Sunday, February 21, 2010

Open Sesame- The Grand opening for Batty's Bath

There's a brand new handmade bath and body shop in town! Batty's Bath officially opened online this week and the shop owner and soap maker behind Batty's Bath, Jamie Sabot (who's also the paper artist behind "She's Batty Designs"), was please with the overwhelming support not only from the only community, but also from the local community.

So what exactly is Batty's Bath? Well, Batty's Bath is a small soap and bath products company specializing in handmade cleansers, moisturizers, lip balms, scrubs and hair care products to make you feel totally pampered. Batty's Bath uses only the freshest, highest quality ingredients and makes all products in small batches to ensure the best quality possible. Batty's Bath also ensures that all products are cruelty-free and none have ever been tested on animals. Additionally, Batty's Bath holds very high ethical standards when it comes to quality, the environment, and social impact. This can be seen in the eco-friendly, reusable packaging, recycling program, commitment to charity, and the use of "Fair Trade Compliant” ingredients. Batty’s Bath sources out ethical suppliers, meaning that the ingredients they supply are “Fair Trade Complaint”. This means that the profits go back to the community, that environmentally friendly production methods are used, and that forced labor is not used. This is particularly an issue involving shea and cocoa butter so rest assured that the shea butter used in this product is Fair Trade Compliant. Batty's Bath also uses local ingredients whenever possible.



So who's this gal behind Batty's Bath? Jamie describes herself as a "star-gazing, animal-loving, tree-hugging, halloween obsessed, creative kind of gal". She's also a student at University of Western Ontario where she is currently finishing up a degree in Psychology. She's also studied animal care and visual arts in school. When Jamie isn't spending time creating with bath and body products or paper (or hitting the books), she's spending time with her fiance and their 3 rescue dogs, or participating in her long time love - photography.


If you haven't stopped by Batty's Bath for the grand opening yet, you'll definitely want to! Who wouldn't want to spoil themselves with pampering, ethical, bath products? Need a little more incentive to check out Batty's Bath and support a local artisan? You'll love this then: Local London residents get the added bonus of having their orders delivered to their door for free!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Meet The Artist- Gillian of Gillian Beads

Come on in and check out Gillians Story.

I have always loved bright, shiny things and as a child collected all sorts of pretty stones, shells, and beach glass. I still have many of those cherished objects.


Beads have fascinated me for years and I have been embellishing clothing with them for a long time. I made my own wedding dress and beaded the bodice and sleeves in a vine and leaf pattern.


In my professional career as a dentist, I work with my hands every day but found that I needed a creative outlet. Jewelry making was a natural extension of this, requiring a degree of fine motor control and skill. My hobby has happily turned into a small business for me.


I discovered lampworking, also known as flameworking, two years ago, and was hooked after I took my first course. My husband recognized this new found passion in me and very kindly agreed to build a glass studio for me in our home.

Lampworking involves melting rods of different colored glass in the flame of a very hot (2000 degree) propane/oxygen torch, and winding the molten glass around a stainless steel rod (mandrel) which has been coated in a releasing agent…otherwise the glass will melt to the rod forever. When this happens it is known as a “pot sticker”. Glass rods get their color from various metal oxides, much like paint, but the colors don’t mix the way paint does…the reaction of the different metals within the glass can give rise to completely different effects at the edges where the colors meet. This can also be affected by the proportion of oxygen in relation to propane…an oxidizing flame or a reducing flame.


Proper ventilation is crucial when working with glass; both the metal oxides and the fine particulate matter can be harmful. Special glasses are required to protect the eyes from the flare of the glass as it melts. Other safety equipment includes proper regulator valves for the controlled flow of propane and oxygen, high volume ventilation hood, fire extinguisher, smoke detector, and carbon monoxide detector.


After the bead is made, a process which can take from a few minutes to over an hour for a single bead, the mandrel and bead are placed in a hot kiln (approximately 1000 degrees) to “soak” for a period of time, then very slowly cooled over a period of many hours, to relieve the stress in the glass. This process is called annealing, and is a critical part of lampworking. Without being annealed the glass will be prone to cracking, shortly after being made or many months in the future. When buying lampwork beads, be sure to ask if the beads have been properly kiln-annealed. Inexpensive, commercial, or mass produced beads often are not, and will be prone to cracking.

Lampworking has given me more freedom and flexibility in my jewelry designing than I ever thought possible….colors, patterns, and shapes can be created for custom designs, as focal pieces, or accents.


As much as I love designing jewelry with my own lampwork beads, I also love to see what other jewelry designers create with the beads I sell as components.


Go on over and check out her shop here.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Wordless Wednesday has a case of the Blues










Thursday, January 7, 2010

Meet the Forest City Crafters - Anne / Ennadoolf



My name is Anne and my Etsy shop for handmade gifts is http://ennadoolf.etsy.com. I have 2 other Etsy shops, one for patterns and crafting supplies at http://PatternsAndSuch.etsy.com and the other for vintage at http://VintageAndSuch.etsy.com - yes Etsy keeps me busy!

My ennadoolf shop has something for almost everyone. My husband had a hand in the making of the corking sets - he made the actual wooden corkers (aka knitting nancy or a number of other names!) and I put together the kits. My topsy turvy dolls are a favourite and whenever I can find some more time I have plans to make more using different skin tones and hair colours and styles. Other than the dolls, I also sew doll clothes (for Barbie mostly) and other miscellaneous items that catch my fancy. Currently there are head bands, wristlets and wrist cuffs in my shop and my sewing could take me in almost any direction in the future.

I learned to sew on the Pfaff machine my mom brought to Canada from the Netherlands - she packed her belongings inside the cabinet along with the machine. At first I had lots of practice "sewing" a straight line without any thread and using lined paper and then graduated to sewing with real fabric and thread! I still use a Pfaff now - and my mom still has that first machine.

I learned to knit in Brownies. I could never remember how to cast on though, so I'd always have to ask my mom to do that whenever I started a new project. When my girls were young the only pattern I would knit up was the Speedy Slipper pattern by Patons ( available on my blog at http://r-anne-dom.blogspot.com ). I stopped knitting for about 15 years and was inspired to pick it back up to make Harry Potter scarves! I think
> I made 6 in the fall that his first book was published. Funny thing was, when my girls saw me knitting, they didn't know I could since it had been so long.

Since those Harry Potter scarves, I've become more adventurous, trying new stitches and even rewriting patterns. One in particular had a scalloped edge to the scarf, and I rewrote the pattern so that halfway through, I reversed the design. That way, both ends had the same scalloped look.

Now you can see the results of my knitting in my ennadoolf shop - scarves, hats, cup cozies, slippers, and mittens. I'm particularly pleased with the idea of the Work Sock Cup Cozy - a great colour combination for men and women alike! I don't have a favourite thing to knit but I do prefer repetitive patterns so that I can knit while watching tv. I am addicted to several tv shows, so if I knit, I can validate the time spent watching tv!

You may notice a few prints of flowers in my shop. They are from my gardens and I do love them. I was asked once if I had extensive gardens... [sigh] I have many gardens. I love my flowers. I love the variety of
plants and flowers we have. I just do not really enjoy gardening all that much. If only the flowers would do their thing and the weeds would simply stay away. From a distance my gardens look great ... please don't look too closely because you're sure to see a few weeds sneaking around in there.

[smiles] And outside of my knitting and sewing and such? I am a member of Girl Guides of Canada - I do the finances for a local Guide unit and I also volunteer my time for http://e-guiding.com which is run by volunteer Guide
leaders (though not an official site). 2010 is the 100th anniversary of Girl Guides in Canada so be sure to buy cookies this year!

hehe, and lots of people ask me what ennadoolf means ... I'd love for you
to leave a comment with your guess!



[Note: other Forest City Crafters who'd like to be profiled, send yoursubmissions to Elizabeth at Forest.city.crafters@gmail.com]