Le Fait-main en France

I love France. I love handmade. Don't even get me started on online shopping.

I thought I should share the joy so here is some France+handmade+shopping all smooshed together, courtesy of Etsy!

Isn't this just effortlessly French? 

One of the many stylish and thoroughly practical bags at Feyza's shop, ikabags. 

Coucou. Je te vois! Snowy the bunny would love to celebrate Easter at your house. 

Find Snowy and all his amigurumi friends here at Christelle's shop, à voir etc.

I love deep mysterious blues with a pop of colour... and there are three other matching prints.

Find marin fishes (and its friends) here at Aliette's shop.

Supercute Little Red Riding Hood felt brooches. Bonus: they can be used to distract children in times of crisis. BYO grandmama.  

Find them here at Patricia's shop, Memi the Rainbow

Gorgeous: a hand-painted recycled-glass bottle. This is why the world should drink more cognac. 

Find it here in Luliia's shop, Magical Space

I love me some photography and Marc Loret has plenty of prints for all you Paris-lovers out there. 

Find Entrée Place des Vosges in Marc's shop, Marco La Grenouille

Nursery art made from pages of French fairytale books? Oui et il est très mignon! 

Find the print here at Anais' shop, Galerie Anais. 

Pinterest fans, remember to click through to the item before pinning, so that your pin leads back to the source. Proper pinning is sexy.

Happy shopping, mes amis.

Dreamy Dentelle at Tendances Créatives, Marseille

Two and a half weeks ago there was a half foot of snow in our yard. Today it's 21℃ (70℉).

I'm as confused as my daffodils but I like where we're heading...dare I say the word 'Spring'?

Here are a few more photos from the Tendances Créatives Craft Fair I visited last weekend.

One of the exposants was Marie-Thérèse Bonniol, who makes all manner of woven artworks, including lace.

She uses any kind of material you can imagine from your standard sewing machine thread to hemp, silk, wire, cotton, plastic coated wire (like you'd find out the back of your stereo) and even the cord used to light fireworks.

Here we have glass as well as copper wire accents:

I loved this one, made from cotton (I have a thing for green lately):

A letter on glass this time:

I didn't have the heart to tell Marie-Thérèse that this teapot probably wouldn't work:

Marie-Thérèse also experiments with salt water. She suspends lace for two days in super-saturated salty water (found in salt farm ponds) and they emerge covered in diamond-like crystals like this:

As well as all this innovative work, Marie-Thérèse also makes beautiful lace in the more traditional style:

It was amazing to watch her work the bobbins - she's so fast! She claims it's relatively straight-forward, just follow the pattern, but wow it looked complicated to me.

We spoke briefly about the future of the craft - were people still learning these skills? She said she felt that commercially there was less handmade lace being produced but as far as being pursued as a hobby the craft was still quite popular. Phew, because this stuff is gorgeous.

You can find Marie-Thérèse's website here.

It's Friday again and I'm looking forward to catching up with some bloggy friends tomorrow in Aix.

I'm also under the pump, trying to get something finished in time for the Tangerine Tango Quilt Challenge - (more info on that here at Ali's blog, a.squared.w), but it's touch and go!

Wish me luck. And have a great weekend!

Marseille Craft Fair, 2012

The weekend just past I took my life into my hands and drove to Marseille for the Tendances Créatives: Salon du Loisirs Créatifs et Déco Maison.

Marseille is gorgeous but a lot of people there drive like they're on crack.

But it was well worth the adventure as I got to see lots of cool arty and crafty stuff.

The vendors were pretty much the same as last year. I got myself some nice spices and loose teas:

I also picked up some jewellery making supplies as well as ogling the already made pieces:

Emöke, the very clever textile artist was there again this year.

Stalker photo from behind a display. 

She had lots of new work on display, including some of that of her students. It's hard not to be impressed by her bold use of colour.

I thought this installation was very clever - she's woven these pieces in 3D using recycled cardboard and plastic for support.

This year they had a large number of pieces on display from two associations: Librarts and Maestria Manuelles.

Here's the part where I have to admit to poor journalism skills - my recording of the artists' names left a lot to be desired.

If anyone recognises their work, please email me and I will add your details or delete the photo as you wish! Si vous reconnaissez votre oeuvre ici, SVP envoyez-moi un email et je mettrai à jour la photo avec votre nom ou je la supprimerai, comme vous voulez!

On to the art, which I found facinating. Even if a piece's subject matter or colours didn't appeal to me, the techniques used were really interesting. I had my nose to the display wall pretty much the whole time.

I really loved the close up on this piece:

Two layers of fabric (and other items), one layer cut away to reveal underneath:

The windows proved a popular theme. This piece was a collaborative effort:

Un Jour Orange de Les Mercredis du Librarts 

(Cobie, Suzanne, Françoise, Monique, Simone, Sylvie, Myriam, Chantal)

Not only were the main panels interesting:

This one then had windows inside the window. Look at the work involved, the attention to detail. 'Tis amazing.

Here are some more interesting techniques and delightful details. Mixed media galore.

Adore this - the embroidery echoing the lace. 

Love the use of fabric and metal thread to form the foliage:

Carnet de Voyage Imaginaire "Voyage au Coeur des Minéraux" de Chantal Foulon

The fabric has been dyed and treated to resemble rock salts:

Carnet de Voyage Imaginaire "Mon Jardin" de Cobie Bevers

Another one from Chantal Foulon at Librearts, titled Fusion, Fluide, Frisson.

Plenty of inspiration there for embroidery, patchwork and any sort of art you can imagine.

I have some more photos to show but I think I'd better save them for another day; this post is so photo-heavy my monitor's about to flip over.

Hope you're having a great week so far and that inspiration is abounding!

P.S. Today is my birthday.

38. Sniff.