Grand Trunk Saloon Photo Shoot

It was a quiet afternoon in Downtown Kitchener. The sky was swollen with ominous thunderclouds and perhaps a tumbleweed or two blew across the asphalt. Feeling reckless, we sauntered into Grand Trunk Saloon and shot up the place. With a camera. And lots of love.

Feeling the Western vibe, we partnered up with White Tiger Vintage and Rising Moon Gallery to showcase some of our favourite independently designed and crafted frames.

Miranda, from White Tiger Vintage, spends a copious amount of time curating her vast collection of beautiful garments. Andrea, from Rising Moon Gallery, handmakes all of her jewelry and each unique piece has an interesting story. Here’s a close-up look of the necklaces used in the shoot.

Rising Moon Gallery

Artist Statement

Andrea Hildebrand is a local craftsperson working primarily in ceramics and jewellery. Her one of a kind handmade jewellery features rare and unusual stones, bones, feathers and found natural objects. Many of the these items have been collected for years through her extensive travels around North and South Asia, Tibet, Nepal, and India, as well as from the Six Nations Reserve located near Brantford, Ontario. She uses fine waxed nylon cord, knotting each fibre intricately to create bezels for the stones and beads.

“I wish to thank the land that offers up such perfect crystalline treasures. They serve as reminders to me of our evolutionary potential when we are immersed in the incredible processes of nature. And also my deepest gratitude to the many diverse and beautiful humans who have gifted, traded or sold me these stones and beads. To exchange beads and stones is an act of sharing our cultures, our traditions and our identities.”

Six Nations cattle bone, chrysochola and teal tiger’s eye beads with leather and brass accent beads

peach and rainbow moonstones

labradorite with sterling silver accent beads

grey agate, druzy and clear quartz, feathers and rose gold accent beads

fossilized buffalo tooth, lava stone, African turquoise, and Six Nations horn pipe beads

fossilized horse tooth, red tiger’s eye, and seed beads acquired from a Black Thai tribal community in Southern Laos

amazonite, green crackle agate, mother of pearl and Six Nations horn pipe beads, ostrich egg shell beads. The amazonite pendent in this piece was given to me in a trade while I was trekking the Annapurna trails in the Himalayas. I met a local Nepali woman waiting by the side of the path with just a small basket of stone, beads and buttons. She asked me if she could please have my jacket.  she was very cold and offered me a stone in exchange for my jacket. I gave her my jacket and she was so happy. She gave me this gorgeous green amazonite stone in exchange. I knew I might get cold, but I knew she needed the jacket more than I did and that the stone now held a beauty and story for me that was much more precious than something I could buy in a store.

A big thank you to everyone involved!

Photographer: Troy Dettwiler
Stylists: Neil Moser and Nicole Wagler
Location: Grand Trunk Saloon
Wardrobe: White Tiger Vintage
Jewelry: Rising Moon Gallery
Hair: Carmine Romano with Control Hair Salon
Makeup: Sarah Bolstridge with Gilded Makeup
Models: Chris Tiessen, Dan Reiss, Erin Gulas and Jen Jacobs