Tuesday 30 July 2013

VNA Magazine | Helping Crochet on its way to Cool.


I was planning on doing a post to show you all my creations from my current placement at Anna Kompaneits (which I am still doing, plus some), but then an unavoidable urge to show you my favorite topic related artist and then the realisation that I haven't (at least I don't think I have) shared with you all one of my favorite magazines on the planet right now! 

That magazine is Very Nearly Almost Magazine, I had been reading Juxtapoz for a long time ( being an American mag it teased me with way too many out of reach purchases and exhibitions) and fancied a change and thats how I came across London based VNA.

VNA is a Street Art / Graffiti / Illustration / Art Culture magazine and in currently in its 23rd issue (with the duo Faile gracing the cover), publishing 4 times a year since 2006. 
Regrettably, since I am only one year into my collection I missed out on a good few awesome artists including Shepard Fairey (yes, I know), Invader, Eine, The London Police and D*Face, but the artists that have come after have pretty much made up for my loss! 
If you buy this mag you sure to be introduced, through a selection of interviews, to some truly awesome talents and a read will leave you completely inspired and eagerly awaiting the next issue!

Four times a year is most certainly NOT enough.

One of the artists I was introduced to by VNA was Olek, I had seen some of her crocheted extraordinary work floating around in cyber space and a bike which I think she created near brick Lane featured on the blog a long time ago (when its main focus was pretty much visual, and along the way I somehow gained the courage to add some text), so to be able to put a name to the amazing creations I had seen was great.


And so, what does Olek have to do with my internship.....?

Well, basically for the past (almost) month while working with Anna and the other awesome intern Treeney we have been having an amazingly fun time talking about our guy crushes, death / morbid stuff, the soap opera in Anna neighbors garden, watching movies, eating LOTS of cakes (Anna is not just an amazing artist but also, unlike myself a pretty tricky cook! That's tricky in terms of an array of interesting ingredients and incredibly skillful and clever.) and CROCHETING!

We have been creating an array of little gorgeous plastic bag crocheted flowers (I don't think mine can be counted in this collection), and you can see my first (semi-successful) one below and another more ambitious one that I will get around to finishing as soon as I manage to buy myself a crochet hook!

I was also pleasantly surprised how much quicker and more fun crochet is that knitting (yeah, I'm serious), I am the worlds slowest knitter and knitting machines do a neat job of almost making my blood boil.
My Nan taught me how to knit about 245 years ago and I still haven't managed to create that tea cosy I promised her. Such a bad grand-daughter. (Wow, I actually feel kinda bad now)

We have also began decorating some of them with beads and other pretty things and they look incredible!




Sunday 28 July 2013

Internship | Anna Kompaniets

I recently started an internship at costume designer and jewellery designer Anna Kompaniets. 
You can have a look at some of her amazing jewellery and learn more about her here.
So far I have learnt the craft of crochet, and on Sunday 14th we held a crochet workshop in the Queen's House near Greenwich Cutty Sark.  
We then headed back to the Queen's House a week later on Sunday 21st for one of Anna's performances entitled Quedenraha. 

Also all this alongside work, and possibly a bit of being busy doing nothing (its needed after uni) has managed to keep me pretty far away from this blog..... apologies!

Here are some photographs from the workshop and the performance, followed by a video. Enjoy!



 Pictures taken from Here


Tuesday 2 July 2013

Life | Budapest's Pálvölgyi cave & Szemlőhegyi cave, Libegő & The Royal Opera House


 These few pictures are a pair of a lotttttt of pictures that I took in Budapest's Pálvölgyi cave and Szemlőhegyi cave, which were both incredible!
You can buy a combined ticket for both caves, I cant remember how much exactly, but was pretty cheap and they are both a short walking distance (about 10 minutes) from one another.
The weather inside the caves is a constant 10/11 degrees, and when we arrived in shorts and t-shirts and some other people waiting were wrapping themselves in scarves and putting on hats and coats we did begin to worry that we had somewhat underestimated just how cold it was going to be.
But, considering it was 37°C outside the cool was very much appreciated!


A short bus ride from the caves you can find the Children's Railway (which since the Soviets has been run by children)and then jump off and climb the rather steep and long walk up to Elizabeth Look-out tower.
The view from the top is incredible and the way back down via the chairlift or the Libegő as it is locally known is much less hard work.


Our last stop was to see a ballet production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in The Royal Opera House. The interior was incredible, and the production (also the first ballet I have ever watched) was really enjoyable. 
Excuse the fact that it is a production aimed at children.....its just as enjoyable for adults!
So if you want to have a look inside the Opera House, don't book the tour, just buy some tickets to see a show.... plus they were SO cheap! 
We were pretty far back, but you could still see everything jut fine, although it must be said the seats weren't exactly the most comfortable and they were considerably slim (and squeaky).