Many Skills Equal Many Markets
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Many Skills Equal Many Markets
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ut of economic necessity, I wear many hats and sport a few craft business names, too, up here on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast, a 40-minute ferry from Vancouver. I’ve been trained or self-taught as a graphic artist, potter, jeweler, glass artist, mixed-media assemblage sculptor, and gallery coordinator. Currently, ACCENTRIC c.d.c. is my crafts business in which I produce my Memory Boxes and custom, corporate-recognition awards. I also work in partnership with Vancouver glassblower Jeff D. Burnette of Joe Blow Glassworks under the moniker Hellbender Glasswerks.
SITE PACIFIC Art + Design is a new design co-op I’ve spearheaded with seven local artists and craftspeople. We banded together to form a design resource center and showroom of samples and portfolios for our commission work, aimed at designers, builders and homeowners. In addition to myself, we include a ceramic tile maker, two weavers, a hot-glass artist who specializes in doorknobs and chandeliers, a sculptor, and a painter/print maker. We’ve been open since June and we’re looking for more members.
I have been creating and selling fine craft since 1981, and fully self employed since 1993. Originally from St. Catherine, Ontario, I spent 10 years in Toronto dabbling in various jewelry mediums. I moved to Vancouver in 1992 where I was founding member, studio manager, and gallery coordinator of the Glass Onion studio and gallery for seven years.
In 1993, I began sharing a warehouse studio with two other glass artists and marketing my line of sand-carved, sculptural work aimed at the tourist market. I also continued to work with the corporate gift market, creating unique recognition awards. At the Pilchuck Glass School in Washington State that year, I first saw the box-making course of California artist Therman Statum. Now, 11 years later, what I call my Memory Boxes are the primary focus of my artistic endeavors.
"Quietness of Spirit" is a memory box clock, measuring 6 by 9 by 5 inches, made of stone, bone, metal, cork, shell, porcelain, japanese maple leaves and roots, plaster, glass and wood, with quartz clock movement. In 1999, I married jeweler Erin Dolman of Holy Crow Designs, and in 2002, we moved to our current home in Roberts Creek, B.C., a village of 1,200 residents. I continue to work with corporate clients in Vancouver, and we ship to the various shops and galleries that carry our production work, as well as make regular visits for materials and supplies.
One of the realities of a craft artist’s life in Canada is a very limited market of buyers of higher end, fine craft. It’s a constant struggle to keep the money coming in and so I juggle many styles, mediums and markets. The combined lack of schools, juried, high profile shows, and few (by American standards) higher end craft galleries, result in a lack of awareness and education by our buying public and few local markets for our work.
We have only a handful of schools in all of Canada that offer degree-level education in crafts, and while there are many certificate-based, college programs, they are generally poorly funded and often ill equipped. Students enter the world with only a modicum of training, and little, if any, business knowledge.
Many of us turn to the United States for our markets, but the restrictions of American retail shows make it very difficult and there are many legal hoops. Our higher end sales come through galleries and shops that cater to Canada’s tourist market. Most of my biggest ticket sales have been for work that has left Canada for the U.S., Japan, or other countries abroad. However, all that said, the life of an artist is a road I’ve chosen. With so many amazing folk we’ve met over the years doing the markets and craft shows, we feel that we have a rich life.
Eric Allen Montgomery
Roberts Creek, BC
