Craft Community of Canada

At the One of a Kind Show we had out own little section and the ten of us became quite neighborly. The criteria of our section was that we all had to be nominated by a Canadian Institution. I was lucky enough that Emily Carr was willing to help me out with this, I suppose there has to be some advantage to being Alumni.
Here is a little information on each Craft Community member.

Julie Pongrac

Julie is also from Vancouver and is very surely a Master Knitter. Her hand-knit lace work is exquisite, making traditional (but certainly not ordinary) pieces such as shawls and scarves and less unexpected items like delicate lace bowls. The bowls are so delicate, it seems they might melt away like morning frost.


Shuyu Lu

Shuyu was nominated by the Ontario Crafts Council for her textile pieces. She was mainly exhibiting printed pillows and embroidered art pieces. Her work is quite playful and filled with bold, bright colours that are whimsical and eye catching. Conceptually her work deals with nostalgia for her childhood in China and her observations on the Western and Eastern culture. Her embroideries are very dynamic, combining traditional skill with a modern aesthetic using highlight colours and gossamer thin fabric to embroider on.



Lauren Blakey

Lauren's ceramic pieces feel like relics of time past or altered by nature. Their structure and texture evoke mosses and lichens. Created in a set shape of either cube or 'boat', within that shape the ceramic runs wild, seeming like an enlarged microcosm or magnified slice of ecosystem.


Carolyne Brouillard

Carolyne's glass work is playful with bright, bold colours and swirling gentle forms. Inspired by the undersea world her forms are evocative or corals and sponges and her colours similar to all those of the brightest reef.


Caroline Gamiette

Caroline's textile pieces include lamps and light boxes. The fabric in each of these is treated with a variety of traditional techniques such as screen-printing, shibori, dyeing and folding. Light is also an important medium within her work, transforming each piece with the flick of a switch. It lends the textiles a warmth that works well with their abstract shapes and colours.

Patrycja Zwierzynska

Patrycja's jewelry is astounding in its beauty. Each piece nods towards nature in is organic forms but is informed by a very minimal design aesthetic. Working mainly with silver and gold she has captured many forms and textures that seem incongruous but work very well.



Chari Cohen

Chari is one of the most dynamic women that I have ever met. One afternoon when traffic was slow I looked up to see her tying a fly for fishing. Nature is very much a part of her life and her work. Her slip cast ceramic pieces have all the rough imperfections of nature and this makes them all the more elegant in their ceramic state.




Nicole McInnes


Nicole's pieces for Oh Dina are both elegant and playful. Her use of traditional hat making materials with her own eye-catching aesthetic is very successful for her. There was quite literally a line up at her booth as crowns of women tried on her creations.



Cathia Finkel
Cathia's table runners and placemats seem informed by two very different ideas. On one hand her hand work seems very traditional, using embroidery and hand dyeing to create linens. Her use of colours and textures is bright and very refreshing.