Fiona Richards, owner of Dominion Post & Salvage, has a thing for vintage paper ephemera. "When I was six years old my grandfather gave me a box of old postcards and that was it, I was hooked," says Richards. "I fell in love with the idea of these little bits of paper having survived all these years."
Richards spent much of her youth in rural Scotland scouring church sales and auctions for old letters, postcards and stamps. Even after moving to Calgary with her family in 1981, and later to Nelson, B.C., with her husband, Douglas, she continued to frequent farm auctions and sales in search of paper treasures.
A graphic designer by trade, Richards began making cards for friends and family using the images from her collection of old 19th-century European ephemera, ribbon and stamp embellishments. They were a hit, and in 2004, she left her day job and started selling her hand-made cards and gift tags in local shops. It wasn't long before a distributor, who'd seen her cards in a Vancouver shop, contacted her. Before she knew it, her cards were being sold in nearly 100 stores across North America. Richards has recently launched Cartolina (Italian for postcard), a line of more "everyday" cards inspired by vintage art, but "manipulated to make them look modern."
"My design work was always influenced by vintage images-the type, the spacing, the colour palettes," says Richards. "I literally have piles of vintage papers all over my house!" Her favourite items are those that are printed in traditional ways: lithographs, block prints, letter press, hand lettering-"anything evoking days gone by." She now travels to London, Paris or Rome four times a year to rummage through flea markets. "This is the perfect combination of my two loves," she says. "And the best part? I get to send my art all over the world."
Fiona's favourite flea markets
• Marché aux Puces Saint Ouen
Paris
"This weekend market is a combination of a dozen smaller markets. My favourite is the French bric-a-brac market, Vernaison."
• Marché aux Timbres
Paris
"Amazing selection of stamps and handwritten French letters from the 19th century."
• Mercato Delle Stampe
Rome
"Great selection of valuable antique books, postcards, stamps and letters."
• Bermondsey (or New Caledonian) Market
London
"The dealers' market at the crack of dawn on Friday mornings."
• Portobello Road Market
London
"You can find anything you want here."
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