Eight ways to experience Toronto’s painting, pottery making, DIY craft making and more on a budget
By Azalea Young
As a multicultural city with an expansive art scene, Toronto has quite a number of artistic experiences and activities to offer for tourists and residents alike. Whether that comes in the form of exploring different art and history museums, attending painting sessions at art studios, or even doing something completely different, there are always new things to do around the city. Unfortunately, not all of these experiences are accessible to different groups of people, particularly students.
With rising costs in almost every industry in the city, it can be difficult to experience everything its streets offer. But if you’ve only got a small budget (or no budget at all!) the experiences and activities listed below might be able to give you some inspiration on what to do when you’re feeling artistic.
#1: Charlotte @deconstrut – DIY Jewelry, Fashion, Design
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Charlotte (@deconstrut), known to her followers as Char, is a Canadian social media content creator most popular for her styling and fashion videos. They showcase her different skills, whether it’s creating DIY jewelry—one of her most popular and pinned videos is her tutorial on how to make shimmering rhinestone earrings—sewing and crocheting outfits, creating felt patches, or nail polish art, her content is perfect for aspiring designers. She mostly focuses on showing her followers how she styles the outfits she creates, but there are plenty of sewing videos, as well as jewelry tutorials, although these are not as popular as her clothing videos. Still, if you want to see how she makes daisy chain rings or strawberry earrings that are perfect for spring, her TikTok page can get you started. She even has a separate website, titled “deconstrut” where you can read tutorials on making your own DIY design patterns.
#2: Clay With Me – Paint Your Own Pottery
Clay With Me is one of the best spots to go to if you’re interested in making your own pottery, whether you’re a beginner or a more experienced guest. Known as “Toronto’s Friendliest Pottery Studio,” they have locations at King St. W and Dundas St. W. The studio offers different workshops for various activities such as hand-building clay and wheel classes (note that these classes are more expensive), as well as paint-your-own pottery nights, where guests can book an hour-and-a-half painting session and choose a piece of pottery to paint and decorate. There’s a base fee of $15, plus an additional fee based on the size of the piece of pottery you choose to paint. The pottery piece fee starts at $5 for a small piece and grows from there. For those with a smaller budget, this is one of the best places to go for pottery painting, but if you want the painting without the pottery, the next experience is for you!
#3: Pinot’s Palette – Open Studio Freestyle Painting
Also located at Dundas West is Pinot’s Palette, a painting studio that offers all kinds of guided painting sessions, as well as freestyle ones. With its friendly and bright atmosphere, Pinot’s Palette is accessible to all age groups and painters at all levels. While some sessions are more expensive than others, similar to Clay With Me, the guided ones—like this Toronto Skyline at Sunset one—are around $45, and the freestyle ones are around $25. Labelled as ‘open studio’ these paint sessions are more casual, with a professional artist available to guests only for consultation and advice, leaving individuals to paint whatever they want! You can drop in for a session during a two-hour period where you can choose to paint either a small canvas or upgrade to a larger canvas (doing so comes with an additional $10 fee), but if you want to paint something different, it’s perfectly fine to bring in clothing or drinking glasses instead. Allow your inner artist to shine through in whatever piece you want to paint, and embrace the creativity that comes with it.
#4: Reminiscent Candles @_reminiscentco – Candle Making/Candle Hacks
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Reminiscent Candles (@_reminiscentco) is run by Alyce Whitenect, a New Brunswick-based candle maker who started her business during the COVID-19 pandemic. All of her TikTok content is geared towards showing her audience the new and unique kinds of soy candles and wax melts she makes, ranging from sweet raspberry creamsicles to festive crushed peppermint. Not only does she show viewers how she makes them, but she also uses special techniques like adding whipped toppings to candles. While most videos are about creating these candles, she also has quite a few where she gives viewers some insight into what a day in her life looks like, along with some tips for aspiring small business owners. There are quite a few on “candle hacks” as well, including a very helpful one on how to fix candle tunnelling. She also has a website titled “Reminiscent” where you can purchase the majority of the candles and wax melts she features on her channel. It’s a good account to keep an eye on if you’re interested in trying to make candles yourself, or if you’re trying to get in the market for selling them as well.
#5: Bata Shoe Museum – General Admission
Although it’s not very well-known, the Bata Shoe Museum is a “shoe-in” for Toronto’s most unique museum! Over a thousand shoes and shoe-related artifacts are displayed in the museum’s permanent exhibition, “All About Shoes,” available for guests to view every day of the week. Tickets for students are available for $8, with this price granting you access to three changing galleries plus their permanent exhibition. Exhibitions that are on now consist of: “Dressed To Impress: Footwear and Consumerism in the 1980s,” “In Bloom: Flowers and Footwear,” and “Obsessed: How Shoes Became Objects of Desire.” You can wander around the different galleries and admire the history contained in each pair of shoes. For example, if you’re interested in floral patterns and beading, the In Bloom exhibit features these Peranakan mules from Southeast Asian Peranakan wedding garments, but if footwear from the ‘80s speaks to you instead, the Dressed To Impress exhibition showcases these Italian Gucci loafers. All the exhibitions are worth the journey, and you may even see your own shoes reflected in the countless pairs at the museum.
#6: Charlene Wong @allstylelife – DIY Arts And Crafts
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Toronto-based social media content creator Charlene Wong (@allstylelife) has a number of different DIY activities that you can easily do from home. While she started her account by posting content about health and exercise, now most of it is targeted toward themed holiday creations. Most videos show her preparing different foods and creating small projects for Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day. If you want some inspiration for your next Halloween costume, you can look to her 2023 fortune cookie costume, or if you want to paint something, you can check out how she transformed some cheap plastic Dollarama pumpkins into terracotta pottery barn ones. If you’re more interested in Christmas instead, she has plenty of activities to try out involving the holiday, from showing her audience how to elevate their Christmas present wrapping to painting candles (although really you can do this at any time during the year). Most recently, she has quite a bit of Valentine’s Day content posted. If you want some cute pink candy popcorn, chocolate-dipped pretzels and Oreos, or Timbit pops, look no further than some of her most recent videos.
#7: Anice Jewellery – Your Design Workshop
Create-your-own jewelry store, Anice Jewellery, has been around for over 10 years, offering guests a variety of services. These are mainly geared towards couples creating wedding/engagement jewelry, but it’s a memorable experience if you’re interested in booking something with your friends or a larger group too. The larger your party, the less expensive the cost, with a party of four to six people being the sweet spot—each person pays $50 plus material fees. Although this experience is the most expensive on the list, I think it can work well if you want to celebrate a birthday or a special occasion with friends. Blending creativity with fashion, it’s a way for you to decorate your body with charms and memories that are meaningful to you.
#8: Joy Of Dance Centre – Thursday Workshops
Last on this list is Joy of Dance Centre, a dance studio that offers different dance workshops throughout the year. From group ballet to Irish step dancing workshops, there is quite a list of classes to choose from, but the Thursday workshops are the ones where guests can enjoy a new dance form each week. Adult tickets cost $15 for an hour-and-a-half-long session with a different instructor based on what kind of dance style is being taught that week. There is no obligation to attend every single class, as you can book an appointment each week for whatever class you’re interested in. These workshops are an excellent way for beginners interested in dance forms to learn with the guidance of a professional. Whether you go alone or with friends, this is a way for you to feel in sync with your body, moving to the beat of your own drum.
