Seen and touched: A Springdale artist makes holiday crafts with braille
Alex Kennedy | CBC News | Posted: December 20, 2024 11:30 AM | Last Updated: December 20
Creating art with braille allows everyone to feel artwork, says creator Alyssa Burton
There's Christmas craft fairs aplenty this time of year in Newfoundland and Labrador, but Springdale artist Alyssa Burton is using a different medium to showcase her work.
She uses braille to create pieces of art everyone — including those in the blind community — can feel.
"It just raises awareness of, you know, here's this community. It's helping the community as a whole to be more knowledgeable," Burton told CBC Radio.
"I want it to be something that can be seen and touched."
Burton, born with retinopathy of prematurity, is completely blind. She prints her designs — things like hearts, Christmas trees and more — in braille on sheets paper using a manual brailler.
She uses braille every day, and says it's a way for people in the blind community to appreciate art in the same way those with vision do.
"You see a picture. To you, it's a nice, beautiful landscape with trees and flowers and all wonderful colours. And to the blind person next to you, it's a pane of glass," she said.
"Without braille, without learning it at a young age, I wouldn't be able to read. I wouldn't be able to. I even use braille on my phone screen to type."
Burton said she hopes her work can bring more awareness and inclusion into the craft space, and is always eager to help people learn more about the world she lives in.
"Most of the time for me, my blindness is the first thing people see. And with these crafts, it gives me a sense of, like, belonging to a community of crafty people," she said.
Burton sells her crafts under the name Tactile Treasures.
Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our daily headlines newsletter here. Click here to visit our landing page.