Parachute Market

Open spaces with pink walls invited and enriched our souls last weekend in the Arts District in downtown Los Angeles. Parachute Market, a biannual conceptual design marketplace and fair, held AD HOC A Meditation on the Temporary on Saturday June 6th and 7th from 11-7. Danceable tunes echoed throughout the building from a DJ booth by DubLab setting the free-spirited, creative tone of the event.

For the past two years, Parachute Market has brought together an eclectic community of designers, artists, vendors, and musicians, as well as interested buyers and collectors. The market flourished with new and emerging artists eager to share conversation and their latest designs with visitors. Curated with intent by Coryander Friend & Mallery Roberts Morgan, this is the fifth installment of the market. Friend curates each installment to its own theme, which the show is then developed around. It is a shared experience between artist and audience.

Poppy and Seed arrived and instantly felt as if the space was a beautiful loft. Furniture, sculptures, plants, rugs, and art greeted and inspired us. Many jewelers occupied the event, but M Ready Objects stood out. Based in Los Angeles and created by Matthew Ready, a beautiful custom line including jewelry, leather, art objects, photography, and accessories laid across his wooden table. His adorable daughter sat next to him, building tiny decorative boxes for sale. Creativity definitely runs in this family. Ready also sold braided leather wrapped rocks that he collected from the Los Angeles riverbed and donates a portion of the proceeds to the Los Angeles River conservation organization.

In the far back corner of the building, a red and white parachute hung from the ceiling. Alexiteric Tea, owned by Alexander Friend invited visitors underneath his canopy for a cup of tea. Friend’s warmth, positivity, compassion, and knowledge of tea attracted us to his space where we sat for at least thirty minutes conversing and enjoying his amazing hand blended teas. Friend not only shared his gong fu tea ceremony with us, but also his enthusiasm for life. His tea company is based out of Oakland, where Poppy and Seed hopes to meet him again for another cup. We definitely left with a new friend.

The most interactive and photographed booth was a combination of three different artists and designers who are all involved in the surf industry. Kassia + Surf, Frankenhein Handmade Surfboards, and artist Alrik Yuill shared a space covered in beach sand, rocks, and a fortress built out of driftwood. Never in all the events we’ve attended have we seen such a creative space to share artwork. Kassia + Surf makes and sells the most psychedelic, eccentric wetsuits described as “Superior Quality, Life Enriching, Enlightening, Functional, Future Flavor with a Classic Twist. Made by Mermaids for Mermaids!” This is Kassia’s first collection filled with tie-dye colors, totally inspired by the free spirit of the 70s. Frankenhein Surfboards takes old beat up surfboards and recycles them into stylish usable retro-looking boards. We chatted with Shannon Lindsey, a co-founder of the company, along with her significant other Jered Hein. The company is based out of Costa Mesa. To bring all aspects together, artist and sculptor, Alrik Quill, displayed his beautiful stark white female sculptures around the beach scene—truly inspirational.

Directly across from the beach scene, artist and poet Jacqueline Suskin set up simply with a desk and vintage typewriter. Properly named Poem Store, Suskin shared her gift of creative writing by inviting all to sit down with her, choose a topic, and watch as she created the most beautiful poems. “Your Subject, Your Price”—Suskin asks that you donate what you feel is appropriate. She regularly sets up at the Hollywood Farmers’ Market almost every Sunday.

Dogs were welcomed at the event, which made us all very happy. Food and beverage booths were set up by Alexiteric Tea, Guerrilla Tacos, Moon Juice, Sno con Amor and ZenBunni Chocolate. Tickets were only $10.Parachute Market excited, inspired, and filled us with ideas at Poppy and Seed. The market itself nourishes the need for a shared space between artist and community. It allows artists of all kinds to express their creativity through the construction of their space and showcase their latest work. We can’t wait to see what the next Parachute Market brings.