Greta von Schmedlapp Scouts Puebla, Mexico!

Hola caro mia!- Your Greta was surprised with an Invitation from your favourite Designer Aurelien to hide in his extra-large Kilim Carpet bag and stowaway to the Puebla, Mexico Export Trade Comission's special 2 day expo of their artisanal products. Well, talk about the whirlwind! We arrived with a very civilized flight by Mexicana direct to Mexico city, then posh euro-style bus to the super chic city of Puebla. The Design Hotel Group (that includes the St. PAUL here )hosted all 14 of us at La Purificadora -if your Spanish is as shakey as mine, the Hotel name means the Purifying Plant -another super example of recycling an abandoned relic into a top boutique hotel - decor as chic as can be!: ..waterfall channel on the stairs, rings of flames in the centre open-air lobby at night,and a lap pool on the roof with a Baroque church bell tower nearby... What a change from the snow of our city. Even better was the reception with the other designers invited from Italy, Germany,France, and the U.S. The design camaraderie that soon developed was an added bonus - I"m certain that Aurel will continue his rapport with them in the future. The variety of Onyx, marble mosaique glassware, furniture, hand-woven fabrics, and the indigenous Talavera ceramique was superb and world class. Aurel and his confreres each saw about 16 different craft and small companies, all top-drawer items. Aurel is planning an edition of the items that will be appreciated by us Canadians to be called COLLECCION AURELIO. Although everyone is importing containers from China, and learning Chinese; I am certain that Spanish is easier to learn, and the quality, design flair, and shipping distances are all advantageous from Mexico. Not only does todays' Mexico have ultra-modern architecture,but the continuing exploration of the ancient Mayan and Aztec ruins is influencing design also. Aurel and I are planning to use motifs taken from his recent trips to UXMAL and EK BALEM...Everyone knows Chichen Itza,and nearby CanCun, these are more complex- what marvels these ancients were. We feel that these images and motifs will be good as design borders and iconic images that can look at once,--ancient and modern! I do look forward to seeing the prototypes soon. As Aurel mentioned in our last article, one of the moer importand trends i interior design today is the ecological approach ti design, with production on the same continent, and using local resources, we can make a difference, with no loss in the quality of design or fabrication. Another equally important trend that I have mentioned is that of World-Beat or Ethnic influences. More and more, as we travel and become connected with other cultures, our future homes will show the influence of many disparate cultures. Remember it was only 25 or so years that Yoga was a "new" form of excersize and meditation was a bit "flakey"? What about Sushi? It;s been around in Japan for a long time, but here - ten or fifteen years only? They are from different backgrounds, and are both now respected and mainstream. Often old ideas are revived again and newlsy respected in a different context than the past. We're seeing it in all sorts of media, the cycle of change, with adaptation of the old with the modern technology of the future.Of course, we do have a complex world today,with all sorts of problems and pit-falls, but me must also enjow these modern aspects of our lives -even as we "type" on machines that help us spell, and send letters and photos across the continent in an instant. Heres to the future of good design 1 Hope that this wasen't too philosophical for you this time... Hasta Luego, your peripatetic Greta Von Schmedlapp aurelien@colorsbyaurelien