By John Vo
While wandering the floor below the basement level of the School of Interior Design building at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) in September 2023, Adrianne Bou-Zaid suddenly came across an entire ceramics studio containing a kiln and pottery wheel. Having already completed her undergraduate degree and just beginning her master’s—both in the interior design program—she believed she would end up in a hands-on role like carpentry or construction as she’s always had a love of creating things with her hands. Yet, when she saw the pottery wheel for the first time, a curiosity was sparked within her.
“I know that you can create whatever you want with some clay and then get it fired in the kiln. I understood the process very little but I wanted to learn more about it,” Bou-Zaid said.
The studio’s manager quickly told her that usage was only permitted if it related to what she was studying in her master’s program. Having decided earlier that her thesis would centre around the use of artificial intelligence (AI), Bou-Zaid began thinking about how AI could replicate handmade pottery.
With that, she was off to the races and began to experiment with the relationship between AI and pottery. Whether it was through asking different platforms to try and replicate a ceramic she just created or asking AI to visualize a loose design concept, Bou-Zaid seized the opportunity to create artwork in the studio for her enjoyment while also tying it to her studies.
“My research was pretty much playing with clay and experimenting [with the] exploration of taking a physical image and creating it, or taking a virtual image and creating it physically,” she said.
Bou-Zaid isn’t the only one with a newfound interest in recreational ‘traditional’ art forms founded on their analog and handcrafted nature—such as pottery, quilting, calligraphy, woodworking, welding and more.
Historical evidence has illustrated how crafts like these have persisted throughout ages. One of the earliest origins of humans hand-making items like pottery and sculpture dates back as far as the Prehistoric Period according to an article from Smithsonian Magazine. Young children would mould sculptures out of nearby clay and adults would create tools and weapons by carving stone to ensure survival. Ceramic and fabric work are also prevalent at Before Common Era (B.C.E.) sites in Egypt, Britain and the Czech Republic.
It wasn’t until the late Victorian era that the Arts and Crafts movement—a movement originating in Britain—reached its peak popularity and made its way to the United States shortly after. Stemming from a need to uphold intricate craftsmanship over the work of brand-new machinery taking over the workforce, the movement “called for an end to the division of labor and advanced the designer as craftsman,” according to an article from The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
These crafts continue to be embedded in art spaces today, but what was once considered “ancient” and traditional art forms, these hobbies—detached from using digital devices or technology—have seen a resurgence among younger demographics like post-secondary students.
“It’s important to do what you love and that sometimes may be a challenge within itself but I think it’s important to follow that route”
Anaia Corrigan, a third-year biology student at TMU, was inspired to start crocheting after seeing her friend working on the craft technique in her first year. Corrigan’s first crocheted creation ended up being a book bag—one she still uses to this day. She continues to crochet two years later, citing her interest in the hobby as a means to unwind from her busy program and pass the time as a commuter student.
“I guess it helps me get distracted with how long I’m just sitting in one place doing nothing…I also use it to de-stress during class or if I’m tired in class to not fall asleep,” said Corrigan.
With many students taking an interest in her crocheting, she soon found herself yearning for a club at TMU where she could meet other students who shared the hobby. After perusing TMU’s Reddit page and seeing similar sporadic posts of students asking for a crochet club, Corrigan took the initiative to write a call-out post in an effort to potentially begin one herself.
After getting direct messages and replies under the thread, she created the Instagram page @tmu_fibrearts, the official club Instagram page for TMU’s new crochet club. Corrigan was also able to gather the 20 signatures needed to apply as a recognized club as outlined by the Toronto Metropolitan Students’ Union (TMSU) on their website.
Clubs like the one Corrigan founded exist outside of TMU and can be found in the Greater Toronto Area, and similarly, were created out of a love for the craft. Toronto Crochet + Knit Collective started as a call out on Instagram for a potential crocheting get-together in the park by Emilie Young, a social media lead for OCAD University and co-founder of the collective. Young, who also enjoys knitting and woodworking, had garnered some attention online for her crochet patterns and wanted to find a few people to meet in a free and public space.
“It was in May of 2023 when we were more and more coming out of this pandemic space…but just getting outside and meeting up more, I just put out a call to be like, ‘Who wants to go hang out in a park and work on a project together?’” said Young.
Grace Tompkins, a current PhD biostatistics student at the University of Waterloo and the collective’s second co-founder, had taken an interest in crocheting at the time and was one of the four people who joined Young’s first knitting and crochet outing.
By the second meeting, the attendance increased to 15 people. Noticing the growing traction, Tompkins then brought up the idea that she and Young could co-found a viable space where people could gather together regularly to work on their projects together. Once they began brainstorming a name for themselves and branding, they launched both the collective and their social pages in October 2023 as a non-profit club—an aspect Tompkins highlighted.
“We do events to encourage people to come out and try to make it as accessible and for free as possible,” said Tompkins.
The Toronto Crochet + Knit Collective hosts monthly meetups in parks such as Trinity Bellwoods and Christie Pits as well as indoor spaces during the colder months. They strive to create a “safe space” where many young people from different backgrounds and demographics can all come together to hone in on their work collectively.
“The growth has been really, really amazing and I think it was a community that was lacking in Toronto, and particularly, we make it a safe space for queer and LGBTQIA+ folks to join us,” said Tompkins.
It is not just fibre arts that allow young people to gather around analog arts. Anyone with a passion for ceramics can head over to pottery studios like Mono Art Studio.
Founder and owner of the studio Anastasiia Bukina became interested in pottery after graduating from the undergraduate architecture program at OCAD. What started as a casual pottery-making hangout with friends in 2022, ignited a newfound adoration for ceramic making. This aligned perfectly with her previous interests in the arts after attending an arts high school in Ukraine before moving to Canada. She took it upon herself to buy a small pottery wheel and began learning how to create through online tutorials and in-person classes.
Bukina imagined the possibility of opening a pottery studio during the COVID-19 pandemic as a step forward in both her personal and professional life. She didn’t believe in the viability of starting a business until the financial advice and emotional encouragement of her father, a businessman, gave her the push she needed to take her idea “to the next level.” Bukina took to sourcing the furniture and materials second-hand to save costs and, in September 2022, she finally opened up the doors to Mono Art Studio in Toronto.
The studio specializes in painting and pottery classes with the studio offering events from bridal showers to birthdays and more. Today, they’re always updating their activity options with new workshops and classes for all ages. Bukina, who works full-time at the studio, said seeing how the atelier has grown since its inception has been wonderful to watch.
“I never had a specific plan and whenever I was receiving offers or doing some new workshops or collaborating with someone, it always was another milestone I never tried before,” she said.
Like Bukina, artisans have taken it upon themselves to turn their crafts and pastimes into their careers and viable income.
During her time pursuing her master’s, Bou-Zaid became so enamoured by ceramic-making that she bought a pottery wheel for her place and eventually created her own business, ABZ Pottery. Here she sells pieces she made during and after her studies. In her words: “Anything pottery from A to Z.” Her page showcases her creations, videos showing her process and even tutorials on pottery making.
“I began by creating mugs, bowls, plates, saucers, key chains and then going to TMU markets and selling them. And I had so much fun doing that,” said Bou-Zaid. She has participated at local markets including STACKT and even on The Gould Street Market on the TMU campus. Although she’s working at a restaurant as a supplementary source of income, she sees herself in the future working in the creative field full-time instead of a nine-to-five job.
“I want to be able to work with my hands. Have a flexible schedule. I don’t want to take the traditional route of climbing the corporate ladder and trying to be somebody’s boss,” said Bou-Zaid.
The path to becoming a full-time artist comes with financial obstacles, Bou-Zaid acknowledges. A 2024 survey analysis conducted by the Cultural Human Resources Council found that about 66 per cent of Canadian artists earned less than $40,000 annually from their arts and culture sources in 2023, with 21 per cent of that figure coming from artists making less than $10,000. Regardless of the modern-day financial hurdles that come with turning your passion into a prosperous career, Bou-Zaid reiterates how much pursuing her art means in this journey.
“It’s important to do what you love and that sometimes may be a challenge within itself but I think it’s important to follow that route and, sometimes, it’s going back to the ancient times where they were creating stuff out of clay,” she said.
“I don’t want to take the traditional route of climbing the corporate ladder and trying to be somebody’s boss”
Among these artisans, what ties them together—aside from the yarn and fibre as Tompkins said—is their eagerness to learn from free, accessible sources like YouTube tutorials and their desire to find community within their art. For most of them, art was not solely for monetary desire but a creative form that allowed them to step away from reality and their personal ongoings.
Bou-Zaid can recall the exact day she made her first pottery piece: Oct. 13, 2023. While developing her thesis, this day marked the end of a six-year-long relationship and left her seeking creation as a form of escapism.
“I needed to put my time towards something else and I really needed to focus on myself and heal myself. So I used pottery as a form of therapy…I would spend five, six hours a day in the studio, teaching myself and isolating myself in that world to just focus on working with my hands,” said Bou-Zaid. “I really do feel like it healed me in that time.”
Bukina also initially took to pottery and painting to distract herself from times of hardship, as she discovered the hobby around the same time the Ukraine-Russia war was running rampant in her mind, fearing the state of her home country.
“I was just painting for my own good and calmness. It just brought me peace, because my head, my mind, was full of negative thoughts,” said Bukina.
According to a 2022 study published in The United States National Library of Medicine, researchers found that art therapy practices focused on hands-on visual arts aided participants diagnosed with anxiety and depression symptoms. For Bukina, the ability to carefully play with and shape the soft clay provides some therapeutic relief. This is a belief she hopes to instill into the attendees at the studio—controlling something malleable when other parts of the world aren’t easily changeable.
“Clay has a stability because clay is a natural material. It’s basically like Earth and it helps them to bring themselves down and just focus on this [for] two to three hours.”
Along with alleviating stress physically by constantly moving their hands and adapting, analog crafts help people physically disconnect from their electronic devices for one moment in the day. This is a mindset both Tompkins and Young agree is crucial for their mental health in their busy work and school schedules and in an era where global conflicts and changes in the world are constantly shown on social media.
“I work in a really digital space, so I’m on the computer for eight hours at work and then I was getting home and I was going on the computer again. So it’s been such a nice way to disconnect from that,” said Young. “It’s a way better dopamine hit when you finish a project than doom-scrolling.”
Though they’re on standby for the club to get funding approved by the TMSU, Corrigan believes having a club centred around crochet at the university would be a great way to meet new people.
“Hobbies are always a good way to make friends, because you know you’ll have something to connect to,” said Corrigan. “I think it’s just a good medium to meet people in.”
Similarly, the two founders of Toronto Knit + Crochet Collective are determined to keep the group going. They’re driven not by a desire for growth in followers or engagement but by their acknowledgement of how important third spaces are for the new friends they’ve met at these sessions—especially for those from the new generations who are just discovering this traditional art.
“There is this gap between the older demographic who are into these fibre arts and these crafts, and then this resurgence…coming up from this younger generation. We started this too as a space where people felt [they] could be around peers more around their age and just felt more welcoming,” said Young.
To anyone wanting to get into the craft, Tompkins says to “allow yourself to fail.”
“If things don’t work out, you can try again. That’s what’s great about these crafts too, is that they’re really forgiving,” said Young.
“Hobbies are always a good way to make friends, because you know you’ll have something to connect to, I think it’s a good medium to meet people in”
Bou-Zaid graduated from the interior design master’s program in June 2024, her final thesis encompassing how AI cannot replicate handmade pottery but could be used as a starting tool for any artist wanting to see a loose concept of a preliminary idea. She soon would take part in a tabling event on TMU’s Gould Street alongside other small businesses, food vendors and second-hand shops run by students and alumni.
On ABZ Pottery’s table where small colourful and glossed bowls and dishes are carefully laid out on the spread stands a statement piece she created for that thesis—a ceramic sculpture with round, uneven holes inspired by Tuscan architecture and combined with misshapen and abstract elements that merge tradition with innovation.
As students perused the assortment of ceramics, they all gravitated toward the thesis sculpture and some reacted much differently than others, says Bou-Zaid.
“It did help attract people to the table because they would come to me and be like, ‘What is that,’ ‘That’s so cool,’ ‘How did you make that,’ ‘What’s the idea behind it?’ ‘How much is it?’”
This positive reception of her sculpture and the joy she experienced making it has inspired Bou-Zaid to take on a new approach to how she crafts.
“The route that I’m taking now is that I want to explore these more abstract pieces instead of creating the smaller, more practical pieces,” said Bou-Zaid.
She attributes that her love of pottery and her business would not be where it is today without the people on her social page who voice their admiration and support for her work, creating a community she feels comforted by.
“I get so excited when I get even one like or one view because someone is interested in what I’m doing…people are saying they love what I’m doing, or they think it’s cool as to what I’m creating and it’s not just me who thinks it’s cool I’m not just biased with my own work…I think that’s the biggest sense of community that I can have is the support from everybody.”
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