November Vendor Spotlight: Frede Landry

Allo! My name is Frede and my pronouns are she/her. I grew up mostly in Central America but I've been living in Montréal for almost 11 years now. I've always been into arts and crafts. I've picked up a lot of different new hobbies, techniques, and mediums over the years ( mostly because of my ADHD haha ) but I completely fell in love with ceramics since I started at the beginning of the pandemic.

What inspired you to start a business? I've always wanted to do something creative for a living and have always been very curious about the business side of things, the behind-the-scenes. I honestly still have no idea what I’m doing most of the time, but starting a business has been a very fun, interesting, and empowering experience.

What is your favorite thing that you make and why? I think my favorite things to make are the vases and plates with famous logos on them like the "Napster" vase or the "Cinéma l'amour" one. I think they are fun and nostalgic and hopefully, bring people some cool memories or smiles on their faces.

What is the hardest part of running your own business? I think for me the hardest part has just been letting go and showing my work. I think for a long time I was scared of doing anything because I was afraid that people would not like it.

Where do you see yourself at this time next year? I would like to have grown my business much more and hopefully be working on a solo exposition that I’ve wanted to do for a while now.

What other steps do you want to take to grow your business? I would eventually like to take some business classes. I would also love to travel and take ceramics classes where I go to keep learning new techniques and trying new things.

What do you like about ceramics? I like that it keeps you on your toes during the whole process. You break stuff, pieces crack, you never know what you are going to get when you open the kiln. And sometimes you want to cry and pull your hair out, but most of the time it's awesome!