Craft Council of British Columbia

After completing a BFA in ceramic sculpture at the University of Waterloo in 1994, Kate was eager to expand her sculptural ceramic work into functional ware. She completed a Professional Diploma in Ceramics at the Centre de ceramiques BonSecours in Montreal in 1997 and it was during her studies in Montreal that she discovered the art of sgraffito; carving through a layer of coloured slip to the clay beneath to create contrast. Twenty-five years later, she is still enthralled with sgraffito as a surface design in her wares. Although the surface decoration of Kate’s ceramics has shifted over the years from her early fertility imagery to her current work focused on the marine life of the Pacific coast, there has always been a tenuous thread of the feminine that pervades her work. Whales have represented the mystery of the feminine, the waters of the Pacific; the primordial. In her current work, which is sculptural and a departure from her functional pottery, she has returned to strong feminine imagery as she explored the idea of ‘frame’ as womb. Combining her strong feminine imagery with that of ancient sea life to create thought provoking and powerful pieces that reflect her deep connection to place and the feminine.

She is a member of the Burnaby Potter’s Guild, the BC Potter’s Guild and the Craft Council of bc.

Exploring the unseen realms around us as part of her multidisciplinary practice of making collage assemblages, music, writing, and video creations, Lex Battle’s diverse visual language travels through the richness of her native heritage. She engages in an ongoing conversation with the natural world, communicating with spirit, and the human psyche.

Deborah Dumka, born in 1954, has lived for the most part in her birth province of BC, occasionally in other parts of Canada and mostly on the shores of an ocean. Her post secondary education and short career in electrical engineering bestowed on her a problem solving lens that carries into her interactive textile based craft practice. The physical and emotional landscapes of rural settings are the backdrop to her explorations, integrating colour, texture and sound, producing small installations based on hand made felt floor carpets.

Within her work, Dumka explores themes of belonging, place and our connection with nature. She uses wool, silk, dyes and carding tools to blend raw materials into thin layers that are assembled through felting into low relief tactile elements. Using electronics, she integrates landscape sounds, expanding the sensory snapshot, connecting into our private experiences through a constructed moment

Winner of the SSICA Ceramics Biennial People’s Choice Award, and a large scale Ceramic Installation for VanCity, Ellis creates highly textured surfaces with clay. Her favourite muse is nature, where often beauty is found in brokenness. Her sculptural forms have a realistic quality, drawing the viewer into forest textures of bark and fungi. Not content to replicate nature, Ellis plays with form and colour, creating fantastical sculptures.

Ellis has been requested to speak at conferences and Galleries. She is published in Artist Journals, magazines, the Book of 100 Artists: WeMakeStuff, The Crafted Dish, a Juried Collection of talented clay artists from across Canada. Represented by several Galleries, her artwork is in corporate and private collections around the world.

Miaad Eshraghi (b.1975) is an international, award winning Persian/Canadian Artist. He believes that the beauty of each art work should explore the energy and feelings bestowed upon us by the great creator. As the great mystic Rumi wrote, “art as flirtation and surrender…In your light, I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems.You dance inside my chest, where no one sees you. But sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art.”

Art and design has been Miaad’s passion since childhood. Miaad began exploring the art of jewelry and sculpture upon graduation from high school. This passion led him to graduate in Jewelry Art and Design from Vancouver Community College, after which he opened an art studio in North Vancouver (Hands Of Art). He has realized his goal as crafting unique and meaningful sculpted jewellery using his experience and knowledge in Eastern and Western art. Miaad uses Jewellery making techniques to make his unique sculptures.

Miaad has received the Outstanding Artist award at Global Art, Dubai (2018) and has participated in a number of exhibitions in Canada and internationa

Hope Forstenzer lived most of her life in and around New York City, lived in Seattle for a while, and now happy lives in Vancouver, Canada. Starting as a photographer and filmmaker, she moved into interdisciplinary theatre for a stint before falling irrevocably in love with glass. 

She is always looking to build on the rich history of glassmaking, experimenting with it to see where it interconnects with where the world is now. She uses blown glass paired with stained glass techniques to bring the modern human experience into a space historically reserved for religious icons, and uses shapes in sculpture that we see daily (balloons, pillows, bodies) to bring a new perspective on our own emotional states. She is always striving to express the two things she loves most about glass – light and emotion.

Forstenzer is inspired daily by being part of Terminal City Glass Co-op. The co-op is a community of artists who help each other achieve their vision in their work, and influence one another’s work with ideas and input

Patricia Gaspar was born in Argentina and describes herself as a freelance artist who has been practicing art since childhood – painting walls and furniture with whatever crayon she could find. Her grandmother concluded that she would be an artist and years later, she qualified as an art teacher in her home country. After finishing art school, Patricia became a happy mother of two beautiful sons. She also has completed a Journalism Bachelors degree. Her sons, art and journalism, are her life.

When she moved to Canada, Patrica experienced a different art vision, which enriched her soul, but her roots are in each of her artistic creations. She kept in contact with the magic world of art, partaking in art exhibitions, and printmaking in the various regions of Canada that she was living. Finally, she decided to study Printmaking at Emily Carr University in Vancouver. She has participated in exhibitions in Argentina, Europe, Japan, Italy, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and Canada.

As an artist Patricia works with a variety of mediums to express herself, including ink, paper, modelling, sculpting,printing and drawing. Like many other artists in the field, she composes her work on a flat plane, using lines to divide the space for creating shapes, rhythms and suggestions.Color is a major component of her vocabulary of deeper meaning.

Amy Gogarty taught histories and theories of visual arts at ACAD in Calgary for sixteen years prior to relocating in 2006 to Vancouver, where she works as an independent researcher, artist and writer. She is a maker of functional and sculptural ceramics and the author of over one hundred critical essays, reviews or presentations relating to visual art and craft practice. In 2021, she was named an Honorary Member of the National Council of Education on the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), and she was short-listed for the Canadian Crafts Federation Robert Jekyll Award for Leadership in Craft. She sits on the Board of the North-West Ceramics Foundation and is a passionate supporter of ceramics in British Columbia.

Ken Guenter is delighted to be recently engaged in creative projects that do not require him to be constrained by function. This change of direction has freed his creative talents to engage with projects more focused on creativity, recycled/repurposed materials, and social justice.

For his Master’s thesis in Art Education at the University of Victoria, Ken defined a model for teaching design that supported the creative process by linking a variety of referents to the concepts of form and function. His retirement from teaching in the Fine Furniture Program at Camosun College and from designing/building studio furniture for private clients has provided freedom and new creative directions.

Ken’s furniture pieces are in private collections in Canada and the United States, including a piece in the Maltwood Collection at UVIC. Ken has curated exhibitions in Victoria and the Comox Valley; the most recent being a 30 year retrospective of the Camosun College Fine Furniture program at UVic’s downtown Legacy Gallery (2018).

Ken has a limited number of one-of-a-kind furniture pieces that are available for purchase.

Noel Hada was born in 1998 in Tokyo, Japan. She graduated from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Tokyo, and is currently studying jewellery design at Lasalle College, Vancouver where she has developed skills in metalwork, patinas, enamel and wax carving.

Noel’s designs are inspired by vintage jewellery and modern style, creating simple and unique jewellery.

Francine Hampson- Reid studied ceramics at Sheridan College, Mississauga, Ontario, Georgian College, Barrie, Ontario, the and University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta. She currently resides on Salt Spring Island where she built a 15 cu. ft. soda/salt kiln and produces high fire, primarily functional ware at her studio (Mudpuppy Studios). Her work is sold at several gallery locations as well as a home based gallery for visitors with the Salt Spring Island Studio Tour. 

At the age of 64, John Reid retired from a career in graphic design to become an “emerging artist”. Rekindling a passion for sculptural art, he now creates mixed media pieces that are both clever and whimsical. His partner Francine Hampson- Reid is a professional potter, and from their studio (Mudpuppy Studios) on Salt Spring Island, BC, they collaborate on many ceramic based projects.

Elizabeth Harris has been a practicing artist since the 90’s. A graduate of Emily Carr College of Art and Design; she began her career in Vancouver B.C. Harris has exhibited extensively and is currently represented by Canada House Gallery in Banff, Alberta. Harris has been an art teacher in life drawing and painting and has instigated and supported several Societies and artist environments. Harris now lives in Paradise Valley near Squamish, where she has her studios and an Airbnb.

Goose has been a set carpenter for the entertainment business for approximately 30 years. He began his woodworking career as a certified cabinet maker, he attended the Banff Center for the Arts in a scenic carpenter internship program. Goose has given his extensive knowledge and time in design and set building for youth drama productions at Argyle Secondary School. He has also contributed his expertise to the Sea Shepard organization on the Gallipolis Islands.

Harris and Goose have been co-producing projects in wood, ceramics and life for the past year.

Haruka Imai has been interested in the arts since she was a child, studying Japanese calligraphy and piano for many years. She started selling handmade jewellery online while attending college in Japan. After graduation, she went to Canada to study language and jewellery. She is currently studying jewellery design at LaSalle College in Vancouver. Her work is influenced by her hometown, where she lives in harmony with nature, surrounded by the ocean and mountains. Her goal is to create jewellery that is simple, accessible to people of all ages and that can be worn to recognize one’s own identity and bring colour to one’s daily life. She makes jewellery to bring joy to as many people as possible.

Jenny Judge grew up in Ontario and received a BFA from Queens University. She holds an MFA in sculpture from the University of Minnesota (1992) and works in a variety of materials such as clay, fibre, glass and focuses on craft-installation. She lived in New Zealand in 2004 where she was introduced to kiln-cast glass. She returned to Canada in 2012 and now lives in Whistler, BC. Her work has been shown in New Zealand, Australia, Korea, Japan, France, and Canada. Her work has been included in international exhibitions such as The Cheongju International Craft Exhibition (Canadian Pavilion, 2009), Ranamok Glass finalist (Australia 2012) ‘Craft and Innovation’ (Canberra, Australia 2016), The Salt Spring National Art Prize (Canada, 2019) and the Korean International Ceramics Biennale (South Korea, 2021/2022).

Melody Juthamongkol is a Thai-Taiwanese aspiring Art Jeweller based in Toronto. After receiving her Bachelor of Design from Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD U),Jewellery and Metal-smithing program, she was accepted as an artist in residence at Harbourfront Center’s Metal Studio. Her current practice focuses on fabricating one-of-a-kind narrative art jewellery through depletion-gilded sterling. Many works by Juthamongkol strive to relay light-hearted messages by visualizing playful narrations inspired by the natural world. Interactivity, movement, and playability are key features of her works.

Cindy Karimun is a jewellery designer born in Jakarta, Indonesia. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) major in Industrial Design from Limkokwing University in Malaysia. In 2012, Cindy established her own jewellery brand “Tree Craft Diary” – emphasizing the natural characteristics of gemstones with her own contemporary, unique style. Her work has been exhibited in numerous international shows including South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Indonesia. She is currently upgrading her skills in the Jewellery Design program at LaSalle College Vancouver and will graduate with a Diploma in August 2022.

Angela Lai is a multi-disciplinary artist from Vancouver. She is currently revisiting her practice as an emerging artist and focusing on developing site-specific installations and craft practice.  She is interested in exploring her various interests including her cultural past, architecture, and integrating sustainable practices throughout her processes and work.  Her training over the years includes textiles, mathematics, fine arts, design, and gastronomy.

Sarah Lawless is a professional Canadian ceramic artist. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Simon Fraser University (Burnaby, BC), and a Diploma in Craft & Design from Kootenay School of the Arts at Selkirk College (Nelson, BC). As a student, she worked as assistant to world renowned ceramic artist Wayne Ngan. As an established artist, she has received several awards for her work, which has been shown and collected across Canada, the USA, and overseas.
With a sculptural emphasis on form, Sarah’s line of functional porcelain pottery has soft matte glazes that feel like skin, fired in an electric kiln. Her earthenware pieces—functional or sculptural—are coated with
terra sigillata (fine clay particles) and fired in a sawdust kiln to create smoked surfaces. Her artistic vision derives from the natural world, and the place of human culture within it.
Sarah taught kindergarten for three years in Bangkok, Thailand, and has been an occasional instructor at Kootenay School of the Arts, as well as giving workshops & classes for adults, children, and youth. Her home and studio are in Kaslo, BC.

Mami Kuroda was born in Fukuoka, Japan. She studied French at the University of Fukuoka before moving to Canada to pursue her passion of jewellery design. She is currently studying jewellery design at Lasalle College in Vancouver. Mami’s work is heavily inspired by classical French architecture, as well as her love of nature. She works with wood, copper, and beads to realize her vision and create stunning wearable art. In the future, Mami hopes to live in Vancouver to continue to grow as an artist and designer, surrounded by the natural beauty of the city.

Bettina Matzkuhn learned to embroider as a child. She uses thread and fabric to explore stories about nature and ecology. Her work has taken many forms: embroidered sculptures, maps, interactive projects, and animation that incorporates textile processes. In the 1980s, her three animated films for the National Film Board of Canada –using textiles– garnered awards. She has participated in residencies in the Yukon, Saskatchewan, Banff Centre and Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland. She holds a BFA in Visual Arts and an MA in Liberal Studies from Simon Fraser University. Her work is exhibited across Canada and internationally, and held in public and private collections. She writes professionally on the arts, teaches and volunteers.

Soraia Maurilio is a Brazilian artist, born in Rio de Janeiro. She lived most of her life in the city of Rio de Janeiro and in some small villages on the northeast coast of the state, always by the sea. The light, the nature, the colors and the cultural characteristics of this environment had a great influence on how she makes art.

Beginning with some craft work as a hobby and small artworks, her artistic nature could take place and grow more and more. She started to learn different art techniques, developing a special taste for watercolor. After discovering and following a program in fashion design, she worked in this industry for some years.

After moving to Canada the love for arts brought her back to school in order to improve her techniques and acquire new knowledge. She graduated in Jewellery and Metal Arts from New Brunswick College of Craft and Design in 2021. Since 2019 she has been attending various local events and art exhibitions showing her watercolors and jewellery and participated in the CCBC’s Earring Show 2020.

She is an artist with a simple soul. Her creative process combines the observation of the environment in its small details and apparently insignificant and ordinary things with memories and personal impressions translating that into visual messages. Her work is colorful and organic. She is always in search of authenticity and originality to express herself, putting her feelings and sensibility in what she does. For her art is a metaphor to reach people’s emotions through an inviting, welcoming, sensitive and candid communication.

FLO Design Co. is the brand name for Sue Muir and her handcrafted jewelry designs.

Largely self taught, Sue draws mostly from her past career as a professional photographer to creative processes. Making connections is the fundamental goal of all her work. She synthesizes her live mindfully philosophy with creating pieces of personal adornment that are beyond fashion accessories. Simplicity, imperfection and fluidity are the signature elements visible in her designs. She surrenders control to the raw materials on her bench. Unscripted, spontaneous, and never forced, the outcomes are what they are – much like life itself.

Born in the prairies and based in BC Canada, mixed-media artist Andromeda is known for her powerful, bold, and colourful works that are often as profound as they are playful. Andromeda is notorious for her bold uses of florals, colour, patterns, & textiles which she uses to create a multitude of eclectic items such as; paintings, jewellery, bags, clothing, canvases & more. As a self taught artist Andromeda has been developing, experimenting and discovering her processes and her style for most of her adult life. As she’s evolved and grown into her own unique and never before seen style Andromeda is taking risks and pushing boundaries. Her use of materials sets Andromeda apart not only in her techniques but in the concepts as well. Everything created by Andromeda is inspired by a deep connection to nature, specifically flowers, where she finds the diversity of their colours and shapes to be the most exciting. Every colour in the world is found in nature and the brilliance of those colours cannot be contained. To ensure you understand this love, Andromeda maintains a steadfast and diligent use of them in her pieces.

Coral Patola is a POC artist working predominantly in ceramics and sculpture. Currently living on the unceded territory of the Líl̓wat Nation, currently known as Pemberton BC. After graduating Emily Carr University of Art + Design with a BFA and Major in Illustration, Patola went on to pursue a ceramic career under the name Piton Pottery. The overarching theme of their ceramic and sculptural work is the intention to instil the mundane objects and materials with mindfulness and attention. Creating work that inspires people to slow down and appreciate the complexities and interconnectedness of ourselves and the outer world through materiality and form.

Louise Perrone (Vancouver, BC) is a Canadian jewellery artist who works with materials from domestic and industrial waste, employing techniques that combine the traditions of goldsmithing and hand sewing to explore the values attributed to traditional women’s work. Born in London, England, Perrone holds a Bachelor of Art in Sculpture from Nottingham Trent University and a Post Graduate Certificate in Art and Design Education from the University of Brighton. In 2002, she graduated from Alberta College of Art and Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Jewellery and Metals. Perrone is the recipient of several awards including the Governor General of Canada’s Academic Medal and The ACAD Alumni Legacy Award. Exhibiting across North America and Europe, her work has been featured in several publications including two of the Lark 500 series. An instructor in the Jewellery Department at LaSalle College, Louise is an active member of the Craft Community, currently serving on the board of the VMAA as Past President and volunteering with SNAG as Co-Chair of the annual Exhibition in Motion. Louise is represented in Canada by Galerie Noel Guyomarc’h and the Craft Council of British Columbia. In the US she is represented by the Heidi Lowe Gallery and Gallery 2052.

Doris Purchase is a Toronto-based mixed media artist who has degrees from Ontario College of Art and the University of Guelph. Doris’s work is predominantly conceptual and draws on the materiality behind a painting. Through her practice, she focuses on artists’ materials to invoke conversations about western ideals and question our value system. Part sculpture, part painting, these pieces are inversions. They are about unearthing what’s obscured to bring the raw materials of a painting to the fore.

Khudeja Sana was born in Afghanistan. She graduated from a medical university and worked as a doctor for one year before moving from Pakistan to Canada in 1992. Since childhood, she has had a strong connection with the arts, and has since decided to study design in Canada. She is currently enrolled in the Jewellery Design Program at Lasalle College, Vancouver. In the future, she will continue to broaden her knowledge and experience in this field.

Diana Sanderson has spent the last 40 years indulging her fascination with the inherent qualities of silk by dyeing and weaving it to create distinctive garments and accessories. The Silk Weaving Studio on Granville Island in Vancouver has been the centre of her exploration, providing a space that inspires her and creates an environment for exploration of the natural characteristics of the fibre for her fellow weavers and the public alike.
While maintaining the weaving studio on Granville Island, Salt Spring Island is now Diana’s home and it is in her studio there that she has continues her exploration of natural materials but now branching out into naturally dyed three dimensional work, still using silk but adding gut, wire and other structural materials like branches, twigs and vines. These new materials and forms are offering her endless fascination and challenges as she endeavors to combine them in ways that highlight their inherent characteristics.

Born in 1999 in Tehran, Iran, Majedeh Shariatzadeh is a jewellery design student at Lasalle College Vancouver and studying online for a Bachelor of Industrial Design from the University of Tehran Central Branch. Majedeh has developed her skills in metalwork, stone setting, wax carving and casting. Her works are inspired by Islamic art, cultural history traditions and modernity for women.

Like many artists and writers, Nik (Nicole Silveste) has been drawing and writing—making stories—since she could hold a pencil. Like a cat, she is often too curious for her own good. She alternates between periods of questing after new knowledge, and focusing intently on one thing—sometimes something only she can see.

Nik began printmaking and bookbinding seriously in art school, when she wanted to find a way to make content for hand-bound books. She ended up falling in love with the medium. Nik currently specializes in relief printing— linocut and letterpress—and chooses as her subject the natural world of Vancouver Island. Although she has lived all over North America, Vancouver Island is the only place that has ever felt like home.

Emily Wareham is an emerging, future-focused leader and champion of Craft with over ten years experience as a successful jewellery artist, educator and administrator. With great attention to detail and her inclination towards fabrication, her body of work has evolved into one with austere refinement. She continues to explore personal narratives about growth and transformation while leaning on her strong design skills.

NSCAD University has played a crucial role in helping Emily define herself as an artist, teacher and leader. She holds a Bachelors of Design (Honours) Major in Communication Design, a Bachelors of Fine Arts (Jewellery Design and Metalsmithing) and a Masters of Fine Arts (with a focus in craft) from this leading art institution. She spent nine years teaching continuing education and credit courses in the jewellery department and three years as technician.

In addition to her current leadership role as Director of the Centre for Craft and jewellery artist, her affection towards craft and community has led her to co-found the Co-Adorn Art Jewellery Society, a local community of jewellery artists that has grown into a national and international organization. Her multifaceted experience in varied aspects of the craft community has grounded her with a sense of responsibility of continuing to learn and grow and she is committed to shaping the future of the local and national craft communities.

Born in Vancouver into a large family in 1956, Maureen practiced the act of recycling clothes. She attended private visual and performing art classes from an early age, and danced on stages like Kitsilano Showboat in costumes made by her grandmother. A Dressmaker with a pioneering attitude who moved to Vancouver in the late 1930’s where she shopped ‘ready to wear’ as well.
Other impressionable art and wardrobe experiences include wearing private school uniforms and being taught by full habited Nuns. This enabled Maureen to escape the peer pressure of a rapidly emerging and unsustainable fashion market.
After retiring from fifteen years of working in the forest industry, where she sometimes went for months without shopping, she began thinking consciously about fashion. Second hand stores became her supplier of raw materials, rather than typical chain store fabric outlets. This textile artist turned away from industrialized manufacturing through her purchasing power. She built community, generated local income and allowed her to view examples of retro clothing construction and fabrics.
After a ‘studio’ visual arts degree from U. Vic her formal art education ended and her self-directed studies took off. She embraced the world of ‘slow fashion’ by apprenticing under and working for other designers. She volunteered building costumes for the Royal City Musical Society, CBC and the Vancouver Opera.
Presenting a one-of-a-kind performance on their own eco-fashion stage her work was sold at several local boutiques and fundraising venues like Performance Works, Port Moody Art Center and the Roundhouse Theatre. Maureen’s work has beed featured by the Arts Club Theatre –Actors Workshop Series and has been shown on the runways of the Fibre Arts Festival and Sustainable Living Show.
She currently lives in Maple Ridge and maintains her focus on collecting men’s neckties. An accessible material that represents the gradual disappearance of their ‘bespoke’ history. The tie’s geometric outline, era pattern, textural elements and colours, woven together into one abstract object supplies the ‘allure’ that is creatively balanced with practicality and purpose, drawing the eye to her accessories, that often out adorn a ‘brand’ wardrobe consciousness.
What could draw more attention to the act of shopping for fashion than a personal functioning purse?