Getting Ready for the show

Just a little under three weeks away until the One Of A Kind Christmas show. 
Busy prepping and making for the show. I'll have a variety of stuffed toys, brooches and needle-felted goodies available at the show, including many of your favourites from my Etsy shop. 
This will be my second OOAK show vendor experience and my first Christmas show experience, as a vendor. 
Very excited and nervous at the same time. 
Hope to see you at the show.

Stay tuned for a giveaway coming up next week where you could win two tickets to the show!!!

For now, back to work.

 Here's a sneak peek of what's in store for the OOAK Christmas show...

*

*cat not for sale

Always On My Mind - The Rest

Last year this pretty great band

The Rest

got a bunch of people together including sharp-eye director Karl Richter 

to make a fantastic music video in just 24hrs 

for their touching and haunting song 

Always On My Mind

off their stellar album SEESAW. 

For your viewing pleasure... 

here is the fruit of their labour 

Always On My Mind - SEESAW

by The Rest 

Directed by Karl Richter

Listen to the album SEESAW on Bandcamp

Art in Transit

Over the next two weeks see my work in the Art in Transit exhibition, across Canada. 

From Jan. 14th - 27th 

in shopping centers all over the country

My animals heads as photographed by the best, Owen Deveney  

along with Andrea Vander kooij's photographs of her amazing skills in knitting, 

will be apart of  "Hard Twist: Greatest Hits" 

curated by Chris Mitchell & Helena Frei 

and Art in Transit, an ad/exhibition program 

with Pattison OneStop Network digital display billboards.

Read about the Art in Transit program and more about the artists involved 

in this Thursdays issue of  the Metro Newspaper 

or get it online here. 

Find out where to view the exhibition here

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Make sure to see
Hard Twist 7: Touch Me, Feel Me

before we pack it all up on Sun Jan 27th. 

On now @ The Gladstone Hotel, Queen West, Toronto

3rd & 4th Floor. 

Try on a felted beard made by yours truly and post it on twitter #HardTwist

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Owen has just posted a mountain of wonderful shots 

sharing them with us via Flickr. 

Please stop by and check them out here.

enjoy!

Update: Jan 16th 2013

News about the Art in Transit program landed on the west coast.

read Vancouver's online new source Straight.com 

for all the details. 

News & Events!

Hey have you check out the News & Events page lately?
I have a few things happening this month just in time for the holidays like...

Artisans Marketplace @ 401 Richmond, Toronto
On this weekend
Saturday 11am - 6pm
Sunday 11am - 4pm
Free Admission!

Hard Twist 7: Touch Me, Feel Me

On now until January 27th @ Gladstone Hotel, Toronto

Opening daily 12pm - 5pm

Free Admission

Intro to Needle-felting: Holiday Ornaments 

Dec 15th 1-4pm @ Needlework  in Hamilton

Catch me at one or all of these events this month! 

And don't forget to stop by the shop for the cutest holiday gifts or our 

new print shop for our Animal Collective prints!! 

Workshop @ Needlework!

I'm very excited to be teaching a new and super fun workshop at Needlework in Hamilton next Saturday afternoon!

If you'd like to learn how or wonder how I make all those weirdo felted things I do, stop by the shop or register online here.

Saturday June 23rd 2pm - 5pm we'll be learning the basic of dry felting or Needle Felting!
Using just a couple of simple tools you'll learn how to transform raw wool into actual shapes! The workshop is a creatively open class, which means you can make anything your imagination can think of. I'm partial to felted animals myself. So bring your imagination and we'll have all you need at Needlework next weekend! Hope to see you there :D

**Update - Still some spaces available for the class, if you would like to join us for the class - get in touch!

"You are what you eat"

As I was digging through the old "drafts" folder on here, I noticed I never bothered to post this. 

So here you go.  A collection of tiny paper illustrations/cut outs, some with fancy food holes. 

© Leikey Designs 2010. All rights reserved.

Display'd

 Comin' in hot!

The window display at the Knit Cafe in Toronto is now up for your viewing pleasure!

The Knit Cafe is a cute little shop downtown, in the trendy Queen West area, near Ossington. They have a wonderful stock of delicious yarns and needles to choose from, cozy atmosphere and warm, friendly staff toboot. A quaint little place to relax, chat, have a cuppa and knit your heart out!

I'm very excited to have been invited by Knit Cafe to display my work in their window. Ever-changing, their window always has the most interesting and inspiring work from local artists who share a fondness for wool. The display will be up until August 26th. 

It's a great feeling to have the Lion's head up again, as he usually sit my basement day after day, lonely, in a rubbermaid container. Very sad.

In addition to the display, 

I will be teaching a workshop where we will be making our own wet-felted slippers. 

The workshop is set to take place Thursday August 18th 6:30 - 9pm 

If you are interested, space is limited so Call to register 416 533 5648 and save your spot!

If you're in the area, come say hi, have a look around and get your wool on!

The Lion and the whale

Lion head
Animal head artist series
Felted; coopeworth, camel
2011


Artist Statement:

"The versatility and tactile qualities of raw fleece have inspired me to drive the boundaries to create felted sculptures. Using barbed needles, soap and my hands, I diligently sculpted strands of animal hair into a life-size wearable lion head. Symbolizing courage, this lion is worn to mask my insecurities.
In my work, I hope to project a sense of honesty rooted in the concept of each piece, to encourage relatability and connection with an audience.  My aim is to create art pieces, some functional others conversational, to articulate the substance behind them in the absence of my confidence. ”
- Keiley Stewart

Please visit flickr to see more photos of the Lion and Hare!
Photos by Owen Deveney 

© Leikey Designs 2010. All rights reserved.

ring-a-ding ding

Photos of my 3 submissions for the Lark Books 500 Rings edition.
The three mediums I enjoy working with the most...

Fox Knot

Wool, wire; Wet and needle felted

3.5cm x 2.5cm x 3cm

(of course I made a fox, I basically had to)

Gold 'n Chain

Metallic gold thread; Crochet

2cm x .5cm

(Crochet sewing thread, stitched into a chain)

Paper Ballerina

Cut paper

8.5cm x 4.5cm

(inspired by a recent costume party outfit and the influential work from the Star Alliance short,  Elsa Mora and Rob Ryan)

Photography by the handsome and talented Owen Deveney

Thank you to Owen for lighting and capturing my work, The Public Butter  in Toronto for the wood jointed hand model and the various artists that helped inspire these pieces.

B&W

photo credit: Tracy Van Oosten otherwise fffound