Merry Christmas Readers!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all you out there!!  I hope you are riding a gentle slope up to Christmas and not letting it get the better of you.  I know that holidays, especially Christmas, can be very busy with so much planning and work to do.  Enjoy celebrating with family and friends and I will be back after the holidays!!

Cloverleaf Art & Fibre's Learn To Spin Workshop Coming In February

Cloverleaf Art & Fibre and Joanne Seiff present a class:

Learn to Spin!  

Taught by Joanne Seiff*

Handspinning with a spindle is an ancient craft that is still important even today.  Everyone in a household, including children as young as four, used to help spin yarn that clothed the family and kept them warm!  Join Joanne and learn a bit about wool and learn to use a handspindle to make your own yarn.  When you leave this class, you’ll own a spindle, some practice wool, and you’ll be able to practice spinning at home.

Note: This class is all you’ll need to begin spinning.  It’s also a great introduction to the skills you’ll need if you decide to learn to spin on a spinning wheel.

When: February 13^th from 1:30-4:30 pm     

Where: Henderson Library

1-1050 Henderson Highway, Winnipeg, MB

Cost: $60

This includes: a $30 materials fee for a beginner’s spindle, wool, room fee and other materials & a $30 class fee per person

Spaces are Limited! Register by February 6^th to reserve your spot!

Please phone Margaret of Cloverleaf Art & Fibre at 231-4321

or email cloverleaf.fibre@gmail.com

Want to stock up on fibery goodness while you learn?  Cloverleaf Art & Fibre will bring a selection of Shetland wool fleece, roving and art straight from their lovingly raised Shetland flock!  Also purchase signed copies of Joanne’s books as well as other goodies…all while learning to spin in a friendly, hands-on environment.

*About the Instructor:

Joanne Seiff is the author of Fiber Gathering, a book about fiber festivals, and Knit Green: 20 Projects and Ideas for Sustainability.  She’s been spinning for over 25 years-- and knitting longer than that!  Her handspun yarn and fiber art has been sold in galleries and won awards at state fairs and in art competitions.  She teaches throughout North America at sheep shows, fiber festivals, and yarn shops. 

Little Furniture On The Prairie

Susan Hiebert makes beautiful kids tables and chairs, toy boxes, growth charts, glass block lamps, and much more. She works out of Portage La Prairie and her business is called Something Crafty.  I was happy that she fell into my lap because there are very few crafters that make furniture.  I think I have only featured a few over the last year.  Susan makes beautiful pieces and they are hand painted to make any little girl or boy very happy.  Have a look at her Facebook page for photo albums of all her work and shop her Etsy site too. 

Susan Hiebert

Something Crafty
http://www.etsy.com/shop/SomethingCraftyBySue

www.facebook.com/somethingcrafty

1 More Shopping Weekend: Oh Has This Month Flown By!!!

Ok....so I have two more craft sales before Christmas.  Then it is probably all over until Spring.  Have a happy Christmas or Hanukka.  I hope you are all safe and get to spend some good quality time with your families!  Peace be with you wherever you are and we will chat again soon.  :)

Anarchist Craft Show
Friday, December 17th (5pm-11:30pm)
Saturday, December 18th (1pm-11:30pm)
West End Cultural Centre

Crystal Nykoluk Ceramics
December 19th, 2010 (2pm-8pm)
741 McMillan

2 Weekends of Shopping Until Christmas: The Last Chance Events

I know I said I was tuckered out with craft sales but I know many of you probably are not the early shopper that I am.  If you have a list that you are checking twice I am sure you will see some gaps you are trying to fill.  Craft sales are a great place to find that perfect gift for the hard to buy person, baking for your Christmas events, Christmas and other holiday cards, or even just a warm pair of socks or a scarf to keep you warm over the winter.  I went to the Last Chance Craft Sale last year and it was good.  All handmade things and 100 tables all in one, warm location.  Here some more sales that you can pop into this weekend.  Have fun and if you see anything good email me the details to handmadeinmanitoba@gmail.com.

Montrose School Craft Sale
Saturday, December 11th, 2010 (9am-4pm)
Located between Elm St. and Montrose St. on Grant Ave.

Christmas Gift Show
UCT Pavillion - Keystone Centre
Brandon, MB
Dec. 11 10am - 8pm
Dec. 12 10am - 5pm

Valley Gardens Community Centre Craft Sale
December 11th, 2010
218 Antrim Road

Last Chance Craft Sale
Sunday, December 12th, 2010 (11am-5pm)
Club Regent
1415 Regent Ave W
Items must be handmade. 2 Floors with over 100 crafters.

Crystal Nykoluk Ceramics Art Show and Sale

Crystal Nykoluk graduated in 2008 from the University of Manitoba Fine Arts Department with an Honors Degree in Ceramics.  Her ceramics have a cozy earthy feel because she finds inspiration in nature.   Each piece is functional and very much a work of art.  Crystal is having an art show and sale on December 19th, 2010 at 741 McMillan from 2pm-8pm.  It will be a very cozy atmosphere to showcase all her ceramic art.  Along with Crystal and her art, Michael Cann & Kurt Wood will be found playing some music for the shoppers.  Have a peak at her website below for more info and photos of her ceramics.  Crystal describes her style:

"I build all my work using soft slabs of clay and also sometimes using molds.   I really enjoy making abstract textures using clay, and I incorporate this element into all my work as well.  No two objects I make are ever identical!  I get much inspiration from simply observing the world as I go through it.  The way frost plays out on a window, the grain of wood as it runs around knots in a tree, cracked soil, and broken rock.  My work is wood-fired.  To be able to wood-fire I depend on the generosity of friends who have wood-burning kilns.  I also fire in a small electric kiln out at my studio in Anola Manitoba.
 

I really believe that you get out of life what you put into it.  A life surrounded by handmade objects is a way of soothing the soul and satisfying your right to be individual.  We need to show the world we care about what we own.  We care where it comes from and we care about ourselves!"


Crystal Nykoluk Ceramics
crystalnykolukceramics.wordpress.com

Busy Weekend For Cool Craft

I did get to the Crafty Minions and This Ain't Your Grandma's Craft Sale this weekend.  Both were good and unique in their own ways.  I didn't buy much but I did grab a few cards for later purchases.  I ended up getting vintage goodies at the Crafty Minions and tonight at the Park Theatre I bought a t-shirt.  I think I have been to a few too many craft sales this year because I have seen a lot of repeat crafters/artisans.  :)   I am sure that I see some artisans more than most of my friends and family (Marathon 1981 and Just The Goods forsure).   I now need to work on my neglected relationships so I am done for craft sales for 2010.  I have many crafters to write about in the future so keep a peak here now and then.  I am not dying here just hanging up my shopping bag for a while. :) 

I will also keep posting about sales if anyone emails me about ones I have missed and I am always glad to post about a new or old artisan so keep emailing me your details to handmadeinmanitoba@gmail.com.

Night Night.

Urban Peasant's Great Canadian Neck Hugging Jewelry

Kris of Urban Peasant was at the Vineyard Craft Sale this year so I got to see her northern version of a necklace: a necklace with a purpose which is to keep our tender necks WARM!  :D  I am sure that in due time Americans will talk about Kris's jewelery as another Canadian cliche among the fur hats, Sorrel boots, Mounties, beavers, igloos, and loons.  :)  Only Canada would have knit necklaces.  As one of Kris's customers smartly remarked, "It's the perfect Canadian jewelry!"  And it IS!  They are very urban, very now, and very cool!  It is neckware that gets noticed, it will get comments, and will be adored by all your friends.  Americans would be LUCKY to have such a glorious piece of clothing but unfortunately they are not cool enough, in more ways then one.  

I am a bit on the goofy side today.  We had a good day around here and the kids are asleep!! Yey!  I actually have been playing around with a finger knitter since I was a kid.  My Grandma made me my first one on a wooden thread spool.  I mainly made finger puppets, coasters, and hot pads for the kitchen.  I wanted to knit one so long that I could make a rug but I am very much an idea girl and not a finisher so it ended up as another hot pad.  Kris seems to be both and idea woman and a finisher so she came up with this brilliant neck jewelry and I did not.  ;)  She sent me a great bio on who she is and how she got to making this very interesting neckware so I will leave it to her now.  Read all about her and her great Canadian necklaces.  :)

"Urban Peasant started out, true to it's name, as a project for car rides from Winnipeg to the farm our family lived and worked on for a season last year. I wanted to find something to occupy the kids during the almost hour commute back and forth between the farm and city, and I found finger knitting online. I read the instructions, purchased a skein of cotton/bamboo blend yarn and set off in the car to the farm with the intent on figuring it out by the time we got there. When we arrived, I indeed had a super long chain knit up and no clue what to do with it. I somehow decided to wrap it around my neck, probably just as a way to carry it in to the barn while juggling bags, kids, groceries, etc. When I eventually looked in the mirror, I realized it actually looked cool! And my neckwear was born.

That year at the Winnipeg Centre Vineyard Craft Sale, I brought about 8-10 of them and sold out of them before the first half of the sale went by. So, this year I came back to the WCV Craft Sale and they were quite popular again. I've had several orders this week already and am excited to see where Urban Peasant will go! I designed some product packaging, business cards, a website and I'm working on my Etsy store this week. 

Urban Pesasant's neckwear is hand-knitted from natural fibres, this season featuring fair trade organic cotton, undyed eco alpaca, and hand dyed merino and corriedale wool in gorgeous colourways. The neckwear looks great on men and women and can be worn as a cowl or more like a necklace, depending on the weather and preference. I like to wear mine as a cowl while I'm out in the cold Winnipeg winter weather, and then unloop it once I'm indoors to wear it more like jewelry. 

Our tagline is "Turning nature's fibers into urban wear".   

Check out some of our neckwear at www.urban-peasant.com and visit us on Etsy in the coming weeks under the shop name Urban Peasant Goods. Prices range from $12-60 depending on size and type of yarn. Custom orders welcome!"