Our Story

The story of unCommon Thread started with the launch of iCraft.ca (later renamed to iCraftGifts.com), a handmade-only marketplace back in 2007, the only entrant in the Canadian eCommerce space.

I became an owner of that marketplace and a vibrant crafting community somewhat by an accident. I am not a crafter myself, even though I graduated from an art school when I was younger.

My interests were always in technology and user experience design. At that time I was running my own design and development agency called Tristarmedia, building websites for all kinds of businesses, including eComm businesses.

When my mom moved to Canada, being a Russian immigrant with a heavy accent, she struggled to find a job. She was a long-time crafter, who learned knitting and crocheting from her mom from a very young age. When she mentioned to me that she was looking for a way to sell her crafts, I thought that was a good idea – it would give her a chance to do something she loved, while earning some income.

The strange thing happened when my mom’s crafting store was launched – we started getting requests from other crafters who also wanted to sell their crafts through my mom’s store.

Back in 2007, there wasn’t that many options for people to sell online and Etsy wasn’t popular yet, especially in Canada.

My mom didn’t mind the company and very soon we had a few thousand people selling on iCraft Marketplace.

Unfortunately, as I was launching iCraft, my mom started to have health issues, which resulted in a stroke 2 years later. She never really benefited from the site, initially built just for her.

I, however, despite personal problems, decided to keep the site running and to keep promoting the handmade movement. I liked the idea of a niche marketplace that was focused on beautiful handmade creations and shined the light on true artists and crafters, like my mom.

I think iCraft gave individual crafters a voice and helped them to connect to those who appreciated their work.

To keep the site focused on handmade, I had to learn to say “No” to many re-sellers and to those that were selling mass-produced manufactured goods.

I’ve also learned that sellers are a backbone of any online marketplace and should be treated like family. Those are the shared believes in our company.

I feel like after 12 years in business unCommon Thread is uniquely positioned to take on a new challenge – expansion into other niche markets to support and empower even more sellers of niche products around the world.

Meet the team behind the new unCommon Thread!