Outdoor applications

I am not sure about whether or not this year’s Toronto Outdoor Art Fair will actually be outdoors and in person, but I am still excited to be applying to it this year in the hopes that I can be interacting with people (I may or may not have to practice first though). If the Art Fair is not an in person event they will once again be holding the Fair online and be featuring artists on their site starting July 2, 2021. You can check out my 2020 Gallery.

Just below are a few of the images that I applied with for this year’s upcoming Fair. Wish me luck on my application and I will be updating info about the fair starting in the spring.

Garden Quartz Ironwork Pendants. Sterling silver and garden quartz.
Rose Ring. Sterling silver and 14 kt rose gold.

I am still trying to navigate shifting my sales and connecting with people online and last years Toronto Outdoor (Online) Art Fair had me setting up for online sales for the first time (outside of trying Etsy just before 2010). I am struggling to try and make that connection as building my confidence for in person sales took several years of customer interactions to learn from and making the shift to online is a social skill that I frankly do not have. I am always striving to make a connection and I suppose that online sales feels very much to me like standing on a corner talking to yourself about your business in hopes that someone is within earshot (or is this just me?) I am definitely overthinking this at the moment and just need to push past this feeling and remind you that if you have read this far let us know what you miss about seeing us in the studio – Alexis

Workshops and class joy

I really enjoy teaching, it’s great to share knowledge, and to see how excited people get when they’re making things, and that spark and drive to carry on.  There are lots of different aspects that I enjoy, but I really like the thought that I’ve facilitated development of skills that will carry a student into the future, and nurtured their creativity/passion.  I used to apply this to my students as a research biologist, and when I changed careers to focus more on my goldsmithing, one of things I looked forward to doing was to carry on teaching. 

As you may know, we teach workshops and classes at the Jewel Envy studio. One of my goals for last year was to start teaching…..in March….. so you can guess what happened!  I managed to get in a small workshop as part of the Stakt market Christmas events in December 2019, where we did these fun bookmarks.  There was lots of hammering fun!

So, back to March 2020, and everything was closed, so I was denied!  Then things started to open up again and I got my chance to experience my first eight week Intro to Fabrication class, with a smaller class size, masks all around (well, we actually wear them quite a bit anyway), and all the other safe measures we could take.  We managed to get the classes in before things shut down again, and we managed to get the students through the basics, and still have fun.  They made some awesome pieces, with lots of variety within the set of beginner skills that we teach them.  Here’s a collage of some of the projects the students completed:

Sadly, we’re still unable to start up the classes we were hoping to start running again, but we’re all prepared to sail ahead when it’s safe to do so again.  If you’re interested in any specific classes, make sure you’re signed up to our newsletter, or send us an email to say what course you’re specifically interested in!

Stay safe, and we hope and look forward to welcoming you back to classes in the not-so-distant future!

-Robin Cassady-Cain

House of Cassady

We’re still creating work!

What does trying to continue running a business while following stay at home directives means for the goldsmiths working at Jewel Envy? Because we cannot work from home we are continuing work in the studio on custom projects, repairs, and redesigns. Not being able to have walk-ins to meet with customers in person means the onus for getting custom jewellery made has shifted largely onto the customer and I encourage anyone interested in a custom piece to browse the goldsmith galleries, our instagram, and websites. We like to remind people that you may not see the exact piece you are looking for; we want you to choose someone whose work speaks to you whether is because of their style, the materials they like to work with, or the techniques they like to use. We’re staying on top of emails so any and all questions can still be sent our way and we can start a discussion on the best course of action for starting on a custom jewellery quest! – Alexis




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