by Fünchkins
Located in Montreal, Canada, is La Distributrice a coffee shop that is touted as the smallest in North America. La Distributrice is maintained in one of the smallest retail spaces in the city, right next to one of the city’s most popular subway stations.
Michael Trimpol from Little River Hotglass Studio in Vermont designs and manufactures a diverse body of hand blown glassware in addition to overseeing the operations of the studio. Michael was introduced to hand blown glass in a high school stained glass course in Stowe VT and from there, he pursued a career in stained glass while attending Concordia University in Montreal, designing and creating many residential commissions as well as several public installations. When Michael got frustrated with the limitations of the two dimensional process, he enrolled at Sheridan College School of Craft & Design in Mississauga, Ontario to learn the art of glassblowing. Upon graduation in 1985, he was accepted for a residency at Harbourfront Craft Studios, one of Toronto’s most popular tourist destinations; shortly after he left Harbourfront in 1989, he established his own company Hotglass Inc. in Mississauga, from which he produces such as work as the vases, paperweights and ornaments shown below.
Ying Gao and glass artist Michèle Lapointe were fascinated by the idea of carrying a ten gram shirt in a ten kilogram bag. So, by working together, they came up with the answer of putting a super light weight shirt made from organza in to a glass handbag. The glass handbag has a rounded contour in which the shirt is placed. Ying Gao is based in Montreal and is the only fashion designer included by the British magazine Wallpaper in its Canadian Top 40.
