Kenyan crafts and fishing

This weekend I was helping out at the annual African fayre at Emley church, raising money for a school in Kenya. From the stall I bought a beautiful beaded choker, as shown below and received lots of information and advice from Rosemary Donan. She is one of the founders of the Emley African Educational project, which I plan to get involved in next year.

 When researching the background of the project I came across these images of fishing in Kenya. The boats look really unique compared to western boat designs. They look a lot less sturdy too, I bet it would be quite an adventure sailing one of these boats, especially with the dangerous animals waiting on the bank (that’s including snakes!)

Fishing photos courtesy of: http://emleyafricanschools.co.uk/index.php/our-daily-life/fishing

Battle pearls- design by memories

Battle pearls- Menswear
The collection drew its inspiration from the day-by-day reality in Israel, where military is a casual part of life. The pieces composing the collection test and play with contrast found between the "pure and fragile" pearls and different elements from the Battlefield, such as bullets, armoury and camouflage: symbols of death, but also those of hope and peace.

                              

Images courtesy of: http://www.pollyanna.com/designer/show/battle-pearls

A sailing legend

This image is so beautiful; doesn't it make you want to burst into tears? I hope I will be able to sail like this one day.

Image courtesy of: http://www.benainslie.com/gallery/view/j.p._morgan_asset_management_round_the_island_race_2011

People tree- An evening with Ashleigh

The Fairtraders cooperative in Holmfirth held an event last night where Ashleigh Clark, wholesale rep of People tree came in and gave an inspiring talk about the company and their work with Bangladesh and Indian communities to build the business they are today. They work with clothing manufacturers such as Assisi garments, Swallows and Artisan hut, all organisations from the developing world that create beautifully crafted hand woven and hand embroidered unique pieces for the brand. People tree aspire to create the perfect pieces, which Ashleigh explained is not exactly the case just yet. She described a perfect piece as handcrafted, organic and fairtrade: the whole lot! But working with so many different countries it’s not always possible to meet all their own standards exactly and succeed as a business. They work with countries and factories all over the world. Most of their popularity coming from the Japanese branch, It has only relatively recently gained a lot more recognition here in the UK.

As Ashleigh talked about the brand structure, how they build a range and the strong ethical principals of the company, it really came across how much they aspire to be the ethical brand, do everything in their power to do the best for the environment, developing communities and at the same time be a commercially viable brand, which is absolutely key in the up coming ethical market. Throughout the evening it was a great atmosphere and we even had a sneak preview of the spring/summer 13 collection.

Images courtesy of www.peopletree.co.uk. 1. hand woven black dress with luxurious floral embroidery and gold sequin embellishment. 2.statement black dress with red applique on the hem. 3. Sr Vineetha of Assisi Garments in the organic cotton store

BREATHE

A new artwork by Dryden Goodwin, exhibited in the forefront of London’s polluted streets. The installation of a young child’s breathing movements is presented from the roof of St Thomas’ Hospital in London as a large scale outdoor video projection exploring how air sustains us but also insidiously corrupts and damages our young. It represents the dangers of the cities pollution on children and their chances of developing respiratory problems as they grow older.

Watch an eerie video of the installation here:

http://breathe-drydengoodwin.net/

Source: http://invisibledust.com/project/dryden-goodwin-kings-college-and-st-thomas-london/

http://www.ahsw.org.uk/news.aspx?id=377

Tokyo businessman

Photographer Bruno Quinquet depicts the alternate life of the Tokyo business man in his series of photos in the salaryman project.

Source: http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/bruno-quinquet

Blood Ivory

An investigation by National geographic delves into the scandalous ivory smuggling and mass elephant murders committed only last year. Thousands of elephant families die each year for their tusks to be carved into religious objects. Africa and Asia are the worst areas for this horrific crime, China possibly the worst. Some Monks and Buddha’s believe the ivory carvings will protect them from harm and remove bad spirits. They are viewed as essential for worship.

An Eerie elephant cemetery in Thailand shows the devastation all the poor elephant families suffered as a result.

http://www.socialphy.com/posts/off-topic/15001/Why-were-25_000-elephants-killed-last-year_.html

The ivory burning protest in Kenya 2011- 5.5 tons of smuggled ivory is burned to support the global ivory ban.

http://www.elephanttrust.org/node/822/image_gallery?page=2

Source: National geographic report “Blood ivory” October 2012 issue

Hand crafted crochet winter hat

My first attempt at a crochet hat.

Using a 3.5mm needle and a melange of angora wool and possibly an acrylic metallic mix wool. For the next crochet craft I will only use my old wools and natural good quality British wools.

Real Fantasies

Pradas A/W 2012 collection is inspired by the past and future with hints of Blade runner style landscapes and emotionless backgrounds, 60's prints, structured suits and geometric patterns create a dystopian society injected with a bit of (old)fashioned steam punk.

Courtesy of: http://www.prada.com/en/real-fantasies-fw12/motion-book?cc=UK

A conscience combination

1. UNCOMMONLY BEAUTIFUL recycled leather vintage necklace

2. MISSCOGIRL vegan leather satchel

3. RELUXE plaid button front skirt made from upcycled shirts in the UK. 

Pictures courtesy of http://www.fashion-conscience.com/ethical-fashion-brands