Out and About.

Bin bird. A colourful member of the crowd hanging out on Vyner street during a 'First Thursdays' gallery crawl.

Rainbow Staircase. Solange jewellery boutique on Bond Street.

Colourful Crowd. Private Viewing of the 'Street Lights' collaborative showcase between RCA student and the high end jewellery boutiques on Bond Street

Double Denim.

COLLECT. 2011.

One of the major events on my calendar has been to visit COLLECT, the annual international contemporary craft fair held at the Saatchi gallery.

Held over 4 days and encompassing the entire gallery's 3 floors, it was quite the overwhelming experience.

I wish i could say that i spent an entire day slowly perusing the stands, carefully inspecting piece ofter piece, but after a good hour or so, it all got a bit much. Jewellers and jewellery, objects and installations began to merge into a foggy blur as i started to spill over with visual information. I picked up the pace and began to scan the stands discerningly for stand out works that forced me to stop and take a closer look. Some of these artists included:

Tobias Alm from Galerie Rob Koudijs

Mirjam Hiller, Julie Blyfield (Aust), Catherine Truman (Aust), from Galerie Ra

Lina Peterson from Lesley Craze

Michelle Taylor (Aust), Alternatives Gallery

(sorry no pics from the showcases)

And yes, amongst 3 massive floors of international stands, quite a few of my favourite artists on show were ozzies!

Overall a fantastic survey of international contemporary jeweller and object. Personally i found a large portion of the work underwhelming, but that only helped to highlight the real stand outs.

Gallery collections as a whole, my favourites would have to have been, Galleries Ra (Netherlands), Marzee (Germany), Alternatives (Italy). Obvious choices i know, but they where my real hero moments.

Rambling round London.

Issey Miyake and Irving Penn

While trawling the web in search of things to do in London, i found something really interesting to do in Japan. An exhibition showcasing the collaborative efforts of photographer Irving Penn and designer Issey Miyake. Here's a link for more info:http://www.ftape.com/media/?p=21308

Damn! Why can't i be in more than one place at a time!?!?!?!?

Fresh off the boat.

It's been a week since i landed in London and am still finding my feet, slowly navigating my way through the myriad of twisting winding streets and the never ending overlapping web of zones, boroughs and postcodes.

So i thought for my first post, these shots would be a nice way to start things off, seeing as i am still feeling a little like a fish out of water...

1.

Hot Jellied Eels. Broadway Market.

Read more about this great shop here: http://broadwaymarket.co.uk/index.php?page=history

(sorry lee, i haven't eaten there yet. maybe i'll wait till you get here)

2.

Ron's Eel and Shell Fish. On Regent's Canal.

3&4.

Mosaic Showing Sea Life.

British Museum. Roman Panel 1st Century AD.