Springtime Craft Roadtrip.

Yesterday Nat and I went on a very fun roadtrip. Well, actually the day started off with Louise's first trip to the Guelph Farmer's Market and a visit with Emily at Capistrano. Then we went on a roadtrip. So, it was actually a roadtrip that was part of a very fun day.

The first stop on the roadtrip was The Ford Plant in Brantford. The Ford Plant is a music venue in one of the abandoned corner shops in the decrepit ghosttown that is downtown Brantford. This was very sad to see, actually, as the city seems to be a very beautiful town with the river running through and all the old limestone buildings and southern Ontario architecture (I love stone buildings of any sort). Anyway, I had heard about an Art and Craft Sale that was being held by the Telephone City Crafters. And we managed to find the Ford Plant and all of the crafty wares it contained. I was very impressed by the selection of artists that were at the show and their prices. I ended up purchasing a few things.



First, was an incredible pink coral ring made out of polymer clay by Sarah from Beat Black. I was completely in awe of the way this person makes cool things with polymer clay. We seem to have very similar tastes as well. I noticed she has a cool little crafty blog called In Shadows and I've already found two clips there that I absolutely love.

I'm going to have to do an entire post on videos from PES (the Western Spaghetti clip) because my mouth just drops open every time I see something new. O, and I also picked up a tiny coffee bean stitch marker from Beat Black as well.

Next, I purchased a small pyramid shaped pouch from a textile artists named Anna Zygowski. All of her work was absolutely beautiful, as is her website. I didn't notice any of the tops she has on her website at the sale, but they certainly are gorgeous. Really, even her business card is absolutely beautiful.



I also talked to Jen from Urban Fusions for awhile. I bought two hairpins from her and they are so lovely. My hair is very slippery though, and I lost one while we were playing in the park with Nat's kite this afternoon. I feel sort of sad about this and might have to order a new one from her shop. Looking through, many of her items caught my eye.



The last item I purchased was from Erica (nothing's up in her shop as of yet). She was one of the few locals at the sale. She knits and makes all sorts of things and does some bookbinding. I found a very cool little hand-bound journal for Jayme's upcoming birthday. The inside is lined with vintage Bettie Boop Goes on Vacation material and Jay loves that stuff.



After the craft sale we took Erica's advice to travel over to Paris, Ontario and take a look in all the little shops there. It was really nice to see a happening downtown. I found some neat items for one of my colourswap partners on Rav. We had lunch at a small cafe that had a back balconey over the Grand River. It needed a good spring cleaning, but it was fine. Then we took a drive out to Mary Maxim. I've only ever known Mary Maxim as a catalogue order craft business, but found out yesterday that it's headquarters are out in the middle of nowhere in a small business park near Paris. Interesting place. Huge store. Tons of crafts. Lots of wool.

I'll be back tomorrow with pictures from all of these adventures, Cass