------ Holidays Are Here, So Are The Crafts Fairs -----

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Souk @ SAT

Smart Design Mart

Salon de Metiers D'Arts

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Support local by purchasing you xmas gifts at these fairs. Although slightly more pricier than what you will get at the monster super stores or international retail stores, but sometimes the quality is better and design is more attentive. Plus, these designers, artists, and artisans need a big break.

Nov. 30-Dec. 2 Souk @ SAT


www.souk.sat.qc.ca
This event happens every year, right before the holiday season begins to get your list of gifts started. I like to personally call this the Holt Renfrew of craft fair because the venue is as chic and cool as the participating designers and artists and their products. Several booths are repeated at the other fairs as well so if you can't catch them this time, you will catch them again. You will find handcrafted work ranging from jewelery, furniture, toys to jams. I love this venue, always beautifully admired.
A few notable items that caught my eye:

Leather goods
marcsimardartisan


sixpointun

flowergrocery


bythomas

Paper
coupledidees

lapincee

Me purchases:

coupledidees

harakiridesign

Dec 7-9
Smart Design Mart

 www.smartdesignmart.com/
This I'd call the Indie of craft fair. The venue is often in an industrial warehouse or factory, concrete floors, white rough walls and dirty windows. Unlike Puce Pop which I call the underground craft fair, literally underground usually in the church basement. Featuring artists, designers and vintage store owners, this mart is like Souk @ SAT where participants are curated and showcased for your eyes and wallet.

Dec 7 - 22
Salon Metiers D'ARts
http://www.metiers-d-art.qc.ca/smaq/
I call the bigger, the Bay of craft fairs. Featuring a lot of different local small businesses and artisans. Often catering more for the older demographics of the province. There are a lot of Québecois flare.

----- The Secret 7": The Weep -----

And I had a dream
About my old school
And she was there all pink and gold and glittering
I threw my arms around her legs
Came to weeping, Came to weeping

Then I heard your voice as clear as day,
And you told me I should concentrate,
It was all so strange,
And so surreal,
That a ghost should be so practical.

Only if for a night
And the only solution was to stand and fight,
And my body was bruised and
I was set alight,
But you came over me like some holy rite,
And although I was burning,
You're the only light
Only if for a night

If Only for One Night was the given song for the inspiration of the artwork. It's a story about Florence revisiting someone from the dead, in particular her grandma.

HMM.

Source

----- Fairs -----

I attended both Puces Pop and Souk@SAT, and both were equally exhilarating and fun. I didn't make any large purchases or a cornucopia of jewelery. One wooden pencil holder and a bracelet were enough to satisfy my design tooth (I will try to uploads pictures of them). The venues are as unique as the many handmade offered. Puces Pop has been housed in a church basement, nostalgic as my elementary school's auditorium: chipped paint and mint-green walls; fits the feel of the market and the artists. Meanwhile, over at the Souk, the SAT is now two floors and is architecturally modern and pretty. Concrete walls and floors fill the space with a copious amount of windows to share. The decor is more updated and minimalist, so are the vendors. There were a few repeated vendors at both fairs but it was understandable. The following are a few artists/designers that I remember from the business cards I picked up:

Besotted
Blisscraftandbrazen
Lafirme
Heidi Barkun
Gordie Ishizuka
June Designs
Oyeloria by Josephine

(cheated: picture from previous Puces Pop.)



chair by lafirme: loving the bookmark inspiration.

It is also a weekend for another addition of Puce Pops, which is an association with the Pop Montreal crew who organizes music festivals and promotes and celebrates undiscovered music. Which goes the same with Puce Pops, a promotion of local artisans and designers. Began in 2004, the event now goes on five times a year, things from handmade jewelery to ceramic mugs to vintage/restored items are offered. CHECK THEM OUT. Event ends December 11!

It's that time of the year again! Go and shop for your Christmas gifts and support the local artists and designers of Montreal. The location is lofty and beautiful. Souk, as the website says, means marketplace in Northern Africa and Middle East while SAT is the Society of Art and Technology:

"Founded in 1996, the Society for Arts and Technology [SAT] is a transdisciplinary centre dedicated to research, creation, production, presentation, education and conservation in the field of digital culture."

Event began with a vernissage on December 8 and lasts until December 10. Hours indicated on the main website.

Society for Arts and Technology - SAT
1195 Blvd. Saint-Laurent
(between René-Lévesque and Sainte-Catherine)
Montreal (Quebec, Canada)

Source

----- What's that Sound? -----

BIG BANG that is.

From November to January 22nd, 2012, Museum of Fine Arts of Montreal is hosting the Big Bang exhibition (for free). What comes to mind when you think of the Big Bang? Loud sound. Explosion. New discovery. A beginning. Answers from some the artists were filmed and shown at the show. One answer impressed me went something along the words of: Big Bang, as we know, is the theory of a massive imploding, literally groundbreaking discovery, marking the origin of the Universe; thus fragments of the Universe were created, bringing us into life, like the way these local artists/designers/creators have given, and continuously doing so, to the city with their artistic talent. The works were amazing and inspiring but nothing takes your breath away as much as the big room of white walls, filled with an explosion of black ink created by the never disappointing talented showcase of artists represented by En Masse.
Photography isn't allowed, I didn't know. Oops.

Source

----- Models Really Do Eat! -----

What's happening in Montreal? This week was started with the Fashion and Design Festival, aka, Festival Mode et Design on McGill College. Every year around the end of summer, the city closes off this strip of downtown whose streetscape I'm particularly fond of. (McGill College is a strange little street that stretches from the entrance of the McGill University Campus to the enigmatic Ville Marie structure that houses a nightclub, office space, and a mall that people forget it exists.) I find its wide sidewalks, trees, water fountain and occasional outdoor photography exhibitions quite adoring; plus, is it just me, but I like to purposely walk up and down this street during hot summer days because of the wind-tunnel like breeze that penetrate the area.

I'm not a big fan of this festival, but in Montreal, it's always a pleasure to see the people coming together for an event. This year seems more elaborated and bigger, which is good progression because I feel this event always starts off sad (like our Montreal Fashion Week). Basically, the festival celebrates fashion by welcoming nice outdoor runways, with copious DJs planted around the shopping district; allowing giantesque-long-legs women to come out of hiding; and helping Montrealers realize Montrealers really do dress well.

With my DLSR in hand, I tried to fulfill my fantasy of being a backstage fashion photographer/fashion blogger/fashion headhunter and took pictures of the models or merely tall, pretty people who were mistaken for models because, really, during this, you'll notice any tall person or thing.

One venti model please, with non-fat milk.

Do all models smoke? Like do all chefs smoke? Like do all artists smoke? Why so common?

Next round of models for the next showing.

I love their style. And shoes.

----- Jean Paul Gaultier -----

For fashion lovers, design addicts or simply visual chasers, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is hosting an exhibition showcasing the repertoire of the talented Monsieur Jean Paul Gaultier. There you will find his distinctive style represented through his prêt-à-porter, haute couture, and costume apparels. When walking in, you are first greeted by the magnificent staircase of the museum. As you proceed up the stairs, you are slowly immersed in darkness, illuminated only by a glowing blue light while a neon sign, "Jean Paul Gaultier", hangs above. This quite sets the tone of the show to come. The mannequins, I must mention, were very well thought out. Projectors are strategically placed directly above each mannequin where videos of recorded faces are streamed onto the mannequins, so to look as if they are alive and speaking. Freaky yet innovative. The show guides you to different sections, each with a theme: Odyssey, The Boudoir, Skin Deep, Punk Cancan, Urban Jungle, and Metropolis. Famous outfits are placed accordingly. Madonna's famous cone bra is exhibited through photographs, but don't shed a tear yet, similar samples are on display. Lots of Madonna and a few mention of Lady Gaga of course. Every outfit oozed Gaga. Did you know JPG styled the entire movie of The Fifth Element? Now it makes sense. Fashion's aroma permeates the space; the lighting, the setting, the decor, can make anyone feel like they are at an exclusive, VIP-only, kind of fashion show. Even one room was made to look like a runway, with the mannequins moving on a track. All that's missing were champagne and caviar.... and snotty, pompous people. i kid.

http://www.mmfa.qc.ca/jpg/en/exhibition.html
The show ends October 7th.