airCRAFT

Hannah W Craig is a Canadian art jeweller and silversmith from Manitoba, currently based in Halifax, NS. She earned a BFA in Jewellery Design & Metalsmithing from NSCAD University after previously studying Philosophy & Art History at the University of Winnipeg. Her practice is informed by myth, magic, and mysticism; approaching jewellery as a material exploration into the human experience. Inspired by stories, symbols, and archetypes—and by the sensual joy of precious stones and metals—her work brings an element of the magical and mysterious into the everyday. Her intricate pieces encourage one to find wonder in the commonplace, and to take delight in both the spiritual and material joys of life.

Hannah would like to acknowledge the support of Arts Nova Scotia. 

Ivan Flores (he/they) is an award-winning textiles artist exploring identity and emotions tied to their personal experiences and how they navigate the world as a queer, Afro-Latino, second-gen immigrant based in Kjipuktuk, or otherwise known as Halifax, Nova Scotia. As a believer that identity is intrinsically tied to everything any individual does, Ivan relies on intuition in his practice, expecting that his intuitive choices will be directly influenced by who he is as a person. This extends to materiality, colour, process and technique in their work. 

Ivan holds a BFA at NSCAD University, with a major in Textiles/Fashion. At NSCAD, he has spent his time experimenting with weaving, fabric screen printing, embroidery, beading, garment construction and pattern making 

Sonia Chow is an interdisciplinary maker, whose work does not fit neatly into a specific category. She has a BDes in Communication Design with a minor in Textiles, and a MFA in Sculpture from NSCAD, where she has taught interdisciplinary design and furniture prototyping as a sessional instructor. Between degrees, she spent 16 years working and studying in Japan and Hong Kong. Her third ephemeral art suite of snow and ice at Icehotel Sweden is currently installed, and will melt back into the Torne River – 200km north of the Arctic Circle – around April 2023.

“My practice blurs the imaginary boundaries between art, craft and design. I explore the cross-pollination of communication, codes, craft, connection, critique, identity, observation, and storytelling. Working with my hands is a joy and meditative salve to the weighty concerns and discomfort of situations I cannot change. I enjoy the challenge of transforming what is overlooked, coaxing meaning from the undervalued, and witnessing the physical evidence of what I’ve done. Whether investigating materials, processes, function, or form – I let the work inform me, both as mentor and muse.”

Sonia’s art, and her award-winning communication design and furniture, have been featured in exhibitions and publications nationally and internationally. She was inducted to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts for Graphic Design (2011), and is a recipient of the SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Master’s Scholarship (2019) and an Arts Nova Scotia Arts Equity Funding Initiative Grant (2022).

Danielle Harris-Daoust is a Ceramic, Textile and mad artist based in the ancestral unceded Mi’kmaq territory. They graduated from NSCAD  University with a BFA, majoring in Ceramics. Their sculptural work focuses on mental health and self-expression using a variety of mediums. Danielle is enthusiastic and passionate about art, sustainability, and social justice. Their art reflects all of these subjects using figurative sculpture.

Sorrel Van Allen is a contemporary jewellery and silverware designer-maker from the west coast of Canada with a background in industrial welding and artistic blacksmithing. She received her BFA, major in jewellery design and metalsmithing, from the NSCAD University (2020) and recently completed a year-long residential silversmithing program at Bishopsland Educational Trust, Oxforshire, UK.

Fascinated with abstracting and replicating organic patterns and textures, Sorrel uses botany as inspiration for her geometric jewellery and object designs. Each piece is carefully hand pierced into thin sheet metal and then bent and overlapped to create unique hollow forms. Patina and surface decoration, in the form of bright pigments, Keum-Boo (attached gold) or subtle oxidizations accentuate the simple elegance found in these repetitive forms.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Undine Foulds is an Indigenous interdisciplinary artist of Métis and Irish decent, raised in British Columbia. She approaches her world like a puzzle, and uses clay, sound, and video to talk about it. This practice responds to Undine's paternal roots of the Red River Métis, and their cultural understanding that art is not separate from everyday life. As an airCRAFT resident for 2021/22, she is excited to focus on cutting, crushing, pinching, and pasting together all the ceramic processes she's ever learned.

Abigail Biro was born in London, Ontario and has been residing in Halifax, Nova Scotia over the past several years. In 2019 she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from NSCAD University in Jewellery Design and Metalsmithing with a minor in Art History. Abigail’s jewellery designs draw upon her interest in textiles with a focus on texture, colour, and the structural makeup of woven fabrics. Her work is an exploration of the abstraction of the warp and weft foundation of textile fabrics through the use of basic geometric shapes. The portrayal of texture and tactility of fabric translated into metal material is an important aspect of her work. This investigation of combining the traits of textiles within the context of ‘traditional’ jewellery materials has been a constant source of inspiration. Her goal is to explore how altering these materials and the form they take will change the structure and meaning of these pieces in comparison to their textile counterparts.

Jayme-Lynn Gloade is a Mi’kmaq visual and craft artist from Millbrook First Nation, Nova Scotia. She obtained her BFA from NSCAD University, with a focus on Photography and Art History in 2014. She returned to NSCAD in 2019 for a post-bachelorette certificate in ceramics and is currently practicing at the airCRAFT Emerging Artist Residency at the Centre for Craft in Halifax, NS. While using traditional stories and personal experience, Gloade strives to find the empowering side of the ominous.

In Mi’kmaq legends and ideologies, people, animals and nature are perceived equally. This forms a bond between people and their environment. As a Mi’kmaq artist I am drawn to the emotional representations and influences that bodies and textures have within our surroundings. I want to expand these aspects of my Mi’kmaq heritage in order to encapsulate its presence within my artistic practice. I believe that it is part of human nature to look for ways to transform and adapt our environment in order to make it our own. The objects we choose to place in our daily lives affects our moods and mindsets at their core. I would like to emphasize the role of our humanistic nature and how it participates in constructing the spaces we live in.

Mel Doiron is a maker who is fascinated by clay. Using various hand-building techniques such as slab-building and coil-and-pinch, her practice encompasses both tableware and experimental vessels. Doiron’s tableware strives for ergonomics, perfect proportions, and balance. The graphic geometric decoration contrast qualities such as matte and glossy, light and dark, and decoratively employs “flaws” such as glaze drips and crawling. Her experimental vessels celebrate the material properties of clay and ceramic, creating works that transform over a period of time. In 2018, Mel completed a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, majoring in Ceramics. She has exhibited in a number of venues throughout Nova Scotia, Southern Alberta, and Upstate New York, including solo shows at The Anna Leonowens Gallery, The Yuill Family Gallery, and The Women’s Studio Workshop. Her work history includes acting as a studio assistant, gallery technician, teacher, and clay mixer, all of which have expanded her knowledge, honed her studio practice, and shaped her appreciation for clay.

Rosalind (Rosie) Hennenfent is a focused metalsmith and jewellery artist. Completing her BFA at the Nova Scotia Craft and Design (NSCAD) University in 2020. She creates jewellery using an array of traditional and alternative materials including paper pulp and recycled guitar strings. Her work has been featured in local and international exhibitions. Including the 2019 Silver Triennial International, Co-Adorn Placement 2020, L.A. Pai Gallery 17th Annual Student Competition 2020, Nova Scotia Centre for Craft and Design (NSCCD) Soft Reflections 2020, and Ethical Metalsmiths So Fresh + So Clean 2020.

Rosalind was accepted into the NSCCD Summer Professional Development Residency 2020, she is currently furthering her professional jewellery practice as a current NSCCD airCRAFT 2020 resident.

Born in Calgary Jessie Fraser is a craft oriented visual artist working predominantly in the medium of fibre. Her practice considers how imagery, poetry and hand-woven cloth may be combined, to investigate the affective potential of woven cloth and text in site-sensitive installations. Fraser completed an MFA in 2019 at the Alberta University of the Arts in Craft Media. She has exhibited work in a number of venues throughout Calgary, including group shows at Viviane Gallery and Stride Gallery. Image, text and textiles, along with photographic and weaving processes are used as sites of intuitive and emotional investigation. Using time as both a process and a material Jessie’s practice is the process of weaving. She weaves not only with thread but historic narratives and atmospheric feeling.

Trevor Novak grew up in Toronto, Ontario, and now lives in Sydney, Nova Scotia. He received an Advanced Diploma in Ceramics from Sheridan College in Oakville Ontario and has just recently finished his BFA in Ceramics at NSCAD University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Trevor is currently the artist in residence at the Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design.

Trevor is interested in narrative and myth and enjoys bringing stories to life with human and animal figures. Trevor’s sculptures, though often humorous on first glance hold deeper darker meanings when considered further.

Athanasia Vayianou, was born in Limassol, Cyprus. The island’s politically charged history had an impact on everyone growing up there, her response was to develop an awareness and appreciation for family, history, and nature. Having access to art classes and creative studies all throughout her secondary schooling, it became a way of expressing herself. Moving to Canada and enrolling at NSCAD University, Vayianous discovered her love of Art and History and a passion for Metalsmithing. She graduated in 2017 with a BFA majoring in Jewellery Design and Metalsmithing and is currently a resident in the airCRAFT residency at the Centre for Craft.

"I have always had an interest in space and fantasy. I spent much of my childhood stargazing while listening to bedtime stories of space explorers, foreign planets, and an age of discovery in the stars. I create jewellery pieces echoing these childhood roots and memories. Blending geometry and abstraction with silver, enamel, and unique gemstones, I make functional and beautiful pieces of jewellery. The pieces strive to engage the viewer and wearer into looking closer, stimulating a sense of discovery within the piece itself." - Athanasia Vayianou

Julian Covey, was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia and lived in Montreal, Quebec must of his life. Covey extremely passionate about ceramic art and its ability to record and communicate complex ideas through a material culture. He now is a Halifax based ceramic artist, where his work is a balance of sculptural and utilitarian ceramic. Completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts at NSCAD University in 2018, he recently finished a semester abroad at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Covey teaches ceramic classes with the NSCAD School of Extended Studies and the Center for Craft Nova Scotia.

He has been the recipient of several awards at NSCAD University including, the World Encounter Scholarship, the Walter Ostrom Scholarship for Ceramics, the Kevin and Karen Lynch Scholarship for Ceramics, the MacAdam Trust Scholarship, the Alexander J. McDonald Memorial Award, and his nomination for the 2018 Starfish Art Awards.

"My use of pattern and polyhedral configurations stem from my longstanding interest in science, mathematics, and the philosophy of sacred geometry. The high-gloss surfaces of my wares celebrate colour and sensuality and are an expression of my queer identity. Working with moulds has given me the freedom to explore shapes, forms, and styles that diverge from traditional wheel-thrown pottery. Working in this way provides an enormous amount of control, precision to my process, while it nurtures my inner designer without having to sacrifice the gratifying tactile experience of using clay." - Julian Covey

Julie Wagner is a Halifax artist who earned her BFA with a major in ceramics at NSCAD University in 2014. Julie has participated in residencies at Medalta, Alberta, the NSCAD Community Studio Residency Program in Lunenburg, and AIR Vallauris, France. Julie's wall piece, "Home" was selected for the "30 under 30" exhibit at the Gardiner Museum (2014).

"I am drawn to the meditative qualities of a repetitive motion. I am fascinated by how we learn about the world through our senses. Touch is a sense that can give us comfort and a great sense of calm. With this in mind, I attempt to evoke in my work a sense of intrigue and desire through the seductive quality of touch. " - Wagner

Kaas (Kaashif) Ghanie was born in London Ontario in 1989.  He received his Bachelors of Fine Art in Ceramics, at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University as well as Minor in Art History.

"Raised in a Muslim family, I adhered to traditional religious values and my current practices investigate succinct personal connections, the vessels themselves stand in as reiterations of my intimate history. Religious, familial experiences expressed in the work uses interpretive forms of traditional Islamic vessels, dressed with symbolic or coded references."  - Ghanie

Nicholas Rosin is an emerging metalsmith and craftsperson residing in Halifax. While earning his BFA at NSCAD University, Rosin studied abroad in Pforzheim, Germany where he learned the technique of engraving. In 2016 he participated in the NSCCD Summer Residency and is the Metal/Jewellery Technician and an instructor at the Centre for Craft.

"Throughout my artistic practice I have focused on fabricating metal objects and jewellery that address social behavior, personal habits, and the oddities in language. I am inspired by the emotional reaction and reflection of the audience.  My current work is influenced by patterns, street art, and iconography utilizing the technique of engraving." - Rosin

Emma Piirtoniemi majored in Jewellery Design and Metalsmithing and minored in Art History from NSCAD University. She examines the duality of her work, worn intimately on the body, and displayed in the public spaces of galleries. Emma will be working both in metal and adding glass work into her pieces examining small jewellery sculptures and gaining experience in curating contemporary craft.

Ryan Tingley, a NSCAD University graduate in ceramics, will develop a line of utilitarian pottery of sleek simple forms using faceting, carving, and stamping to explore textures. Ryan will also be creating a business strategy and website to promote his work during the residency.

Shelbey Dodds is a Jewellery Making and Metalsmithing graduate from NSCAD University. She will be exploring contemporary jewellery objects that reflects our relationships. Bridging the divide of art jewellery and production based work, Shelbey will be travelling to Barcelona, Spain to attend the annual art Jewellery conference, JOYA Barcelona to collect research and inspiration to apply to her own work.