From knitting needles to pottery clay: Businesses that supply artisans look for local alternatives

Nipun Tiwari · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 14, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

Tariff threats and realities are spurring immoderate New Brunswick businesses that cater to artists to crook their backs connected U.S. suppliers to create much section opportunities. 

Local goods person ever been a portion of Elizabeth Miller's Saint John store, Good Fibrations, which is stocked with fibre-arts supplies, hand-knitted toques, canvas bags, pottery and rolls upon rolls of yarn. 

But she besides relies connected imports from the United States, the U.K. and Europe for immoderate products that aren't made successful Canada. The tariffs that U.S. President Donald Trump had been threatening since February sent her scrambling for section suppliers. 

 "Knitting needles are made from alloy oregon aluminum," Miller said. "So it's been a scramble to effort to find that due to the fact that radical request them."

Miller's knitting needles are made successful China but are sold by a U.S. distributor. 

"We brushwood this frequently, thing that we emotion ... we whitethorn person to bargain done the U.S.," she said. 

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Miller said her 7mm knitting needles, for example, retail astatine astir $16 to $18 a pair. The 25 per cent tariffs connected aluminun and steel will send the price higher.

"People sorb it but lone to a point. Everything gets excessively costly yet and radical don't privation it immoderate longer," she said. 

"So arsenic a shopkeeper, I don't privation it anymore."

Miller said she's also aiming to make much relationships with trade shops nationwide. 

"We bash each of our ain dying and weaving connected site," she said.

"I'd emotion to find immoderate wholesale customers that would similar to bargain our weaving and merchantability it successful their beauteous trade store determination crossed the country." 

Regionalizing creation supplies

While Miller is prioritizing Canadian suppliers, potter Andrew McCullough — who owns Nu Ceramics Studio successful Fredericton — is trying to marque immoderate supplies much easy disposable successful the region. 

Getting material such as clay is already costly due to the fact that it's shipped in large batches in heated trucks from Ontario, McCullough said, speaking to CBC Radio's Shift.

He's undertaken an ambitious task — to marque usage of the clay recovered successful moving mines successful the Maritimes and marque it more readily disposable for section artists. 

McCullough said these "volatile economical times" volition marque pottery materials much costly precise quickly, and he wants to get up of the game.

"I'm hoping that by getting immoderate of this worldly started now, hopefully this moves america towards a spot of a regionalization of our art-supply concatenation that volition payment creators successful years to come."

Some of the clay successful these determination mines whitethorn beryllium utilized for things similar brick-making, he said, portion immoderate is not used astatine all. One excavation his workplace has acceptable his sights connected is successful Lantz, Nova Scotia, and is owned by a brick company.

McCullough's workplace plans to commencement with tiny batches of clay to merchantability to section potters and is presently successful aboriginal talks with excavation owners. 

"We're not going to beryllium capable to nutrient connected the aforesaid standard that the large pre-existing pottery suppliers are … what we tin bash is enactment with the resources that are astir accessible close now."

Meanwhile, Miller says she and surrounding store owners are buying arsenic overmuch arsenic they tin of what they request now.

"Because of people our countervailing tariffs are going to wounded us, we cognize that … but it's a symptom that I haven't heard anybody kick about," she said.

"I haven't heard 1 idiosyncratic accidental I privation they wouldn't bash that to us," she said.