Cafe Animals

The Drawing Room Cafe invited me to exhibit in their beautiful gallery|cafe over December and January. Here are some images of the exhibition which closes 25 January 2016.

Please pop in and have a delicious coffee with the owners Derek and Candice. My favourite breakfast dish is the Spanish omelette!

The Drawing Room Cafe's signage cannot be missed. Walk towards the Observatory train station and there it is on your right!

That's Derek at the counter brewing a great cup of coffee!

Behind Eddie is work by Sarah Wocknitz' Crane, Dassies & Moons and Maria Lebedeva's Tiger, Otter, Natural Habitat #1 and Natural Habitat #2

All framed and ready for their new home ;)

Sarah Wocknitz' Moons and Maria Lebedeva's Tiger, Otter, Natural Habitat #1 and Natural Habitat #2

I love the comfortable chairs at The Drawing Room Cafe. They are perfect for reading while you sip tea!

Above are Sarah Wocknitz'  Moons and Maria Lebedeva's Otter, Tiger, Natural Habitat #1 and Natural Habitat #2

Sarah Wocknitz' Crane and Dassies

The beautiful diorama's by Flagg

On the left are the framed Artymiss works; Karoo, Clifton, Muizenberg & Porthole

On the right, the Safari Series by Maria Lebedeva of the Rabbit, Bear and Unicorn

Safari animals and dinosaurs

The wonderful imagination of Patrick Latimer!

Dinosaurs, Predator, dogs, fox and penguin!

The hilarious and wonderful work of the Latimer brothers; Alex and Patrick

Eddie chills in his favourite spot at The Drawing Room Cafe

The Drawing Room Cafe

87 Station Road

Observatory

+27 82 672 0515

Introducing Metal from KIN: Paper | Metal | Clay

Whenever I see a piece of jewellery worn, I wonder about the story.

A celebration? A moment of joy? A reminder? A gift to oneself?

Aren't they lovely, these stories we carry with us?

    

    

  

 

      

    

  

   

Introducing Paper from KIN: Paper | Metal | Clay

Paper popping up, drawn on, etched into, cut, printed, creating worlds, protecting precious objects.

With laughter, whimsy and love.

     

   

   

   

New KIN

_____

Lift the bowl
from the bottom shelf
and hold it
in both hands. Cup
the bowl. Let your palms
feel its weight. Wonder (...)
- Melissa Butler

After six years of providing a platform to South African design, I felt my focus shift. 

Locally manufactured was always integral to KIN; it was the first criteria of all objects in our bricks and mortar pop-ups, and then in our stores and then online.

Another was our love for the object and our devotion to the story around the object. 

I believe that our focus on ethical manufacturing can now take flight and go beyond our previous bricks and mortar bound existence

KIN’s focus remains very simple. But now, through our most beloved materials of paper, metal and clay, I will be focusing on:
Place: KIN's heart is in locally manufactured design
Meaning: KIN is the story of where an object comes from and where it will go
Craftsmanship: KIN is well made and made to last. Period.

Please join Eddie and I as we journey to designers' spaces and discover beautifully crafted pieces for your hands, homes and hearts.

To find Melissa Butler's book of poetry 'Removing', I order my copies from my favourite Cape Town bookstore, The Book Lounge.

Time Loops

As we planned for the exhibition Our Fathers, Kirsty Cockerill, director of the AVA at the time, and I sought to find artists dealing with the concept of fatherhood. With this in mind, I attended the Michaelis Graduate exhibition and visited the work of a young artist, David Brits.

David's exhibition centred on his father and was entitled Vaderland. It felt that, like me, David was battling with the concept of the father and the many faces the father wears. How does one reconcile the loving father with the warring father? Is it possible to forgive the ever-absent father?

The questions I asked about the two aspects were not answered in David's work, but they unravelled - visually. I immediately included some of his works in Our Fathers.​

This looking at the father figure has continued through the years as investigation in both Victor Victor and 1969, and now as a memorial in Snake Man. I stood in the gallery and followed the curves and movements of the black line in David's linocuts.

And it seems that David and I have aligned again.

My grandfather was my greatest male ally in the world and although he passed two decades ago, the closeness and safety of the relationship is a touchstone. So it is with a great deal of reverence that I approached the work David describes as "a love letter from me to him, from a grandson to a grandfather, a final farewell from the here-now to the here-after; a meditation on paternal love".

It was not the portraits from newspaper clippings capturing John Wood's smile and his deft handling of the snakes that made my heart stop; it was these loops.

The echoing and winding of them, the mirror of the loops to each other, in the same way that we are mirrors of each other.

Grandfather to father to son.

Each, hopefully, a better loop than the one from whence we came.





For more images and David's statement, please visit David's website and the beautiful gallery, SMITH studio.

Our Exquisite #SpringHasSprung Windows

To welcome the loveliest of seasons back to Cape Town, Aviv of Forever Love and Camilla Artisan Florist have teamed up to bring a real forest right into the store! The display smells as fresh and green as it looks! What a privilege to have all this natural beauty in store for a whole month :)

Aviv of Forever Love setting up a comfy home for her precious wildlife

Camilla is a freelance florist with over 15 years experience creating stunning floral compositions for weddings, functions and individual clients. Aviv is one of our KIN jewellery designers and her hand-cut pieces feature bunnies, wolves, owls & foxes roaming intricate, layered landscapes of silver, brass, bronze & copper. We knew the work of each of these talented creatives would complement the other, and our beautiful #SpringHasSprung windows are proof of another wonderful #KINcollaboration <3

Feeling right at home in #KINonKloof's little forest, intricate, layered necklaces by Forever Love

Camilla working her magic - pop over to Camilla Artisan Florist 's page to get in touch with this talented, green-fingered artist!

Each of Forever Love's pieces is carefully hand-cut from layers of sterling silver, brass, copper and bronze and so no two will ever be the same.

Each of Forever Love's pieces is carefully hand-cut from layers of sterling silver, brass, copper and bronze and so no two will ever be the same.

Choosing the right blooms for the right occasion, conditions and composition is something that comes naturally to Camilla

Each of Forever Love's pieces is carefully hand-cut from layers of sterling silver, brass, copper and bronze and so no two will ever be the same.

The window exhibition will be up from 27th August to 19th September so do pop in to admire the natural beauty Camilla has so effortlessly enhanced, and the handcrafted beauty of each of Aviv's exquisite jewellery pieces.  

Forever Love is running a giveaway! Take a selfie in front of our windows, post it to Instagram or Facebook using the hashtags #ForeverLoveJewellery #KINonline #SpringHasSprung & stand a chance to win this beautiful necklace worth R800!

The competition closes September 19th and the winner will be announced September 30th.

Aviv of Forever Love and Camilla in front of the gorgeous window exhibition they created.

 

Follow Forever Love and Camilla Artisan Florist on Facebook here

Or visit their websites here:

http://foreverlove.co.za/

http://artisanfloristcamilla.weebly.com/