OBJECTS OF DESIRE: EXPLORING A MULTITUDE OF HANDCRAFT IN UPTOWN WATERLOO 

WORDS BY DANI KUEPFER; PHOTOS BY CHRIS TIESSEN 

AS SOMEONE WHO LOVES TO EXPLORE OUR REGION’S DOWNTOWNS (AND UPTOWNS), PREFERABLY WITH AN ARMLOAD OF PAPER BAGS AND A TURMERIC LATTE IN HAND, I’M ALWAYS ON THE HUNT FOR A BEAUTIFULLY-CURATED BRICKS AND MORTAR SHOP. YES, I KNOW THEY SELL SOAP ONLINE. BUT POPPING INTO A SHOP ALLOWS YOU TO CHAT WITH THE PERSON WHO MAKES THE SOAP AND LEARN THEY LIVE NEXT DOOR TO YOUR MOM, OR STUMBLE UPON A BOOK ON HOME FERMENTATION YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU NEEDED. SHOPPING LOCALLY IS MORE THAN JUST BUYING STUFF – IT’S AN OPPORTUNITY TO CONNECT WITH MAKERS, APPRECIATE THE CARE THAT GOES INTO THE GIFTS YOU SELECT, OR MAYBE JUST DISCOVER THE SIMPLE JOY CONVEYED BY GOOD THINGS MADE BY GOOD PEOPLE. 

HARMONY JEWELRY & CO 
42 KING STREET SOUTH, UPTOWN WATERLOO
HARMONYJEWELRYCO.CA, @HARMONYJEWELRYCO 

I’m sitting down with Michelle and Kristel Mansilla, second-generation owners of Harmony Jewelry & Co. Though originally started in Guelph in the late eighties, Harmony has called Uptown Waterloo home for thirty- two years. (You might be familiar with their other locations – in downtown Guelph, the Stone Road Mall, downtown Stratford and, most recently, Conestoga Mall in Waterloo.) Harmony has changed since the early days of incense and hacky sacks, though the relaxed atmosphere remains: every location features clean white walls and soft lighting complementing the space’s rustic features, and a myriad of displays hold, alongside an array of small-batch printed apparel, delicate jewelry made of soft gold, subtle gems, and freshwater pearls. 

What’s most interesting about Michelle and Kristel’s Harmony is not necessarily its history (though its decades-long tenure in locales across our communities is certainly a testament to its hand on the pulse on the region) but its ability to evolve with the present. Fashion trends have never moved so fast, thanks to the proliferation of social media and fast fashion brands, and many bricks and mortar shops find themselves unable to compete with this constant turnover, where much of ‘last week’s stock’ ends up as waste. But Michelle and Kristel at Harmony have found a solution that allows their enterprise to stay in the trend space without the environmental impact. The fact that Harmony’s unique designs reflect their clientele, and that they are committed to sourcing base materials and customizing in-house, allows them to sell out their stock. (For the few items that don’t find a home, they work with an upcycling partner to give their wares new life). 

All of Harmony’s clothing – cozy crewnecks, cute tees and totes – are designed and printed in-house in small batches using non-toxic, water-based inks. Working with local graphic designers (often recent Conestoga College grads), the Harmony team takes industry trends and customer feedback into consideration when designing new products, and tests them in small batches before committing to a full run. ‘That’s how we’ve learned: we keep trying different things and listening to our customers,’ Michelle reflects. ‘We’re always changing, always growing – because our customers are, too.’ Personalization extends also to their jewelry, where meaningful engravings like initials and birth flowers always come standard. 

A lot has changed in Uptown over the past decades. Many storefronts have seen new signs, and the streets certainly look different. Other things, like students brushing shoulders with long-time residents while they move in and out of the cafés and shops, have a familiar charm. As for Harmony, Michelle and Kristel still source from many of the original family businesses their own family engaged thirty years ago. ‘But we don’t do cartwheels on their lawn anymore,’ Kristel laughs. Another thing that remains the same is Harmony’s unwavering vision for making available distinctive products that reflect and invoke special moments, big and small. Harmony offers wearables that are expressive, original, and local. Who could ask for more? 

RISING MOON GALLERY 

8 REGINA STREET NORTH UNIT 3, UPTOWN WATERLOO
RISINGMOONGALLERY.COM, @RISINGMOONGALLERY 

What is more evocative of ‘handcraft’ than pottery? With just two hands and a wheel, an insensate lump of clay becomes a work of art. (Or, if you’re like me and have taken a beginner’s pottery class, a very unique mug.) Andrea Hildebrand, founder and resident artist at Rising Moon Gallery, was a production potter for over two decades, including several years studying the origins of ceramic work in South Korea and Nepal. She doesn’t make wonky drinkware – nor is her art confined to pottery alone. 

Andrea’s craft is less tangible than the smooth, weighty ceramics in my hands. Instead, it’s something Andrea herself holds: a space of collaboration between artists, a cross pollination of cultures, an opportunity for guests to create their own connections with the artefacts before them. What Andrea crafts is a gallery. 

Rising Moon Gallery, which looks out over a tree- lined expanse of Regina Street in Waterloo, features Andrea’s ceramics, naturally: her current collection a series of robust urns with wide mouths, earth-toned glazes, and rich geometric linework that reflects the natural patterns of layered forests, rhythmic wind, and crisp foliage. The gallery also hosts up to a dozen other artists at a time, showcasing Indigenous beadwork and Mennonite woodworking alongside other traditional handcrafts like block prints. I’m drawn to Julia Masci’s hand-dyed textiles: organic cotton scarves transformed with foraged plants such as sumac and black walnut, and one-of-a-kind thrifted pieces featuring striking patterns created with pressed leaves and blooms. Andrea’s role, as the curator, is to bring together items with shared ideas; your role, as the guest, is to create a story that ties them together. 

At first glance, the work of the different artists is distinct, but as I spend time with the pieces, common threads reveal themselves. (Some threads are more obvious than others: Masci’s cotton rope basket winds itself around Hildebrand’s ceramic pot, creating a duo that begs to hold a wandering pathos and hang from my west-facing living room window.) 

But no collaboration is as visceral as that revealed in the gallery space’s other core function: Andrea’s husband Chris Winterson’s serene studio, Torchlight Tattoo. In fact, it was Chris’s clients passing through Andrea’s production space that gave the two of them the idea of sharing the space as a collaborative studio. While the collections housed in the gallery benefit from Chris’s ‘accidental’ guests, the tattoo studio soaks in the quiet wonder of the handcrafts. ‘The scents, the lighting, the shapes – it calms the nervous system,’ Andrea tells me. ‘People often fall asleep,’ she adds. Not exactly your leather, chrome, and death metal tattoo parlour, then. 

But there’s more. Lots to think about. Rising Moon Gallery, which applauds hands hovering over the potter’s wheel alongside the soon-to-be-inked forearm of a client, as well as hands that carve and press and sew – all sharing one place – is a model for eclectic collaboration. ‘Rising Moon is about preserving the old way,’ Andrea tells me. ‘Connecting with the artists, seeing the space where these things are made. It’s not just a money economy here – there is a social and spiritual economy, and we want the people who visit to find those gifts too.’ 

THE TRUTH BEAUTY COMPANY 

46 KING STREET NORTH, UPTOWN WATERLOO
THETRUTHBEAUTYCOMPANY.COM, @THETRUTHBEAUTYCOMPANY

Through the front doors of the Princess Twin Cinemas and down a sun-soaked staircase, you’ll find The Truth Beauty Company: a calm and cozy curation of natural, sustainable, and cruelty-free beauty products. ‘We’ve been Uptown for fourteen years,’ founder Jen Freitas tells me, adding that her team recently celebrated ten years in their current location. While ‘clean’ and ‘green’ products are becoming increasingly popular among mainstream beauty brands, Truth Beauty has been advocating for health conscious and socially responsible self-care since its beginning days – and they’ve seen a lot of change over the years. 

‘Clean beauty has become quite popular – and at the same time, the marketing has become super murky,’ Jen tells me. While buzzwords like ‘eco-friendly’ and ‘naturally-derived’ are well used by brands, there are no official standards for terms like these within the beauty industry. There is no one-size-fits-all product: consumers ask different things of their products when it comes to performance, ingredients, packaging, price and brand ethos – and matching product to consumer desire requires some research. 

‘We don’t expect consumers to be experts in these products,’ Jen tells me. ‘We want them to come in and tell us what matters to them, and we’ll do the rest.’ Hundreds of crisp boxes, minimalist tubes, and glass jars line the open shelves and antique tables that fill the shop. While the space feels like a gallery, Jen and her team read these shelves like an opulent library: with intimate knowledge of the brands’ practices and the products’ functions, they can guide clients to the perfect self-care routine that fits their body, budget, and values. That thoughtful attention and Jen’s tenure in Uptown comes with a community: ‘Our clients are incredibly loyal, and their experience of these products becomes part of the knowledge we share.’ 

Something we often overlook about independent shops like Truth Beauty is that, even before we arrive, the products are hand-selected by Jen (out of literally millions in the marketplace), her selection process hugely informed by her long-standing relationships with the faces behind the brands, most of which (like The Truth Beauty Company) are women-owned, self- funded, Canadian companies. Locally-owned bricks and mortar shops like Truth Beauty are much more than just a store: they are a curated experience, a collection of the best items available, an accumulation of years of research, trial and error. Moreover, they offer opportunity for other small enterprises (online, new, and small brands can’t compete with the marketing budgets of big brands, a major barrier to innovation within the industry). Between the established brands, Truth Beauty makes room on its shelves for new faces in the marketplace, and together they sit on the shelves as equals. 

‘The clean beauty industry began a long time ago in home kitchens, and only recently the big guys started to take notice,’ Jen explains. ‘If you want to keep that creativity alive,’ she adds, ‘you have to make room for the little guys to show what they’ve got.’ I carry Jen’s words with me as I step out onto the streets of Uptown, a place where our own ‘little guys’ continue to hold their ground and bring new ideas, paradigms, and products to the community.