National Design and Craft Fair 2013 - purchases

Just a quick one as I'm away in Frankfurt for a few days, escaping the madness that is my road on Silvester (that's New Year's Eve to you and me, also the Feast of Pope Sylvester I, hence the name in several countries, including Germany). People just go mental here, setting off fireworks in the middle of the street and, living on a main road, it all gets a bit noisy. Not to mention I don't really enjoy the fireworks whizzing so close by the windows. I'm staying in a friend's apartment that's on a nice, quiet side-street so although I'll be able to hear fireworks and even see some in the distance, not many, if any at all, will be going off right outside. It's one of those quirks of the Germans that despite having rules for just about everything along with a tendency for most people to follow all those rules all the time, there are some things they just drop all semblance of sensible behaviour for and fireworks on Silvester is one of them.

Anyway, I still don't have a photo of the ceramic oil lamp I bought at the craft fair but since I did already take photos of two of my purchases, I thought I'd share. The first (which was actually my last purchase) is this felt landscape by Jane O'Farrell. Sorry about the flash but without it, the colours just weren't even approaching coming out right. It's just a small one and the picture doesn't show the textures at all but I really like it. The frame is, I think, about 30cm x 30cm.

One of my favourite purchases was this poster. You may be familiar with the 1939 "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster that became very popular a few years ago and, to be honest, has become totally overused since then. There's even a website where you can design your own "Keep Calm..." message. At some stage it started to get a bit annoying, although I did quite enjoy my niece's "Keep Calm and may the odds be ever in your favour" sweatshirt. So when I saw this Irish take on the concept, I have to admit, it gave me a chuckle and then I ended up going back to get one. I wish I'd had enough left to buy a framed one, as the company also sells frames that have been made from recovered floorboards so each one has a story behind it, which is really interesting. It was still in it's plastic cover here, hence the funny reflective bit at the top. This is hanging in my kitchen now (in a very cheap plastic frame that doesn't do it justice).

I don't have it with me now so can only paraphrase some of what was on the back of the packet. Along the lines of "since one euro from each purchase goes to the government in tax, we've printed 42,000,000 and if we sell them all, we'll have cleared half the national debt". I'll leave you to be the judge of whether they've actually printed 42,000,000 but mine's number 2937, look...

Edited to add: I found the business card of the company selling the frames made from reclaimed floorboards and it looks like they aren't the same company as the one that does the posters, they just had a stand together (or were selling for them perhaps). Anyway, check out Rocker Lane Workshop too for some lovely furniture or, as they say themselves, contemporary sustainable furniture designs.