New Stockists

Did you know Leikey Design products are now available in stores?

Not just online, Leikey Designs Toys can be found in these fine Brick & Mortar shops in
Toronto, Hamilton & Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.

Canoe Paper & Gift Co.

233 Locke St. S, Hamilton, ON

canoeonlocke.com

Dots & Loops

183 Lincoln Street, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

dotsandloops.ca

Scout 

405 Roncesvalles Ave, Toronto, ON

iheartscout.com

I'm grateful to these stockists for their support and hope you will check them out to see all the wonderful goodies & gifts they have in store!

Unikati Pop-Up @ Leaves Of Trees HQ

This weekend (Friday/Saturday)

Unikati & Co. will be having their first ever Pop-Up Sale 

at the Leaves of Trees HQ

177 Queen St. East, Toronto

Unikati & Co. 

Is a well-curated online shop dedicated to ethically, one-of-a-kind, hand-crafted goods 

from all over the world. 

The lovely and sweet founders, Leila & Dina, have gathered a bevy of beautiful, unique pieces for sale this weekend, including some exclusive items and you should check it out!

Bonus: You can grab some of your favourite goodies, at the pop-up, from 

Leaves of Trees & Leikey Designs 


Unikati Pop Up Sale
Friday April 25th 12pm - 8pm

Saturday April 26th 10am - 6pm 

See you there!

Craft Show season is upon us!

Oh hi there,

A long awaited update for you...
Working on a bunch of little projects right now and as we dive into the holiday season....Yep That's Right... Craft Show season...

So this year,  I switched gears and did a lot more workshops than craft shows, and am happy to report I'll be participating in a couple shows just in time for the holidays.

First up...

Dec 7th 

Needlework

Hamilton

Back by popular demand...

Needlework's, Holiday needle felting workshop, where we are making ornaments. 

A one stop shop to make some handmade holiday gifts and decor. 

Second up...

Dec 7th & 8th 
Maker's Cartel
@The Foundery, Toronto
The 2nd annual Maker's Cartel show! A great event showcasing locally grown makers.
Happening
Dec 7th 11am - 8pm
Dec 8th 11am - 6pm


And third...

Dec 12 - 15
401 Artisans Marketplace 
@ 401 Richmond st W, Toronto
This is the 21st annual holiday market at the historical artist hub.
I'm happy to say this is my 3rd year participating in this show and looking forward to seeing some familiar faces this year like...
the creative sisters behind Very Big Cat studio.

Admission is FREE
Show dates and hours are....

December 12 - 15, 2013

Thursday 11:00 am - 9:00 pm Friday 11:00 am - 8:00 pm Saturday 11:00 am - 6:00 pm Sunday 11:00 am - 4:00 pm Hope to see you at one or all of these events!

Hamilton Arts Awards 2013

It's clearly been a while since my last post.
Happy to say, it's been a busy summer with workshops, weddings and work for the most part.

The next few posts will be photo updates of the things I've been up to including, new designs, custom orders, awards show and more.... enjoy!

First up Hamilton Arts Awards night! 
Photos generously provided by City of Hamilton Arts Awards.

I was pleased and humbled to be apart of the fabulous annual Hamilton Arts Awards this year.
Lots of friendly faces from HCA and Beehive Collective; creative people like local visual artists collective HAVN who put on a hypnotic projection installation that set a buzz and transformed the space and atmosphere of the venue; delicious food and beats by DJ Gary Buttrum. Needless to say, it was a pretty great time.

Aswell, the three animal heads you know and love mixed and mingled with the awards night guests. The heads were worn by three wonderful members and actors of the theatre company. The three chatted with guests, stumbled and made awkward encounters all around the venue. It was a great experience to see the heads in action, and to see the guests interact with them.

Photo provided by
Photographer John Rennison
of The Hamilton Spec

A great big thank you to organizers Stephanie & Jen, City of Hamilton and Hamilton Arts Council, Theatre Aquarius, our actors and photographers from the night! 

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

+

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!! 

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. 

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!

Melissa Christie, textile designer extraordinaire!

Never Sleep Alone! 

Chances are you'll recognize these sheets from textile designer Melissa Christie because they're blowing up on the internet right now. Spreading like wildfire since opening up her Etsy shop on Tuesday, Melissa is reaching zombie lovers from all over the globe through social media sites like her
tumblr, 
facebook and
twitter.
Selling out of all items her first day open, Melissa's Etsy shop titled 'It's Alive' sells OOAK handmade bedding featuring hand painted zombie hands! How creepy/brilliant are these sheets!

Melissa's zombie bedding is all handmade by her and made to order. Her shop currently offers standard size bedding twin - king for a flat rate in white cotton fabric. What a deal!
She is currently looking into different colour bedding options and sheets for specialty sizes like California King size. But a good option for those who can't wait is the pillowcase set which are made to fit 20" x 30" (standard size) pillow.

Melissa is working on a portfolio site that will feature some of her other works. Works like her killer Femme Fatal dresses. Over-dyed dupioni silk dresses with screen printed poisonous flowers and hand painted/sewn elements. Photographer/Developer Owen Deveney of Capture Scratch and model Alexandria Goldman of Fresh Poultry.  These dresses are not yet available in her shop, but are destined to be another successful series! Great job Melissa! Keep up the good work!

SuperCrawl

Hamilton mega art crawl = SuperCrawl is happening 

this Friday & Saturday

This is the big one people, if you haven't had a chance to get to the James St. North monthly Arts Festival, we forgive you, but you'll want to make it out for this weekend especially. 


Hop on over to the SuperCrawl page to see where the art is, where the music is and when it's all going down. Their FB page has all the deets too - so if you like to creep, please do. 


'But Keiley, isn't it just going to be a bunch of buskers and local bands' you would ask me. To which I would reply - 'What's wrong with that!'
But seriously, just to name a few you might be interested in...
Broken Social Scene, Basia Bulat and the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Plants and Animals and Rah Rah. 


But maybe the most anticipated event for me this weekend will be the unveiling of The Brain - which will feature a massive yarn-bombing installation by the Beehive Collective. 

Photo of The Brain building front by Hollie and Courtney from the Beehive blog

 

Photo of knitting by Kate from the Beehive blog

Photo of knitting by Jenna from her blog

See you there!


Extra Links
I'm jam packing this post with lots of links just for you. 
- Akimbo listing
- James St. North blog
- Happening Hamilton

Beehive Summer Craft Fair

The Old Friendship Shop on James St N. was buzzing during the August Art Crawl for The Beehive Summer Craft Fair.
An amazing event organized by the wonderful locally grown group The Beehive Craft Collective. In addition to the over 20 fine crafts artists and designers - a stunning art installation by Textiles Artist Amanda McCarvouy and an infectious set by DJ Donna Lovejoy to kick off the event Friday night.

Thank you so much to The Bees for their incredibe hard work in planning such a successful event!
Here are some photos from the weekend, taken by personal shutterbug Owen Deveney, along with oodles of links to keep you busy.
Enjoy!

Amanda McCarvouy art installation

Petra C. - pencil cases, purses and cards

Fieldguided - screen printed tote bags

Hollie of The Beehive,  White Elephant shop and 

Love It Alot shopping blog.

The Beehive booth - screen printed totes and buttons

Jenna Rose - screen printed totes, towels and housewares

Kate's cute poof garlands decorated the shop

Rosalyn of Cosmic Latte & Art Attic - string art, metal work and woven pendant necklaces

"Hot Box!"

We were so happy to meet lots of people who recognized the animal heads from the May Art Crawl. 

the lovely ceiling of the Friendship Shop

The Beehives Summer Craft Fair!

The Beehive Craft Collective is hosting their first annual summer craft fair at 

the Old Friendship Shop in Hamilton

- Free Admission 

- Art Installation by Amanda McCavour

- Friday Night Set by DJ Donna Lovejoy

Doors open ....

Friday 6pm - 11pm

Saturday 10am - 5pm

Check The Beehive's Summer Craft Fair page to see who will be there, as well as their blog for daily posts featuring interviews with the vendors and see what the Bees are up to. 

consider yourself invited!

*Poster from The Beehive's Summer Craft Fair FB event page