Calling All Crafters: Noble Crafthouse is an Artist Residency Created for You!

Kiri­ki Press (Michelle Galletta)

One of the best parts of being an inde­pen­dent mak­er is, of course, being inde­pen­dent. You’ve got the chance to exper­i­ment and expand your busi­ness because you find that there’s some­thing lack­ing in the mar­ket. Michelle Gal­let­ta of Kiri­ki Press fame expe­ri­enced this lack­ing when she start­ed her com­pa­ny; she want­ed a place to pro­to­type her designs but could­n’t find a good spot in Toron­to to do so. Since start­ing her Kiri­ki Press, she knew that a ded­i­cat­ed stu­dio was the best place to get stuff done and be inspired. So when she came across a space in Toron­to’s Park­dale neigh­bor­hood, it was the per­fect fit.

Michelle calls the stu­dio Noble Craft­house, and it’s a place for artists, mak­ers, and more to attend work­shops and create/experiment/prototype their work in a res­i­den­cy set­ting. I spoke with Michelle about her new endeav­or. If you’re inter­est­ed in apply­ing, learn more about the res­i­den­cy below.

Jes­si­ca Warby

What was your inspi­ra­tion for start­ing Noble Crafthouse?

When I first got the idea for Kiri­ki Press I had a real­ly hard time find­ing a stu­dio that would let me pro­to­type my designs. The few print­mak­ing stu­dios in Toron­to were either com­plete­ly pri­vate or you had to be work­ing in the vein of fine art. I end­ed up tak­ing a trip five hours north to a small stu­dio on Man­i­toulin Island, where I stayed for a week and screen print­ed my doll pat­terns for the first time! Those long, ded­i­cat­ed days in the stu­dio were so pro­duc­tive and I was com­plete­ly inspired by step­ping out of my usu­al sur­round­ings (i.e. my mom’s liv­ing room). Liv­ing right in the stu­dio was the best use of my time, so when I came across this gor­geous space ear­ly last year, I knew it was the per­fect place to cre­ate a live/work stu­dio and hope­ful­ly meet artists and mak­ers from all over the world!

Who are some of the artists you’ve hosted?

I launched the res­i­den­cy pro­gram just this past fall and my first res­i­dent, Jes­si­ca War­by, hailed all the way from the UK! Jess was here for 6 weeks and while she nor­mal­ly works with machine embroi­dery, she divid­ed her time at the stu­dio between rug hook­ing and illus­trat­ing auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal dai­ly comics. In Feb­ru­ary, we were hap­py to wel­come local favorite, Ness Lee, for a month to work on huge paint­ings, ink draw­ings, and ceram­ics for her upcom­ing solo exhibition.

Ness Less

What are some of the things that artists can expect at Noble Crafthouse?

The stu­dio has a full-screen print­ing set­up for paper or tex­tile works. There is a table-top loom for weav­ing, Oxford punch nee­dles, a pin-back but­ton mak­er, dif­fer­ent sizes of embroi­dery hoops, and quilt­ing and tapes­try frames. My back­ground is in print­mak­ing and book arts, so there is also a small etch­ing press, book press, and block print­ing tools. Since many mak­ers are also small-busi­ness own­ers, there is a DSLR, light­ing kit and tri­pod avail­able for prod­uct pho­tog­ra­phy. We are right around the cor­ner from art sup­ply stores and the work­room so you have tons of mate­ri­als right at your fingertips.

What are your goals for artists who attend?

I want mak­ers and artists who come here to feel like they can be cre­ative, with­out any con­straints. This is an inclu­sive space and no project is too small or com­mer­cial, which is a road­block I often find when look­ing for res­i­den­cy oppor­tu­ni­ties. Res­i­dents are encour­aged to explore new medi­ums, for instance, there is a weaver com­ing here this sum­mer who wants to incor­po­rate screen print­ing into her woven designs so we’ll find the best way to go about doing that.

The stu­dio can accom­mo­date up to 20 peo­ple for a work­shop, so if you have a skill you’d like to teach this is def­i­nite­ly an option dur­ing your stay.

Kiri­ki Press workshop

What is a typ­i­cal res­i­den­cy day like?

A day gen­er­al­ly con­sists of wak­ing up in the ‘sleep­ing nook’ (our tiny, but cozy, bed­room), mak­ing some cof­fee and eat­ing a lit­tle some­thing at the break­fast bar before get­ting to work! Or head­ing out and explor­ing the city before com­ing back and let­ting the new­ly inspired ideas take form. The stu­dio is tucked away on qui­et Noble Street, but it’s just steps away from the bus­tle of Queen Street West, where you’ll find gal­leries, restau­rants, fab­ric shops and nightlife. Toron­to is full of hid­den gems, gor­geous parks, and com­plete­ly diverse neigh­bor­hoods, so I high­ly rec­om­mend tak­ing the time to explore.

What hap­pens dur­ing the experience?

The res­i­den­cy is self-direct­ed so the artist/maker choos­es how to spend their time, whether that means com­ing up with a new busi­ness plan, screen print­ing t‑shirts, paint­ing, mak­ing zines, enjoy­ing the city or qui­et­ly work­ing away on a cross-stitch. There is tech­ni­cal assis­tance avail­able if some­one wants to learn a new skill or needs a refresh­er. The stu­dio is home to a few dif­fer­ent hand­made shops, so there are always cre­ative activ­i­ties going on. I run my embroi­dery kit busi­ness, Kiri­ki Press, out of here and share the space with Fion­na Han­na and Hap­py Quilts Co. I feel very for­tu­nate to be run­ning my busi­ness as a full-time endeav­or and am always hap­py to share my expe­ri­ences and skills any way I can.

Who should apply for the res­i­den­cy at Noble Crafthouse?

Design­ers, needle­work­ers, painters, illus­tra­tors, print­mak­ers, fiber artists, Etsy shop own­ers! Basi­cal­ly, any­one who wants to ded­i­cate qual­i­ty time to their art or craft and be cre­ative in a big, bright stu­dio. You’ll be liv­ing in a pri­vate bed­room in the stu­dio for the dura­tion of the res­i­den­cy and have 24-hour access, so it is a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to make some­thing with­out interruption.

Inter­est­ed in apply­ing? Do it here.