David Ellwand

I regret that my new-mama exhaustion forbids much posting here, but sometimes I find a way...

My husband and I were given the most stunning book for our wedding last year and it simply has to be shared: David Ellwand's book Fairie-ality Style. Using nature as his material he creates fairy dresses and furniture in a series of magical photographs. For any nature lover it is sublime, and teaches you to see the beauty around you anew.

When I need a dose of beauty I leaf through this book and my heart and spirit soar!

Sibylle Bergemann

Hello readers, I know it's been 2 months since I last posted... my little 5 month old son is keeping me happily busy and yet the world continues to bear treasure, as usual.

I had a rare day out with my lovely painter friend Leena and together we saw the latest exhibition at the ever wonderful C/O of polaroids by a famous German photographer Sibylle Bergemann, whom I'm ashamed to say I had not heard of before. Born in 1941 in East Germany, she died last year at the young age of 69! She was one of the founders of the well-respected Ostkreuz photographic agency. Her work was beautiful, romantic, nostalgic, dreamy and very feminine. And it made us both want a polaroid camera.

Sandrine Estrade Boulet

Well, just a quickie because her work is absolutely charmingly irresistable! Having my little boy Benedikt keeps me so busy that my checking in here has been woeful, but occasionally I just have to!
So, I just discovered the work of this French artist Sandrine Estrade Boulet. She adds her imaginative vision to everyday life scenes and the result is pure poetry and fun. Check her out and keep your eyes out, I guess, if you're in Paris...

8 1/2 concept store

Formerly only pop-up stores for eight and a half weeks around Berlin and other cities, 8 ½ now has a permanent home - a concept store for young designer fashion and accessories, mostly from Berlin. The shop is gorgeous and stocks some really talented young designers, such as Esther Perbandt, Clarissa Labin (wonderful knits) and juliaandben, as well as an array of art books, vinyl and cds.

I had fun with the salesgirls and bought a 3D print dress, for summer and post-baby, by London store Beyond the Valley. Come on spring, let's bring on the sun and new life!

Kollwitzstrasse 42, 10405 Berlin-Prenzlauerberg
Open from 11.00-19.00

Dr Sketchy's Anti Art Class

If you like drawing and fancy a Life Drawing class with sexy burlesque dancers for models, then Dr Sketchy's Anti-Art class is a must for you!

I went to the last one with a friend and it was so much fun. 3 hours of sketching sexy models in wild poses, including little competitions on the way to win some gorgeous looking books... No, I didn't win one, but one of my drawings was selected as a contender...

Held once a month at White Trash Fast Food at Schönhauser Allee 6-7, 10119 Berlin Mitte. Check the website for details.

Textile Arts Center New York

Sometimes I wish I could just snap my fingers and be in say NY. The wonderful-sounding Textile Arts Center, where I was in Joetta Maue's group show "From the Tongue" earlier this year, is currently indulging in an interactive knitting show Virgin Knitters, with Kimberly Hall.

It's Brooklyn based and booming and is even taking applications for studio rentals - now that's something I would dive for if I lived in NY and was not having a baby right now on the other side of the Atlantic!

Textile Arts Center
505 Carroll Street
Brooklyn (Park Slope), 11215 NY

Tel: +718 - 369 0222

Kenny Muhammed

At the moment I have the incredible fortune to be in Cartagena Spain, in the Murcia region where my husband is working. And it so happens there is the fascinating Manifesta 8 contemporary European art biennale on here since yesterday!

I visited one of the Murcia venues yesterday, an old derelict post office in the centre of the elegant, slightly crumbling city, and was particularly taken by a video work featuring beatboxer Kenny Muhammed, born NY in 1968. He musically interpreted the prayers of several artists for their work in the future and Kenny had me riveted. He made every sound of what sounded like 6 simultaneous tracks!! 

I had the most beautiful moment afterwards, wandering the streets, when I ran into him, stopped him to check it was him, and yes it was. A charming man of huge talent. Check him out. He has an album coming out soon and I will be dancing with my pregnant belly to it in the coming months!

Deborah Paauwe

So I am back from our wonderful motorbiking honeymoon to the mountains of the Süd Tirol region. There are a few things to blog about from the trip but I suddenly had an urge to look at the work of USA born but longtime Australian resident Deborah Paauwe. She is a photographer of sumptuous, tender, erotic femaleness/femininity, mostly through cropped close-ups of body, textiles and dress... just up my alley. Fashion and photography rolled into one...

Niche Art & Architecture tours Berlin

I stumbled across this very cool site/concept as I was location searching for my husband and my shamanic wedding party venue (of all things!). Niche are a group of 3 lovely German women who lead tours of art or architecture, available in several languages, around this fascinating city of Berlin. What a wonderful idea and I will certainly take one in the autumn when the summer festivities cool down on my agenda.

Olafur Eliasson fog rooms

Yesterday I finished my little cultural catch-up with the Frida Kahlo retrospective and Olafur Eliasson's first Berlin solo show at the Martin Gropius Bau.

I was moved most by Olafur Eliasson's fog rooms which need to be experienced for their pure foggy joy. Always one for a sensory adventure, they were the works that I enjoyed due to their interactive nature - to bathe in coloured fog felt beautiful to me.

Frida Kahlo's work has always interested me for its symbolism and strong female honesty and vulnerability. To see so much of it in one place was a treat indeed! The heaviness of her story was palpable and I admit, I was relieved to have left the Eliasson work until last on my long afternoon at the museum.

Dysfashional

On Thursday night I went to the opening of the Dysfashional exhibition, formerly shown in Luxembourg and Paris, at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in the beautiful Tiergarten of Berlin. It showcases non-clothing and conceptual work from such big names in fashion as Maison Martin Margiela, Bless, Bernard Wilhelm, Hussein Chalayan, amongst several others, and then a special installation Bodies in Motion by students from fashion schools in Paris (Institut Français de la Mode) and Berlin (ESMOD).

I loved the installations by Bernard Willhelm & Christophe Hamaide-Pierson (very cheeky penis pictures as fashion magazine covers) and the artificial hair totems called "Babylone" by Justin Morin & Billie Mertens. I am so excited at the moment by work that makes me laugh out loud and is full of fun and cheek!

Idee

I have found heaven on Earth and it's close to my new home over West!!

Idee is the luxury department store KaDeWe's creative and craft market, filled with every imaginable thing you could possibly need to make whatever you can dream up. It reminds me of a smaller exclusively craft version of Tokyu Hands, (amazing department store for all things do-it-yourself in Tokyo).

How could I have not known about this place before now? Wonderfully exciting.

Roderik Henderson

Last night my friend Sabine and I went to the Sony World Photography Awards here, and saw a selection of winners from 2009. One of the photographers work we fell in love with was that of Dutchman Roderik Henderson.

On show were only these two of his award-winning series "Transvoid", a series of people waiting in their cars where he lived in remote British Columbia Canada. They are exquisitely intimate and nostalgic somehow, the gleam of an elderly lady's silver tooth in the moody light, fixing one portrait for me with the final perfect touch.

Tatau Obscur

Just around the corner from our place is a wonderfully exotic and gorgeous tattoo parlour, and I mean "parlour" in the old fashioned sense, called Tatau Obscur. Run by Berit Uhlhorn, pictured, it is a deliciously decorated feast for the eyes, part kind of 1950s diner/café, part exotica boutique, part art gallery downstairs and tattoo parlour upstairs. Every detail has been considered so that you literally walk into a "world".

Some seriously talented female resident tattooists work alongside guest artists and the outcome is without fail unique and yes, obscure!

Feather Fascinators with Ruby Rouge

Today I met a gorgeous British girl who goes by the name Ruby Rouge. She was teaching me and another lovely artist Leena how to make our first feather fascinator. Ruby had a very successful London business for Burlesque accessories and has now relocated to Berlin to pursue other creative interests. We had great fun rummaging in her vast treasure box to create a little bit of fantasy, me for my upcoming wedding and Leena for use in her painting work.

Next on the list is how to make Nippel Tassels!

Prudence Murphy

My longtime friend Prue Murphy has finally launched her website - hooray! Lovely to see her work all in one place. Over the early years I assisted with her work often and performed with her in The Love Nest. And my French father (above) also makes an appearance, along with her own father, in her Male Grooming series - bless them.

I am loving her recent work for all those closet and not-so-closet (like me) LEGO fans!
Bravo girl, good to see your work up and about.

Sang Bleu 5

My friend Liz Ham in Sydney and I are two of many contributors to the new issue of sexy Sang Bleu magazine. Look out for all of me somewhere in the 600 page tome of delights... I am looking forward to seeing it very soooooon...

Good advice from an Etsian

I loved this advice to take your Artist self to your day job (office) from Etsian Summer Pierre. For those of us, me included, who would so love to be able to live and thrive from our creations, this is sound advice until that day comes into being.

For me, when I dress up to express my true inner self, then I am happiest, for sure. Whatever your art is, live it, be it, all the time, wherever you are, whatever you are doing. Thanks Summer, for the reminder!

http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780399535642?aff=etsy

Upon A Fold

My very dear Sydney friend Cherine's sister Justine Fahd has just launched her online Paper boutique Upon A Fold. Her collection of papergoods from around the world is so beautifully selected and brimming with treasure. I am so excited for her and wish her well with this new, long-awaited venture.

http://uponafold.com.au/blog

Object Gallery

This may well be my last stop on this tour of my birth city Sydney, before I fly back to Berlin and bury myself in the snow to create my own brand of treasure.

Another must-see on my Sydney list is always Object Gallery, home of all things design and craft in a beautiful, light, round gallery in trendy Surry Hills. It is always beautifully curated and the little shop Collect on street level as you enter sells a great selection of handmade treasure by internationally respected Aussie craftspeople and designers.

417 Bourke Street
Surry Hills NSW 2010

Opening hours
Tuesday to Sunday (closed Monday)
11am - 6pm