The book is a stunning imaginary collection of shoes (with matching handbags, no less!!!) created from botanical photos. More precisely – every item is meticulously crafted from photographs of a single plant or flower. It’s a glorious homage to shoes, to beauty, to art and I guess also to all the women. See the two amazing photos below to see what I mean:
As of yesterday I have a new favourite photographer – Michel Tcherevkoff. He’s known mainly for his work on advertisement photography for major cosmetic brands, he earned this title for the one amazing project he created – Flower Footwear (“Shoe-Fleur” – see cover on the left). The book is a stunning imaginary collection of shoes (with matching handbags, no less!!!) created from botanical photos. More precisely – every item is meticulously crafted from photographs of a single plant or flower. It’s a glorious homage to shoes, to beauty, to art and I guess also to all the women. See the two amazing photos below to see what I mean: And here are all the other prints from this one-of-a-kind collection which I could find on the Internet – there are many, many others in the book, all divided into a number of collections and with stories behind their creation… It takes an amazing imagination and creativity, paired with skill, to create something so elegant, charming, playful and both simple and complex at the same time. The official website of the project can be found here. And here – just to give you an idea – is one of the amazing bags designed to accompany the fairy-tale shoes… I so wish it could be real…
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Remember when I introduced you to a James Bond sleek model of a duck? Well, a few days ago I came upon a few of them on a pond in Rotterdam, and there was a vicious battle going on for the two present ladies. Let me remind you , these are the James Bond ducks - or what the scientists call the Common Eiders - but I like my name better! ;-) The battle for the James Bond’s girl is, of course, quite vicious. It starts with the males lifting their heads up, inflating their throats to the size of a small balloon and emitting a truly disturbing gurgling sound – it looks something like this (sorry, I have no audio for this…): When it finally comes to battle, it’s quite a vicious one – not like the playful chasing and butt-pecking of the Mallard ducks which I’ve already written about once. I only managed to get one shot – see how much water gets stirred up when two ducky Bonds fight! The winner of the fight proceeds to perform a ritual washing, which looks like this: And after this fast freshening-up he’s ready to take the place at the girl-trophy's side - looking all smug and satisfied. A truly James Bond coup!
Lychee pendant My favourite crystal brand – Swarovski – has recently launched a new collection for Spring/Summer 2010, called “Into the Blue.” I must say that even though some things I’d never wear – like the ring or the pendant with red Lychee figurine – it sure is creative. Inspired obviously by the world beneath the ocean surface, it has some very original and bold pieces. And e.g. the series of Lonely Light pendants is beautiful, especially the one with the light green cristal in the centre (last image in the gallery below). It seems the brand is still firmly pursuing the strategy of trying to appear more fun and more accessible – I think sometimes they overdo it just a bit, but all in all the collection is great to look at. I also like the Seashore Crab pendant and the Boat Charm – would go well with the marine stripes so popular this season - and for some reason even the Erika Out Of The Blue pendant looks fun ;-) Here are a few shots of the new collection, and you can go to the Swarovski website to see the entire new collection. Ever wanted to have one piece of furniture which is unique and just makes a statement? Well, I got an option for you – design by Squint. This is one of their creative masterpieces, just to give you an idea what exactly I’m talking about: Squint is a London based design studio and workshop which specializes is luxurious, unique, traditionally made furniture and accessories – sofas, armchairs, tables, mirrors, cabinets etc. Their creations are always bursting with colour, made with a combination of modern and vintage materials, and of course cost a fortune. But I guess if you have a house spacious enough to fit in a piece of furniture like that, then you also have the money to afford it ;-) Anyway, it’s definitely a pleasure to look at these – so let’s do it! Here are is a selection of sofas, I think I like the two shown on the first three photos best: And here are equally outrageous armchairs – I wonder if they’d be comfortable, too? Squint also transfers its patchwork-like patterns to furniture without upholstery – e.g. cabinet. Here’s the result – what do you think? I think it looks better on sofas and chairs, but original and creative it certainly is. Visit the Squint’s website by clicking here – and browse through the entire range of their creations.
Have you ever heard of IJmuiden? No? Well, I’m not really surprised, it’s not exactly on the list of Top-25 places to see in the Netherlands. I went there last Saturday only because it’s supposed to be a good birding spot, but unfortunately the birds failed to turn up :-( Still, I’m very happy I went there, even though the moment I got off the bus I had an impression that I’ve just found the Dutch “middle-of-nowhere” – there was not one person in sight! Well, they don’t know what they’re missing - there’s a gorgeous, huge beach, a picturesque yacht port and of course Zuidpier – a 2,5km long pier you can walk along all the way till the end. Huge industrial ships are passing by, sailing into the inland harbor port. Next to the beach is a large park with a lake and extensive dunes – great walking and water sports area. See for yourself! Last weekend my neighborhood park has gained a new inhabitant – a big and impressive bird which I spotted standing still as a stone on the canal’s shore, on what must be the beginnings of a nest. It resembled the grey herons which I see there regularly, but it had more colour to its feathers, was bigger and more “fluffy” – for lack of a better word, had an additional black feather sticking out from the back of its head and a huge beard made up from loosely hanging long feathers. My assumption that it must be a different kind of heron turned out to be wrong. Who would’ve guessed that it was the so-well-known-to-me grey heron, but an alpha male “decked out” in its decorative plumage at the beginning of a mating/breeding season? Amazing to what lengths a guy would go to attract females - at least in the bird world… ;-) The rear of your bike where you fasten the biker’s bags is not the only place on your bike where you can transport things. A well-equipped Dutch bike also has a crate or a basket fastened in front of it – perfect solution for transporting your bag, small shopping or your dog ;-) (I’m not kidding, there’s a special category of bike baskets for transporting dogs!). Here are a few cute examples, all taken from fietstas-online.nl website – visit it to browse through dozens of other possibilities. Images and photography seem to be all the rage in the world of interior design – and it’s a trend I definitely applaud. So we’ve seen the wall, cupboard and mirror stickers, photos framed in hundreds of ways, posters, wallpapers with photos – and now comes a new idea in this series – photos overprinted on tiles. The concept has been introduced by the French company Okhyo (www.okhyo.com). The idea is for a surface covered with tiles to show one, huge image – each single tile is overprinted with just a small portion of the entire photo. There is a library of standard designs you can choose from for your kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living room and office, but there is also an extra option of personalizing your tiles masterpiece by having your own photo printed on it! Let’s take a look at a few standard Okhyo designs. Now, I have to say I definitely wouldn’t mind to take a shower in a shower cabin looking like this: Or taking a relaxing bath in such an exotic bathroom: For the kitchen, I like those two designs most: And for the living room these are my two definite favourites – I love everything which is black-white-red, and even though I’m usually not so much into modern interiors, but these I absolutely adore: You can view the entire gallery of tile designs at www.okhyo.com
This small bird has been one of my most recent photo-challenges in the last two weeks. Called the Great Tit, it sure looks cute on the photos with its yellow fluffy belly, but it’s extremely frustrating to catch it with a camera. Every park is full of them, but they rarely sit somewhere for longer than a second and usually choose dense bushes or trees to hide in. And when they fly, they fly fast and a bit erratically, in arches, as if they were jumping from one invisible pole to another. As a result you get to hear them – they have a pretty, distinctive song – but you rarely get to actually see them… Here are the results of several of my challenging Great Tit hunting – enjoy! Spring is here and so is the strong craving to change something. I guess a lot of people get a sudden burst of enthusiasm towards "spring cleaning" but what I get is a modified version of it - I want to change something, e.g. my hair colour or my wardrobe. Now, this year the hair colour is not an option since only quite recently I've hit a jackpot on the exactly right red/ginger hair colour I've always wanted, and changing an entire wardrobe is as usual rather expensive. So instead I fell in love with a bag collection which I'm sure would add a splash of colour and flair to any wardrobe! I've written about Pip Studio before, but back then I was mainly focusing on their porcelain. I had no idea that they have annual collections of high-fashion bags too, and once I saw it, I was a total goner... The bags are not exactly cheap, but I think this time I'm willing to splurge on it and treat myself to one awesome Spring bag - I just need to decide which one!!! I have three favourites so far - please give me your thoughts what you think! Here is the one I think I like most: And here are two other runner-ups for the first place, and they're really close behind the one above!!! Those Spring shopping dilemas.. And here come a few others from the Spring/Summer 2010 line. Visit Pip Studio website to view the entire collection!
So the question is: Which one shall I choose?! |
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August 2012
AuthorA fiery red head, a writer and a photographer in love with beautiful design and all things creative |