Corktown Holiday Market

tonight is the night! i've lots of new goodies for you true hearts and if you haven't been seeing them via twitter or IG then you'll just have to come out yourself to see, doors open at 7pm.

there will be just so much goodness happening tonight, my heart is kind of maybe racing as i write this. 

donate gently used clothing or perishable foods for thise in need, stay for the treats and drinks while you shop through local artists, makers and vintage collectors. 

come forget them big box corporations, buy handmade this holiday season and support local! 

karma said she likes when that happens.

internally yours,

sister valentine 

a couple holiday sales!

i'm way mega happy to announce i'll be at two little holiday markets in the toronto area in december so you could pick up some handmade goodies and support some local makers and artists this x-mas, that's a sure way to gain a few more points with a certain miss karma!

on friday december 5th, get an extra little point for bringing a food or gift donation for the Younge Street Mission Food Bank and Toy Drive for them true hearts in need.

the second holiday sale is a more intimate and small one on saturday december 13th held at 1610 gerrard st. E. there will be both handmade goodies and treats to partake in!

i'll be bringing most of my shop stock including a new stock of envelope snap wallets (these fit both iphone 4's and 5's!) and new crewel embroidery pin designs i've been working on.

hope to see you at the sales!

internally yours,

sister valentine

envelope snap wallet production

after the Etsy made in canada sale, i was left with three envelope snap wallets!
they've always been a personal favorite and at craft sales. the original pattern was fitted perfectly to use as a iphone 4/4s or ipod case but with the new iphone 5/5c being slightly longer, i had to adjust the pattern slightly for this new batch of snap wallets to fit both phone sizes.

after cutting the linen, i then pre mordant it to have the dye color stay put. in this case when i say dye color, i mean coffee.

when they're still wet, i brush on the coffee just along the edges and where they'll be folded giving it a great old parchment paper look when dried. they don't look like much when wet so the next morning when i piled them all up, it was pretty great to see.

it's kind of funny how just a few stitches can bring much more life to a piece. it tickles my heart some  how the vintage look of the dyed linen looks with the machine embroidered line work of the stamp and postal stamp waves.

since i designed these to be used as iphone cases, i sandwich a light cotton batting padding to each wallet to keep your devices a little safer from dings and falls. i usually would have used different fabrics to the inside separating flap to make each its own but this time i rooted for only a select fabrics to help make easier choices.

i also designed some new stamp designs to make these a little more unisex.
as in all my small batch productions, i maybe already found a favourite!

i'm down to the last few stamps left to hand embroider and then it's on to sewing these together. they'll be put on my etsy along with a couple of other new items in time for xmas shopping.

internally yours,
sister valentine

Indie Arts Night Market

thanks to everyone who stopped by and to the wonderful other vendors that were there!

there was a good steady flow of people but i did manage to sneak away for a bit and met some great creative people. unfortunately my phone fell to the fate of obsolete design and had completely died the day of the sale leaving me unable to share all the goodness that was happening.

luckily my little point and shoot digital camera saved the night so here are some shots, off you go!

i just had to take home this lovely handmade pyramid from Acorn Studio, keep my 'darwin' stones from Chile dust free and pretty.

i also had a privilege to do a trade with The Otter Potter for this gorgeous hand-sculpted clay brooch.

for the next little while i'll be spinning off more wolf-moon hats and hobo gloves for the Etsy Pop-up  sale in september to keep your true hearts warmer this fall.

internally yours,

sister valentine

wolf pup picture show

et voila! here is a bit of a photo dump from the first week of production mode for the Indie Arts Market at the Gladstone Hotel. 

after knocking out two pre-orders, i dove right into getting on with the rest of the litter. i've mentioned a bazillion times before of my love of going through every step closer to completing a project which i won't go into again...but i will say there is almost nothing more that can pluck my craft heart strings more than making.

okee now onto the show!

hearty paws, the better to melt your heart with.

completed pre-orders being friends.

craftlife favorites: cutie pie packaging and a happy true heart.

nothing will practice your sewing skills like a production mode.

embroidered logos on every little bottom.

sewn paws and ready to be stuffed.

stuffed wolf pup bits.

i'm on a pretty good schedule for completing this little litter which means i could knock out some other ideas i've had in mind for a good while now, but i guess you'll just have to peek on here or (my instagram feed) soon again!

internally yours,

sister valentine

little gentleman wolf

my fluttery heart just had to share this goodness i've been working on.

for about a year now i've wanted to make teeny art stuffies that can sit all pretty like on a shelf. i once did a small pack of wolves for a school project but they ended up coming in at about 8 inches from nose to tail. not quite the teeny i had in mind.

i started this little gentleman wolf fellah recently and only started on his mane tonight. using scraps of naturally dyed cotton gauze from my moon quilt and silver threads, i stitched on layers of it around his teeny chest and head.

i'd like to make his shape a little more stylized which means this first version will sit just fine on my own shelf.
i'm nearly done all the textural stitching and have already begun to think of a lady wolf for him. what's a gentleman wolf without a lady wolf?
soon he'll be stuffed and stoic and then will come his lady loup!

internally yours,
sister valentine

Just My Type art show peeks

bah i'm so excited to be part of this show at #Hashtag Gallery!
in the last few years of my simple little craftlife, i've grown a dear obsession with hand drawn typography and typography based art. now i can add my own style of typography goodness in that beautiful part of the art spectrum and it feels pretty neat.

"merci beacoup"

"sil vous plait"

"i love you"

i thought of covering up the back sides of these but as a craft lady, it's always neat to see the backside of embroidery. in some cases it can be almost more interesting than the front side. i liked the idea of if someone were to pick these up during the exhibit, they get a peek at that handmade eye candy that is usually hidden.

these simple pieces turned out exactly as i'd hoped and now i want to stitch on every paper surface i see, totally including my first edition vintage copy of Allen Ginsberg's Kaddish and Other Poems...i won't but i reeeally want to.
i also want to play around with more word drawings and keep them in mind for future little stitched posters.

come out to the opening and see the great talent Toronto and the GTA has to dish out!
check back for an after opening post and if you can't come out, this gorgeous typography short may hold you over a little.

The Alphabet from n9ve on Vimeo.

internally yours,
sister valentine

Just My Type

no apologies for the quietness up in here...and so, onwards!

with all my craftlife escapades, there are two voices that i cannot ignore. they in fact help drive my creativity into places and show me things that lights something in me, leaving me with a bucket full of ideas: le heart and le universe.
with one ear on the beating of that funny muscle that hangs in my chest and the other to the ground, there are certain motifs, processes or materials that shout at me in quiet little ways. those are the things that eventually find their way into my work, one of them shouts has been stitching on paper.

Hashtag gallery is a new hot spot for up and coming artists to show their skills in a cozy nook on Dundas st. West in Toronto. catching a call for artist on their twitter feed for a typography based show, i just had to give it a go.
i've had the idea of making little typography based posters hidden in the folds of my brains for a good while and now the universe told me to let it out.

thankfully i'm a bit of a materials hoarder (collector?) and saved all my handmade paper i made in school. trying out a bit of sampling last weekend, i found the cotton sheets a little too thin to hold too many stitches but the albaca paper to be just right. almost like a textured cardstock thickness, it'll be easy peasy once the holes are pre poked. the albaca also has a slight brown coloring to it that tickled me more than the cotton white, and with the soft tones of embroidery thread i wanted to use? be still my craft heart!

the call asked for three pieces to send in and though i have many words floating around in my heart's brain, i've been pretty keen on some sayings that always paints a little smile on my face. i don't even know what they're called but i chose three sayings that sound like other pretty words;
silver plates (s'il vous plaît)
mercy buckets (merci beaucoup)
and elephant shoe (i love you)

the deadline comes this weekend so peek on my twitter feed and tag along this little escapade.

internally yours,
sister valentine