Working with freshwater pearls, semi-precious gems, foiled glass, Swarovski crystals, and sterling silver among other things, this local entrepreneur has been hand-crafting and selling one-of-a-kind pieces for over 5 years.   Recently, Walker-Khoury expanded into the area of custom bridal jewellery, and has helped more than a dozen soon-to-be betrothed ladies express their personal style on their wedding day.  Currently, Frash Femme is  available online and at Victoire, one of Ottawa’s most established and popular Indie boutiques.

As it turns out, Isobel Walker-Khoury is what I once heard referred to as an  “embedded creative”,  which means that she spends her most productive hours in a job completely unrelated to her deepest passion or true talents.  It also means that she – like me – harbours some pretty serious escape fantasies.  So, given this most interesting added twist,  I set out to find out more about a fellow cubicle dweller with creative ambitions! 

In short, here is a bit of what I learned about Isobel…

Hometown?  I was born in Red Deer, Alberta and lived in Edmonton until 1989 when I moved to Ottawa.  I  have loved it ever since.

Occupation? Public Servant/Indie Jewellery Designer

Passions?  Fashion, designing jewellery, mid -century modern furniture and films.

I am at my best when…   I have had a really good sleep, or a nice hot drink and some new jewellery supplies.

Wildest dream?   To travel around the world (literally) and sell my jewellery out of a backpack.

Most treasured belongings?  A vintage Eames side chair that I restored myself. 

source

Perfect day?  A long day of making jewellery, while watching great films and munching on my mums mac & cheese.

Childhood ambition?  To be a writer.

What do you talk about most?    Fashion, love, films, and of course, my aspirations!

Can’t live without?   My cats, my husband and Value Village (not necessarily in that order!).

Favourite colours?  Aqua and hot pink.

What impresses you?    A unique fashion sense.  It really doesn’t matter what size a person is, if they have a unique style that suits them, I find it very sexy.

Where do you feel most at home and why?   I feel at home at Chapters.  You can find me there at least once a week flipping through books and magazines looking for inspiration. And, my non-fat decaf Caramel Macchiato is never far!

Where do you find inspiration?   Films, magazines, and my friends.

What recommendations can you make for eating, shopping, and having fun here in O-town?

Eating?   Totoya Sushi restaurant  on Dalhousie.  It has an amazing sushi pizza and the best all you can eat deal!  

Also, I can’t lie.  I am a sucker for the Wendy’s JR Bacon Cheeseburger. ( And – yes – I dip my fries in my frosty!).

Shopping?  Value Village, Victoire,  and the Ladyfest Ottawa craft shows.

All around fun?    Movies at the Bytowne Cinema and the Canadian Film Institute.  And,  I love having Rock Band parties!

Apparently, the construction of Greek furniture pieces was heavily influenced by the work of the Egyptians in materials and technique, although in style, ornamentation and motif, these pieces were quite distinct.  Oak, cedar, olive and boxwood as well as imported species such as maple and ebony were common building materials, with wood veneering, mortise & tenon joinery, and copper, bronze or iron metalwork frequently employed techniques.  It is also thought that leather and vegetable cords were woven to create seats, and that embroidered linens and animal skins may have been transformed into cushions.  Animal skin cushions eh?  No kidding!

Anyway, to this day these ancient classical forms provide a basis for modern western architecture and furniture design.  

For instance, the Klines was the precursor for our contemporary couch (for reclining, eating or sleeping of all things) and the simple, elegant Klismos, with its concave back, square seat and sabre legs, remains one of the world’s most popular – and most reproduced – chairs.  

Greek motifs have been the subject of numerous revivals and continue to be in fashion.  In particular, Greek keys have been popping up everywhere lately, from House Beautiful to design blogs like Apartment Therapy, Style Court and Elements of Style. 

So, what once was old is new again…

• With help from Furniture in History, by Leslie Pina.
• Image Credits:  Furniture Sketch from Furniture Styles, Greek Interior from waycoolpics.blogspot.com,  Martha Stewart Klismos Chair from Bernhardt Furniture, and Bathroom and Throw Cushion images courtesy of Domino.

Whenever possible grownups should go back to school.  Honest.

Anyway, the History of Furniture course has been quite an eye-opener, and I can safely say that my fascination with furniture has been fuelled.  I’ve had whole lot of homework though and it’s been really, really busy lately.  So - in the interest of time, I’ve combined efforts.  As I go, I hope share a few highlights from what I’ve learned….

Furniture in Ancient Egypt – 4000 B.C. – 300 B.C.

The ancient Egyptians were a culture obsessed with the afterlife.  It is because of this, and the very dry climate in the region, that we have come to understand as much about Egyptian furniture as we do.  With limitless budgets, wealthy Egyptians commissioned ornate handcrafted pieces to accompany them in death. The process of mummification successfully preserved a significant number of highly refined wooden pieces that can still be studied today, and these are an extraordinary compliment to information derived from remaining sculptures, paintings and papyrus writings.

While ordinary citizens of Egypt were surviving with a few crude essentials – from mud benches to blocks of stone or a timber chest – the wealthy were demanding a variety of furniture forms to serve several purposes.  In addition to basic stools, there were also chairs, tables, storage chests/coffers and beds being built with increasing sophistication.  

Certain characteristics, like straight backs or raised feet on cylinder pedestals, were indicative of social status – and many pieces featured animal feet pointed in the same direction. Interestingly, ancient Egypt was not resource rich with respect to suitable woods other than acacia, so many species such as ebony, cedar, ash, beech, cypress, elm, maple, pine, and oak were imported from Mediterranean, North African and West Asian countries.  Apparently, large scale importation was already underway as early as 2700 B.C.

Many of the construction techniques employed in ancient Egypt are still used in contemporary furniture making.  For instance, mortise & tenon and dovetail joints were common, as was butt, flat, tongue and groove, scarf, and mitre joinery.  Leather thongs or linen string were also tied to secure joints.  Dowels and pegs often connected distinct pieces, and nails were used to attach metal to wood.  Storage boxes were built using frame and panel method, and tables with a post and lintel design.

Aesthetically, high society Egyptian furniture was quite ornate, embellished often with religious or mythological symbols.  Pieces were inlaid with bone, ebony and other exotic woods, ivory, coloured glass and semi-precious stones.  They may have also featured low relief carvings, gesso, and gold or silver gilding.  Similar to hieroglyphics, decorative motifs included animals (scarab, serpent, vulture), and plants (lotus, palm, papyrus), as well as the ankh, the sphinx and the sun disk.  Clear or dark varnishes were used to further enhance pieces, as were paint, and marquetry.  

And this is just the beginning…

For starters, how about this exquisite stuff Radically Riley?  A high school chemistry teacher by day, she whips up beautiful handmade jewellery at night.    Kudos to her for following her passion, and for turning her creativity into commerce!  These are unbelievably stunning pieces.

Photos from Radically Riley’s Etsy Shop.

And then there is Rebecca.  She is the brains behind the operation at 3rd Life, and seems to know a thing or two about recycling.  Rescuing vintage fabrics, she refashions them into one-of-a-kind pieces that are as unique as they are appealing. 

Feast your eyes on this lovely cuff bracelet, which would no doubt look just as great with jeans and a tee as it would with a sophisticated black dress and high heels… 

Photo from 3rdlife’s Esty Shop.

Anyway, with the gift giving season fast approaching, I will definitely need to start dropping hints!

In the meantime, check out this “Ottawa” search, on the Etsy geo-locator.  Click around and explore some of the Ottawa-based shops like CrazyBliss, Artwork by H.A.Sullivan, and ScatterJoy.

If you haven’t already heard of Etsy, you must have been living in a parallel universe.  Launched in 2005 by young entrepreneurs Rob Kalin, Chris Macguire, Haim Schoppick, Etsy is an online marketplace for handmade goods.  It connects artists, designers and crafters directly to a global market of consumers, and enables them to make a living making things. 

To be clear, these boys had a vision:  “..to build a new economy and present a better choice: Buy.  Sell and Live Handmade.”

If you have any doubt, here are their stats:

Total Members: over 1 million
Total Sellers: 185,000
Items Currently Listed: over 1.9 million
Total $ sold (Gross Merchandise Sales)
2005 = $166,000
2006 = $3.8 million
2007 = $26 million
2008 (to date) = $35 million

Click here for a look at the media coverage about Etsy, or watch this great video that sums it all up brilliantly!

Have you ever bought or sold on Etsy? 

As it was, with the morning rain falling steadily, and with another much younger girl about town along, the pace was less hurried and the conversation somehow more revealing.  We visited the homes of only four artists on this year’s CATwalk, and had the distinct pleasure of learning about their work directly from them.  

Remi Theriault is a photographer who has been sustaining a living from his artistic and commercial work since his recent graduation from school.  I was really taken with Remi’s portraits, which were successful at conveying the character and personality of his subjects, without being predictable in their composition. His amazing talent and expertise is equally balanced by his obvious passion and genuinely friendly disposition.  Remi was very welcoming and hospitable, particularly toward my much younger girl, who was most appreciative of his funny videos and potato piggy banks.  Check out Remi’s blog here, and follow along with his creative (ad)ventures.

We missed Remi’s roommate Mike Ross, but I can totally understand how these two photo guys might get along so well.  While I am hardly an expert connoisseur of photography, I was impressed by his strong, structural images as well as his series of personal Polaroids taken on a Cuban vacation.  These blurry, turquoise toned Polaroids had an evocative, dreamlike quality that made me want to jump right into them and spend a long time on the other side.  Mike’s work definitely worked for me.

Anna Kempffer-Hossack is a mosaic artist who reuses recycled and broken ceramics to make intricate and colourful pieces to hang and to use.  She works in her basement studio, which she described as tiny, messy and utterly convenient for leaving her work behind.  Apologetic about the fact she wouldn’t take us down the ships ladder to see it, Anna was clearly delighted that she had created the studio in her house and the space in her life to pursue her art. 

Just down the street, Ellen Sloan’s beautiful home provided a perfect backdrop for her organically appealing sea coloured pottery.  Her hand formed bowls dip glazed in watery blues and greens were of a perfect weight for holding, and were almost difficult for me to put down.  When Ellen suggested that a row of three on a long dining table would make a stunning centrepiece, her genius was confirmed.  A recently retired interior designer from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ellen was excited to be expressing herself through pottery.  While shopping in foreign capitals and decorating Canada’s embassies abroad had certainly been fun, Ellen was really pumped to finally be executing her own aesthetic.  

Several hundred visitors participated in last year’s CATwalk, and by all accounts yesterday, this year’s event was shaping up well.  Even early on, the artists were jazzed by the turnout and looking forward to next year already. 

Without a doubt, the same is true for me and my little girl about town.  We will definitely need to finish our tour. 

 Photos by Kite.