Jumping Toaster Productions

I attended the annual Circle Craft Christmas Market held at the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre with my wonderful mum and girlfriend on Remembrance Day. We had a fabulous time gawking over all the interesting kink-knacks and trinkets the artisans had at their booths! I try to attend the fair almost every year, cause it helps me gather new ideas for my own work and do a little networking while I’m at it. With all the numerous artisans at the show to talk about, it’s pretty tricky to narrow it down to a few short paragraphs in my daily blog.

An artisan I purchase something from each year I attend is from Vincent Van Designs They makes the most charming wooden ornaments you’ve ever seen. Very cute and collectable, they can also personalize them for you free of charge! This year I bought an elephant holding a strand of Christmas lights which are tangled all around him! Very cute and very detailed, especially the miniature Christmas lights with all different colors. My girlfriend bought a similar ornament except it’s of a snowman holding the strand instead, very much Christmas in a nutshell.

One of my favourite artisans is Diabolo Puppets by Steven Barkley. These fun hand made puppets are the best. I can’t tell you how much fun I’ve had with my hand up a rabbits butt! This white manic-looking rabbit with big floppy ears just cried out for me to buy ’em! He was just too cool to pass up and he was the last white one too! Not only does he look cool, he squeaks too, just the thing I need to annoy my neighbours with for hours and hours and hours and hours…Funny how some people just never grow up!

Puzzle Master Inc. by Allan Stein these have got to be some of the most challenging puzzles I’ve pitched against the wall in a fit of frustration. Thanks for the headache each and every year Allan. Nah, all joking aside Puzzle Master’s puzzles are some of the most unique puzzles I’ve ever played with. Problem is taking them away from a co-worker who ‘finds’ it lying around your desk! Not very productive, nor is it good for business when you got five people shouting the “You got to face it away north while turning the piece counter-clockwise!” I still don’t know what that means???

While there was much to look at, my favourite part about the craft fair is the tasting at all the wonderful home-made treats! However with a serious fish and nut allergy I have to be very careful about the tasty hand outs, good thing my girlfriend can accept the goodies!

Speaking of goodies, that’s the name of the next artisan! Goodies make the best dill pickles and dill veggies around. Oh my god there was almost a fist fight with my girlfriend and I at the dinner table cause I stole her pickle! I say if you love ’em that much, you got to protect your pickle! I almost lost mine following the ‘pickle heist’…my PERSONAL pickle that is! Good thing you can email them for more at: thelmasgoodies@hotmail.com

And lastly Tickleberry’s chocolate covered dried goods! Sweet chocolate covered blueberries and cranberries are my favourite! Yum yum yum I think I ploughed through both bags in a couple of days, good thing they provide their contact information on the bags so you can re-order! Email: sales@tickleberrys.com or Phone: 1-800-667-8002. Tasty, very very taste…did I share…no I did not!

And that was the fair, be sure if you didn’t check it out this year to sign up on Circle Craft’s website to get your discount coupon to attend the 2009 show! It’ll be something you don’t want to miss out on, so subscribe now!

While attending the Circle Craft Christmas Market this year, I came across a very unique booth filled with all sorts of bronze statues. The artist; Kathy Ross is a very talented artisan whom not only produces bronze statues but fabric doll pins and figures made out of recycled materials. This was not your typical Christmas craft booth, which is why I hovered around absorbing the very surreal imagery Kathy Ross incorporates into her pieces. Try to imagine Hieronymus Bosch meets Salvador Dali in bronze! Kathy Ross takes a very difficult and beautiful medium to capture her imagination indefinitely.

Kathy Ross has a fascination with globes and how we fit in this world with all this ‘stuff’ swirling around us. She takes an interesting approach to this idea and takes out sections of the earth and puts in funny looking humanoid characters among fused objects set upon chicken legs cast in bronze. Also on display was a very interesting piece that featured soldiers riding mice in a battle against babies also on mice. The title; Us vs. Them or The Mice Wars. For the artists statement and a further in depth explanation on these two pieces please visit her website: Sculptures by Kathy Ross. Troika was one of the sculptures I purchased from Kathy, there was something about these three horses fused together that made me smile. Troika currently sits atop one of my many bookshelves where I adore it when I reach for a novel.

Also found in her booth was a series of sculptures known as the ‘Travellers’. Kathy Ross takes her figurative sculptures holding small globes and poses them using the globe as a sort of ‘vehicle’ which drives us to our destination. These charming figures are sculpted out of many different recycled materials, mainly cardboard, wire, paper, cloth and then layered with plaster and actual maps to help visually represent travel and destinations. A very beautiful and delicate figure is created with this collage of plaster and paper materials to create a fantastic eye catching piece.

I spoke with Kathy Ross throughout the craft show about her inspirations for certain pieces and was delighted to hear and that she was going to branch out into another interesting and difficult medium; tin. I can’t wait to see her beautiful yet surreal figures moulded out tin at the next Circle Craft show!

It was a pleasure meeting Kathy Ross, and I hope that you take a moment to look at her beautiful sculptures through her website.