Vivian Maier - An extraordinary photographer

Self Portrait

I recently came across the extraordinary story & blog of Vivian Maier's photographs and it totally blew my mind. She died early this year and all her negatives (about 40,000) were bought by John Maloof in an auction in Chicago. Once he started scanning through all her negatives he got more & more intrigued & interested in finding out about her life. The blog is a dedication and is daily updated with her amazing medium format b&w photos of the streets of Chicago from the 50s to the 70s. Her photographs are a true inspiration to me, but it's so ironic that she'll never know that all her work is now being seen & admired by so many people.

Off the beaten track: St. Bride's Church

I love living in London and almost on a daily basis I discover something new about the city. When I first moved here, my friend Ben was a great guide and would take me to loads of fun lunch time walks around our office near Farringdon. During one such walk I came across St. Bride's Church on Fleet Street, and as usual Ben had loads of fun facts to tell me. Apparently the church's architecture which was designed by Sir Christopher Wren (who also designed St. Paul's Cathedral) in 1672 was the inspiration behind the modern day multi tiered Wedding cake. I always thought I'll go back and photograph it and so a few weeks back I did just that.



It was quite hard to take proper pictures of the church because it now surrounded by a loads of tall buildings now. I might try again from the South bank of the Thames some time in the future.

Origin London Crafts Fair: Ceramics

This year was my first visit to the Origin Crafts fair at the Somerset house organized by the Crafts Council recently. I saw a lot of amazing designers... but a few just blew my mind away.
And since I am especially interested in Ceramics here are a few favourites from the show...

Virginia Graham




Jo Davies



Este MacLeod

Autumn Walk

Most days I feel quite weird that I live in London but work outside the city in nearby Watford. My office is actually in the middle of nowhere & it always feels like I'm missing out on things, being away from the city. So I try to cramp up everything I can on the weekends. But working in the middle of nowhere has it's advantages and it's amazing to clear your head and go out for lunch time walks in the woods & by the canal.

More ceramics

I finally managed to collect the rest of the pieces that I'd created for the ceramics course I recently did. The design for the plate was originally supposed to be in two colours to give an effect of a typical checked table cloth. I must say creating these pieces has been the most fun I've had in a long long time and has lead to a whole new world for me. Ceramics is a perfect canvas for all my doodles, illustrations & ideas and even though right now I'm using ready made ceramics... hopefully one day soon I'll make my own.

Surprise Trip to Brussels

Mr. S organized the most amazing amazing Birthday surprise ever by taking me to Brussels for a couple of days. I even got to go on the Euro Star, which was fun since I've never been on it before. It was a fun two days and we managed to see and do loads of things. We both dislike doing anything touristy (if that is a word) & are always looking for off the beaten track things to do when we visit a new place.

Here are the Top 10 things that I loved about Brussels:

1. My favourite part of the trip was the museum of comic art which has an amazing collection of original comic strip art including Tintin, Asterix and the Smurfs.

2. Dining at the fantastic French restaurant Quincaillerie. Which was once a hardware store. Their food is to die for. It was a complete visual and culinary treat! A definite recommendation.

3. Mussels, mussels, mussels - Just couldn't get enough of the different ways they cook mussels.

4. Walking around randomly & discovering interesting bit & bobs.

5. Trying out all the different Beersssss & eat Frites. One of the beers that I tried had 11.5 percent alcohol content!!!!! Was really really potent!

6. Take a ride on the tram. I loveeeeeeeee trams and took a million pictures. Just resisting uploading all of them. :)

8. Walking around the artistic St. Gilles area especially discovering the two medieval prisons close to our B&B

7. Checking out all the Art Nouveau buildings including the Museum of Horta. I was soo bummed that we couldn't take any pictures inside but I've taken a few from the outside on my Lomo camera so hopefully I'll get some nice shots out of that.

9. Waffles with chocolate & cream

10. Travelling on the Euro Star :)