30 May 2010

29 May 2010

Scrub Up!

here you can see my conehead with glasses, stripy dress over skinny jeans with baggy cardigan and smelly converse. All items of clothing are stained. I am armed with latest copy of Frankie magazine. 
In an hour I have to change out of this uniform and put on some fresh clothes to go to dinner at a friend's house, spend time with my goddaughter, and tomorrow we are having a special night to celebrate our impromptu wedding (it's this Wednesday!) with friends. Can you hear the shotguns?
Spontaneous weddings are great.
But I must remember to scrub up beforehand! 



28 May 2010

27 May 2010

My Creative Space : Granddad's Camera





My dad has given me his dad's old camera, a Retina IIIS. My granddad bought it in the 40s. It's a beautiful old camera. It is in such good condition. My favourite bit is the light measurer - the Sixtomat, a lovely Bakelite thing that comes with its own little retractable brush and gold chain. I am in love with this camera. 

In my usual do before you think approach, I stuck a film in the camera immediately and started snapping away. Except for I have no idea how cameras actually work. Digital? Yes. Manual? Nope.
So I studied the manual that my granddad luckily kept in pristine condition inside the camera's leather bag.
And now I know how to set shutter speed, aperture, ISO sensitivity, and which lens to choose. And I understand how photography actually works. I'm pretty sure that my own kids, once they are my age, won't know anything about photography. They will just snap digitally. 

I think I am in fact a little bit in love with manual photography now that I understand how it works. 
I snapped around the house, finished the film, manually wound it back into its little capsule and now it's being developed across the road.
Can't wait to see the pictures! I will show you! 

24 May 2010

hello hamburg

and a belated hello from Munich! What a weird time in my life this is - my mum calls what happened to us the "black swan", and it's true - there's a book about these kinds of unforeseen tragedies that hit when you haven't even been looking out for them. My dad's situation is very sad - every night we hook him up to his bag full of artificial nutrition, he has a so-called food port, he is weak, exhausted, but so very brave. I am very proud of my dad. He is in so much pain. And there's no nice side to any of it. Except for people - everyone has been so great, supportive, caring and kind. And it's nice that I get to be home. Although putting my life on hold is more than weird - at 31, it's a bit odd to be living at home with your parents and not going to work. I feel like a weird unemployed bum! And I miss my sewing machine. I have been reading everyone's blogs. Keeps me grounded.

I got a little break last week and went up to Hamburg to visit a very lovely friend of mine. I love Hamburg - it's one of the few German cities with heaps of water (it actually has more bridges than Venice! I didn't know that!), a nice sea breeze and the people are ace! Hamburg is full of good stuff. Portuguese coffee and treats, Spanish tapas bars, Turkish launderettes, water, bikes, it's great. Part of Hamburg called Altona used to be part of Denmark. And Copenhagen is only four hours on the train from there! How tempting is that... but I managed not to go awol and run away to the Danes!









23 May 2010

Christien Meindertsma



A great video about the design and work process of artist and designer Christien Meindertsma. She creates these amazing structural pieces from wool. I would considering robbing a bank to buy one of the pouffes below. How amazing!

Image from http://www.christienmeindertsma.com/index.php?/projects/urchin-pouf/

22 May 2010

Erin Tyner on Etsy



                               All images by Erin Tyner.

I love these prints. Available here on Etsy!