KATRINA TOMPKINS tinselandsawdust.com
Every year a few overachievers like Katrina Tompkins take on a heap of Design Week projects. The furniture maker has a piece in Capacity (Take 5, page 30) and has already participated in Toronto Design Offsite’s PechaKucha Night and the Design Exchange’s Making It talks.
When I met up with her at her garage studio tucked behind the Dufferin Mall, though, the project that got her giddiest is an installation in collaboration with painter Janna Watson at the Gladstone for its Come Up To My Room exhibition (page 28).
“I’ve been waiting five years to do this,” she says, admitting that the anticipation has made sticking with one concept tricky. Tompkins describes the final space in room 212 as a playful and conceptual mix of elements, including a rug inspired by one of Watson’s canvases, boards that have been burned, sandblasted and painted, and curls of orange wood chips.
After CUTMR closes, she moves on to an even bigger project: opening a store and café in the new Academy of Lions gym on Ossington with her Tinsel & Sawdust partners Watson, designer Amy Markanda and foodie Mandy Ridley. She calls the concept “experiential retail” and says that rather than merchandising products in a traditional way, café customers will use pieces – chairs and tables, for example – that are for sale.
“We put out a call for products from young, local makers,” she says. “We want to show people that design is actually quite accessible.”
