Signatures Craft Show

Is it really just a little over a month till Christmas? Yikes, I haven’t even figured out what to buy for people, let alone started shopping! So this morning I set out for the Signatures Craft Show at the Ottawa Convention Centre to buy lots of gifts for friends and family (and me!)

The new Ottawa Convention Centre via Train of Thought

The two things that I like best about craft shows is finding all sorts of cool and unique items and supporting Canadian artisans. Oh, there’s actually three things – sampling yummy food! Hey, who am I to say no to a guy with a bowl of chocolates and a spoon? ;-) Here are some of my favourite artisans from the show, starting with Atleier Trema. Artist Marie-Joel makes clay tiles by hand, and then she creates beautiful tile “quilts”. I’ve seen and admired her artwork before, and today I decided to buy this piece:

The soft beachy colours and the different textures of the tiles and the frame really caught my eye. And the phrase on the second tile down on the ride side says “La famille a la mer” – “The family to the sea”. Perfect! This is going to go on the gallery wall with the painting and prints that I bought a couple of weeks ago.

I love NES jewelry. I guess you could call it “industrial pretty”. Each piece is a combination of rough-looking metal with colourful enamel. When I saw this necklace on their web site a couple of days ago, I had to have it – and now I do! :-)

Lobel Creations is a husband and wife team who specialize in jewelry made with ammolite. But it was the pieces made with New Zealand paua shell that really caught my eye. In particular, this ring:

I love the iridescent blue paua with the green peridot and the unusual style. And It just happened to fit perfectly, so how could I not buy it? ;-)

I already have four pieces by TinHouse Designs, but I stopped by their booth to admire their new pieces. Tyler Kilkenny salvages and frames tin sheets and includes the story behind the tin on the back of each piece. Here are three of my framed tin sheets on the ledge in my office:

I posted about The reCYCLER after seeing his cool creations at IDS 2011. He makes tables, chairs, mirrors, sculptures, and other funky stuff with recycled bike parts. Check out this “cow skull”:

And this spider made from chain and cogs can be yours – all you need to do is submit a name for him on The reCYLER’s web site:

There were some beautiful live edge tables at the Merganzer Furniture booth. If only I had a spare couple of thousand dollars and space for one of these coffee tables…

And of course, I had to buy hubby a few pieces of fudge from Bruce County Nut & Fudge Co. He can’t give me a hard time about buying stuff for me if I buy him fudge :-) And I bought him a really cool Christmas gift from The reCYCLER – but I can’t say what it is on the off-chance hubby reads my blog (but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t!)

If you’re in the Ottawa area and have some free time this weekend, head over to the Convention Centre and check out the show. You can get some Christmas shopping done (or some “you” shopping done ;-) ) while supporting Canadian artisans.

Happy Weekend!