More images from the show. From left to right; MADE's Hybrids milk crate installation inspired by chinoisery, Covello Reesor's The Common Chair made from hardwood scraps, Michael and Ian Erdmann's Canadian Woods stamp series, a Canadiana quilt, Scott Eunson's wire sculpture in the WC, Alissa Coe and Carly Waito's porcelain jellyfish, Rob Southcott's twisty chairs made of plywood, Deanne Lehtinen's Lights in Silhouette and knitted mushrooms in the Magic Pony room (hey, that's a song from the '70s...).

Design collective Motherbrand was present in two rooms, in Souvenir Shop, where they were selling original limited run souvenirs, created by OCAD art & design students, and Lint Picking featuring Canadian designers that "go navel gazing to see what they can find". Of particular note in Lint Picking were the Souvenirs Revisted by Cynthia Hathaway above, "Canadian souvenirs often reflect nature in a gimmicky way, with overtones of cuteness. This series, based on recast Blue Mountain Pottery, tells the story differently.". Ouch!

Patricia Schraven's geometric graphic wall art inspired the veneer pattern on her coffee table.

Industrial designer Terence Cooke recently designed a series of kitchen canisters for storing bulk foods called Incalmo for Precidio. Those same canisters were transformed into pendant lights for Come Up To My Room.

The Castor Canadensis room was filled with the ubiquitous Canadian extension cord. Every household in Canada has one, especially for the Winter, to plug in car bloc heaters. Castor used two kilometers(!) worth of extension cord to make their lighting installation. Says Brian Richer from Castor, "I like taking mundane objects and putting them into different contexts", and regarding this installation, "it's the opposite of our other light, incandescent lit with fluorescent vs. fluorescent lit with incandescent, and we wanted to go outside the room this time. We thought it would look nice.". Thank you to the other Castor, Ryan Taylor, for the night pics.

While I was in Toronto for IDS '07 I also attended the Come Up To My Room show at the 118-year-old Gladstone Hotel. It was a truly fun, and innovative, design show in a site worthy of its own post (coming up soon). Come Up To My Room was celebrating its fourth anniversary at the Gladstone this year. Every year cutting-edge designers/artists are invited to transform all 12 of the Gladstone's second floor rooms into "imaginative — and sometimes strictly aesthetic — site-specific installations". The exhibition showcases furniture design, sculpture, lighting, ceramics, and more from emerging designer/artists from across Canada. Above, the Gladstone Hotel reception desk and the grand stairway to the Come Up To My Room show. More posts to follow.