HEADS UP: The Found & The Freed Set To Launch New Gastown Pop-Up This Friday

We just got word from the found/vintage/antique-curating girls at The Found and The Freed that they will be opening a pop-up this Friday night in the former Chrome Yellow digs at 207 Abbott St. in Gastown. Opening night starts at 7pm, but regular hours will be Monday to Friday 11am to 7pm and from 11am to 5pm on the weekends. The pop-up wraps on May 10th. The shots below (from a previous F&F pop-up) will give you some ballpark idea as the aesthetic in the offing…

Cool Thing We Want #379: Swiss-Based Designer Tomas Kral’s “Homework” Table

(Hat tip: Alexa Harder) A sheet of aluminum folded and curved around ash wood gives the “Homework” table by Swiss-based Slovakian designer Tomas Kral a unique and aesthetically pleasing functionality.

EVERY COOL THING WE WANT

Cool Thing We Want #367: This Ukrainian Garlic Pendant Lamp By Anton Naselevets

(via) Designer Anton Naselevets says his garlic lamp was inspired by the cooking and traditional family values of his native Ukraine. It’s only a concept (ie. not for sale), but it’s not hard imagining these beauties eventually making it to market.

EVERY COOL THING WE WANT

SEEN IN VANCOUVER #419: New Gallery “Department Of WOW” Opens On Union St.

A new micro gallery called Department of WOW has opened up shop at 110-243 Union Street in the old Good Luck Pop-Up Gallery spot. The project is from local designers Laura Wallace (illustration, print-making), Taryn O’Gorman (jewellery), and Zoe Welch (clothing). What’s with the name? It’s an acronym. Check the first letter of each of their surnames and you get WOW. The shop was already looking pretty sharp over the weekend when the ladies were busily putting it together. It’s now open, so go down and check it out for yourself after (or before) a tasty bowl of ramen right next door at Harvest Community Foods. Good noodles + art = buddies.

EVERYTHING SEEN IN VANCOUVER

HANDCRAFT: National Gallery Showcasing Canadian Made Arts & Crafts At Symposium

by John Burrows | In the current economy, there’s no shortage south of the border for products that are “American Made”. There have been concentrated media efforts to support local manufacturing, initiatives from large brands like Martha Stewart, Jeep and Levis, lots of Kickstarter funding for the American Craftsmanship Project, and a host of websites devoted to makers (The Makers Project, Sight Unseen, Grain and Gram). Many in the USA have been seeking to discover, expose and enrich this renaissance, and they’ve been succeeding.

But where’s the call for things that are “Canadian Made”? Is is that our economy wasn’t hit hard enough to stir patriotic expenditure? The answer is not that we have a shortage of homespun innovation – as the Canadian Made clip so animatedly points out above. Maker’s fairs and farmer’s markets around the city keep the local right in front of our faces. Somehow missing is a recognition of current craft at the national level, and so we go to the Canadian Crafts Federation, an organization with a long history. The first line on their website’s homepage recognizes and reinforces my point - “How often do four of Canada’s best get the chance to discuss their work and share thoughts on the past, present and future of Contemporary Craft?” The answer, the site goes on to reveal, is once a year, starting this week in Ottawa.

The first annual Hindsight/Foresight symposium takes place at the National Gallery of Canada tomorrow night and those in attendance have been told to expect “beautiful craftsmanship, inspiring artwork, heated debate and of course, audience participation”. The only trouble is that Ottawa is awfully far away. If this craftsmanship renaissance is to be truly national, perhaps a similar symposium should be launched closer to home. How about next year? Short of that, Hindsight/Foresight could (should) go one the road.

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John is a web entrepreneur and writer who curates the online shop at Wood Design. He is passionate about materials and is always seeking out the craftsmanship that surrounds us, appreciating it as the antidote to a generation that has lost touch with its industrial roots and the motivation to perform a task well for its own sake.

HANDCRAFT: On Storied Bar Carts, Wooden Adventures, And Gifts From Stanley Park

by John Burrows | One of my favourite items from IDSwest was Henry Sun’s Amber project. It charted the transformation of a sick 200 year old Douglas Fir tree from Stanley Park into a table and chair, all beautifully laid out in a book by Max Olson. It’s reassuring to see that wood is increasingly a design material that is being used to reconnect people to their environments, even if they are urban environments…

Witness above the outstanding 12 x 12 exhibition during NY Design Week back in May: all of the pieces in the show were made from wood salvaged from demolished or dismantled buildings in the Big Apple, the challenge being to allow for the past use of the materials to inform the object or theme. Wood from a distillery could be used to make a bar cart, et cetera…

And then last month there was the Adventures of 12 Hardwood Chairs project at London Design Week. It tasked 12 students from the Royal College of Art with designing chairs made from American hardwoods. Sustainability experts aided in the preparation of life cycle reports for each chair, thereby giving the students the full “cradle-to-grave” environmental impacts of their design and material choices.

All 3 projects bring to the fore the stories of both the materials and the people working with them. In Vancouver, a wander along the beach tells us that each log has it’s own story and reminds us that a spectrum of designers from student Henry Sun to the internationally recognized Brent Comber are bringing them to life.

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John is a web entrepreneur and writer who curates the online shop at Wood Design. He is passionate about materials and is always seeking out the craftsmanship that surrounds us, appreciating it as the antidote to a generation that has lost touch with its industrial roots and the motivation to perform a task well for its own sake.

IDSwest Gets Ready To Launch Three Day Celebration Of Art, Design & Architecture

The 8th annual Interior Design Show West - or IDSwest (Western Canada’s annual premiere residential design exhibition) is on the immediate horizon, set to attract over 28,000 design geeks, decorators, architects, and consumers over three days (September 27th to 30th) next week at the Vancouver Convention Centre West. This year the celebrated, much anticipated show will feature 350 exhibitors together with their products and services. The x-factor that makes it so attractive? Everything is vetted by the organizers for quality. No brooms. No mops. There’s always an incredible range of things to check out, but we’ve zoomed in on the five that we’re especially looking forward to… Read more

GOODS: “Union Wood & Supply Co.” Adds Several New Custom-Built Pieces For Home

Union Wood & Supply Company is located at 503 Railway St. in Vancouver, BC | 604-675-9033 | www.unionwoodco.com

The GOODS from Union Wood & Supply Co.

Vancouver, BC | We’ve been hard at work making some new, custom-built furniture pieces in the shop. Here are three items that we completed this last week and have just gone on sale. We’re especially proud of them, so come on down to the shop and check ‘em out…

1. Custom Built TV Display Unit. White lacquer featuring locally reclaimed douglas fir doors, hand cut leather pulls and distressed steel legs.

2. Mini Bar Cabinet. white lacquer and salvaged kentucy barnwood doors, hand formed steel pulls and legs.

3. American Elm custom desk set on brushed steel legs. Chord cutout in the back.

Learn more about Union Wood & Supply Co. after the jump… Read more

GOODS: Glasfurd & Walker x Meat & Bread In The Handmade Exhibition By Wallpaper*

Glasfurd & Walker is located at 209 – 309 West Cordova St. in Vancouver, BC | 604-662-4445 | www.glasfurdandwalker.com

The GOODS from Glasfurd & Walker

Vancouver, BC | If there was ever an example of the potential of great food and great design coming together, you need look not further than Gastown’s Meat & Bread. Since opening in late 2010, the shop has not only received considerable accolades and recognition for the food they were creating but also for the design. The unique concept has caught the attention of magazines such as Monocle and Wallpaper* magazines and other design publications around the world. And, in April this year, Wallpaper* invited Meat & Bread to exhibit in their prestigious Handmade Exhibition.

The exhibition features specially commissioned objects, installations, furniture, fashion, food and more by some of the world’s most respected designers, artists, craftsmen, brands and manufacturers and is held during Milan Design week. For their 2012 exhibition, Wallpaper* commissioned Meat & Bread to create a one-off, custom BBQ kit.

Glasfurd & Walker worked with Meat & Bread owners Cord Jarvie and Frankie Harrington to design a kit containing a super-sized jar of their signature mustard and 3 new BBQ condiments created by Chef Joe Sartor – a meat rub, onion jam and red pepper relish.

The design and material elements of the sandwich shop (designed by Craig Stanghetta) were distilled and compressed into a carefully crafted glass and herringbone box built by Macmillwork. The box was made from more than 700 individual pieces of wood and is inlaid with Meat & Bread’s animal iconography, water cut out of hot rolled steel as a hidden surprise when the jars were removed. Custom packaging was also created for the BBQ products specifically for the exhibition. Read more

Cool Thing We Want #347: Reclaimed Wood “Mixtape” Table By Designer Jeff Skierka

Mixtape Coffee Table made by hand by Jeff Skierka out of reclaimed maple and walnut wood with a plexiglass top. This shot is of the protoype, which apparently took five years to make. No word on cost, but damn is it ever awesome (via)!

EVERY COOL THING WE WANT

VANCOUVERITES: Talking Shop & Inspiration With “Camp + Quarry” Designer Sarah Rankin

Sarah Rankin is a West Coaster, a Jewelry and Landscape Designer, a dog owner, tree hugger, and a mess maker. Her jewelry line, Camp + Quarry,  is nature-inspired and made right here in Vancouver.  From hand-dyed organic textiles to raw crystal jewelry, each piece is designed to emphasize the unique qualities of the natural materials used. Travel, outdoor adventures, and daydreaming are essential components of the C + Q design process and finished scarves and jewelry will happily go anywhere year-round. Check out her Etsy shop here. Sarah is going to take part in Got Craft on May 6th, and since we couldn’t wait that long, we caught up with her to ask her a few pre-Got Craft questions about what she’s been up to…

Three things about Dunbar that make you want to live there: I love the proximity to Kits and the University Endowment Lands — the dog walking potential is endless. Mountain views and lots of parks and beautiful gardens. Room to grow: I finally have space for a studio and a garden.

What inspires you? I’m a landscape designer by day and find a lot of inspiration in the landscape work I do. Shapes, compositions, and colours in the landscape inspire me, as does being introduced to new techniques and materials for making things. Often it’s the raw form of a given stone that inspires me to seek it out for use in jewelry. The wooden jewelry that I make uses materials and technology that I originally learned how to use to make models in landscape architecture school.

Tell us about your favourite space to work: (IMAGE: sarah-studio.jpg) Now that I have a studio set up at home, that’s where I love to work. It has great natural light and a good set up with a workbench, storage, and peg board that lets me have much better access to materials that I use. I’d love to say it’s always clean or at the very least organized, but that is not the case.

Where do you enjoy shopping in Vancouver? Tell us about some of your favourite local haunts: I love spending a weekend day in Gastown. For food, I always find myself at Six Acres. I’m loving Oak + Fort these days for clothing. They use natural fibres and make affordable basics that are unique and super wearable. And for jewelry I am absolutely in love with the Arielle de Pinto pieces at One of a Few. Someday, I hope to have one of her bracelets or necklaces to call my own.

Is there a local designer that you admire? There are so many talented designers in Vancouver that it’s hard to name just one. I do have a small collection of Heyday Design porcelain pieces. I love the clean, minimalist look of the pieces and how Heyday’s aesthetic is translated from housewares right down to tiny jewelry pieces. They make really great gifts, too.

What is your favourite Camp + Quarry creation right now? Right now I’m making some new pieces that mix raw stones and brass. I have a particular necklace made with brass tubing and rutilated quartz points that I love making. Adding the brass really reinvented this piece and the rutilated quartz points are my favourite stone to work with, though they’re a bit rare and I usually have a very limited supply of them. Read more

GOODS: Railway St.’s “Union Wood & Supply Co.” Tables More Woods & Goods For Home

Union Wood & Supply Company is located at 503 Railway St. in Vancouver, BC | 604-675-9033 | www.unionwoodco.com

The GOODS from Union Wood & Supply Co.

Vancouver, BC | A new week means a new stock of woods and goods. Here’s a sample of what Union Wood & Supply Co. was either making or unloading this week.

1. Antique Ohio School Clock w/ protective cage.
2. Custom Vintage Industrial, Reclaimed Wood Bar Stools
3. XL Crouse-Hinds Vintage Marine Spotlight, can be mounted/hung anywhere.
4. Adjustable height cast iron Floor Inspection Lamp.

Learn more about the shop after the jump… Read more

VANCOUVERITES: Eight Minutes With Local Ceramicist Zoe Garred Of “Fleet Objects”

by Jenny Bachynski | Zoe Garred is the owner and designer behind Fleet Objects, a local design studio that heavily focuses on ceramic goods. With an elegant, fresh, and minimal look, it is hard not to appreciate Fleet’s ability to bring style to any space. Zoe has found a beautiful balance of artistry and functionality in her work. Most pieces seem to reflect the fluid, clean environment that they are surrounded by. I was very excited to meet up with her in person and discuss her best and worst moments (a fire in her last studio being one of them) and how they have allowed Fleet to evolve into the wonderful business it is today.

Tell us about yourself and how Fleet Objects came to be? I think that everyone owns objects that they connect with on a deeper level. They can have a special history, change day to day living, or just be incredibly beautiful. I aspire to make objects that could become something special to people; that they will want to cherish. I don’t know if I’ve reached that level yet, but Fleet Objects is definitely a product of making the things that I’ve wanted in my life.

How has Vancouver inspired you as an artist? I’m deeply inspired by the ocean. Almost everything I make has something to do with it.

Do you remember the moment when you realized that you wanted ceramics to become a job or a business? I started making ceramics when I was a little kid but left it behind to pursue painting. I did a ceramic piece for my industrial design grad project and fell in love with the medium again. It’s such an interesting mix of art and science. I get a rush every time I open the kiln to see what my lump of clay has become. I think I always knew that I wanted to start my own business but it wasn’t until a fire destroyed my studio a few years ago that I had to make a decision about how serious I was about making that leap or letting my ceramics become a hobby.

Working with ceramics seems like such a technically challenging skill. How do you deal with off days or creative blocks? It’s definitely very technical. Most ceramicists I meet describe it as a love hate relationship. There are incredible highs when you pull an amazing piece out of the kiln but there are also a million things that can go wrong that you could never predict. It takes a lot of focus to try and replicate the same result over and over again. That being said I think that repetition and frustration helps me stay creative. I think most creative people need something to fight against.

If someone in Vancouver wanted to learn how to work with ceramics, how would they go about doing that? There are lots of ceramic courses at local art centers to help you get started. You can also learn on your own from books and online tutorials too. You just really need to have a space that you can dedicate to getting messy and find access to a kiln.

A lot of your work has multiple purposes. Is that something that was important to you in the designing process, or was it something that happened naturally? It’s definitely something I’m interested in. I live in a small space and rarely let anything stay in my house that I’m not in love with or is essential. So if I can make objects that can be used for multiple purposes or that are more efficient I think all the better.

Who is another artist that you look to for inspiration? I love the work of Eva Zeisel. I am very inspired by the fluid, organic forms she creates. I’m also really inspired by the Bouroullec brothers who seem to create effortless objects that you can’t imagine not having existed. I’m also really inspired by the way Jamie Haydon shows off materials in a dreamlike way.

What has been your proudest career moment so far? Pretty much any time I hear back about my work I think is incredible. It’s hard for me to imagine that all of those little pieces of ceramics that have left my studio are living their own lives now. I still can hardly believe it when people tell me that they know my work.

What are some exciting things happening in 2012 for Fleet? I just launched some new lighting and jewelry that I’m really excited about. They’re all inspired by fishing floats. If you’ve ever been in a fishing store I dare you not to want to fall in love with the awesome bright painted balsa wood or the giant crab fishing floats and nets.

If you were not running Fleet, what would you be doing? Still obsessing about making something. I can’t shake it. Maybe textiles?

Thanks Zoe! Find out more about Fleet Objects at www.fleetobjects.com.

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Jenny Bachynski was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. In her teenage years she packed up her bags and headed to Vancouver to pursue further education in fashion design. In 2009 she started her own small business Jenny Andrews Recycled Leather Goods, as well as her blog Jenny Loves. After starting her blog, Jenny discovered that one of her greatest joys was stumbling upon beautiful and interesting things, and sharing them with anyone who would listen.

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