QatArt Handmade Community held a “season end sale” yesterday at the Katara Art Studios Courtyard - Building 19 to the delight of visitors and regular patrons, who took home a range of discounted handcrafted products.
“This is also a prelude to the group’s summer workshop, which starts on the first weekend of May,” QatArt board member, Swapna Namboodiri, told Gulf Times. Pending the approval from Katara, QatArt will later announce the schedules of the workshops for all age groups to be held from May to September during the weekends.
According to Namboodiri, the sale is QatArt’s “specialty” for the community’s last handmade market this season before summer kicks-in. The next handmade market will resume during the “cooler months.”
“It was our first ever season end sale. We had 15 of our vendors who gave some amazing offers, ranging from 20% to 50% off on a wide variety of selected products. This gave our customers a great opportunity to buy some of their favourite products.
“At the same time, we, as artists, could clear off some of our old stock, which motivates us to create some fresh products next season. For a discounted price, most of the vendors sold a range of products from original artworks, art prints, home decor items, handmade candles, handmade cards and handmade aprons, among others,” she explained.
She added: “We always want to engage and encourage our artisans by throwing ideas like this, which inspires them to create and sell more. In the last market, we had organised a raffle draw for our audience and customers, which was a success. So we hope it will be a good event this time, too both for our vendors and customers.”
During yesterday’s market, QatArt featured six “QatArt Market Heroes,” who have consistently participated in all of the group’s events last season.
“Usually, during our market we interview of one of our members and feature his or her works in all of our online platforms, but this time we planned to do something different. We believe it is also a way to motivate our members, and a way for our audience to get to know more about the artists, who create entirely different products and employ various techniques,” she said.
The featured artists were Sinchai Zonputh of “Ooh,” who creates paper mache products and art works. His works include money banks, which is always a crowd favourite;Paula Bouffard (Touche Textile) creates a range of hand printed home textile that are considered “eco-friendly,” and includes cushion covers and tea towels, among others.
Zhengbing Shen (Opearl) is QatArt’s first male member. He makes beautiful and affordable pearl jewellery. Shen designs his jewellery, including the complete process from drilling the pearl to threading and making it into a finished product; Mihaela Salcudean (Michelle Art Boutique) creates unique silk paintings and also cute ballerina paintings for kids; Swapna Namboodiri (Glassy Dreamz), who creates original artworks on glass and plexiglass; and Burcu Ozmaya (Pink Dream Craft) specialises in cross stitching, and creates a range of home decor frames and also some unique pendants. The profiles of the featured artists are available on QatArt’s Facebook page.