A5

By Katie Hunter
This Week Staff

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When you walk into Moncton's newest Art and Craft Gallery, give yourself a chance to exhale all the weight of your day and get back to the elements. Sandstones, the creation of Shawna Gagné, will transform your shopping experience, naturally.

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Stacey Merrigan/This Week

Shawna Gagné, owner of Sandstones, a new gallery and flower shop in downtown Moncton, displays some of the work available at her shop.

Giant slabs of sandstone displayed against the wall help create the balance of earthy textures you feel once you step inside the doors. With aqua walls, representing the ocean, stainless steel counters showcasing earth metals, and beige to signify sand, shopping becomes a day on the beach.

The only thing you may not notice is that everything in the store is for sale. The pieces, which are displayed by local tradespersons, are creations built on what Shawna calls the lost arts.

"Because of our history and our culture it is important to maintain that identity with how we got here," shares the entrepreneur. With the traditional craftsmanship, the art tells its own story.

"We have a lot of simple things here that make you happy, and how do you put that into words?" asks Shawna. "We just got a rug hooker in, and it takes her anywhere from two to four weeks to make one piece. It's completely worth it, and the product is so unbelievably durable. It can be used as a rug or put on your wall for display."

What Shawna sells is the uniqueness of the trade.

"We're featuring things where someone can't come in and say, 'I'm going to go and make that at home." The purpose of the gallery is a meeting place to showcase the talents to the local community.

Shawna claims she saw a need for more gallery locations, not just to showcase but to sell.

"It's different from market and gallery because we wanted to pick out artesian work," she says. "At the market there is a lot of talent mixed with food and craft and we wanted to get the trades people out and showcased properly."

Although she appreciates the variety the market has to offer, Shawna claims that some pieces stand out on their own, and displaying them is her reason for the store.

"It is difficult to appreciate art when you are standing there dripping coffee on it," she says. "And the real benefit of the gallery is that it showcases them in a way it can be appreciated."

Biographically, Shawna was enticed to open her own store after setting up her first craft sale as a teenager at the Moncton Coliseum. 13 years later her dream has set a foundation, in the heart of downtown's Blue Cross Centre.

"Art is a real passion of mine," shares the owner, who describes herself as a mix of entrepreneur and art lover with a focus on community, mixing her ability to create with fresh flower arrangements daily.

"It's the only thing that truly gets me out of bed in the morning," she explains "All the struggles I went though in the past six months, getting the store set up, I loved every minute of it."

As for the future of the store, Sandstones would like to offer living workshops, where artisans will be on location, showcasing their talents. Sandstones is open 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Check out their website at www.sandstones.ca