Two of Toronto’s biggest craft shows are featuring Akin members this year!
December is a big month for craft lovers in Toronto! Two of Toronto’s biggest craft shows, City of Craft and the One of a Kind show, and will be happening, and Akin Members are taking part. To celebrate, we’re highlighting these four amazing artists.
City of Craft
City of Craft is one of the city’s most beloved holiday markets, with over 60 vendors from across Ontario and beyond.
December 5-7th, Sensory sensitive hour 11am-12pm
The Theatre Centre, 1115 Queen Street West
——— Check out the Akin Members Participating in The City of Craft ———
Amita Sen Gupta from Akin Niagara
Amita will be selling prints and cards of “My Neighborhood Memento” series, which includes a variety of greeting cards and high quality prints of original oil painted Toronto neighbourhood building mementos that are architecturally cherished and imbue the lives, stories, and history of our city.
Amita Sen Gupta is a Toronto based artist behind ‘My Neighbourhood Memento’. Her oil paintings of old historic and neighbourhood buildings have been exhibited at Gallery 1313, Preservation House, and local fairs & markets. To Amita these architectural buildings have lives, stories and history that are revered. “In our ever changing city one never knows when a place becomes another, vacant, or removed”. Her drawing and painting of a historic house in Parkdale, Toronto, titled “Yuletide In Muddy York” was awarded and selected by ‘Parkdale Liberty Economic Development Centre’ for a Toronto Holiday Ornament in 2007 and her painting is part of their collection. Some of her neighbourhood prints can be purchased at Soho Art Framing in Toronto.
Connect with Amita:
@my_neighborhood_memento
amitasengupta.com/neighborhood-series
Detail of Skyline Restaurant painting, Amita sitting in her Akin Niagara studio and detail of Revue Cinema painting.
Prints, detail of The Abbott painting and Cards from “My Neighbourhood Memento”.
Bettina Westwood Ceramics, from Akin Dupont
Bettina Westwood creates both wheel thrown domestic items and sculpture from her Akin Dupont studio. Inspired by the meeting of form and colour, she makes carefully considered objects meant to bring happiness. Bettina will be bringing a selection of mugs with two-tone slip colours—some adorned with flowers—as well as tumblers with wool sleeves, vases, pedestal bowls, and smaller gifts such as bud vases and ornaments. A self-taught ceramicist, Bettina has developed and continues to refine her craft with the support and encouragement of the ceramics community. She shares her home with her two perfect cats, Loralie and Flannery.
Connect with Bettina:
@bettinawestwood
bettinawestwood.com
Photo of Bettina at Akin Dupont, Tumblers with Wool Sleeves and Bettina’s Akin Dupont Studio.
Flowers painted with slip, Pedestal Bowls and Two-toned Mugs.
One of A Kind Show
The One of A Kind Show is Canada’s largest Craft Show. The One of A Kind Christmas Show includes a wide variety of Canadian made high quality items, from Fashion, Art, Flavours, and Toys, to Jewellery, Home Decor, Stationery and so much more.
November 27-Dec 7th
Enercare Centre, Exhibition Place
100 Princes' Blvd, Toronto
——— Check out the Akin Members Participating in One of a Kind ———
Alison Cooley, from Akin St Clair
Booth B-28 - (Full Show) November 27-Dec 7
imp in a sweater is Alison Cooley. She specializes in ceramics that harness her interest in illustration and surface decoration, resulting in unique objects that play with imagery from multiple modes of genre storytelling (including science fiction, horror, and fantasy).
Connect with Alison:
@impinasweater
impinasweater.com
A portrait of Allison (by Sam Mazilli), space themed Mug and her Akin St Clair Studio.
Bud vases, a unicorn Plate and Vases with detailed handles and all coming to One of a Kind.
MP Guillot, from Akin Dupont
Booth S-45 - (6 Days) Dec 2-7
MP Guillot is a multidisciplinary artist from Québec, based in Toronto. Her work is influenced by what is often overlooked－an entire world of delightfulness that is right under our nose, waiting to be noticed. She finds herself exhilarated by the trashy things beautifully thrown on the streets and everything that finds itself where it shouldn’t be. She is drawn to what lies on the edges of ugly and pretty, that which ignites a feeling of uncertainty where one can only rely on their senses and intuition to decide if something is beautiful. MP believes the best way to find the essence of who we are is to practice discovering what vibrates within us, without social conditioning influencing our preferences.
Ceramics has become MP’s playground to be in relationship with her creative intuition.
She loves to dream up otherworldly forms, bake colour, and explore the secret language of objects. Her work lives in the space between knowing and letting go—where intuition meets experimentation. With a background that weaves through design, fashion, and photography, she brings a sense of childlike playfulness to everything she makes.
Connect with MP:
@mp__guillot
www.mpguillot.com
Portrait of MP beside one of her “Wonky Vases”, a Wonky Vase in “Twist” and MP’s Akin Dupont Studio.
A variety of MP’s painterly Cups and Mugs coming to One of a Kind.