Stir Cheat Sheet: Recycled sheers to mossy art, 5 artisans to check out at the 2023 Circle Craft Holiday Market

Empowering candles, retro mugs, and more at the Vancouver Convention Centre

By Janet Smith

A piece from Dahlia Drive’s Yáahl Gúud Tsai collection, a collab with Haida artist Reg Davidson.

Circle Craft Holiday Market runs from November 8 to 12 at Vancouver Convention Centre

A VANCOUVER TRADITION since 1974, the Circle Craft Holiday Market is setting up its 135,000-square-foot maze of booths at the Vancouver Convention Centre, in time to open November 8.

This year’s showcase spans 291 local and Canadian vendors from as far as Halifax and working in media as diverse as ceramics, metals, skateboards, textiles, and food. Look for 24 “Budding Artists”, 87 new vendors, and 42 members of the Circle Craft Co-op, the artist-run organization headquartered on Granville Island year round.

Here are just a few of the highlights for early-bird holiday shopping:

#1

Dahlia Drive + Yaahl Guud Tsai

Powell River-based textile artist and eco fashion designer Wendy Van Riesen of Dahlia Drive, a Christmas-market mainstay, has announced she’s retiring after 16 years of design and fabrication. For her sendoff at this year’s event, she’s offering up her last hundred pieces. Her gauzy, printed pieces are all one-of-a-kind, crafted from manufacturer-discarded sheer polyester curtains; the unique process includes putting water-soluble dye onto paper, pinning the painting to the garment, and heat pressing the image right into the fibre. Collectors take note: the show marks the last chance to grab gorgeous Northwest Coast-design dresses, kimono-like jackets, tops, piano pants, and more from Van Riesen’s collaboration with Haida artist Reg Davidson, Yáahl Gúud Tsai (“Ravens, Eagles, Polka Dots”), which launched at Eco Fashion Week in 2016. Emblazoned with formline and split-U imagery, they come in traditional Coastal hues of red, white, and black.

Bukuro Bag Company’s ooak camo and pink leather lace appliqué bag.

#2

Bukuro Bag Company

Vancouver designer Samantha MacKinnon’s bags draw inspiration from furoshiki, the Japanese method of using fabric to wrap goods. The idea is that the totes can carry as much as possible, then collapse to fold away without taking up space—and look a lot better than reusable shopping bags. She works across linen and leather. We love the “ooak” one of a kind bags made from European linen in Natural, with lace-like laser cut leather, from crisp white on natural linen to hot pink on cool camou.

RECVRD’s Strength candle, crafted from recycled beer bottles.

#3

RECVRD Candle Co

These empowering luxury candles had their inspiration in an unlikely place: the journey to sobriety. Now, the female-owned company takes old throw-away wine and amber beer bottles and turns them into natural, clean-burning soy-wax candles “that shine their light”. Essential-oil scents have positive thoughts in mind: think citrus and mandarin Courage, amber driftwood Strength, peppermint and eucalyptus Hope; and lavender Serenity.

Objects and Feelings mugs.

#4

Objects and Feelings

You’ve heard of “granny-core” taking over the fashion runways; now we’re getting that vibe from a fun nostalgic line of ceramics at this year’s market. Ex-Torontonian Sarah Beatty crafts her retro ceramics in B.C.’s serene Slocan Valley. Vintage turquoise, pink, green, and orange glaze designs—think flowers and loops—adorn earthy clay mugs and bowls. Elsewhere in her collection, quirkily illustrated humans, cats, and faces dance across offbeat vases and cups.

SoulRoots Moss Art

#5

SoulRoots Moss Art

The fresh West Coast rainforest comes indoors in the work of Ann Marie Lewis’s SoulRoots—a line of brilliant-green moss wall art and bowls that was founded on her love for the outdoors and the desire to reconnect people with the natural world. The one-of-a-kind living pieces—“biophillic design”—feature textural bumps and mounds of different varieties that make up a mosaic of emerald, lime, and forest-y hues; some pieces integrate found wood and other sprouts. Each SoulRoots Moss Art creation is handmade and sustainably harvested, preserved with natural oils and food dyes to last for years.

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