Hand-made tales

As sculptural forms with the finest of tentacles, Yvonne Wakabayashi's Seaforms are otherworldly. According to the artist, they are actually inspired by the memories she collects "at the water's edge" near her home on Canada's west coast. Made from silk produced in a small family mill in Japan's Gunma Prefecture, the crisp, raw fabric responds well to "recreating the delicate beauty and fragility of our living sea." Barnacles, starfish, sea anemone and coral are just some of the seaforms Wakabayashi has fashioned from this distinctive material. A maker of wearable art as well, this award-winning textile artist looks for ways to combine the influences of East and West.

In this piece, 11 different bottles — some squat, some tall — are unified by a transparent line in the glass. Conceived and blown by Arron Lowe, a recent grad of Sheridan College in Oakville, Ont., Horizon suggests an unforgettable sunset of jewel-like colours. For the artist, it is actually a more philosophical piece prompted by the concept of beauty and the awe-inspiring nature of the sublime.

Two women from two different continents. The smiling figures of Warisole, of the Mohawk First Nation, and Shethi, an immigrant from India, are so lifelike that it's hard to believe they dwell on weaving barely one centimetre thick. Created by Louise Lemieux Bérubé, one of Canada's most celebrated textile artists, Warisole et Shethi is one large panel from an installation based on the theme Love One Another. Using new Jacquard weaving technologies that are computerized, Bérubé celebrates diversity by photographing men and women coming from different parts of the world.

This pair of shoes is named "Horny" and "Voracious." Meticulously embedded with yarn and beads, Horny is decorated with fur and horn, and Voracious with gleaming white teeth. For Marina Dempster, the impetus to make this fanciful footwear was not so much fashion-related as cultural. "The confounding high heel inevitably makes us more sensitive to the ground we walk on," she writes playfully, calling the piece "multicultural ethnography meets haute couture." Part of that mix includes pre-Columbian Huichol yarn painting elegantly interpreted in Voracious' black and red pattern. The shoes were a hit at the craft biennale in Cheongju, South Korea, and chosen as best in show.

Mathew Shimout is from a young generation of Inuit carvers, who learned his craft from his late father. Working in ivory, soapstone, antler and muskox horn, Shimout's carvings incorporate faces, animals and common hunting tools. Born in Coral Harbour, Nunavut, in 1967, Shimout lived a traditional life with his family fishing and hunting whales, walrus, caribou and polar bear. He now lives in Naujaat (Repulse Bay) with his own family and continues to carry a handsaw –as depicted at the bottom of the carved walrus tusk – when hunting. (It can be a lifesaver when forced to make an igloo during bad weather.)

Could there be an offering more Canadian than this? This gift of tasty doughnuts delivered in a grand canoe carried on the backs of four beavers is whimsical, but also a commentary on Canada's commercial roots. Humour and thoughtful observation are often paired in the distinctive clay sculptures of Brian McArthur. From his home in Red Deer, Alta., he creates work informed by the heritage and folklore of the country and the people who are shaped by it.

Adam from the Bible is the star player in this clever pairing of two ceramic vessels. Both are elegant interpretations of the albarelli, a type of jar popular in Renaissance Italy. Adam is posed in profile in the negative space between the two ceramic jars. With no tangible presence, the existence of this Biblical archetype seems precarious but for the precision of the wheel-thrown albarelli. Made by one of Canada's most outstanding ceramic artists, Greg Payce, who teaches at the Alberta College of Art and Design, this piece is interested in the realm between the virtual and the real, between forms and images and making connections between objects and ideas.

As a native of North Vancouver, which is rich in rainforest and coastline, it seems quite natural that Peter Pierobon would choose woodturning and furniture design as his calling. He is inspired by the action of the tides softening and shaping the remnants of fallen trees. As a piece of furniture, Ebb Tide is functional; as an object, it is sculptural and evocative.

The "kit" is a simple one: a slender box containing all that is needed to celebrate the quintessential campfire. With its matches and candle, you might even be able to survive a chilly night. But the key to this work is a sterling silver necklace with is own special display niche in the box. Featuring an owl and moose, the necklace depicts a robust campfire. Fresh out of NSCAD University in Halifax with a degree in jewelry and metalsmithing, creator Ann Pocket writes of the "global unity that campfires inspire."