inspiration: magic

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photos of late

Lately I have been...

Slowly getting everything ready for my final piece. It consists of a lot of separate elements and it is quite daunting when I think about the next few weeks! 

(thanks to all those who sent wishes, total is at about 250 now!)

 

Rediscovering old jewellery pieces that somehow work really well together. 

 

Getting stopped in the store to ask if I want to have a free blow dry as a hair model. I say yes because I can't really say no to people and also because I was having a pretty bad hair day. In the photo above it had already flattened some, when I walked out of the salon I felt pretty self conscious because the girl gave me a kind of lion mane!  

Eating Hershey Kisses found at a nearby Polish supermarket. I prefer the original ones but Johnny bought these white chocolate biscuit things instead. Still good though.

Making impromptu Greek salads. I love it when it just so happens that you have the right ingredients to make a proper meal like in a restaurant! Except I added purple radishes to my Greek salad.

Drinking beet, banana, strawberry, blueberry and what ever other fruit is lying around smoothies. I love the colour the beet makes it turn. 

Working my way through this pile of origami paper squares, which will soon transform into cranes. It takes such a long time! I can probably do about 25 cranes an hour. But it's just rather boring! Mostly I have been folding the cranes whilst watching movies. Maybe I'll get so good at it that I won't even need to look at what I'm doing!

breathtaking

you should spend an afternoon here

book worm

I always intend to read a lot during the summer...some residual guilt left over from elementary school and the summer reading lists maybe. 

I remember being so amazed at the boy who declared in September, on the first day back at school:

 "I read TEN books this summer"

I thought to myself,

"What is this kid? some kind of super genius scientist!?"

The books on my reading list for summer so far are:

Carl Sagan 'Cosmos' - I've read half of this book already but am always stopping and starting up again. Needless to say, it is fascinating yet challenging. 

Margaret Atwood 'The Year of the Flood' - I've heard good things about this book (from my mom).

Brian Greene 'Fabric of the Cosmos' - another outer space themed book. I just want to be able to have some semblance of an understanding of the big wide nothing and everything that space is. 

Albert Camus 'The Myth of Sisyphus' - I'm also really interested in philosophy, and I feel like this is one of those important books that I should read.

Paul Alexander 'Rough Magic' - I read this about two years ago after buying it at City Lights bookstore in San Francisco. I've been intrigued by Sylvia Plath since I read the Bell Jar at age 14 (heavy) and then received a book of her poems at age 16 or 17.  This biography is so detailed and interesting and of course ultimately tragic so I really want to read it again.

Sometimes revisiting a book every few years is the best way to show yourself how your perspective has changed in a way that is often hard to measure in any real way. Maybe that's why I've read 'Catcher in the Rye' about five times (or because it's awesome and always will be).

So, what books are on your summer reading list? I'm interested to hear. 

design time.

something I'm working on at the moment...

all right, all right, all right.

High waisted jeans pulled up with pliers.

McConaughey in dusty pink bellbottoms.

Denim shorts and seniors shirts.

An amazing soundtrack.

High school in the late 70s.

What's not to love about Dazed and Confused?!

and remember...you just gotta keep livin' man, L-I-V-I-N.

a presence

Driving into London, you often pass a row of seven or eight nearly identical houses. 

I have been mesmerised by them for the past ten years or so, passing 

by on intermittent trips to the capital. 

They are supposedly artists' studios. I once found the listing for one 

of the homes on a real estate website and as you can imagine they cost a pretty penny! 

But, I'd rather not know the price, or what goes on inside, or who lives there because I just love the buildings for how strange and beautiful they are. I think that I have always been fascinated by odd houses, (supposed) haunted houses, abandoned houses. 

There is a presence they hold that I can't ignore. 

making wishes

For the past year I have been working on the final piece for my degree. 

It is inspired by my childhood spent in Japan, influenced by the Tanabata Festival which is held every summer. One of the things I love about this festival is the tradition of people writing their wishes onto pieces of paper and tying them onto tree branches, sending their wishes out into the universe and hoping they will come true. I have focused on the idea of wishing and this is the basis for my project. That being said, I have been collecting wishes here on the blog, and really need a few more to make the piece really great. The wishes will be used in an art installation which I will exhibit in London at the New Designers show at the end of June. Of course, no names or information will be used. It is about the content of the wishes, what is important to people and the magic that comes from making a wish. Many people have chosen to post their wishes anonymously which is totally fine, I feel like it makes it all the more mysterious and magical! If you would like to be a part of this installation, or know of anyone else who may have a wish they would like to make, please take part. 

The participation of people from all over the world is what makes this project so dear to me.

(The first two photos are my work in the making process and the rest are my inspiration from the Tanabata Festival)

If you would like to see what other people have wished for, the original post can be seen here.

Thank you!

thoughts on a Wednesday

Well, last week was eventful... On Wednesday, I got some bleach in my eye whilst cleaning the toilet (I know, I sometimes can't bear how glamorous my life is) and so headed to 'Eye Emergencies' at the hospital to get it looked at, cleaned etc. It wasn't as bad as it sounds and it only stung a little bit but I was pretty worried...bleach is no joke! 

Luckily, no permanent damage except for my new fear of cleaning the toilet...

 Anyway, that is just a prelude to explain some of these photos. The hospital is right next to a mega Tesco (British supermarket, still smaller than most average US supermarkets) so naturally we went to wander around and buy some food.

It's been pretty big news for me that they now sell Double Stuff Oreos in the UK. For so long I've had to make do with plain old single stuf' Oreos, disappointment with each bite. 

I wonder why they added the extra F on Stuff for the UK Oreos whereas in the US they're called Double Stuf'? Important questions need answering!

The Thai Food Festival happened in town, apparently this is an annual occurence but I have no recollection of this ever happening before. There was also Salsa dancing, which was weird. I snapped this photo because I loved this guy's denim jacket with pink polo shirt combo. And sunglasses.

I took this photo of our book shelf the other day because I noticed that Cosmos by Carl Sagan was placed above The Tale of Tom Kitten, and something about that is just so perfectly strange. I find it really interesting looking at other peoples book shelves as well as others' grocery carts. Does anyone else find this fascinating? I feel like it can tell you interesting, quirky or surprising things about people. Or maybe I just need to stop reading so much into everything. 

Standard cute cat photo of Momo. There had to be one. I really need to figure out some other platform for displaying the hundreds of photos I have of this cat. 

wearable porcelain

this is what my research looks like at the moment. we are getting very close to the end of the year which means final pieces have to start being made. this makes me nervous. these images give an indication of the types of things I will be working on. 

click on images for links.

inspiration mood board

In addition to this blog, I also have a tumblr, which I use mostly as an online mood board. These are some of the images which have been making me feel inspired recently.