A September Sunday in East London

Breakfast; Smashed avocado and feta/ truffled mushrooms and parmasan with poached eggs on sourdough. Thank you Hackney Bureau (on Mare street). Plus we managed to nab a seat outside of this great busy little joint to make the most of the September sun! 

Morning activity; walk along the canal to Columbia Flower Market, breaking the browsing for a quick coffee and portuguese custard tart in a cute little courtyard. 

Social Stop; dropping by The Owl and Pussycat  pub (near Commercial road) for an early afternoon pint and catch up with friends

Afternoon Adventure; scrambling through the flocking crowds of Brick Lane Market, on the search for some bargain buys. (Will be posting photos of my decked out letter press tray in posts to come!) 

Top Sunday all in all, even if super typically east London. Though worth making the most of it as it will the the last one I will have for a while!

Decoration Transformation!

From this...

To this!

What do you think? 

Hackney Pearl - Restaurant Review - Small cosy local with a strong vibe

Having peered through the large windowed frontage of the Pearl 'like, a gazillion times' over the Summer (being on my walking route between my beau's, the studio of my internship and the station), I'd always looked on enviably to the chilled crowd inside. Despite loving all the reasons I'm walking past, the friendly sense-of-community vibe it radiates is magnetising.  

(The Hackney Wick definition of a local is somewhere that serves proper coffee, brunch and cocktails.)

As I'd never stopped by (for anything more than a solitary glass of wine) I was keen to grab a dinner there before the Summer was through. Though being understandably empty on a rainy Monday night, it still has a great cosy quality to it, making it a nice place to have round the corner. Another benefit is its mid-week set price menu, which along with the daily menu changes regularly.

I've become a fan of weekly-changing menus featuring a select but well chosen range of dishes. You can tell the chef has fun deciding the menu and can make the most of what's in season. 

With a locally brewed beer and a wine to keep the bf happy (which is no mean feat.) We tucked into a delicious homely dinner of Roast chicken thighs and tomatos with pearl barley and a butter bean, pea and spinach ragu with goat's curd. The chicken was perfectly cooked and with a light seasoning, and the creamy ragu was a nice richness, with the curd adding a slight tang to the sauce. 

The food came in surprisingly large portions, and we were stuffed, having had some warm bread to nibble on with our drinks. (That gorgeous corn-bread style stuff with crunchy sea-salt on top!) Luckily I still had room for dessert though (would have been a shame to make the most of the set menu...) 

A delicious fruity frangipani tart with ice cream rounded the meal of perfectly, though wish I could say the same for the rounding of my tummy afterwards. I reckon dropping by here for a coffee and a cake or a beer and some bar snacks more often would not go amiss. 

Dinner was great, and I'd say with the set price menu it's good value for a little place down the road. Even for those visiting from further afield, it is impossible not to feel welcomed by it's homely charms. Open for food everyday until 10PM, and later for drinks, I definitely reckon I'll find myself cosy-ing up in it's snug warmness more often. 

The reason why I'm doing my course (and the reason why I have to keep reminding myself of it)

I'm a very confused creative. I know what I'm inspired by, and I love the ideas I have, trouble is there isn't enough time in the world to do everything. 

If there was a uni course called Textile, Product, 3D, fashion and interior design with illustration and creative writing then that would be a dream come true for me. Trouble is it would have to last about 15 years to be any good. And it would be so intense I wouldn't have time to do anything else that I love.

I do a course called Decorative Arts, that ticks a lot of the right boxes. I like it because it focuses a lot on making, which though isn't necessarily the path I want to take, it forces you to slow down and actually really think about a lot of the issues which art and design raise. 

I've a lot from people that uni isn't the be-all-and-end-all of your creative career. I agree it is just the start. But these three years are essential for me to work out what direction I want to take when I finish. My foundation was the start of something big; it introduced me to the concept of design (sounds stupid now but it's a world you can't comprehend at school.) 

Since then I've spent pretty much every creative pursuit trying to establish the links and divides between art, design and craft. I feel a lot of pressure to specialist in one field, even with one material.  Trouble is I'm not one to focus on material, I much prefer developing a concept then doing that. I use art to investigate, then design to create. 

So right now I'm thinking I'm not a big object person either (though I'll have to be for my course.) I like atmosphere, interaction and "the bigger picture". I found this brilliant quote on a design company's website which I've fallen in love with (regards to Mette) 

"Ideas, Products, Spaces. - Multidisciplinary thinking, designing and making for projects and concepts within food, architecture, interiors and design."

Isn't that just so perfect?!*

(*with a hint of textiles and print too maybe?) 

Mixing Material Projects - Initial thoughts

I received the brief for my next project yesterday, which was greatly exciting as I have been rearing to go back to uni and get back into the workshops. Ideas have been sparking all about in my head since (to add to all the jumble of semi-ideas that have been forming in my head all Summer.) 

There's no better time to start putting some down onto e-paper! (As compared to a scrap of paper I would normally lose, on here I know I won't be able to misplace it.)

At this point now, I know I'm working with two main materials, and the idea is to use them effectively and originally in unison. I selected Textiles and Metal, though was also strongly drawn to print, wood and resin & plastics. 

There's nothing to stop us using more than these two materials in our project, though at my uni it is famously hard to get into a workshop where you haven't had the chance to butter the technician up, so to speak.

Inspirations/ Initial thoughts list (in no particular order or structure)

- Working with food! Kitchen design/ utensil design 

- be able to bring cooking/ recipes into it

- How do people use kitchens? Appropriating spaces/ surfaces

- Relationships people have with mealtimes/ associations

- Recycling/ Sustainability! 

- Bits of metal in kitchen - Can lids/ cans/ screw tops/ biscuit barrel etc.

- Bit of textile in kitchen - cloths/ paper/ oven clothes/ recipe books/ aprons

- Weaving! (using NYC sketchbook drawings)

- Spain drawings/ development

- Writing/ video work

- Make video for pieces 

- RCA/ degree show pieces

- Jewellery

- Wearable kitchen utensils

- Tools, e.g. cutlery

- Textile = cute and kitch. Metal = hard and structural

- Products combining both; clothes with metal fastenings, bags

So, next steps include making a Pinterest Board of secondary research, as well as collecting and sorting my primary research (anything I've done over Summer) to make clear and presentable. (And blag that I knew what I was doing all along... #thingsyoulearnatartschool)

Watch this space!

A summer of colour

A colour sneak peak of posts to come!

Hello and welcome to my blog!

One of the first photos I took this Summer. It's all gone so fast!