Tracy Cockburn Trim serves a customer at her knitting booth at the Ottawa Valley Craft and Collectibles Show.
Amid the marble halls of Library and Archives Canada on tables brimming with hand-knit hats, clocks made from recycled bicycles, hand-crafted jewelry and baked treats, the Ottawa Valley Crafts and Collectibles guild held its first ever two-day show due to rising demand among vendors and customers alike.
The sale in downtown Ottawa over the Nov. 23-24 weekend reflected the growth in business since the guild’s launch last November, say craft sellers and the guild’s chief organizer. OVCC’s fifth show, the Christmas Market, attracted 90 vendors and hundreds of customers.
Rene Trim, organizer of the shows, spearheaded the guild’s creation with his wife, Tracy Trim, who enjoys knitting and quilting and has been participating in art shows for 20 years.
“Everything’s handcrafted,” she says. “The creativity in each of the pieces here are far beyond anything that you would find in a mass manufactured piece.”
The organization is made up of local artisans who want to promote shopping locally. OVCC had its first show last October, before formally launching the guild in November.
Rene Trim says that each artisan has a small business that can only afford so much alone, but when you put many small businesses together they can generate some money and collectively advertise.
The guild started with five members last year, and now has 61.
“We deliberately keep our table fee modest and at the end of the day we don’t take a percentage of vendor’s sales,” he says.
Rene Trim explains that at large craft shows, vendors have to pay $1,000 to $1,500 per table per week, whereas OVCC is targeted towards smaller businesses. They are charged only $40 to $50 per table.
He adds that the fees collected at each show go towards advertising, location rentals, event insurance, and a $500 donation to charity at each event. For the Christmas Market, the chosen charity was the Barrhaven Food Cupboard.
Centretown painter Ryan O’Neill says the Christmas Market show was his first with the guild. As a recent member who joined four months ago, he says the guild has created more than just a show.
“The guild helps you get into the community, it gets you out there seen talking to other local artists,” says O’Neill.
“I joined it to be more a part of (that) community," he adds, "because they have such a diverse group of artists.”