View from the Zoo

Velvet Moustache, I love your sense of humour! The big Boyfriend, pictured above, is climbing into the hearts of many plush enthusiasts. Is it a bear or, what? Many of their inventions are inspired by animals and nature. Among others, there is Panda Mourant (right, center – save the panda!), Arctic Warrior (top right, kind of an owl), Esturgee (bottom right, a huge sturgeon), all made by hand with organic cottons and recycled materials in their studio in Montreal.

Velvet Moustache, I love the name! «Velvet, for the softness of the material and Moustache, because it’s cute and has personality.» says Majorie Labrecque-Lepage, who hails from a fashion background.  With her partner Benoit Massé, a graphic designer, they founded Velvet Moustache two years ago based on their common interests in ecology, ethics and crafts.

Velvet Moustache – where can I buy your creations?  Directly from their studio online, or if you are in Old Montreal you can stop by Galerie Zone Orange, a cafe-art gallery which offers a variety of handmade items by local artisans. Do you have a creature that you would like to see in 3D? Majorie does special orders.

Velvet Moustache – what is your most popular toy? «Popeye (below)  – people are really surprised when they realise they can take the eye out and play with it like a ball!»

You can see Velvet Moustache in person this weekend where they will be participating at Couture X-Press in Montreal, creating fashion, live, in front of an audience, starting at 21h.

Photos by Velvet Moustache, 2009

This ladybug family was honored this week with an award of excellence from the Society of News Design’s 30th annual competition, one of 32 awards garnered by La Presse, placing this French language broadsheet in fifth place in the world, behind respected papers such as the New York Times.

La Presse is  one of Montreal’s four dailies – you read right, FOUR dailies in this city – 3 published in French and one in English. You can see all 32 of the winning projects, including four more of mine, in Saturday’s edition (February 21st). To see all the 971 awards (out of over 10,000 entries from 42 countries) you’ll have to wait until the book comes out this Fall.

I discovered these intriguing and original creatures at the Souk Christmas show in Montreal last December. Made of exotic woods, they charmed me immediately and I knew I had to have them for my art toy collection. Plus I had some leftover birthday money to spend! Alexandre Lafleur, a former cartoonist, explained his concept: «They are ambiguous – they are forest sprites, animals, robots, whatever you want  them to be. Wood is a living and incomparable medium. The infinite variety of textures, colors and patterns give a unique personality to each of my toys, even if they are produced in series.» Inspiration? «I love traditional Japanese art, comics by Tezuka (considered the father of the modern manga), sculptures by Henry Moore and Niki de Saint Phale, toys by Australian Nathan Jurevicius (of Scarytoy fame), classical Indian music, a hot cup of tea…»

Interested in getting a sprite for yourself? «I’ll be opening an Etsy shop soon but, in the meantime, you can e-mail me at kijemanito@yahoo.ca» Thanks, Alexandre, I have my «monkey» and my «caterpillar» right up there next to my Japanese wooden dolls!

My «Lovebutton» cards and stickers that I ordered from moo.com are here and ready for distribution. The minicards are very versatile – I use them as business cards, as gift tags, as bookmarks or simply as portfolio samples. The jellybeans were delicious too. White ones were coconut  flavored, the red ones, sour apples and the pink ones tasted, well, pink (bubblegum or rootbeer or…).

And here you can see how the stickers turned out.