Canadian art find: Laurentian Pottery at Value Village
During my last visit to "Twice Found," one of my favourite modern/antique stores for browsing in the Annex, I was chatting with the owner who was extolling the virtues of Canadian pottery, and how she thinks we're on the verge of a renewed interest in home-grown art.
Her particular interest was in Beauce, a company located in Quebec, and had many interesting pieces in her shop. One of the things I like about "Twice Found" is that they always have a wide range of pieces, I've previously found a vintage Arabia planter there, and I know someone picked up a set of Arabia mugs as a Christmas gift there too. However, as anybody trying to find decent Scandinavian pottery can attest: it's hard to find, and usually when you do find it, it's expensive and overpriced (thankfully at Twice Found they are a bit more reasonable).
That's one of the big reasons why people are now getting into Canadian pottery: the work is just as beautiful as any other in the world (usually with a prominent Canadian twist), way more plentiful in this part of the world, and much, much cheaper!
So even though we left Twice Found with our first small German pot, I had a desire to discover and learn about Canadian pottery. I got my first chance the day after, during a routine rummage through Value Village, where I found these green mugs. They stood out amongst the usual crap in there, but when I spied the "Canada" imprint on the bottom, I thought it should at least give me a chance to do a little research.
After taking the mugs home, giving them a solid wash and removing the price tag, I found above the "CANADA" stamp a logo that looked like a crude mug drawing and a number. Apparently the style of the glaze is called "volcanic lava," where something is applied to the glaze to make it bubble up and look like a coarse piece of rock. Very cool.
After a little search engineering, I found out that the mugs are made by a French company called Poterie Laurentienne or Laurentian Art Pottery (or just LP as the logo suggests). The company was based in St. Jerome, Quebec and was founded in 1939 by a Mr. Kominick. Apparently they changed their logo to a set of three trees later on.
From what I've seen online, they've made pottery of everything you can think of, from plates to cups to sculptures of snowmobiles and trains. Even if you can't speak French, take a browse through this forum, where LP fans have posted up photos (and numbers) of the company's designs.
Abraham’s Antiques expands… enjoy the room, for now!
With my Christmas shopping underway, I began scouring Queen Street West for gifts, and as I headed east, I wandered to Bathurst. There, I spotted what looked to be a brand new antique store... but inside I realized I had been there before.
Unlike many of my favourite spots at Queen and Bathurst that have long since disappeared (Zap Records, Travel Cafe, Suspect Video), Abraham is still going strong with his amazing collection of totally random techniques.
Now, he's renovated his shop, and it appears to be over three to four times the size it previously was... and I suspect that it won't stay that way for long. The main thing I like about the reno is that the space looks far more composed than it ever has before... you have always been able to tell he arranges his shop like a giant living art installation, but with the revamp, you can take in the giant canvas far more easily.
While I've only ever bought vintage art pieces from his shop, I've always been tempted to find out what he charges for his music equipment: there's walls and walls and walls of guitars, guitar bodies, guitar necks, and a massive shelf of vintage microphones available for rent.
Abraham himself is a stand-up guy himself, with extensive knowledge about his stuff, and is more than willing to work out a good, fair price for it. I know that some people find him intimidating to approach, but once you get him talking, you can tell that he takes a lot of pride in what he does.
I love Leslieville and it's quaint little mid-century modern stores like GUFF and Ethel, I wish the east side had a shop like Abraham's, the kind of place you can get lost in (and not think that everything is junk).
(Read more about Abraham in this City News piece from last year... some great photos there too)
Vintage find: Metal shower baskets
So living in our small one-bedroom apartment has presented us with a couple challenges over the years... the biggest one is being stuck with our beige walls (ugh), and the second has been storage. We have a couple of closets, but beyond that, not much else. Eventually we're going to have to invest in more shelving (so far we've tried IKEA's Billy and Expedit shelves, as well as a massive METRO shelf), but in the meantime, we're still trying out different kinds of options.
One find that we've been experimenting with is are these metal boxes, which were previously used as clothing storage for swimmers. They're very industrial/locker-y, and up close are barely rusted up, but very aged. It appears they were made by a company called "Lyon," and come with a loop of string and a brass tag to keep track of their "numbers." We grabbed eight of them from "Smash" and are still figuring out where to go.
They look alright on the METRO, but I still think we need to add some kind of back covering or something else to the unit to make it really gel in the bedroom. However, I love the way they fit in the expedit, and I'm tempted to move out some more books to get a couple more shelves in there.
The next big storage project we need to take on next is the music gear. So far we've got a couple hangers, but we really need to find some kind of big storage shelf to hold all the misc. stuff like pedals, drum machines and more. Pass them along if you have any ideas!
Finally found one: Arabia Finnish planter
I'm sure I've already bored you to death with one post about planters and how much I love the KITKA design blog, but this is another find that I have to share with you.
This is the first piece of authentic Arabia pottery that I've ever seen in person, and I after too many fruitless eBay and Craigslist hunts, I didn't hesitate to scoop it up. At the time, I was just on a random browse of Markham street in the Annex district of Toronto when I finally happened upon vintage/antique store Twice Found, when it was actually open for business (it's been closed on every trip I've been on down there).
I've read about "Twice Found" on KITKA when they raved about finding their own Arabia planters there, and I can't say enough about how I love the simple, bold character of these guys.
Arabia is a landmark brand of Finnish design, and has created a distinct line of objects for over 130 years. This design here has two parts; a bowl with a hole at the bottom, and a matching saucer that fits underneath.
Until I have the perfect spot for this particular planter, this is going with me to brighten up my cubicle space at a work, with a healthy jade plant that should survive in my dusty, dreary workspace.
If you want to see more of these Arabia wonders, check out KITKA's photos of their pots here, and Factory 20's extensive gallery here, which also has a few for sale (oh the perils of internet temptation!).
I will definitely be back to "Twice Found" to finally upgrade our dinnerware with a nice set of vintage/retro dishes. And yes, I'll probably post pictures.
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Should I keep writing about material things?
Would you like to see something written up about this lamp?
Just a quick bloggy existential crisis: I've been thinking long and hard about the kinds of things I think long and hard about, and what I write about, and if that's worth writing about.
The quick and easy answer is no, of course not.
The truth is, it's really easy to write about things I've bought or received or found. I can look at it, describe it, vaguely share what it is I like about it, provide some background on it and where it came from, and where I put it in my home. Because hey, sometimes I'm proud of my stuff: I think it's pretty cool, and I think I've worked hard to earn it, and I want to show it off. Sure, my vintage Lotte lamp is but a fraction of the value or a house or loft or car, but it's valuable to me!
But I'll also admit that writing about -- or investing any sort of value -- in material things that are trivial and frivolous is a shallow en devour. Sometimes it makes me feel like writing about goods and trinkets feels like the written equivalent of tumblr post featuring the account of an ingénue's daily thrift-store/American Apparel "outfit" and sure-I-did-it-myself haircut.
So where is the line drawn? Why stop at "objects," when maybe I should also stop writing about "places," "stores," "food," "concerts," "books" and "movies," right? At a certain point, that even gets a little shallow, right? Even writing about my own writing, musical or otherwise is even sort of selfish, right? To go even further, who cares about what I have to thing about Government/Religion/Art in general?
The downward spiral can go even further: Why write that novel? Why take that photo? Why hack that Ikea? Well, I could go on, but you get the point
Here's what I think: As long as I never lose sight of the big things are actually important (God, family, community, love, culture), there's not a good reason why I can't adorn my life or my writing with diversions that add a little embellishment. After all, these kinds of things are the spice and flavour of life -- to a point.
For now, I'll stop this train of though here, and leave you with a quote by my favourite philosopher, Soren Kirkegaard, from "Fear and Trembling."
Thanks for bearing with me on this... we'll now return to your regularly random updates about whatever.