Signatures' 2023 Originals Spring Craft Sale celebrates its legacy

Signatures’ 2023 Originals Spring Craft Sale is back, and that means Canada’s largest and most experienced producer of handmade shows is celebrating its Ottawa roots and a long legacy.

The first Signatures show premiered at the Ottawa Congress Centre during the Christmas season of 1983. Featuring 125 artisans presenting their finest handmade work over four days of the busy shopping season, the event was an immediate hit. The next year, Signatures debuted in Toronto at the new Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The big spring event made its appearance a few years later.

Signatures is now Canada’s largest and most experienced producer of handmade shows, producing, promoting and managing 20 events each year in 13 cities across the country.

Three shows take place in Ottawa this year.

Signatures’ 2023 Originals Spring Craft Sale touches down at the EY Centre April 13-16 with over 150 participating artists, artisans, makers and designers, a new Indigenous Showcase produced in collaboration with Mādahòkì Farm and a new Sip + Shop experience presented by award-winning local craft producer Dunrobin Distilleries.

The Signatures Handmade Market takes over Aberdeen Pavilion at Lansdowne Park in October and the ever-popular Originals Christmas Craft Sale returns in December.

Signatures co-founders Casey Sadaka (l) and John Ladouceur back in the day.

Glass blower and Signatures co-founder John Ladouceur.

The story of Signatures begins with glass blower John Ladouceur and jeweller Casey Sadaka in the late 1970s. With limited options for professional Canadian artists, artisans and jewellers to sell their work, John and Casey spotted an opportunity to make handmade goods more accessible for creators and the public. They founded Signatures to provide quality marketplaces where artisans and buyers could come together in a shared love of handmade goods.

Attendees found a new way to love handmade goods, and in no time the Ottawa and Toronto shows turned into can’t-miss events and ran for longer periods. With its phenomenal success in both cities, Signatures quickly went on to establish itself as the go-to and trusted name in the marketing of Canadian handmade products.

“As Signatures has grown, we have never lost sight of our founding principles: To help Canadian artists sell their work in a major setting and to treat them with the utmost respect and consideration,” remarks Ladouceur. “The love of handmade is at the heart of what we do, and we are proud of our achievements in making Canadian handmade as popular, exciting and vibrant as it is today.”