It was the first day of Sagittarius season. The cold breeze sang through the trees outside my window, and rain was falling; not enough to put on my raincoat, but enough to think about putting on my raincoat. As a Sag myself, it felt like the perfect excuse to don my boots, wander the city, and support some local artists. I find Sagittarius season always brings about a restless spark, an itch to explore, to chase something bright in the darker months as freckles fade and that summer blush slips lower, settling into the hollows of the cheeks where the cold paints everything rosier.

I am someone who thrives in cozy weather but even I am not immune to the way the greyness seeps deep into the marrow of your bones this time of year. In late fall, Vancouver becomes an endless rainstorm, so I am always hunting for exciting things to do that can cut through the gloom.

East Van is one of the best places for that. Walking down Commercial Drive, the neighbourhood is packed with locally made crafts and artwork. One of my favourite stops is Slice of Life Gallery just off of the Drive. If you aren’t familiar with the space, it has this uncanny ability to make a dreary day feel lighter. From prints, jewellery, ceramics, stickers—there is always something new to sift through, and they even have an analog photobooth tucked inside.

photo by alex mah. courtesy of gutpunch daydream studio.

My first visit was for The Red Show, a group gallery show that ran alongside the Eastside Culture Crawl. The two were happening in the same space; the gallery show was on the walls of the back room and booths from Crawl artists set up throughout the building. The energy was buzzing and definitely ignited that spark I was looking for. Multiple artists were featured in the Crawl and the gallery show itself, but the one I was most excited to see was our very own SADCAST host, Kristi Wong.

My jaw dropped when I saw Kristi’s piece. At first glance it looked small compared to the larger paintings and sculptures around it, but the closer I stepped, the more its detail revealed to me. Every link, every curve of the red metal revealed the kind of painstaking craftsmanship that goes into making a chainmaille purse. Taking around thirty hours of work using the coyote maille weave, Kristi freehanded the structure through a lot of experimentation.

After lingering around Slice, I found myself wanting to see what else their hands could create. The Eastside Flea Holiday Market became the natural next stop. A warm, bustling pocket of the city right across the street where Kristi, under their brand gutpunch daydream studio, had a booth shimmering with chainmaille, jewellery, and handmade treasures. I slipped in for a quick congratulations, and to let the rest of their world unfold a little more.

Ciara Gordon: First and foremost, I have to ask you what inspired the name for your brand?

Kristi Wong: Originally it was the title of a blog/newsletter I was writing, and I wanted something that helped capture and encapsulate the dichotomy I was always feeling and chasing, particularly in my writing practice. That's refined over time to be about living in the tension within dichotomy, and wanting everything in that experience. It's interesting to think about dichotomy as a binary system, then expand it instead into spectrums that consider the full scale between two (or more) points. I joke that it's the reason why I'm non-binary and queer (and largely a multi when it comes to kpop) - I want it all! It's yes and, all the time!

CG: You are an incredibly creative person, from your own work as a local writer, the host of our very own SADCAST podcast, managing editor at Chthonic Lit, and now the head of gutpunch daydream studio. What pushed you to start making more tactile art pieces?

KW: First, thank you for the compliment! It really means a lot. I've always loved handcrafts, and they've lived alongside my writing practice for as long as I can remember. I learned how to make friendship bracelets from watching Zoom on PBS, and taught myself how to knit when I was twelve. Took a wire wrapping jewellery workshop at the local rec centre around the same time. I skipped French class to hide out in the sewing room in high school, and dreamed of attending a fashion design program once I graduated. Most of those imaginings and more were derailed by Being A Teen and undiagnosed ADHD, so I detoured through working retail, the startup life, and most recently semi-corporate tech. Last year I left my job, which put me in a ridiculously privileged place to rest, explore and figure out who, how and where I want to be. With a better understanding of myself, it was time to take a leap to start building and believing in my skills, taste, and ambition. The studio is the culmination of so many passions and callings I've had over the years. Also, I'm always fascinated by how we communicate identity through the things we wear and carry with us. Being part of that for someone else? Connecting with them in such a tangible way? Delicious.

CG: Where do you see gutpunch daydream studio in the next few years? Any big dreams or goals for you and the brand?

photo of Kristi Wong, gutpunch daydream studio, surrounded by handmade crafts — photo by alex mah. courtesy of gutpunch daydream studio.

KW: Such a hard question, because I feel I can't truly envision anything beyond, like, two weeks from now. But! I'm planning to level up my jewellery skills, as there's a wealth of techniques and materials I'd love to work with, and to see what I'm capable of in that craft. I flip-flop between wanting to have a separate studio and staying in the cramped comfort of my own home, but a far-off dream would be to have something that could double as a private studio and event/workshop space. In the more immediate future, I just locked down a date for my very first solo show! It'll be at Slice of Life Art Gallery, and opening night is July 16th 2026, 3-8PM.

CG: Can you talk a bit about your creative process, where you draw inspiration from?

KW: It's a mix of sources, but generally from older physical media, or other artists. Examples of the former is a set of books that I've had since about 2005, documenting selections from the Kyoto Costume Institute of Western fashion from the 18th-20th centuries, and copies of Vogue Knitting from the 2010s. Examples of the latter are other chainmaille artists and illustrators, because it's helpful for me to see what's possible, and also the breadth and variety of style across artists. An example of how it all comes together: there are these incredible 19th century Juliet cap veils that've been on my mind for a while, and I've been thinking about how to translate that into chainmaille. I follow @frances___o on Instagram who's doing absolutely extraordinary, gorgeous things with micro maille that's giving me some ideas of where to start.

CG: What was the first piece you ever made that you were excited about?

KW: Memory is a weird thing and not always reliable, but I can pick a more recent example. The piece that's in the RED collective show at Slice is something that I'm still giddy about, because I was able to pretty closely execute on the vision I had for it. Seaming it up to be a tube was really intimidating and I thought I'd have to compromise, but it worked the way I wanted it to! Still can't get over it.

CG: What is your favourite material to work with?

photo of kristi wong surrounded by handcrafts — photo by alex mah. courtesy of gutpunch daydream studio.

KW: Can't just be one! Stainless steel, of course, as a lot of other maillers would say, for its hypoallergenic properties, durability, and wearability. I've really enjoyed working with slightly thicker gauge anodized aluminum, so I'd like to do more with that, especially for the range of colours available. Super digging lambswool right now, and using cone yarn.

CG: Any tips or words of wisdom for the rest of us?

KW: Oh, like SO many, hahaha. Be weird. Show up for your friends and community. Rest. Too much of a good thing can still be too much of something. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Take time to be introspective. If you can't find community or spaces you want, make them yourself. Can't think of more at the moment, but just know! I have a lot!

CG: Has something physical ever inspired your written work? And vice versa, does your writing inspire the tactile creations in your studio?

KW: Definitely - I'm a huge proponent of the idea that everything you do informs all parts of you. If you're out there living life, feeling things, anything can become a spark. WIth writing, I tend to do a lot of embodied description; I'm always thinking about how something feels physically in or around the body. Translating writing into physical creations is newer, and what I'll be working on for my upcoming solo show. I guess we'll see how that goes.

Find gutpunch daydream studio at The Eastside Flea Holiday Market on Nov 29-30, Dec 6-7, Dec 13-14 as well as the Slice Giftshop Minimart on Dec 20, 2025. Stay tuned for Kristi’s first solo show in July 2026.

gutpunch daydream studio explores tensions that live within the human experience. Big, scary emotions tangling with soft wonder; messy, variegated greys that contain every colour and muddy the binary. Following the joy. Following the heartbreak. Following where attention and intention leads. Slow, purposeful, and delighting in curiosity. The studio is proudly owned and operated by Kristi Wong, a queer, non-binary, neurodivergent person of Chinese-Malay descent. They design and handcraft textile, fiber, and paper goods in their small home studio in "New Westminster", on the traditional, unceded, and unsurrendered territories of Halq̓eméylem-speaking peoples on Coast Salish lands. Materials are locally sourced, thrifted, vintage, reclaimed, and/or diverted from landfill wherever possible. Packaging is often reused or repurposed. Find more @studio.gutpunchdaydream and studio.gutpunchdaydream.com

Ciara Gordon is a writer of queer horror short fiction, based in Vancouver, BC. Her work weaves the preternatural with the eerie, exploring our fascination with fear. Her work has appeared in SAD Mag, orangepeel literary magazine, and the SFU emerge 24 anthology, with her fiction shortlisted for PULP Literature’s Hummingbird Prize. She was the founder and editor of Salt & Citrus, a poetry-inspired online zine that ran from 2021-2024, and now heads Chthonic Lit, a biannual print publication dedicated to speculative fiction. Find her book reviews on substack. Ciara is one of the current web editors for SAD Mag.

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Gutpunch Daydream Studio: On Chainmaille, Sewing and Handcrafts