Making: A Career in Craft

In craft, careers are as varied as the objects created, and each artist has their own unique career story to tell. Ushering in the Alberta Craft Council’s 40th anniversary and the nationwide celebration Craft Year 2020, Making: a career in craft shares the career stories of 21 fine craft artists.

Being creative isn’t limited to the making of work. Craft artists are often some of the most business savvy and innovative folks out there, each with their own diverse mix of revenue streams. Craft is often heavy on research and development; a lot of work happens behind the scenes before new work reaches the public. The level of creativity, determination, focus and ingenuity it takes to successfully refine and perfect the design of a piece, can similarly be applied to other areas of one’s practice.

Just as it is important for an artist to share their work with others, it is also as important to share the lesser known and understood aspects of an artist’s practice – the challenges, the eventual breakthroughs, and lessons learned.

Whether you are a maker or a supporter, we can all learn from one another. The exchange of ideas and imaginative solutions is an integral part of a healthy creative community.

Fern Facette has been making textiles for nearly two decades. She started with crocheting and knitting and recently completed the Master Weaver Level 2 at Olds College. Since 2012, Fern has sold her woven creations at the Royal Bison Art & Craft Fair in Edmonton. She recently founded Fern’s School of Craft, and is also a professional photographer.

“After years of selling woven items at Royal Bison Art & Craft Fair, so many people were asking if I taught lessons. And so, after a few subsequent years of collecting used looms, saving money and planning how to do this thing, Fern’s School of Craft began. At first it was just me, now we have eight instructors! I’m proud that our team of collaborators includes POC/LGBTQ/ gender non-binary folks. Props to ALL my passionate craft instructors who are also opinionated moms, climate activists, university techs and civil servants.” – Fern

Shifting from teaching science and from working in stone, Benjamin Oswald’s career has progressively come to focus on ceramics. With the goal of creating more contemporary designs, Benjamin has moved from throwing and glazing earthenware bowls and vases; to porcelain, mold making, slip casting, and material manipulation. Benjamin continues to evolve his own ceramics practice through Emily Carr University of Art + Design’s Low Residency MFA program.

“In addition to my personal studio practice, I currently teach ceramics full-time to high school students in Edmonton. I started out as a physics teacher and taught physics and chemistry for nearly 20 years. A pivotal career moment happened about five years ago when I started a ceramics class at the current high school I teach at. Over the next several years, the student enrollment skyrocketed, and I stepped down as the department head of science and now teach ceramics fulltime.” – Benjamin Oswald

Creative careers can take interesting twists and turns, and what may initially seem like a tangent or momentary distraction can become one of the most rewarding and lasting career directions. Taking a leap into the unknown from more familiar ground can be frightening but also profoundly revitalizing.

Carissa Baktay is a glass artist from Calgary who lives and works in both Canada and Iceland. Carissa earned a BFA in Glass from the Alberta University of the Arts (formerly Alberta College of Art + Design), studied at The Rhode Island School of Design and received her Master in Glass Art and Science from VICARTE Research Unit in Portugal.

“I am lucky to have had the opportunity to live in many different countries around the world, and with each new culture comes a new set of obstacles, creating new paths (or rocky terrain) in my process. I started visiting Iceland more frequently and for longer periods in 2018 when a new obstacle presented

itself: there was no longer a glass studio in Iceland. This marked a pivotal shift in my glass-based practice as I started working with horsehair as a material proxy for glass. Echoing one another aesthetically, this partnership inspired new paths within my practice.” – Carissa Baktay

Shona Rae was a professional clay sculptor before a series of dreams led her to begin studying goldsmithing and the metal arts in 1994. She received her Diploma in Applied Art and Design from the Kootenay School of the Arts Cooperative in 1998 and her BFA with distinction in the year 2000 from AUArts. Shona Rae has won numerous national and international awards, government grants and attention for her sculptural art in Europe and North America.

“Allow yourself to be open to new ways of thinking. Live closer to the edge and force yourself to leave your safe place. Listen to your heart. Believe in your dreams. Do not allow yourself to live in fear of failure, instead, it is important to have faith that the universe wants you to succeed. Why would you receive a gift if you were not meant to use it? Be your own Hero.” - Shona Rae

As we enter a new decade, it is a natural time to take pause and to reflect on where we’ve been and where we hope our journey will take us next. May you too find inspiration and encouragement in the stories artists have so generously shared as part of this exhibition. A