Bonspiel?

Bonspiel is my company, possibly the smallest cottage industry of screenprinted handmade leather goods on the west coast of Canada, and maybe even the world.  It’s named for the term for a tournament in curling, a Canadian sport involving sliding big rocks down ice.  I chose the word just because I  liked the cheery, vaguely european sound of it.

I’m Ellen, and I live and work  in a beautiful art deco style home perched high on a rock  in a garry oak meadow.  When I look out the windows, I am at the level of the treetops and it feels like I’m in a treehouse.  There are frolicking squirrels and the big eerie owls who eat them.  I’ve seen a perigrine falcon disembowelling a little bird on a big oak branch ten feet from my living room window.  Hummingbirds abound all through the winter.  At dusk,  raccoons parade single file  along their little path across the yard.  It’s not uncommon to hear woodpeckers on the dead branches of some of the older trees (the landlords don’t keep up on the property maintenance).  It’s an unusual nature sanctuary in a small city.

I have my studio in Southwest corner of  the house, and that’s where I spend my time, making things.   I strive for perfection in my creations.  In my fashioning of them I get to indulge  in color, texture, imagery and associations, the touch of soft leather and suede,  the  thrill of assembling flat shapes into a three-dimensional object that is beautiful and functional.  This is the biggest luxury of my life, and when I can then trade the object for money it completes this creative cycle  and helps me move ahead and do more.

How did I get here?  Well, I used to work ( for  seven years)  at a small clothing design/manufacturing (or large cottage industry, depending on how you look at it) company called Smoking Lily here in Victoria.  When I started there I was the only employee and I contributed my sewing and design knowledge to the screenprint genius of the two owner ladies to help Smoking Lily explode into a raging success. (they were a big deal here–on the forefront of indie fashion and small crafty business).  In 2007, the company had lots of amazing staff and  my work there was done, so I left to devote myself to Bonspiel.

I mainly specialize in small leather wallets and purses.  It’s funny–I really want to make high end bigger leather bags, and also clothing of high quality, in silks and other fine fabrics, but the little stuff  just seems easier to make, photograph and market to sell online.  I find I have a constant pull to making more ambitious products.  Now, with the recession going on, is probably not a good time to follow that pull, but it’s still there.

This website is basically a portal to my Etsy shop, with a few extras for those with especially curious souls. Etsy is a global online marketplace for handmade goods, with over a million members.  If you want to purchase any of my goods, my etsy shop is where to go.  Click on any of the thumbnails here and they will take you there.

In my etsy shop there is a feedback system, so you can see what other Bonspiel customers have to say about their treats, and leave comments yourself. I offer you your money back if you are not satisfied (upon return of the item in like new condition).  And of course you could be sidetracked into browsing through the hundreds of thousands of items there, made by artisans in every craft, from all over the world.

If you are looking for a good deal on Bonspiel stuff, you could check out my Artfire shop.  Artfire is like Etsy’s little sister, having the disadvantage of catching the handmade wave a little late in the game, but trying very hard to do everything right, and succeeding most of the time.  I have a Bonspiel Discount Outlet there–it’s my clearinghouse for stuff that’s been around for a while, weird prototypes, and scratch ‘n dinged items.

Thanks for reading all this!  I’m off to go make more stuff. –ellen