Home-stretch

The OOAK Show is almost here! 

Join us for the 40th annual One Of A Kind Toronto Christmas Show happening... 

Nov 27th - Dec 7th 

@ Toronto's Direct Energy Centre. 

Find Leikey Designs in the Rising Stars Section, booth C52. 

Use the link to the advance tickets sales page and get a discount on your admission! 

https://www.microspec.com/tix123/eTic.cfm?code=OOAKX14&promo=ASDmymf

Hope to see you there! 

Felted Bunnies

Easter's almost here!

I'm very excited to finally have these little felted bunnies available in my Etsy Shop.
After their huge success at the One Of A Kind Spring Show, they're now available to ship internationally.
These handmade bunnies are made from soft sheep's wool and needle-felted into their cute little forms.
Hop on over to the shop to check them out and get yours quick.

Ramen Party!

Ramen is one of my favourite foods. So when Lillian Chan, creator of Ramen Party asked me to help out with their project, I couldn't help but get involved.

So I'm going to tell you a little about Ramen Party and why you should know about it!

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Ramen Party is a band and brand of characters created and animated by Lillian Chan, who studied at the province's best animation school, Sheridan College. Among her talented designs is Ramen Party a line, or rather a family, of characters inspired by traditional Japanese ramen. 

Now, this isn't your college roommates ramen. This is the real deal, the OG and classic homage to its country of origin. 

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So what is Ramen Party?

Ramen Party is an Interactive StoryBook App designed especially for pre-school age kids. Because kids can be picky eaters. The app is designed to help kids discover and get excited about new and cultural foods, as well as the world around them.  

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Ramen Party is one of the lucky few selected to participate in the CFC's mentoring program ideaBOOST - an curated incubator for small businesses and big ideas based in social and transmedia. 

Submissions for the next round of ideaBOOST are coming to a close next month. 

For more info on ideaBOOST click here 

What is Ramen Party's kickstarter for?

Ramen Party has just launched their campaign with Indiegogo page and their reaching out for to you to help build this app! With the funds generated through the kickstarter, The Ramen Party Team will create kid-friendly... 

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Feed me more info! 

Visit the Ramen Party indiegogo page for even more morsels of information. 

colourful prints & cards

custom Gelskins for your phone

Screenprinted Totes!

custom handmade Ramen Party Stuffie of your choice!
oh yeah I made these 

What are the perks of donating to Ramen Party?

Well! As you can see above, Ramen Party isn't just a brand or just an app. It's a project with legs and arms  and gaining momentum quickly! As part of the kickstarter campaign, The Ramen Party Team has lovingly packaged a delightful assortment of sweet swag, in appreciation for your generous investment and support, including signed prints, a custom thank you animation! and a packages that includes a custom handmade stuffie of your choice.

Early bird catches the worm! 

These items are in high demand, and won't last long. Some items are special editions and in limited quantities. So hurry up and shop for your donation before you miss out! 

So how am I involved with Ramen Party?

The Ramen Party creator, Lillian Chan had the idea to make these characters into toys. Because every kid loves toys! One of the packages available to claim,on their Indiegogo page, is a handmade Ramen Party Stuffie of your choice. And the hands in handmade belong to ME! For every package available, I will CUSTOM MAKE a Ramen Party Character stuffie of your choosing. 

But these aren't just any toys, these stuffies are made from an interesting selections of tactile fabric chosen for their resemblance to their characters. Among the fabrics are rich wools, light and shiny foil linen, colourful felts, and silky satins - turning these Digital Darlings into Tangible Toys.

And yes, Mr. Ramen is wearing a beautiful wrapped-yarn noodle suit! 

 

  

product photos of stuffies by Owen Deveney

Even MORE goodness!

Lillian has collaborated with multi-faceted husband, musician and Ramen Party Team member John Poon, to create a music video, to get YOU excited about the Ramen Party Project too. 

Their video is spoonful of adorable and the catchy-tune will have you hooked! 

And if you listen carefully, you can hear featured artist Kid Koala exercise is DJ scratching skillz on the track!

(if you like the tune, you can get the mp3 on the indiegogo site too!)

Heart, passion and ambition are all ingredients in Lillian Chan's Ramen Party. It's an exciting project, I hope you will get involved with. 

In fact, I'm so excited, I think I'm going to go eat a bowl of ramen right now! 

Please visit Ramen Party on Indiegogo and help support their project. 

Or visit them on facebook and give it a like! 

And of course, watch the video and link to their campaign on their new & official website RamenParty.ca

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

+

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

+

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!! 

Hard Twist 7: Touch Me, Feel Me

Join us for Hard Twist 7: Touch Me, Feel Me, opening November 1st.

 An exhibition of textile works set on evoking your emotions and inviting you to interact. A rare opportunity to touch the art and experience an exhibition like no other. 

Hard Twist is an annual juried textile exhibition that takes place at the historic Gladstone Hotel in downtown Toronto. 

Opening reception for Hard Twist is Nov. 1st 6pm - 9pm. 

Exhibition runs Nov 1st - Jan 27th on the 3rd and 4th floor of the hotel. 

Hotel is open daily + Free admission for gallery visitors. 

This year, I will be presenting some new pieces. I invite you to snap photos wearing and posing.

So make sure to bring your camera and ready those instagram apps! 

K + O Photo | New Shop

You may have noticed this little badge hanging out on the side of this blog ------------------>
 and wondered why it suddenly appeared and what it had to do with anything. Well ....

new K+O Photo logo click here and jump to our new shop!

Owen and I have decided to share our photographic series and collaborations with you and the world, extending accessibility to those who may not have the chance to visit exhibitions we participate in.

Part of the Animal Collective installation includes a series of narative photographs featuring each of the heads, taken somewhere near or around Lake Ontario. Up until recently, these prints were only available to purchase through galleries or directly contacting us.

We have selected just 5 photos, for now, to open our shop.
Prints are available in 3 sizes (12x18, 16x20, 24x36) and printed on incomparable and supa-fancy Hahnemuehle Photo Rag fine art paper. 

Prints are available to purchase online at our new shop 

                                  through Big Cartel. 

We're calling the collaboration K+O Photo. 

New in the shop!

So if you've had a chance to wandered over to the shop, you'll noticed there's loads more goodies!
Previously, these items were exclusively available at shows and events - so if you came out to the shows, you would get to see what I've been working on and first hand pick of those goods!

Well for the first time ever in my shop, I'm bring these goodies to the masses.
Here are a few sneak peaks, if you haven't already seen the new stock.

needle- felted Avocado Sprout

Bike/Trike Necktie

Braided Hairbands

Rocket Ship Necktie

Beehive Pincushion w/ Bee Pin

Rocket Ship Pin

Hot Air Balloon Pin 

Many of the new items are Ready to shop, so head on over and gander at the ever growing product list. I'd love to hear what you think. And as ALWAYS, custom orders are absolutely welcome. :)
Enjoy!!

Links:
www.leikey.etsy.com

Email:
leikey@leikey.com
-for custom or wholesale orders. 

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!

New year, new happenings

Happy Newest Year to you!

With last year being such an eventful year, I'm looking forward to seeing what this year has in store.

Some highlights of the past year include...

- Interning for admired artist Suzanne Carlsen

- Finishing four month long graduate project

- Graduating
- Winning 'Best in Show' award for my work in our graduation exhibition

Joe Lewis, writer/editor for fibreQUARTERLY wearing Lion's Head @ OCC Gallery, Toronto

- Exhibiting at OCC Gallery in Toronto

- Participating in group exhibition Surfacing in Hamilton

Lion's Head on display @ The Knit Cafe, Toronto

- Exhibiting the Lion's Head at Knit Cafe in Toronto

Felted Slippers workshop @ The Knit Cafe, Toronto

- Started teaching felting workshops
- Leikey Designs now a full-time company

- Went to Montreal - First trip within Canada, outside of Ontario

Amanda McCavour's installation @ The Beehive Craft Fair, Hamilton

- Participated in several craft fairs including the very successful Beehive Craft Fair, pieceWORK and 401 Richmond

Felted Bear Feet slippers - available online

- Opened up online shop
- Featured in the Finishing School edition of fiberQUARTERLY

- Work on display at the Gladstone Hotel (exhibition extended to Feb 26th)

- Started renovations on the new place
And those are just the highlights.

We rang in the new year with a mid-reno party; a great excuse to have people over to the house. We passed around the camera all night and there were some great shots. Take a look at the rest of the photos here. 

photo from Owen Deveney on Flickr

So far 2012 has been kind, starting with a feature on the lovely Polish blog Pick Me Up , selling my first pieces of work in gallery from the Hard Twist exhibition, and just this morning - a featured seller on 100 Mile Finds blog.
In addition, the Gladstone has announced they've extended Hard Twist until February 26th. So all you lazy bones who haven't had a chance to go see it, you'll have extra time to make it down there to see an incredible collection of Canadian Textiles Art at it's finest.

The exhibition will run during the Hotel's popular annual event, Come Up to My Room and Toronto's IDS event, happening January 26th - 29th! Opening reception for CUTMR is Saturday 28th 7pm - 10pm. So go see both shows while you're there.

For now, I'm off to the post office to mail out some orders! Followed by a copious amount of painting, de-carpeting, de-wallpapering, and trips Home Depot and the reuse centre. I have a feeling we'll spend the majority of 2012 in a Home Depot.

401 Artisans Marketplace

If you're thinking of giving one-of-a-kind gifts this year

but that's about as far as you got, 

come support local artisans at the 401 Artisans Marketplace 

Thursday Dec. 8th to Sunday Dec. 11th.

Preview of good things to come! - click image to enlarge

You'll find a bevy of gifts for everyone, even those hard-to-please people - you know who you are.... Edibles and jewelry, housewares and apparel, accessories and artwork. There are literally hundreds or gift ideas to fit your budget.

As the OOAK Toronto Show comes to a close this weekend, 401 Richmond West opens it's doors, to the craft-hunrgy public, for their 19th annual Holiday Marketplace.

Free admission for everyone! We want you to spend those dolla dollas on the artisans!

About/Vendors/ Times - click image to enlarge

We're open for business Dec 8th through to Sunday Dec. 11th. Join us on Saturday especially because we're holding a raffle hosted by 100 Mile Finds to win an amazing gift basket filled with handmade goodies from artisans participating in the show! The lucky winner will receive one of my Fox Stuffies along with many many other fancy treats!

Also happening on Dec. 10th & 11th is City of Craft at the Theatre Centre on Queen West.
So if you're in the city for either show, make sure you hit up both to find that special gift or unique piece for yourself.

Hurry up and get your indie-holiday shopping on!

Felt Friday!

It's almost here!

We're just a few days away from the opening of Hard Twist 6: Obsession at the Gladstone Hotel, Toronto.  As well as the pop-up pieceWORK show!
Opening this Friday 6pm - 10pm ++ (depending on when you party people leave)

There are 2 floors, wall to wall of amazing work, plus the rooms on the second floor will be bursting with artists and maker selling their wonderful textile goods. The jury had their work cut out for them this year with some truly creative and inspiring pieces.
We've set up three heads and all new photos for this exhibit and we're so excited!

Be sure to visit. Hard Twist is on until January 29th, but the pieceWORK show is a one night only deal. So bring you wallets and start your christmas shopping this Friday night!
please. ;)