Budapest Design Week: WAMP

I teased you about Budapest Design Week's art markets, design fairs and the goodies we bought.  One of the fairs we perused was WAMP, which is actually a monthly event but was a little extra special to coincide with Design Week.

For starters, they moved to a gorgeous building:

My eyes kept wandering up to the ceiling . . .



 . . . although the hand crafted wares were pretty eye catching too.  From cute felted wool place mats to handmade leather bags and shoes, there was an incredible variety of really unique things.  A little overwhelming, almost.  

So what did we buy?  We actually exercised a lot of self restraint (it doesn't hurt that I use mostly cash here and I never seem to have a lot once the bills are paid). 

Mom bought the painting below.  The artist (Gerebecz, Nandor) had painted it the night before and was so excited Mom loved it so.  The painting is of a street in Budapest, with St. Stephen's Basilica in the background.  Nandor painted from a photograph he took (and gave us each a magnet with the photograph on it as a gift).  

This version (we think it's made with a stencil and layers of paint, because they're so similar) remained:

I have been looking to buy stuff I "need": stuff that I would buy at home and use daily, not impulse tourist finds I'll fall out of love with or never use (been there, done that).  Because my cellphone case was falling apart (plus this lame blackberry one was the only one I could find to fit my HTC wildfire) I was in search of a handmade leather case. 

After being scared away by $45.00 handmade leather cases elsewhere, I was nervous about even asking prices at WAMP.  But I found a coral leather case I loved, by Berecz Vanda, and tentatively asked.  Guess how much it was?  $5.00!!  I thought I had moved the decimal point over incorrectly (it was 1000 HUF - I cannot get used to spending these giant sums).  The quality and style beats any of the cases I had previously drooled over.  And you cannot beat $5.00.

It seriously looks like it was made to match my phone.

The woman who makes them also designs gorgeous purses.  Mom is contemplating buying one and I think I am going to buy a spare case - this time coral with turquoise leather lining (see last photo).  Aren't we good?  We each bought one thing we really liked.  Which was really tough, but with all of the other design fairs, we knew some restraint was necessary . . .

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P.S. For something gorgeous and candy coloured of your own, don't forget to enter my KitchenAid stand mixer giveaway!