PRIDE: Queer and crafting in Hamilton

QUARTZ: Queer Art Hang at the Art Gallery of Hamilton and Queer Craft Club at Hamilton Craft Studios offers an oulet for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community to gather and create. 

If you are queer and into crafting, you have two options to let your creative flag fly and meet others from the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

The Hamilton Art Gallery and Hamilton Craft Studios both host events aimed at the queer community.

Whether through beading, collaging or paper cutting, one thing was true among those who gathered at events in June. They were there to be surrounded by members of their community. 

Some attendees arrived with friends and crafted as a group, while others bumped into friendly faces by chance. At both events, people sat, chatted and had fun doing craft.

QUARTZ: Queer Art Hang is hosted by the Art Gallery of Hamilton and coordinated by Tyler VanHolst, J Avolio and Lex D’Angelo. Coordinators choose a feature craft but other craft supplies are provided, and people are given the space to choose what they’d like to focus on during the two-hour time block.

At the June gathering, friendship bracelets were the feature craft, though many attendees chose to create collages out of magazines provided. Creating, not perfectionism, is a value at QUARTZ.

“I like the idea that people can just come in and make whatever they want and not only is there a chosen activity but there's other supplies that people can dabble in. People can experience new mediums and have fun that way. Maybe learn a new skill,” said Avolio.

A mainstay of QUARTZ is its dry designation. VanHolst said that many events within the queer community include alcohol in some way. “We were looking to maybe create something … that didn't have alcohol as a component,” they said. 

Benjamin Forrest, a second-time event attendee appreciated the dry event. “I think it's important to make spaces that don't centre around that, especially in the queer and trans community … I feel like having dry events or just events that don't centre around alcohol create a safer space for folks who are sober,” he said. 

Dayna Gedney, owner of Hamilton Craft Studios also hosts a by donation Queer Craft Club once a month on Monday of every month. Attendees are encouraged to bring something to work on, with the point being the opportunity to connect with others. 

The event was born from the idea of creating an “out loud” space, said Gedney. This was something important to her since Hamilton Craft Studios opened at 121 Princess St. in 2022.

“It was on the calendar almost immediately when we set up the space because there was a need for it. I know there are others, but there's always room for more. There is no limit to how many safe spaces we can create for people.”

The effort to create community was felt by those in attendance. Meghan Longhi, who has been to the Queer Craft Club four times since February, explained how the group has become part of her monthly schedule. Complete with inside jokes and group chats, it is an inexpensive space to build community with her peers.

“I just wanted a space because I generally feel like in my life I'm quite straight passing, and most people don't assume … I need more people in that community in my life,” Longhi said. She uses the space to work on her junk journaling. 

Shuggie Crossland, who hosts the club, explained that being a space for people to come and share their issues is something they enjoy about facilitating the event. Crossland is willing to be there when people need to vent, they said. “Like my family's not using my pronouns or … when things get more real, it's nice to be supportive in that way.”

Much of the event is centred less around the crafts themselves, and more the relationships built. “We always say it's … no crafting, just yapping,” Crossland said. 

What they made

A consistent theme heard among those attending the queer crafting events held in Hamilton early this June was letting go of perfectionism. Whether at QUARTZ (run by staff at the Art Gallery of Hamilton) or at the Queer Crafting Club run from Hamilton Craft Studios, attendees created something and built community. And that’s the point.

Michelle Crozier (she/they) – First time QUARTZ attendee

Michelle Crozier, a True Colour’s Club facilitator of the All Out Collective, visited QUARTZ with their coworkers (Ben Forrest and Embers Carroza Avendaño) as a celebration of finishing with their last True Colours group the previous week. 

Crozier started working on a vision board. For her, this was a time just to create something. 

“We're just grabbing at words and visuals that speak to us. Very channeling… [a] love of Hamilton and food and exploration ... But nothing too deep. [I] just wanted to cut some stuff and turn my brain off a bit.” 

The True Colours Club is a program aimed at trans, non-binary and gender-diverse youth in the city. It is an arts-based group that focuses on creativity, identity, increasing self esteem and building community according to their website. 

Ben Forrest (he/him) – Second time QUARTZ attendee

Ben Forrest, also a True Colours Club facilitator alongside Crozier and Avendaño, worked on a mainly black-and-white collage with a little orange colouring added. 

“When we're working with the kids, we don't really get the opportunity to do the activity. But here, we kind of get to connect with people with the same identities as us or similar identities … I did a collage because that's always my go-to because I shut off my brain and I don't think about it … And I feel like you can always have deeper meaning to your art when you shut off your brain.”

Shuggie Crossland (they/them) – Host of Queer Craft Club

Shuggie Crossland, the host of Queer Craft Club, spent the evening working on a birthday card for their girlfriend. The card was made by creating patterns on the paper, then cutting out the shapes. It is a pop-up card with paper cut-outs of cats inside. 

Meghan Longhi (she/her) – Queer Craft Club regular

Meghan Longhi, who drives from Oakville to take part in the group nearly every month since February, uses the time to work on her junk journal. The spread in the image below was from a previous night. 

She was originally working on a journal layout that would have commemorated Anthony Stewart Head as Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was left unfinished due to some craft supply issues. 

Meghan’s main reason for coming is community building. “It's nice to be in a place just with fellow peers in the community. That was what drew me and that's what keeps me coming back because they're just good people here.” 

Caroline Monte (she/her) – First time QUARTZ attendee

Caroline Monte brought her own tie-dye project to work on. “What I like about it is that it helps me not be such a perfectionist. The tie dye that I do, you don't really know what you're going to get until you wash it all out and it's all done. So for someone like me, I like to sketch, I like to draw, but I will be too precise and too intense about it. Whereas doing tie dye kind of releases that control.”

She explained that the knots are made with a waxy kind of string that repels the dye. This creates the lines between colours she said. 

This ball will eventually become a skirt with a geode pattern similar to that of the shirt seen in the photo. This shirt was also dyed by Caroline. 

Rose Lemieux (she/her) – First time QUARTZ attendee

Rose Lemieux is a collage artist with a plan, weaving meaning into her work. Typically. At Quartz, Rose decided to just make, with no plan. “I'm working on a different technique where basically you mash images … But to come here, I just wanted to free my mind of that and try something different. So I did this. So when I go home and it dries, if I have the courage, I'm going to start tearing at them like a billboard and show their layers underneath,” she said. 

Rose said she loves community art-making, and will be offering accessible community collage classes on a pay-what-you-can-basis. 

She is also wearing a necklace made from materials provided by QUARTZ and the Art Gallery of Hamilton. 

Sam Richarz (she/her) and Joss Keillor (they/them) – First time Queer Craft Club attendees

Sam Richarz and Joss Keillor attended the Queer Craft Club for the first time, together. They came armed with bracelet-making material, and were given some other beads and key rings to work with by the club. 

They both decided to make keychain lizards. Keillor will be giving their blue lizard keychain to their son. 

Richarz said she used to make this kind of craft as a kid, and it’s nostalgic for her. 

They both decided to come to the event because of a friend of Keillor’s. They said they would consider coming back in the future.