Spirit of Christmas

It's inevitably cold that night, but the snow and the intermittent wind blow don't stop us from checking out the most famous Christmas light.. 

Joyeux Noel! 

Season Greetings

May the miracle of Christmas brings joy to you and your family
Happy Holiday!

Manish Aurora at the Window of Nespresso Champs Elysées

This store at Champs Elysées really amazed me with their window presentation.  The immense technicolors would made you turn your head and if your head was thinking about something else you would most likely to guess that it is a fashion store.    

But far from what it seems to be, it's actually the same company who hire George Clooney and John Malkovich to advertise their brand on TV, Nespresso.  

Amongst the broderies, sequins, and seed beads that are everything but gloomy, Manish Arora, an indian fashion designer, had transformed this window into a simple coffee store into a psychedelic land.  She made these capsules into a character and all of them with their own attitude. 

Here the first on my list, an exotic bird with a neon green eye lids and matching brodery wings  

Not sure how many watches have lost their wheel in the making of this voluptuous hair. 

But with a hoop earrings she does looks smokin' 

She makes it so loud with big lips and carnival hats 

Look at the coffee cups hanging between the flowers 

A singing a Gaulois with crystal nipples. 

Manish's Fish: a mermaid with sequined fin

The Royal of the East 

And the West with the big crown and a sash. 

And finally a rock and roll with the pink mullet 

And those who makes everything in Paris is so romantic, its street lamps 

Under a bright sky and La Tour Eiffel 

Bravo Manish, I love your work. 

The Ethnic Rings of my Friend Sonia

We know each other from the language school here in Paris, and I came to talk to her simply because she often sit next to me.  Not until later I found out that she is interested in so many things, has the same color preference as mine, and loves making jewelries. 

A couple of weeks ago while having lunch at her apartment she showed me the rings she made, and I thought that it would be a good idea to dress them up and have them shoot in my 'studio photo'. The word was in the quote and quote because it is far from being a professional studio, but so far it works for me.

Here they go, I hope you enjoy looking at them as I enjoy taking them.... 

They are made out of a natural rocks and wooden beads.  The rings come in different sizes. They are so much fun you can wear them in stacks too.  If you are interested to even have one of them you can contact her directly.

Le Carrousel des Métiers d'Art et de Création

It was their sixth selling exhibition. Started from the first december and ended last sunday, The ‘Le Carrousel des métiers d’art et de création’, according to google translate it also means 'Le Carrousel of Crafts and creation', provide me an immense information about French’s local artist.

                              

                              

The first photo is one of the sides at the Louvre from the Rue de Rivoli. And the other one is at the entrance of the exhibition. It is situated inside the Louvre, but not sure where exactly. Since it’s the biggest museum in the world, I do have a strong reason not to know all of them.

This is the model of part of Paris from the Arc de Triomphe to Pyramide. See the glass pyramide situated just in the middle of the two building? now the exhibition can be in either one of them.

I am already in the Carrousel du Louvre, and look what I found! This is a wall of a tunnel that had been built from fourteenth century by the Charles 5th and finished at the seventeenth century by Louis 13th. This wall serve a purpose as a tunnel for the king to escape from Paris.

Another look of the wall. If you don't know the age, there is actually nothing particularly special about this wall.

The feminine touch of Leticia Ponti is adorable. From the velvet pink and white frame decor to the immense collection of the single pendant necklace says everything about her femininity.

Just like their name, Molusk, that somehow explains their quality, these two bracelets are made out of plastic and rubber. Super light, just like what the owner said. Unfortunately with the lack of durability, I am not sure if I can consider this as a piece of 'jewelry'. They do however have plenty of collection displayed on their website. They also have twitter and online ordering system.

Petits Plis has an original idea that combine a jewelry with origami. Little jewelries with variety colors of varnished paper-folded into a shape of birds, fish, and (my favorite) elephant. She also take an special order and the pieces that she made are limited. Some of them are even made out of the recycled paper of the tea or metro ticket.

Finally, at the jewelry section, my favorite of all. Piece unique collection of Desiree Schmidt a round pendant with an enameled red heart hanging inside. She also have a very unique display with little white sand as if it's a mini zen garden with a black bench where she display all of the merchandises. If you can see the photo above there are little white points as if the photo is distracted, they are actually the sands.

Look at these cute shoes, aren't they adorable. Handmade by Tamano, this artist took a custom-made shoes, design shoes for the new born (usually for a gift), and they offer a lot of craft workshop for the children.

                                                 

From the home decor chamber, I have two stores that capture my attention. Avenel is the first that attire my attention. Not only their design are so modern, but it also very innovative but stay simple at the same time. Here is a three layer chandelier. The crystals are in the shape of of some sort of crumpled spaghetti made out of glass interlinking with those of gold. Unfortunately, I really have to admit, though, that the picture doesn't represent how it is in the real life at all.

The second is a collection of porcelain lamps from a ceramist Joelle Fèvre. I admire the transparent effect naturally given by the material. How much the artist decided to shape their lamp gives a touch of sensitivity. The ginkgo leaves, bamboo, abalone somehow give an illusion as if it the nature is as close as at home.

                                                

A presentation from Andrieux La Maison du Vitrail. Not sure if it has anything to do with the nature of their business, but I appreciate their gesture of recycling and mostly France is one of the biggest consumer of wine (bottle). and honestly I find it jolie.

Still from the eco page, here is a migration of a kitchen utensils to home decor. These two reading lamps are two of the collection of the 60 artist who will have their exhibition at La metamorphose des materiaux. The exhibition is from the 17th December till the 2nd January at 48 Rue Vieille du Temple, 4eme arrondissement Paris.

There you go the booths of my preference from the exhibition. They seems so much professional and been in the business for a long time, unfortunately, I notice that there are a couple of booth unattended. So sad because they have no idea what are they missing. I am guessing that perhaps the saleslady is hungry thus took a lunch break. I wonder if it is the artist him/herself who take this unwise decision or the storeowner really made a bad decision on hiring an unwise sales attendant.

Another attitude that I found annoying enough is that they bring their lunch to the stand. There are at least a dozen of vendor sitting in the stool far enough not to be ‘seen’ but close enough so that she can take a look if anyone is interested. Guess what, the people are not blind and they can see the mouth opened as big as possible to get the biggest bite of the sandwich.

Apart from munching, there are also those who keep talking on the phone or comparing their notes with the other exhibitor. That in my opinion is as equal as ignorant.

I do, however, notice a couple that had done a really good job in terms of selling. At the booth of Catherine Bonis for example. I know that being pretty shouldn’t have anything to do with it, but just to make sure everything is in place, this store had decided to put two beautiful and well-groomed sales assistant. Talking about quality, the minute took a look at their product, one of them greet me. And when I asked the lady if I can take the photo of her product she refused with a reason that it was the choice of the artist. But when I tried to convinced her with some of my other arguments, instead of saying no for the second time, she offered me the boutique’s name card and explained to me where their store was and how the people started to get interested in their jewelry. With all those I even feel like I wanna go to Brittany and visit her workshop.

Finally, with all the beautiful work, the encounter with the people, and the flood of ideas that I had experienced for four hours, I am very very satisfied and decided to come back in 2012. Or maybe even participate, who knows. Cheers!