One piece of work which really stood out to me was a recent blog post on her wedding invitations. The central red cord whose knot ties ever tighter as you open the card is a beautiful illustration of the intrinsic Asian myth concerning red threads of destiny. (This triggered a memory of a Japanese film called Ashura which plays on this theme and is about a kabuki actor…)

Sojung’s blog also has links to information about some books which she illustrated for her degree work. I really liked the story of the blue boy (complete with pink cat) I love Sojung’s uses of colour and mark-making; in her light-handed work they become characters of their own. This is especially prominent in the ‘Red Mermaid’ project about a birthmark.

I’m hoping that her work might be available to purchase in print form in the future; meanwhile check out her blog or find her on twitter!

http://kimsojung.wordpress.com

https://twitter.com/creativesojung

-Anushka

All images in this post are reproduced here courtesy of Sojung Kim. 

I started this dress back in December, what seems like months and months ago, upon the prospect of spending most of the winter months up in the North. I am not a huge fan of the North: I feel cold easily and by far prefer more temperate climes; so the plan was to make a woollen pinafore which could be thrown over my pre-existing clothes, both as a way to layer up for the warmth, and to mask what I was wearing underneath by cloaking it in a layer of darkness. However, me being me, personal projects always take a few days to whip up and then wait around for months upon end to be finished. And so, it’s only very recently that I completed this dress!

I chose a very lovely, soft wool flannel with a nice drape and a subtle pinstripe. The trim was ‘borrowed’ from my old workplace, a shiny brocade trim probably meant for upholstery made of a cotton/synthetic blend, and most likely from Barnet Lawson. I used an old pattern that I had lying around for this dress, but made the alterations of adding back darts (it hung horribly until I did so), more length, and a lining to the skirt, not just the bodice.

Finishing hems with satin tape – what I believe is referred to as ‘Prussian binding’ in vintage sewing books – is my latest favourite thing. It is neat and functional, but as the added aesthetic value. However, I think I will have to look for a different supplier of the tape; as the one I have used here is very thin and doesn’t lie very flat. I love the electric blue lining – given to me by the same previous workplace when they were having a clear-out – and the way it matches the hem binding.

My colleague took the photos of me by the lift, and afterwards I went to bother him in the wigs room, where he was attacking a prop wig with a set of heated rollers.

Hilarity soon ensued upon finding a bag of old, unused wigs from past runs. To conclude, I give you: Triangle Heads.

Have a good week-end!
-Anushka

I have a pot of ‘Organic Wild Rose Beauty Balm’ by Neals Yard Remedies, which I use to give myself a little facial with every week. It comes with an (organic) cotton muslin cloth used to steam the face, but I was looking to use something slightly more exfoliating, so as to rid myself of dry skin. I picked up a ball of organic cotton in this gorgeous shade of lavender blue and managed to crochet myself a face flannel/face cloth in just a couple of hours. Being organic cotton, the cloth is incredibly soft and gentle on the face; but the stitch pattern has just enough texture in it to provide a light exfoliation. It was a very quick and easy project, and it’s lovely to be able to use my own handmade items in my daily routine!

It’s incredibly pretty as well as being easy to make. It would make a lovely gift, especially if used to wrap a bar of delicious soap.  I can foresee myself making a number of these to give away, as it would be a good project for a dull morning commute: small and portable, with enough variation in the stitch pattern to keep it interesting.

Pattern

You will need:
3.5mm crochet hook
1x ball Debbie Bliss  Eco Baby, shade 14019 (100% organic cotton, 125m/50g ball)

A note on tension:
I decided to crochet the face cloth with a slightly larger hook than specified by the yarn company so as to create a softer and drapier texture. If you prefer a more solid cloth, with fewer holes between the stitches, use a 3mm hook (or 3.25mm if available).

Instructions :
N.B. UK crochet terms are used with American terms in (brackets).

Chain 56. (Multiple of 6 chains +2)

Row 1: Work 1 DC (SC) in 2nd chain from hook.
*Skip 2 chains, 5 TRC (DC) in next chain. Repeat from * until end of row. Turn work.

Row 2: Chain 3. (This counts as a TRC (DC).) Work 2 TRC (DC) into the next stitch.
*Work 1 DC (SC) in the centre TRC (DC) of the next scallop. Repeat from * until end of row, working 3 TRC (DC) in the last DC (SC). Turn work.

Row 3: Chain 1. Work 1 DC (SC) in the first TRC (DC).
*Work 5 TRC (DC) in the next DC (SC). Work 1 DC (SC) in the centre TRC (DC) of the next scallop. Repeat from * until end of row, finishing by working 1 DC (SC) into the top of the turning chain.

Rows 2 and 3 form the scallop pattern. Repeat these a further 9 times.

Final row: work as for Row 2. At the end of the row, chain 14. Turn work.

Forming the hanging loop: Skipping the first chain, work 13 DC (SC) into this foundation chain.

Break yarn and tie off, securing the end of the DC (SC) strip into a loop on the flannel. Weave in loose ends.

Disclaimer: Although I obviously didn’t invent the shell scallop crochet stitch pattern, these instructions present a version of the stitch which I changed slightly and re-wrote, for more clarity; as well as to suit my own uses in this pattern for a face cloth.

Sheffield is a delightful city to spend some time in, and our week there was full of nice brunches, antiques centres, good pubs and vintage shops. And the theatre, of course. There are a few excellent eateries down a little cobbled mews straight down from Sheffield’s theatres, and I found myself returning to Marmaduke’s time and again due to their excellent food, friendly and relaxed atmosphere, groovy tunes and friendly staff. Plus they offer free refills on Yorkshire teas! One could sit there for hours (though unfortunately they were packing up by 16.45).

The first time we went, Jules chose the full English breakfast (now there’s a girl who loves a fry-up) and myself eggs florentines, which were heaven: big golden yolks cooked to oozy perfection, and an absolutely delicious Hollandaise sauce. I had a little nibble of the baked beans on Jules’ place which were amazing: clearly cooked on site, they were spiced and very moreish.

The exterior of Marmaduke’s is opposite a picturesque cathedral, and it was lovely to sit outside there are we were blessed with mild, sunny weather during our week in Sheffield. Inside is a deli counter stuffed with delights as well as rustic-feeling cafe seating; though there is even more space round the side, as they have a more spacious room with large windows which would make a great setting for afternoon tea.

The second time I visited was a quick pit-stop before work, where I chose a take-away soup. The soup changes daily and each time I read the specials board it sounded utterly delicious; I got cream of watercress, with creme fraiche and strawberry pearls. It was served with a lush piece of rosemary focaccia and was very rich but very delicious.

Creme fraiche topping gives way to zingy green! (Apologies for the crap lighting at work!)

Finally, on my last opportunity to eat there I chose homity pie, and was so indecisive about which salad I wanted on the side that the waiter let me have a smaller selection of everything! This turned out to be the best option, really; and I got to try their yummy spiced chickpea and butternut squash salad, alongside a lighter bulgur wheat, tomato and mint option. The pie, as you will by now have guessed, was totally yummy: perfect pastry and the right amounts of every filling within. (Cheese and potato!)

Marmaduke’s is worth seeking out on your visit to Sheffield, and makes an excellent pitstop after an afternoon of antiquing…perhaps before an evening at a great pub? (I recommend the Lescar; but took no photos there as I was too occupied with guzzling. It’s bloody good food, plus they serve excellent beers – including loads of fruit beers.)

Marmadukes Cafe Deli, 22a Norfolk Row, S1 2PA
Find Marmaduke’s on Facebook and Twitter

Outfit details:
Vintage Japanese haori jacket – a gift 
1920s slip – Klobber in Boscombe 
Lace gloves – hand-me-down 
Jewellery – Antiques of Wimbledon

-Anushka

Well I’ve finally reached the last post on our time spent in Marrakech, and have saved the best till last: Food!

Eating out in Marrakech completely surpassed my expectations. As you might expect, it’s based very much around tagine, couscous and mixed grills. What’s written on the menus may not vary greatly from place to place, but you’ll get a very different experience of the dish each time – in taste, style or size. Alcohol isn’t consumed socially in the same capacity as in Europe, and instead cafés are open all night happy to serve fresh juices, mint teas and delicious coffees. The best discovery for both of us was the pastilla: filo pastry-like rounds stuffed with shredded chicken (or even, more deliciously, pigeon!), ground nuts and cinnamon; then dusted in icing sugar and more cinnamon. We ate a huge number of these throughout the week, varying in quality and taste but always good, and I’m determined to try to make my own pigeon pastilla when I’m next at home.

The restaurants in the main square Jemaa el Fna aren’t too pricey despite being in a prime tourist location, and pretty much everything that we ate and drank there went down very well. You’ll need to visit them when you’re out and about anyhow, to use the facilities (tip: carry small packets of tissues on your person); so you might as well take advantage of the many roof terraces that they have to offer. We ate quite a few times on the terrace at Chez Chegrouni (where the above photo was taken) as the prices were reasonable and the portions generous; you also get a nice view over the rooftops of the souks.

The second place where we spent a lot of time eating was at the night market. Upon dusk, the tourist-trappers on the Jemaa el Fna move round to the edges and make room for the food stalls to set up. It’s fun to wander around here and stare at what everyone is eating, tourists mixed in with the locals: mixed grills, sheep brain, boiled eggs, snails or soup; the food stalls tend to specialise in a particular dish. You’ll find yourself followed by heckling waiters all trying to earn their commission by bringing you to their table; but don’t listen to them when they entreat you to stop walking around apparently aimlessly staring. Though many stalls seem to be serving the same things, in fact they vary quite largely in terms of the quality of service and food that you get.

I highly recommend Stall #1, Chez Aicha; in particular a very friendly waiter called Hassan. Here, the food was good; the service swift and waiters friendly. They didn’t try to rip you off by overcharging or bringing you food you didn’t order…nor did we suffer from the mild food poisoning we endured on our last night when we foolishly ate at a different stall!

Chez Aicha is easy to find as they are the first stall, and you find them on the outer corner of the food market opposite orange juice stall #46.

One night we decided to walk round several stalls and try different foods on offer. This included snails, which were very popular with the locals. It was my first time trying them and I got ridiculously squeamish. They were tasty, meatier that I’d have expected, even if I did have to eat them with my eyes closed!

We also tried the Moroccan soup, served with dates or incredibly sweet ‘gateaux’, crispy fried things absolutely drenched in sugar syrup.

My favourite discoveries from the night market were the delicious, smoky grilled aubergines; spicy merguez sausages; and a refreshing tomato salad.

Other recommendations are the orange juice stalls. You can buy a big glass of fresh orange juice for as little as 4 dirhams (about 35p), or fresh lemon juice for a little more (though stir some sugar in as it’s as sour as it is refreshing!).

We also ate and drank frequently at the tiny roadside cafés, as frequently filled with locals as with tourists, such as on the square near the Badi and Bahia Palaces, La Place des Ferblantiers. Here we ate an absolutely delicious chicken tagine with tomato salad and coffee, which was really cheap. Food is always served with those flat rounds of bread you’ll see everywhere in Marrakech; and I believe that they are baked without preservatives. The bread was often slightly stale if we ate very late at night, which made it harder and denser to chew; but when it was fresh it was soft, delicious and melted in the mouth upon soaking up the gravy in a tagine.

Finally, we only ate in a more formal restaurant once. This is because it was late, we were tired out upon our arrival into the country, and the restaurant was round the corner from the hotel we stayed at. This was the restaurant Al Fassia, and we both highly recommend it. It’s quite a lot pricer than the café-restaurants you’ll find in the Old Town, but affordably so: two courses and a glass of wine each came to the equivalent of £50, and the portions were much larger than on the square, for instance. Run by a women’s co-operative, it’s extremely popular and I’d recommend booking, though we managed to grab a just-vacated table, walking in around 9pm. No photos due to the mood lighting and me being knackered, but take my word for it…if you’re staying in or near Guéliz, it’s worth a visit.

-Anushka

Our last day in Marrakech featured blazing blue skies and bright warmth. We strolled down to the gardens of Jacques Majorelle, a painter and plant collector who made these amazing gardens in the 1920s. They are now owned by Yves Saint Laurent.

I adored the shapes and colours prevalent in the garden, especially the way that the architecture within used traditional Moroccan shapes (such as archways and pools) and craft techniques (such as plaster stucco) to create an interesting, vibrant mixture. The plants featured came from around the world, many desert cacti being native to the Americas and bamboo from across Asia. It was a gorgeous, magical mix of cultures and influences.

What I wore:

Vintage Japanese haori jacket – Gingermegs Vintage in Birmingham
T-shirt – charity shop
Trousers – I made them from a 1980s Issey Miyake pattern
Bag – T.K.Maxx
Brogues – F. Troupe

I felt that my outfit featured appropriately loose, louche, Orientalist lines.

-Anushka

I couldn’t not include these photos I took at the Medersa Ben Yousef from this series on our holiday in Marrakech. It was a koranic school, originally founded in the 14th century, and was restored in the late 20th Century. It features glorious tile work and very complicated stucco. Around the central courtyards are many tiny bedrooms which would have housed the boys coming from far across Morocco to study the religion. An atmosphere of calm and a studious atmosphere remains, despite it no longer being in use.

The photo above was taken from an archway marking the street entrance to the Medersa.

Also taken from just by the street entrance, these women started gesticulating angrily at me. I did not buy one of their baskets.

-Anushka

Chris and I went to Marrakech with the aim in mind to purchase  a handmade glass lantern – a Moroccan craft speciality. We’d seen them hanging up in interiors boutiques in Brighton and London, as well as for sale at Moroccan restaurants and absolutely loved the look; but of course in the UK the prices are greatly inflated. We intended to buy one – and came back with three!

Whilst purchasing the last one we got chatting to the man who owned the shop, who is called Sami. He is really friendly and was keen to improve his English, whilst Chris looked to practice French. He explained that he had been apprenticed to his father, the master craftsman, and could make all the lamps displayed in his shop (though now was focussed on the business side of things). Very kindly, he invited us to see his atelier where all the lamps are made and we went along the next day. There he explained to us the process of making a lantern including how to achieve different finishes. It was incredibly interesting; for instance, with the metal parts of the lantern, the design is traced on by hand, and then every single hole is cut out by hand with a pair of scissors!

One of the many things that I loved about visiting Morocco was how close the link between the maker and the consumer was. Deep into the souks, you can walk round the backs of shops and discover tiny workshops behind shelves of stock; in a belt shop a man sits oiling freshly-cut leather; further away, behind the Medersa Ben Yousef, you hit upon the districts full of specialised craft workers: metal, leather or glass. Within the same city are ateliers dedicated to producing goods, and others dedicated to preparing materials ready to be worked with: treating and colouring glass, or preparing skins.

Ateliers still work within a strong hierarchical system, and it takes decades to become fully trained. As a maker myself I think it’s important to understand how and where things are made and it’s  wonderful to see workshops functioning in this manner, rather than items being produced utterly anonymously in a massive factory totally disconnected from the lifestyle and culture surrounding it. Though produced on masse, Moroccan goods all retain very individual identities;  the lanterns and carpets  in particular are far from uniform. Asking Sami where the lantern designs come from, he simply replies that each artisan has his own ideas and patterns, and will create designs in his own workshop that no one else can exactly reproduce.

The photo above is of Sami hanging up lamps outside his shop. Although there are many lantern shops in Marrakech, if you can I do really recommend that you seek out Sami’s. Though small, it has a surprisingly large and varied amount of stock. We of course haggled over the price, but he didn’t try to outrageously rip us off in the first place. (After a week in Marrakech we learnt to distinguish between a normal first price, and a hideously inflated one aimed solely at tourists.) He also spent time properly packaging up the lamp for us, something which a lot of shopkeepers won’t bother to do; gave us advice about transporting it on the plane; and in the event of this being impossible for us, offered to help us post it back to the UK.

The best way to get to the shop is: from the main square Jemaa el Fna, enter the souk Semarine via the entrance directly opposite the Café de France. Pass the spice stalls and walk up here for a while;  you will get to a fork. Take the right fork (which eventually gets you to the Medersa) and you will find Sami’s shop on the right hand side, roughly in the middle of this part. (Toward the end you’ll reach a part of the souk dedicated to leather belts – you’ve gone too far if you get here) Ask any of the shopkeepers for Sami’s lamp shop as they all know each other.

(He gave us his business card but I don’t have it on me at the time of writing; however, get in touch if you want his contact details if I still haven’t updated this in a while, because he said that he would be happy to show any other visitors around his atelier and speak about lamp-making. In any case it’s always good to know that you’re buying from someone who won’t quote you a dubious price or try to sell you, as an obvious tourist, a product of inferior quality.) 

-Anushka

The Saadian Tombs in Marrakech were ‘discovered’ by French colonials in 1917 and restored, but date back to the 16th Century. Passing under the archway which marks the entrance to the site, you walk through a narrow, dark corridor which twists and turns before suddenly throwing you into a breezy courtyard. The rooms round the side exhibit magnificent examples of carved plaster and cedarwood stucco, as well as beautiful tiling, More graves lie in the grassy garden whilst cats wander around, a mother with a family of kittens as well as another feline, whose fur seems to have been steeped in the pink colour of Marrakech’s walls.

The Badi and Bahia palaces are a short walk away from the Saadian Tombs and on this day we also visited the Badi Palace. You approach it by walking through a garden, scented orange blossom and leaves drifting in the air and butterflies abounding. Dating  to the 19th Century, it is rather different in character from some of the other places which we visited as it was built as the king’s hareem. It totally fulfilled any Orientalist fantasies which one might have regarding such a situation as it was truly a beautiful and sumptuous place, with a very lovely garden within on of the inner courtyards. I only wished that the conservationists might have furnished and dressed some of the rooms, so that one might be able to imagine how people would have lived within. This is extremely common with period houses open to the public in the UK (especially ones owned by the National Trust); and as tourists we would have really liked to see and understand how the interiors would have been and the building would have functioned. Nonetheless it’s a beautiful place for a wander round (if rather crowded with other tourists).

What I wore:

Japanese silk haori jacket – Gingermegs Vintage in Birmingham
Dress - Orla Kiely for People Tree
Socks – old
Brogues – F Troupe
Silk scarf – via my grandmother
Bag – T.K.Maxx

-Anushka