Christmas is coming and everybody already has a scarf. These are seven gifts from Tallinn-based artist Katrin Valgemäe that nobody else will give. Real art, small price, bad manners. Prices run from €19 to €150 and up, so there is something for a colleague, a best friend and the person you really want to impress.
1. A mug (from €19). The cheapest way to give real art. Morning coffee, with a poodle looking back at you.
2. A T-shirt that says PERVERT (from €35). For the person who says it with their chest. Unisex, cotton.
3. An oven glove with Adam and Eve (€56). Dürer’s Adam and Eve, on an oven glove. Handmade in Estonia. A housewarming gift with a bad reputation.
4. A tote bag (from €19). Carry your groceries like it is an exhibition.
5. A small original drawing (from €40). Quick figure drawings (croquis) in ink, watercolour and acrylic. Every one is a one-of-a-kind original, and this is the cheapest real art in the shop. A good first piece for someone who has never owned art.
6. A hand-signed porcelain plate (from €100). “Kalamaja Hipster”, on porcelain. The plates are painted by hand and signed by the artist. Hang one on the wall, or eat off it.
7. A whole original (from €150). Porcelain, paintings and drawings, one of a kind. Not a print. The gift nobody else will give.
How to choose. Under €50: a mug, a tote bag, socks or a T-shirt. €50–100: an oven glove, a hoodie or a small drawing. From €100: porcelain and paintings. If you are not sure, start with the drawing. It is real, it is small, and it fits in an envelope.
Can you eat from the plates? Yes. The plates are fired at 1240 °C like ordinary tableware. Plates painted over with porcelain paint wear with constant dishwasher use, so wash those by hand. At the exhibition “Queens of Chaos” in Helsinki, visitors ate from the art and then washed the plates themselves.
Are the originals really originals? Yes. Every drawing, painting and porcelain piece is one of a kind. Prints are labelled as prints.
Delivery. 1-5 days
See the full collections: Art gifts under €100 and Original art from €150.