A great store with wide selection of art supplies. Especially great for painters. I was literally…read moredrooling over so many items they had today. What I liked the most was that they had many canvas done for you. I personally hate building my own canvas from scratch especially when it's big. I never get the angles right or I staple it somehow wrong. So what a relief to just buy your own canvas! I didn't look at the quality of them though, so I don't know if they're taken care of properly or anything, but the idea of just not having to go through all the trouble made me happy. I spent half an hour just scanning through everything. Somebody please give me something from this store for my birthday!

Cork, and lots of it. This quaint little shop sells it by the sheet, totally natural if that's what…read moreyou're after, and also they offer a variety of cork-based products and effects. I can't think of many shops that sell ONLY cork around here (there are many more in southern Portugal, for example, where cork trees (alcornoques) are ubiquitous. The shop itself is small-ish and cute, with big plate-glass windows framed in blue. All of the products are on display in the showroom, and surprisingly things are not too expensive. For a project of mine I bought four big sheets of raw cork-board for 20 euros total, or five euros per sheet. The owner/attendant is a Spanish woman who only speaks Spanish, so if you want to go in there you'll have to know a little in order to help her understand what it is that you want. Pointing works too, I suppose. Cork is "corcho" and board is "plancha", so if you know those two things you can at least get what seems to be their most popular product. This woman is VERY nice and good-humored, and took the time to explain to me how to care for the product and even gave me some advice for my project (picture frames). Without her advice, I would have made some dire mistakes. I'm grateful, so hear me when I say that this place is inexpensive and the service is prompt and robust. Great find in the side-streets of La Latina.

Toledo is a City full of knives, both physically and historically. So during Gayle and my recent…read moretrip to Spain, this is one souvenir that I really wanted. And if you show up here with a Rick Steves' Spain Tour Guide, there's a 10% discount in it for you. The Toledo streets wind around a lot and if you keep walking, you'll eventually find Mariano behind the counter of his long and narrow shop (with his workshop behind). It's right "behind" the Ayuntamiento/City Hall in a fairly nondescript store front. Judging by what's left of Mariano's hands and a few knicks I picked up along the way, his knives are very sharp. He was also very honest about materials, quality, and use of the various grades that he sells. A few of the knives defied my immediate sense of logic on how they worked, and Mariano was very patient and helpful in explaining the mechanisms. I gave up on one of them and figured that if I couldn't safety work the thing, I wasn't going to buy it. Gayle ended up purchasing that one for one of her sons who does have that skill. I was happy with a more decorative pocket knife choice with a nice 2-tone bone inlay.

An outstanding visit to a sword making shop. The owner took time to talk to us about swords and…read moreexplain how the swords were made, the significance of the metal being used and how the swords were used in the past. Fact I learned - swords made in Europe were prized for the hardness of the steel thus the blade is dull on purpose. Highly recommended taking a look at this store and buying a blade if it strikes your fancy. The skilled craftsmanship is on display as is the patient demeanor of the owner. It made my kid's day to see this shop!