Webster's Cards

Ruth Webster creates one of a kind greeting cards that are 

perfect for the holidays!

I started working with rubber stamps about 12 years ago after visiting a shop in Dundas that had so many.  They also had free Saturday workshops.  I was hooked and have been making cards since.  I am just recently retired  from the Hamilton Public School board so have more time to create or at least that's the plan.

At the show I will have a variety of holiday cards that are unique and different from mainstream cards.  Most of the cards involve the art of rubber stamping which includes work with a lot of different types of stamps and ink on various types of papers.   

I also like photography and have a few photo cards.  Nature and it's colours also inspire me in my creations.Other artists inspire me especially if I am in a bit of a rut and suffer from creative block.  So many talented people in this community have become my friends and I am truly blessed to have them all.

I also have been fortunate to travel abroad and meet other artists and crafters in various parts of Europe and I bought their work as souvenirs. 

Vendor Profile: Nancy Benoy

Tell us about your creative work and what we can expect at this years Handmade Hamilton Show.

    I am absolutely delighted to be showing pieces from my Itty Bitty Collection, a collection of simple, modern, graphic paper pictures mounted on lovely warm wooden boxes. These can be hung on the wall or simply moved around upon whim. (something I like to do with art. A lot.)

    Also this year I will be selling another paper project I am involved in - Time and Place, a hand stitched Chapbook featuring art/lyrics/poetry/short stories and photography from the Hamilton area.

   

What does your process look like?

    Messy. At times. Organized. At times too. Also, it involves walks with my dog Roxy through the grounds of Dundurn Castle and the Hamilton Cemetery.

   

What inspires you? Where do you find your inspirations?

    I am inspired by colour, texture and beauty in the everyday object, weather that be a tea towel, coffee mug, the light that casts a twinkling glow on the leaves out my window or paint swatches, I love colour and pattern. A lot.  

 Words of inspiration to other artists?

   

    I would refer to the quote below, because if you don't try something and follow through you might not know what success or divergent path you might encounter. 

Fave quotes?

    "In for penny in for pound" 

    Although I seldom say this quote myself, my husband does (quite often to me) and I think, yes, quite right, lets just give it a go and finish x,y,z project/idea/thought.

Favourite movie?

    I am not sure this is my favourite movie or the one that's been on my mind but recently I watched a documentary 20,000 Days on Earth about the musician/artist and writer Nick Cave. It literally brought me to tears.  It's one of those films I am craving to see again, but wished I could see it again for the very first time.  

http://nancybenoy.carbonmade.com/

Vendor Profile: Catherine Moon from Moonruddle Designs

Moonruddle Designs is Catherine Moon- artist, teacher, and mother of 3. She graduated with degrees in Fine Arts and French from McMaster University in 2000. She teaches French Immersion and continues to do printmaking in her spare time. All of her prints are original designs carved from linoleum and hand printed on an assortment of Japanese papers. She is inspired by nature and specifically by flowers, insects and forest animals. Other inspirations come from the French culture and from her visits to France and Quebec. More recently she has been experimenting with dyeing natural fabrics with natural dyes.

Vendor Profile: Laura Konyndyk

Hi! I'm Laura, and I'm an illustrator based in Hamilton. My work is inspired by many things: woodland creatures, nature, word play, the city I live in, people, sweaters, scarves, children's books, and fabrics! (It's a list that's always growing.) 

I've just launched a line of cards and am often busy dreaming about the next print I'm going to make. Over the last few years my style has been informed by my growing love for watercolour--a medium that invites me to embrace happy accidents and experiment with fresh colour combinations. I feel very lucky to be a part of Hamilton's vibrant arts community and I'm excited to continue honing my artistic voice as I create and sell paper goods!

https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/LauraKonyndyk