About Ivaldian Craftworks
What we do: Ivaldian Craftworks focuses on delivering high quality, custom goods to meet the needs of live--action roleplayers, cosplayers, re-enactors, and people looking for unique flare for themselves - or the perfect gift. From hobby to stage, we aim to keep these products affordable, as our true passion is bringing imagination to life!
Who we are: Sara, Drew, Mathew, and Miriam are the core ownership team… but at its core, Ivaldian Craftworks represents a collective of artisans - each unique and brilliant - and is focused on showcasing their work. We are historical re-creators, fantasy world builders, and unique crafters - comprising a team of unparalleled visual storytellers.
What we stand for: Ivaldian Craftworks is a business started by artisans, seeking to help artisans make a living wage from their work and expertise. We place focus on putting money into the artists over putting it into dividends, and aim to minimize operation costs, so that artisans make good money, and customers benefit from minimal markups.
We believe in excellence, bringing out the best in people, and Building Dreams into Success!
Our Current Team
Drew Thompson
A creative mind, bringing ideas and people together.
Drew has experience in sales, marketing and design and has been leather working for 20 years. He has an eye for design and detail, and is an artist of many mediums.
Drew is a Lead shaper in Underworld Ithilguard LARP, an experienced SCA participant, a lifelong costumer, and has a deep knowledge in the practicalities and aesthetics such communities require, and shares a world building mindset.
He has an outstanding knack for networking with contacts in all sectors of the target markets - including the competition. He adds to the network intuitively at need and is a broad thinker who utilizes multi-system dynamics to recognize how something is interconnected. His roles in the company include sales and marketing, HR, promotion, product development and design, and scouting for new talent.
Drew is a surprising font of skills and ideas, and has a solid jack of all trades placement within the company, aiding on all fronts, and specializing in cohesion. Drews greatest passions are art, people, and how to bring them together!
Larper for life.
Sara Wilkinson
Sara knows costuming, on a broad and detailed level.
Stitch Witch… Textile Valkyrie... however you want to say it, Sara has a mastery of fabric, aesthetic and style. Her mastery over materials and mediums is magic. She collaborates with our team of artisans as an integral visual storyteller to offer complete, tailored, iconic, head--to-toe garb for our customers.
Sara studied fashion and costume design for 4 ½ years receiving a bachelor’s degree in technical arts. She has been creating and selling her own designs as a single operator since 2012. Sara has been participating in and creating LARP costuming for 15 years and cosplay for 8. Her knowledge of fabrics, foams, and thermoplastics adds more capabilities and options for our customers.
If you have seen our products online, it is because of Sara. She has devoted herself to regular maintenance and expansion of Ivaldian Craftworks. As an artist joining the Ivaldian collective, Sara is likely the one pushing you, and your product, into the spotlight. Sara brings a high level of design skill, and social media experience to the company. She also brings with her the beginnings of an aesthetic empire, from models to professional photographers.
Sara is our fabric costume designer and production manager responsible for sewing manufacturing processes as well as directing staff to maximize efficiencies. Sara is the fabric buyer, defining specifications for equipment purchases in her department and managing inventory for all fabric products. With 9 years of management experience, Sara is organized, and excels at creating a clear path for herself, and groups. Possessing of vision, she excels at joining that vision with others, to great effect.
Larper for life.
Mathew Thompson
Practical engineer, keen mind, creative soul.
Mathew is an integral member of the design team, marrying creativity with practical sense and knowledge, and placing that into the heart of the products. He is a world-builder and thinks of the nature of products from their roots within the world of the characters.
Mathew defines specifications for equipment purchases and manages inventory for all leather products. He excels at engineering products that are functional and has been leather working for 20 years. As the production manager, Mathew is responsible for systematization and logistics for all manufacturing processes as well as directing staff to maximize efficiencies.
Mathew has 8 ½ years of management experience and has excellent material management skills.
Mathew has 25 years of admin experience in the LARP community, organizing and executing weekend events for groups of more than 200 people. Mathew has excellent conflict resolution skills.
Mathew unites left and right brain thought, and is an architect - both practical and nuanced.
Larper for life.
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Miriam Thompson
Analytical, smart, and observant.
With a great deal of business acumen, and experience, Miriam has been involved with multiple startups and has extensive understanding in all facets of administration and supply chain management.
If you need a problem solved, something sourced, a new material, or a new mode of thought, Mirriam is a driven problem solver. She excels in understanding the strengths of a team, and a business, and pushing people forward with positive encouragement. She has been the driving force behind three companies, and stood at the helm of the Navy League of Canada Red Deer Branch as president, supporting youth development.
Miriam has a knack for numbers, and a love for community management. She is keen, analytical, and looks at numbers as a joy, and a challenge. She reads the stories numbers tell, and has an aptitude for predicting and changing those tales, to epic effect.
Calculative spreadsheet ninja, product hunter, keen blade of the bureaucratic battlefield!
Entrepreneur for life.