Art & Craft shopping in Europe
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Fabriano
Fabriano makes stationery sexy, with deeply desirable diaries, funky notebooks and products embossed with street maps of Rome. Enlightened extras include quirky paper jewellery by local designers and stylish paper-thin wallets.
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Kvams Flisespikkeri
Paintings, block prints and other artworks by Ketil Kvam adorn this lovely Bryggen gallery, with a range of cheaper prints available up to original artworks. Most have a Bergen theme.
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Bassetti Tessuti
Hidden away in a run-of-the-mill palazzo (palace), Bassetti Tessuti is a sprawling, technicolour temple to textiles. From fine Italian wools and silks, to cheetah-print faux fur, a jaw-dropping 200,000 fabrics line its endless sea of soaring, cracked rooms. Brothers Emidio and Lorenzo Bassetti set up shop in 1954, serving everyone from couture royalty to needle-savvy homemakers.
It's a fabulously atmospheric place, caught in a retro time warp of linoleum floors and wizened old men pushing cart after cart of rare and luscious threads.
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Andreini
A century ago the statues and ceramics crafted here adorned the gardens of Tuscan nobility. Even today you'd need a lot of money to afford most of the work on show in this workshop-gallery. It is tempting to imagine that in this kind of place lies the heritage of the great Renaissance sculptors' workshops. For those eager to add a special touch to their houses, this is where to come for a fine copy of a David or Venus.
If nothing else, it is worth dropping by for a browse in this wonderful relic of another epoch.
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Medea
If you're after something ceramic but are fed up with the ubiquitous range of gaudy yellow fruit bowls, then look no further. At this gallery-cum-laboratory-cum-shop, you'll find an interesting selection of original handmade vases, lamps, animals, figurines, plates and tiles. Particularly outstanding are the huge red and black vases by ceramic artist Ugo Marano. And if you're wondering, yes, they cost a bomb - for a life-sized vase expect to fork out in the region of around €12000.
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İznik Foundation
Recently, İznik tile-making has been undergoing a revival, and that the town is proud of this fact is evident from the posters of tiles on display in many restaurants and hotels. Original İznik tiles are antiquities and cannot be exported from Turkey, but new tiles make great, if not particularly cheap, souvenirs. Good places to start looking are the small workshops along Salim Demircan Sokak, and the workshop belonging to the İznik Foundation.
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Atelier Ivan Hov
Origami sailing boats are the forte of Hungarian-born artist Ivan Hov who fled Budapest for Paris in 1956 and studied art in the capital before moving to St-Tropez in 1968. Today, it is hundreds of tableaux - monumental to minuscule in size and featuring at least one (but invariably thousands) of his signature paper boats - that reflect his life. View them (or buy them - his works range from a pint-sized pice to a wall-sized work) at his twinset of workshops.
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Kilkenny Design Centre
Top-end Irish crafts and artwork for sale include items by artisans county-wide. Look for John Hanly wool blankets, Cushendale woollen goods, Foxford scarves and Bunbury cutting boards.
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Qubus
This small design studio looks more impressive online than in the flesh, but Qubus – run by leading Czech designers Maxim Velčoský and Jakon Berdych – is worth a visit if you’re interested in cutting-edge household accessories ranging from ‘liquid lights’ (lamps in the form of tear drops) to crystal wine glasses in the shape of disposable plastic cups. Whatever floats your avant-garde boat…
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Kjellaren Galleri
Old Stavanger is home to dozens of artistic workshops, artists’ studios and quiet little shops. If it’s still around, get hold of the leaflet The Old Town Stavanger – Art & Crafts, which has advertisements and a map for some of these shops, although it’s a little outdated. Of those that remain, Kjellaren Galleri sells oils, watercolours and photos of old Stavanger.
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Istanbul Handicrafts Market
Set in the small rooms surrounding the leafy courtyard of the 18th-century Cedid Mehmed Efendi Medresesi, this handicrafts centre next door to the Yeşil Ev hotel is unusual in that local artisans sometimes work here and don’t mind if visitors watch. Their creations are available for purchase; it’s a great place to source beautiful calligraphy, glassware, hand embroidery, miniature paintings, ceramics and fabric dolls.
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Manufaktura
There are several Manufaktura outlets across town, but this small branch right near Charles Bridge seems to keep its trim inventory especially enticing. You'll find great Czech wooden toys, beautiful-looking (if extremely chewy) honey gingerbread made from elaborate medieval moulds, and seasonal gifts like charming hand-painted Easter eggs. The branch up the hill at Nerudova 31 specialises in cosmetics.
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Symeou Efthymios
Larnaka is good for one thing in particular: pottery. Good quality ceramics are produced in small workshops, most of which are based around Ak Deniz in the old Turkish quarter. Take your time and explore the various styles and prices before you choose. The potters will always give a small gift when you buy a few things. Check out Symeou Efthymios with similar crafts, but with the potter's own touch.
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Galerie Ferrero
Small-time artists and crafts people labour in a fascinating line-up of ateliers(workshops) in Vieux Nice on rue Droite. Substantially bigger prices are commanded by the pieces sold in the contemporary galleries and design shops on rue Dalpozzo. Top cat is Galerie Ferrero, Nice's most dazzling, dating to 1954 and specialising in works by Arman, César and other Nice New Realists.
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Marco Polo
One of the handful of larger reliable glass merchants in Murano, Marco Polo offers you the opportunity to see the masters at work, a large display of traditional glassware, the possibility of having objects tailor-made and sent to your country and, upstairs, a quasimuseum of contemporary art in glass by local master Andres Pagnes and international names such as Tony Cragg and Costas Varotsos.
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Stavrou Stavrakis
Larnaka is good for one thing in particular: pottery. Good quality ceramics are produced in small workshops, most of which are based around Ak Deniz in the old Turkish quarter. Take your time and explore the various styles and prices before you choose. The potters will always give a small gift when you buy a few things. Check out Stavrou Stavrakis, with ancient motifs on plates and pots.
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Myrsini
The shop that brings Soufli's famous handmade silk products to you, Myrsini is a family-run business with items running the gamut from silk table runners and ornate raw silk scarves to enormous silk spreads embellished with a Byzantine double-headed eagle and floral motifs. Owner Dimitrios Kyriazis gladly explains Soufli's tradition of silk production and the secrets of how it's done.
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Material
Material puts a modern twist on the Czech crystal industry, with its oversized contemporary vases, bowls and Dale Chihuly-like ornaments, candleholders, chandeliers and glasses. The firm boasts its 'drunken sailor' glass is spill-proof. Yet, despite well-spaced displays, it's a store where you immediately fear breaking something - and when you check the prices you realise you should!
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My Cup of Tea
In a hard-to-find converted artist's studio (walk through the main entrance and ring the bell at the courtyard door), this self-dubbed 'creative incubator' showcases the work of emerging artists and fashion designers (with an emphasis on women's and children's fashion). Past stock includes felt jewellery from Italo-Brit Biondo, and kitschy celebrity portraits by Daniele Cima.
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Via Carlo Mafrolla
Vieste is primarily a beach resort and has only a few sights of interest located in the winding medieval streets of the historic centre. From the Chiesa di San Francesco (a former monastery, closed for restoration) at the tip of the promontory walk up Via Carlo Mafrolla where boutique craftshops selling ceramics and local handicrafts have replaced hippy market stalls.
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Kubista
Appropriately located in the Museum of Czech Cubism in Prague’s finest Cubist building, this shop specialises in limited-edition reproductions of distinctive Cubist furniture and ceramics, and designs by masters of the form such as Josef Gočár and Pavel Janák. It also has a few original pieces for serious collectors with serious cash to spend.
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Moser glasswork shop
The Moser company opened its first shop in Karlovy Vary in 1857 and by 1893 had established a glassworks in the town. Less than a decade later Moser became the official supplier to the Imperial Court of Franz Josef I, who obviously put in a good word with his friend, King Edward VII, as Moser also became the official supplier of glass to British royalty in 1907.
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Gilberto Penzo
Yes, you actually can take a gondola home in your pocket. Anyone fascinated by the models at the Museo Storico Navale will go wild here amid handmade wooden models of all kinds of Venetian boats, including some that are seaworthy (or at least bathtub-worthy). Signor Penzo creates kits, so crafty types and kids can have a crack at it themselves.
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Guelman Gallery
Since the early 1990s, the Guelman Gallery has been working with young creative talents to showcase groundbreaking art and to push the boundaries of artistic acceptance in post-Soviet Russia. Besides exhibits at the gallery itself, Guelman often organises exhibits at the Central House of Artists (attached to the New Tretyakov) and other venues around the city.
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Dům Porcelánu
The House of Porcelain is a kind of factory outlet for the best Czech porcelain makers, including Haas & Czjzek and Thun, both based in western Bohemia. The flatware, china, blue onion pattern porcelain and other items are priced to draw in local buyers – not tourists. Prices here are a fraction what they are downtown for similar items.
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