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! 

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.

News & Events!

Textile graduates from the Craft & Design program of Sheridan College are having a gallery exhibition open until 6pm today at the James Buttrum & Son Gallery, 144 James St. North in Hamilton.
The show coincides with Hamilton's monthly Art Crawl, which means all the shops and galleries along the main strip are open later this weekend, so there will be lots to see and do.



My series of hand felted animal heads, are on display amongst 9 amazingly talented artist's work ranging from fashion and home furnishings to functional and decorative textile installations.

Stop by if you can, today is our last day!

ps. sorry for the late notice. unscheduled Blogger.com maintenance has prevented any recent updates.