Festival of Crafts 2016

The idea for Signatures was originated by two artisans in the late 1970’s. John Ladouceur (glass blower) and Casey Sadaka (jeweller) noticed that the options for professional Canadian artists, artisans and designers to sell their work were limited. So John and Casey founded Signatures in 1980 to produce quality marketplaces to bring artisans and buyers together. After three years of research the founders premiered the first Signatures show at the opening of the Ottawa Congress Centre in 1983. It featured 125 artisans presenting their fine handmade work over four days in the busy Christmas shopping season. The next year we introduced our Toronto Signatures show at the newly built Metro Toronto Convention Centre. In a short period of time both events grew in size and duration. As a result Signatures quickly established itself as a major force in the marketing of Canadian handmade products.