January 22, 2025
by Donna Kimberley
Rebecca Blankert and husband, Todd Fraser, moved to Inverness about seven months ago to be closer to his family. “I love Inverness. I grew up in Alberta, and I enjoy the small-town vibe. My husband’s aunts and uncles are all my family. It’s easy to be here when so many people support you,” she says.
“The only problems for me in Inverness are the lack of year-round restaurants and poor internet connections. We had a week of no internet access on Deepdale Road.”
Rebecca, 37, is an artist at Custom House Artisan Incubator in Port Hawkesbury. The Incubator is a collaborative project with the Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design (CBCCD). Rebecca attended the New Brunswick Centre for Craft and Design in Fredericton and has a fine arts degree from Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick,
Rebecca has had several jobs over the years, but her favourite was archiving the professional and personal life of New Brunswick nuclear physicist and ufologist Stanton Friedman (1934 – 2019). She says one of the most compelling things about archiving Friedman’s works was “all the mail he received on UFO sitings worldwide.” She also mentioned being hugely inspired by her parents’ friend, Grover Krantz, who first coined the term “Sasquatch.” Rebecca says the paranormal inspires her world and art and is an “obsession.”
“I collect witness stories about the supernatural and alien encounters, and I make them into sculptures and things; I’ve been collecting stories since I was probably 16 years old. I used to live in Alberta, and at one point, my parents banned me from driving around the province to meet up with strangers and collect their stories. I haven’t done much collecting in a few years, but people tell me their stories as soon as they learn about my interests.”
Rebecca uses stories of untold worlds, silver, and copper. She is also obsessed with bonfires and the colours of coal resulting from the ash. She purchases art supplies at the Yuyo Tea House in Halifax or Gesswein in Toronto but hasn’t used gold yet because of the high price.
“I like to make tiny wearable dioramas and complicated pieces. I often torture myself with them. Layering silver is difficult because each layer has a different melting point,” she explains.
Rebecca would also like to make jewelry for people with mobility issues, particularly those with arthritic fingers. She would like to create “visually striking finger binders.” She is also considering using magnetic latches to make putting jewelry on easier. Rebecca is also considering using microcontrollers: “You can write code and input it into a piece of art. You can give the microcontroller demands such as blinking every three minutes.”
Rebecca is grateful to the Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design in Sydney and the Custom House Artisan Incubator in Port Hawkesbury.
The Custom House Artisan Incubator provides studio space in a 1,500-square foot accessible historic building. The building is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. All studios have running water and natural light. Additionally, there is year-round retail space for craft sales, a public washroom with a washer and dryer, and high-speed internet access.
An in-house team and a panel of industry experts provide one-on-one business support and workshops/seminars to help emerging artists with business development. To be eligible, individuals must be new or emerging craftspeople with design and technical skills, show talent and innovation, want a career as a professional craftsperson, and have at least the beginnings of a marketable product line. They must also be able to work without a studio technician. The call to artists remains open until all the studio spaces are filled.
The Custom House Artisan Incubator is located at 402 Granville Street, Port Hawkesbury and for more information their telephone number is 902-625-1928.
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