À Bruxelles: Around Le Marché aux Puces

Some photos I took today around the Marché aux Puces. I liked more the shops around than the marché itself, maybe because I came too late and the nice things were already gone.

À Bruxelles. Architecture.

Brussels is the city of Art Nouveau. Paris too, but it's diluted among all its other charms. In Brussels, the works of Victor Horta, Paul Ankar and Paul Cauchie (among many others) are true jewels to the city.

This houses are always silent and shy, like if by means of a spell only some chosen people could actually see them while they stay disguised and unnoticeable for the rest. When you visit them for a second time, they remember you.

This is the house and atelier of the painter Ciamberlani, made by Paul Hankar in 1897. It's not one of the most famous but it has excellent and newly restored sgraffito decorations.









It's nice how each great city of Europe has it's own kind of Art Nouveau and how it means something architecturally different for each of them: the manificent Art Nouveau of Paris, that was even applied to the metro stations, the misterious Secession of Vienna, the bulkyness of the scandinavian Jugendstil...And they all remember you when you visit them again.

À Bruxelles: ISABELLE BAJART Vintage Clothing

At the number 25 of Rue des Chartreux I found last year the lovely and misterious shop of Isabelle Bajart. I found it by chance and as soon as I came again to Brussels I hurried there with my camera. She is a very pretty woman herself and her shop with wooden floors, semi-darkness and rare vintage pieces has a certain ability of detaching itself from the outside world in a way you don't remember anymore where you were or were going to when you return to the street.

In this shop, vintage goes a step further. The love for vintage is not only the pre-loved clothing itself, but to royalize it by providing a setting in which the pieces can be proud of themselves, of their age, the time in which they were made and the history behind them.







The light, the different levels that create a promenade, the greens, the corals, the beiges, the little jewelry findings and the complex architecture you find above you if you happen to lift your head up makes the shop of Isabelle Bajart a total must* of Brussels.

nice! more tips on Brussels coming soon

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*) It's the first time I use this word, I think it must be the methamorphosis of the blogger!

Tattly

One of my daily reads has surprised me with an amazing project. Swissmiss has just launched a lovely project. Ever thought of getting a tattoo? Not in my case, but temporary tattoos is something that always reminds of one's own childhood! And it attracts me as much as analogical things. What does a film camera has to do with a temporary tattoo? Not much, it's just that it's not as they are supposed to be. Photos are supposed to be digital and tattoos are supposed to be forever. Oh my I'm beating around the bush!

What I wanted to share with you is the lovely project of Tattly, a compendium of amazing temporary tattoos created by contributing designers and brought to life by Swissmiss.

It was not until I had a deeper look at how she describes the proyect: 'Tattlys are perfect for people like me, that can’t commit to a real tattoo and for designer parents, that want to raise their kids with style.', that I realised they were actually intended for kids...

This are the Tattlys


Color Burst


Tattone


Instant Camera


How cool for a kid is it to go to school with these? And when I say 'kid' and 'school' I mean 'architect' and 'studio' and 'me', of course!

from the beach with love

my little architect is having some days by the shore to mumble new fresh ideas to myself and develop a new change of look for the shop. In the meanwhile, a summer look to walk around the old streets making photos of the southern city in which I find myself.

++ Knot Front Denim Dress, Boutique by Jaeger.

++ a nice necklace by homako

++ minty bag by keecie

++ Dolce Vita, beaded flat sandals by Nyle.

Sensitive Boyfriend

This pillow case by Sensitive Boyfriend is lovely! Find it at Supermarket Sarah

Supermarket Sarah makes very nice walls displays! See them here, they are interactive and very fun way to shop online too.

This are one of my favourites, click on them and check how nice is to browse around the items:

Terrible...

Summer is Southern Spain is not so nice as one may think...it is so hot one cannot work, or study, or sleep or concentrate. Air Conditionate makes my throat ache so I try to survive with a little fan and shutters down with temperatures of over 40ºC. Still, I'm working on new colorful summer necklaces which I hope I'll be sharing with you soon!

++Fun Pack nº1 by leah goren decorating my wall.

On the street, a hat is quite useful. Noone wears them here since the fifties, excepting some hipsters nowadays and tourists too. Wish everybody weared hats...

Homako

My homako bow necklace has arrived safely! I have longed for an HOMAKO necklace for a while. I'm so happy!

There are many pieces of jewelry made with felt and fabric, and none like the ones made by Yoko Minemura. Nevertheless, what actually made me decide to buy it were her rabbit-mask photos, I just couldn't resist it!

This photo belongs to Yoko Minemura, check some more in her flickr, they are all lovely and full of weird fantasy.

Seriously, the rabbit-mask, the cardboard raindrops in these photos and many other objects are a way to disturb reality in order to capture another reality which is foreign to us. A sort of Alice in Wonderland, because everything was real to Alice across the mirror.

Nice things

New things arrived safely at home:

1. Topknot from Plastic Foliage (with awesome package design) 2. Greasy Paints from MUJI

Marie, the girl behind Plastic Foliage, has been very kind giving me some tips on online business and she makes nice and colorful things, from accessories to handsoap.

This photos are from her shop, her blog and her flickr:

It's amazing the wide range of product lines, shirts made with vintage fabric to kids clothes, printed tshirts...

And her famous hand-soaps:

Girls like her that work hard to have their clothes, accessories, packaging and websites up-to-date and have fun while doing it cheer me up to keep working on my own work, despite exams and works and everyday issues...thanks!

Dresscode Navy

This is the invitation card I did on the go for a little party with my friends, navy inspired. Everybody has to wear at least a piece of clothing with stripes. It's going to be fun!

I'm not sure if I should turn this into a proper fancy-dress party and give prices to the best costume, I'm afraid to scare my friends! Let's leave it on just a striped Tshirt...

edit: They all came with striped tshirts and navy motifs! We had a lovely time indeed!

Ostentatoire, Paris

While I was wandering around le Marais for some shopping, I got a bit lost searching for a quiet and not crowded café for my evening tea, and while I was slowly walking through rue Elzevir I found one of the nicest shop I've ever been to. I say this because I come from a very small city where this kind of shops may only be heard of in song, to quotate The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany (again).

Now that I think of it, it feels quite improbable to walk through a street with such a magical name and not finding something marvelous. The name Elzevir itself sounds a bit like a spell, and what I found was the land of OSTENTATOIRE.

Inside you'll find a selection of avant-garde jewelry by contemporary designers. The shop has the perfect size and atmosphere, the stuffed 'flying' crow made me think of sneaking into a magician's laboratory and get scared and observed by the look of it.

But don't let the crow scare you, the shop has a nice and light-wood coloured appearance. And the little wooden house with a wavy metallic roof where the register can be found made me want to give little screams and jump like a kid wanting to ride on a merry-go-round, 'There, dad, there I want to go'. Luckily I restrained myself to look serious, parisienne and chic.

And everything is full of all kinds of jewelry, from geometrical to figurative, from wooden to resine and metal, from humans to forest animals, from black to lots of lovely colors.



Some other photos I took:










I have made a selection of the jewelry I liked most from their website and their blog.




GALACTICA Necklace from Claire Pain


>
Jewelry from Tatty Devine



Rabbit Necklace from ORIGAMI Jewelry



WENGE ring from EDDG



Banana Man from Haoshi Studio


I loved everything. I got even nervous when I took my camera and had to speak some french. I would have stayed more time, but I was feeling really timid and shy to speak to them. Hope next time I'm in Paris I can have a further look to everything....

À Paris

Ah, I love Paris, specially when I have a good reason to visit it so often. This time I took my reflex camera with me, to try to improve my skills on photography, since it's not long since I got 'catched' by it. I find it curious to think I used to reject Photography in benefit of Art and Design. I used to have a wrong concept of it and I even thought that if I had to make proffesional photos, I should always have to control the object I am shooting. I remember having this conversation with 2 danish girls who where studying architecture in Vienna with me, and I explained that I would always modify and interphere with the object, to be a mediator between the photo and the observer. That is just a deformation of having being educated on an artistic background.

But, alas, at that time I had never made a photograph. Not a real one (digital compact cameras and mobile phones doesn't sound to me like real photography). Not a mechanical device. I had not heard the "click", the sound of the camera. How I arrived to hear it, that's another story which I might tell some other day, when I feel like it.

Wish I could have a long nice talk again with those two nice girls from Denmark which were so interested in Photography, with a coffee and maybe one of those delicious cakes they make. A photo is not a canvas. I think I'm happy to have learned that. It's not much but it's a start.

Here are some photos I took in Paris this weekend. The objects I photographied are not very interesting, for there are tons of photos of flowers and flohmarkets around the blogs of the world. However I felt I wanted to have my own photos of them, and move over to new things.


from the window seat




near le Panthéon.




at Le Marais














Delacroix Museum






lovely shop at Saint Germain




Marché de Saint Sulpice




Pavillon de l'Arsenal