Make It Edmonton redefines craft fairs

By Christina Zoernig

EDMONTON – A desire to make arts and crafts relevant to their generation inspired a brother-sister duo to found a huge craft show coming to Edmonton this month.

For Jenna and Chandler Herbut, craft shows were always an interest, but the hard time they had convincing friends to attend such events sparked an idea. They gave the traditional idea of a craft show a much needed makeover in order to gain interest from people of all ages, and Make It: The Handmade Revolution was born.

“I felt that there wasn’t really a show that was speaking to my generation,” said Jenna Herbut. “I would try to get my friends to come down to the crafts sale and they weren’t too keen on it.”

Now, almost five years later, the idea has grown into major crafts shows in Vancouver and Edmonton during the spring and fall seasons. With an expected crowd of 5,000 to 6,000 people for Make It Edmonton, the show is expected to be the biggest one yet since its inception in 2007 as over 115 designers flood the Alberta Aviation Museum at 11410 Kingsway Ave from Nov. 17 to 20.

While arts and crafts have usually been associated with older generations, Jenna has noted that there are numerous young people who attend the event. With a live performance each day and booths that appeal to dozens of individual tastes, Make It Edmonton is meant to be a fun place for everyone of all ages to enjoy.

For Jenna, the event is all about giving local designers a chance to show the public their talents and help give them that extra push.

“What we found so inspiring is a lot of our designers will start out as a hobby or something they’re interested in creating,” she said. “Then from there, they will have quit their full-time jobs and be able to support themselves full-time doing something that they love. I think that is just a beautiful thing.”

For business owners like Nicole Rice, who lives is in the west end, it’s a chance for her to show others her handmade work.

Rice, a stay-at-home mom with two children, started A La Carte designs two years ago as her own business creating unique cards using the best materials she could find.

Rice applied for Make It Edmonton for the first time in spring and was accepted. As a small business owner, the event has given her more exposure to a wider variety of people who appreciate goods made by businesses such as hers.

“I think it allows small businesses to really show off their work and to be proud of their work,” she said. “I also think that it brings to light that the community really does want more handmade products, and they don’t want to buy in bulk. And the majority of people really do appreciate the time and effort put behind things.”

It’s not always about business for some of the participants.

Working as a crime reporter for the Edmonton Journal by day, Jana Pruden started working on her craft of embroidery two years ago before Christmas when looking for presents. Once she purchased an embroidery kit, the creative juices started to flow as she worked on pieces for family and friends.

“I experimented with a couple of different techniques of transferring the design I was going to use on the fabric,” she said. “You can buy premade patterns that iron on. Really quickly, I realized that I wanted to do my own designs.”

Adorning vintage fabrics or second-hand fabrics that haven’t been used, Pruden stitches a variety of images and text to make them her own – including images like cameras, province shapes and portraits.

It was only this spring that she decided to apply for Make It Edmonton.

“These kinds of events really show how much there is that’s available to people and these really unique, special gifts that you can buy for other people or for yourself,” said Pruden. “So having a show like this where that’s the entire focus hopefully gets people thinking about the idea of handmade… and the other principles in the handmade movement.”

Make It Edmonton is set to run at the following times:

• 4 pm to 9 pm on Nov. 17
• 11 am to 8 pm on Nov. 18
• 11 am to 6 pm on Nov. 19
• 11 am to 5 pm on Nov. 20

General admission is $5 to attend all four days, and children 12 or younger get in for free. If you present this coupon, you can get $2 off at the doors of Make It Edmonton.