Got milk? For Francesca: Excalibur the Moose in residence at the Direct Energy Centre, Exhibition Place. (I seem to recall Francesca having a thing for the moose.)

My friend’s mum has a booth at the One of a Kind Show, and she got me in on a staff pass. Check out Valerie Page’s handiwork on her website, www.pagequilts.com.

I went to the show ostensibly for the freebies and samples, but it turned out to be an exercise in restraint! It’s an emporium of handmade products — everything from leather goods to desserts to jewellery to ceramics — and I could’ve easily dropped a grand within the first hour if that kind of cash happened to be burning a hole in my pocket. I sampled, oohed and aahed, tried things on, held things up to the light, touched and tasted my way through six hours of sensory overload. I bought a few things for friends, a few things to bring to work to share with my coworkers, and a few things for myself.

Ordinarily I dislike shopping in a most unfeminine way, but I make exceptions for objet d’art and handmade goods. The best part of going to these trade shows is that you can actually speak to the artist and many of them bend over backwards to make sure you’re a happy customer. They tell you how the objects are made, where they buy their materials, and give you a better sense of the creative process.

The one rather indulgent item I purchased was a Diane Balit watch with a square hand painted face of a stylised world map like the one on this page (second from left), except with a different band and square instead of rectangular. I have this personal guideline that if it’s something I would wear every single day, eg. coat, shoes, watch, etc., it would justify paying more than my usual threshold; my idea of “more” being over $100, which I very rarely exceed.

Since it’s essentially a retail art show I wasn’t allowed to take any photographs, so I just took a few around the Direct Energy Centre’s corridors. I’ll post more links to the artists’ websites after I sort through my collection of business cards.

It’s a trade show weekend: tomorrow I’ve got free tickets to Life Fest at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.