Written by: Carmen Milenkovic, Executive Director
Wendy Parsons (left) and Zach Dietrich setting up their section of the SCC booth
A handful of members of the Saskatchewan Craft Council spent last week in blizzardy Toronto at the annual Toronto Gift Fair (TGF). The gift fair enables retail outlets from across the country to meet suppliers of wholesale product. The artists we took to TGF were Wendy Parsons, Devon Dietrich, and Zach Dietrich of Parsons Dietrich Pottery, Rhonda Lamb of The Fibre Bin, and Gwen Fehr of Joan’s Beeswax Candles. Parsons Dietrich Pottery from Moose Jaw have been participating in our program for the past six years, with sales growing steadily each year. 2019 was no different.
“We are very happy with our TGF results,” writes Zach Dietrich. “The weather definitely was a factor in lower attendance by retailers… Three high profile shops ordered from us for the first time. The first is Our Native Land in Jasper, Alberta, a gallery that carries only Canadian art and craft. The Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton was the second; its buyer indicated we are the only out of province potters featured by the AGA. Our highest profile buyer to date is The Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, whose gift shop will begin to carry our work.”
“We could never have achieved these results without the support of the Saskatchewan Craft Council and Creative Saskatchewan.”
Nothing is sold from the floor at the TGF — only orders are taken. Now that these artists have returned home, the work to create and fill the orders begins.