Guildworks

Fine craft gallery opens in Bloomfield

Step inside and you’ll encounter a bright, light, airy space, and one co-owners Karen Bell and Guy de Carteret have made their own. Simple and sophisticated in its curation, Guildworks showcases an eclectic and exquisite mix of the finest craftsmanship to be found across Canada. New to Prince Edward County, Bell and de Carteret have roots in Toronto, although they have been living in Calgary for the past two years where they ran an arts centre. Both have a background in the arts; Bell with a degree in art history, de Carteret was a producer in the performing arts. “We wanted to be able to work for ourselves and do something we both felt passionate about,” said Bell.

Inspired by their travels, Bell says it reignited an old way of doing things and prompted them to promote handmade craft, so they began sourcing the best of what they could find in fine craft from across the country. “There’s no better place to do that than in the County; it is rich with art, food and wine and those are also three of our favourite things, so it made sense that we came here,” she said. de Carteret describes the curated space as one predicated by what they like, their aesthetic, what they consider beautiful. “To gain entry, it has to feel beautiful to us, but it can be at varying price points, and you can be an emerging artist, a mid-level career or a senior artist, and we like that mix,” he said.

Seeing Red by Claire Anderson graces the entrance to Guildworks fine craft gallery in Bloomfield.

The couple bought the gallery in April, together with the house next door; the gallery opened just after the Canada Day weekend. “It’s 22 steps to work and we are late every day,” laughs Bell. Situated on Bloomfield’s Main Street in a former carriage house, those approaching the gallery may at first see red. The glass, concrete and steel sculpture gracing the front lawn of Guildworks is a piece by Claire Anderson of Studio Vine Glass in Niagara. ‘Seeing Red’ changes with the light, and has an interesting environmental message behind it, but step inside the gallery and you’ll find more of Anderson’s work on a slightly smaller scale. Bell explains how they have a different mix of artists at different points in their career, some quite senior artists who have been working for years, and people just out of school and much earlier in their career. “It’s that mix that we find very interesting and being able to keep up with artists throughout their career is what we want to do.” While most pieces are decorative rather than functional, the selection does include useful items as well beautiful pieces of fine craft at varying price points, to be touched and admired and enjoyed, with many irresistibly tactile. While you will find art placed on the outer walls, this isn’t a typical gallery filled with paintings. Guildworks is something else.

Here you’ll experience an exceptional collection of well-crafted art, handmade by some of the finest artisans and craftspeople within Canada’s borders, including several Saidye Bronfman Award recipients. Many of the objects are beautiful to touch and hold (admiration, exploration and handling are encouraged); others simply require closer observation to fully appreciate a painstaking process, an ancient method, maybe practised by just a few. Perhaps more importantly, it is the story behind each piece that must be discovered. Behind every piece, every object, every thing lies a message, a history and an explanation of how and why it was made, the creation involving an often tedious process or specialized technique. If you care to know, Bell will gladly share her knowledge of the artists she represents, along with the often rare, technical and sometimes challengingly complex techniques many undertake to produce fine craft.

touched, formed and conceived by a person that really excites Bell. “I think that has much more personal value if you are bringing something into your home; I think it should be beautiful and mean something to you and you know it is a special item,” she says. “We are basically saying these are timeless pieces, more original and distinct, so the handmade element is very important to us rather than machine-made in this whole world of fast we are living in,” says de Carteret, who calls it ‘the art of fine craft’.

Guildworks represent about 25 artists from across Canada, including their first local artist, Katrina Tompkins of Finefolk Furniture. They are expecting to have a roster of about 30 to 35 artists, to include around five County artists. “It’ll be an eclectic mix from the length and breadth of the country,” says de Carteret. On the upper floor, they plan on a series of workshops yearround, where specialized artists are brought in to demonstrate and share their medium and their skill. Those include a natural dyeing workshop next month, as well as a tapestry weaving workshop and a bookbinding workshop, with embroidery and leather working to come in the spring.

Karen Bell is a co-owner of Guildworks, Bloomfield’s newest gallery of fine craft.

In the gallery, you’ll find porcelain, ceramic, stoneware and glass, whether it’s vessels and vases, bowls and goblets, or tiles and sculpture. There are fabulous examples of hand-dyed and hand-stitched textiles too. Check out the very neat cribbage boards made with mixed hardwoods and repurposed skateboards by Adrian Martinus of Calgary. There are useful items such as benches and stools, fun things too, such as Joseph Muscat’s ‘Town Square’, and the functional and sculptural, and brilliant creation of Tantalus Designs’ pepper mills, which de Carteret describes as a piece of art and an engineering feat. “We have amazing textile artists and porcelain artists, we have male and female ceramic sculptors, so it’s a real eclectic mix of what we think is exemplary in terms of the craftsmanship and the quality,” says Bell. If sculpture is your thing, look for British Columbia’s Sara Heron and her hand-carved, one-of-a-kind sculptures made with selenite, white alabaster, chlorite, pink alabaster and soapstone. They are admired for their beauty, but also their tactile quality, their translucency and subtle interaction with light.

It is also important to Bell to bring community together. “We are also looking at bringing people together to have conversations; it could be around an arts-related issue, or it could be around a social issue or it could be whatever will bring people together to actually start connecting with one another, and trying to help foster a bit of cultural change in terms of the arts,” she said. Bell believes artists can come together to make the community better for themselves and she says they have an ability to nurture each other, to learn from each other and mentor each other. “We are looking for opportunities like that, and its more than coming in and just looking, but engaging with each other and with the art we have on display.”

Guildworks are having a tiny art exhibit featuring at least 30 Ontario artists, showcasing tiny work no bigger than eight-by-eight inches. The tiny art show runs from September 27 to October 5, with an opening reception at 346 Bloomfield Main Street on September 27. For more information, including detailed descriptions of the fine craft they carry, visit guildworks.ca.