With an instantly recognizable furniture line and abstract aesthetic, we consider Martha Sturdy a grande dame of Canadian design (and we're not the only ones, Architectural Digest loves her, too).

Her new, limited-edition line, Ink, is a marriage of craftsmanship and gravity. Black ink is poured onto linen resin molds and left to flow any which way nature pulls it. The result is a contemporary piece of usable art (or as us plebs call it, a bowl).

Like all of Sturdy's work, Ink is influenced by the elements and natural beauty, specifically the veins that run through West Coast stones. Each resin piece is made at a zero-waste Vancouver production facility, utilizing locally sourced products and technicians.

Consider us bowled over.

From $270, find stockists here: http://sturdyliving.com/contact

While the Eastside Culture Crawl is traditionally associated with artists, there are a huge number of artisans, designers, and craft geniuses displaying and selling their product. Here are five studios worth visiting; with items are under $200, you can check a few names off your Christmas list.

Melk Design is a husband and wife team that creates pieces from upcycled and recycled wood. We love the Noon Birds Clock ($95, pictured) made from Landyachtz longboards, and the up-cycled walnut Axe Belt buckle ($60.) Location: D10 - 936 Clark Dr., Vancouver, www.melkmelk.com

Grace Lee, the talent behind Eikcam Ceramics, makes birch bud vases ($52) and lovely barn owl ornaments ($18) but our favourite is the cloud series bowl and spoon ($50 for the set) featuring freehand drawings. So pretty, we can excuse the fact that they aren’t dishwasher safe. Location: Studio #2 - 965 Vernon Dr. at The Mergatroid, http://eikcam.com/

Oona Clothing Company does the cutest handmade boys’ and girls’ underpant sets, featuring matching tees, bright colours, and naïve handrawn graphics. Great incentive for toilet training. Pieces start at $7. Location: Studio #14  at William Clark Studios, www.oonaclothing.com

If you’re looking to complete a very minimal garden, then Espiritu Design Studio’s Dadi Bird House ($200) is a must-have. And for your apartment dwelling friends, they also have beautiful cups and vases, although don’t expect any blue jays to come and say hello. Location: Unit 130, 288 East Georgia St., Vancouver, http://espiritudesignstudio.com

If you are looking for something chic and elegant, check out Su Foster’s jewelry. Featuring delicate silver and gold pieces, we’ve got our eye on the long stick earrings, $85-$95 a pair. Location: 1177 Parker St., Vancouver, http://sufoster.com

—Alexandra Suhner Isenberg

Eastside Culture Crawl, November 16-18, for a full map and more details, check www.eastsideculturecrawl.com

It’s hard to get excited about a printed t-shirt these days, unless it is really spectacular. Luckily that’s the case with the Lauren Moshi collection.

The artist/designer sibling duo create art pieces and clothing with pretty illustrations of peacock feathers, lips, peace signs, or big herringbone bows. And for a limited time, the prints and the T-shirts will be available at Gastown’s Ishara boutique.

So in theory, your top could match the art in your living room. That gives a whole new meaning to the term wallflower, and we like it. —Alexandra Suhner Isenberg

Lauren Moshi pop up gallery at Ishara boutique, from October 19-November 17, 38 Water St., Vancouver, 604-264-7494, www.shopishara.com

There’s something a bit humorous about a country whose most famous product is a sugary liquid we pour on pancakes, eh?

Canadian Icons  is reminding us that this country has more to offer than maple syrup. The site features a webstore and interactive exhibit of some of Canada’s finest goods, including Canada Goose parkas ($595), an Emily Carr painting ($380,000), and Manitoba Mukluk moccasins ($500), each featured with an accompanying history of the product and its significance.

Of course they’ve completely forgotten about poutine, but we guess you can’t really sell that online. —Alexandra Suhner Isenberg

www.canadianicons.ca

What does the future hold?

Angela Grossmann has a few ideas. It’s been seven years since the Emily Carr grad-turned-instructor held her last solo exhibit in Vancouver. On April 4th, she’ll unveil her latest works in an exhibit entitled The Future is Female at South Granville’s Winsor Gallery.  “It takes being female to articulate what it’s like,” says Grossmann. “As though I’m dealing with glass, but I can still see through it.” Using paint and collage in a manner that has earned Grossmann a place amongst Canada’s greatest artists, the exhibit explores the feminine struggle for empowerment amidst prescribed notions of beauty and behaviour (read: girl power).

We predict it’s going to be a powerhouse of a show. —Kelsey Dundon

Angela Grossmann – The Future is Female runs April 4 to May 6, 2012, Winsor Gallery, 3025 Granville St., Vancouver, 604-681-4870, www.winsorgallery.com

It’s time to take a dip in the city’s past, take a visual history lesson, and imagine Vancouver life as it once was.

No other artist has captured the evolution of our city like Fred Herzog. The beloved photographer’s work is the subject of Equinox Gallery’s inaugural exhibition in it's new 12,000 square foot Project Space. With over one hundred works on display, most mesmerizing ones capture Vancouver vibrant street life in the late 1950s and early ’60. Vivid locales like Hastings, Robson and Main are forever encapsulated in a time—much like the semblance of the streets themselves—that is long past. Fred Herzog, Vancouver’s time capsule. — Anya Georgijevic

Equinox Gallery’s Project Space, 525 Great Northern Way, Vancouver, 604-736-2405, www.equinoxgallery.com

Sometimes it is good to be bad, especially as interpreted through the artistic eye of Mandy Stobo.

The Calgary-based painter’s Bad Portrait Project has her busting out her watercolours to whip up a rendering of anyone who is interested. Send a photo of your face to Stobo and she’ll interpret it into a bright and blurry portrait that looks a little like you and a lot like art. She posts the pics on Twitter and Facebook and you can buy your original for $100.

Bad can be beautiful. —Jaelyn Molyneux

www.badportraitproject.com

Hold on to your black turtlenecks and horn-rimmed glasses, friends. It’s about to get all artsy-fartsy up in here.

If you’ve seen District 9 or the Chronicles of Narnia, you’re already familiar with his work. Now Vancouver-based sculptor James Stewart, whose pieces are so realistic they veer towards the grotesque, will be exhibiting his latest works Sept. 8th - Oct. 2nd at 5 W. Pender St., Vancouver. —Kelsey Dundon

The Contemporary Art Gallery is celebrating 40 years with an exhibition featuring the work of three artists rarely exhibited in Canada. Corita Kent’s '60s pop art silkscreen prints (pictured) and Thomas Bewick’s wood engraved vignettes will fill the downtown space, while Federico Herrero’s Vibrantes is an outside commission featuring sheets of coloured adhesive vinyl on the front of the building.  Contemporary Art Gallery, 555 Nelson St., Vancouver, www.contemporaryartgallery.ca. Sept. 9th - Oct. 30th. —Alexandra Suhner Isenberg

Dougal Graham’s solo show Only at Night at the Trench Gallery will please the eyes of art and fashion lovers alike. His work, which includes paintings and jewelry, are an investigation into society’s never ending obsession with fashion, the body and the transient material world. Check out our editor’s blog for more images of his paintings and jewelry. Trench Gallery, 102-148 Alexander St., Vancouver, www.trenchgallery.com, Sept 16th - Oct 15th. —Alexandra Suhner Isenberg

You’ve gleaned all the inspiration you can from the sound of silence. Now tap into the “Sound of Conversation.” 

Wednesday night at the new Satellite Gallery, a 3-in-1 space shared by the Belkin Art Gallery, Museum of Anthropology at UBC and Presentation House Gallery, artists, curators and even a Feng Shui practitioner gather to share seven minute stories from their careers.

The event is in conjunction with their latest exhibit No Windows, which challenged graduate students with achieving the Trading Spaces of art shows—they had two months and a small budget to open an exhibition.

And if that isn’t inspiring, we don’t know what is.

“Sound of Conversation”, 7 p.m.-9 p.m. (view exhibition 6 p.m.-7 p.m.), Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at Satellite Gallery, 560 Seymour St. (2nd floor), Vancouver, 604-681-8425, www.satellitegallery.ca

The strapping September issues have just hit newsstands and while we’re fond of trend-packed tomes, we also crave clean, timeless fare.

For the latter our favourite is Corduroy, named for the sartorial staple of History and English professors. Inside are crisp photographs, no-nonsense profiles of interesting people and selections of art from the likes of Guy Bourdin and Robert Longo. Helmed by two Torontonians and printed in Winnipeg, the international mag is Canadian to boot.

Thanks to a recent design refresh, the pages look good enough to frame. Now that’s an idea.

Available at Chapters or online at www.corduroymag.com