Romantic Prose

Shortly before I left my dear Copenhagen there was an amazing festival on called Images Festival which took over Dronning Louises Bro and celebrated multiculturalism and world everything.

At the bottom of the bridge by the neon Irma signs they had a brilliant little setup called 'Remake' where they had lots of recycled activities, free found food and my personal favourite, a little odds and ends jewellery station where I made these little guys. I realised that all you need is a little drill with a 1.5mm bit, a glue gun, some funny little plastic things and jewellery bits and hours of fun can be had!

The best part of this was seeing everyone getting involved, not just children (who were surprisingly in the minority) but grannies, hipsters and stoners alike. Some truly awesome quirky crap was being created a la above.

This was pinned up in a lovely bookshop called 'Rubaeks Boger' on Jaegersborggade. I thought that it summed up a real truth of the world.

The shop is run by two friends who offered us free juice, played records from their little collection of David Bowie, Lou Reed and Dolly Parton and generally liked my friend and I just hanging out and chatting about books, music and Copenhagen. And I also bought a great book from them with cuttings from Vanity Fair from 1920-1939 which had some great pictures and funny little articles in it.

I’m hoping that nice places like this continue to pop up and survive, that’s the great thing about Copenhagen, small businesses aren’t completely drowned out by the big bosses just yet.

The Burning House

I spent this morning browsing through the archives of The Burning House, an on-going photographic project who ask:

“If your house was burning, what would you take with you? It's a conflict between what's practical, valuable and sentimental. What you would take reflects your interests, background and priorities. Think of it as an interview condensed into one question.”

So I decided to do my own. Granted I’m assuming it’s from my Copenhagen apartment where I have much less sentimental things than at my Parents house. I am a hoarder though so this still wasn’t easy.

  1)       Oversized Animal Teacups

2)      Photograph of my Mother and my Nana

3)      English and Danish keys

4)     English and Danish Wallets

5)      Jewellery Tin (with contents)

6)     Portable knife / Wonder Tool

7)      Viewfinder and slides

8)     Playing Cards

9)     Peanut Butter M&Ms

10)   Altoids Tin with Hair Clips in

11)    Passport

12)   Notebooks and Muji Pen

13)   My Nana’s cardigan which is the comfiest thing I own

14)   The Warmest Gloves

The Simpler Rings

Swan Lake

  On Saturday evening a friend and I were enjoying the last of the days sunshine on the bridge with a bottle of cava to boot and opposite our bench a curious sight was taking place.

A swan was sitting on the foot path. Upon further observation we reasoned that it was probably sick. We then noticed the gathering of people cordoning off the swan, asking passers-by kindly to stay outside of their cordon to give the sick bird some space.

  The ring-leader of this operation was a brilliant fellow with a raggedy fur hat, a pipe held in his gloved hand, his smoke drifting from behind a wise beard-and-moustache combo as the Copenhagen sun set behind him, glinting off of his round spectacles.

  There seemed to be a spirit of HC Andersen in that moment, the man himself lying at peace not a mile north of the happening.

A Goonsquad Birthday Party

  Easter weekend marked the beginning of my dear friend’s 26th year and to celebrate I spent the week DIY-ing bright coloured eggs and homemade confetti a la OhHappyDay to make a great easter egg hunt! The eggs were hidden around the botanic gardens with a little chick to guard each egg, one of which was a special golden glitter filled specimen.

It's always nice to get things in the post (even if it was a couple of weeks ago now, shh!)

Matchmaking

I just stumbled across these beautiful matchbox labels, collected, curated and shared by someone called Shailesh Cavdar. They have been organised into country of origin which makes for interesting cultural observation, and I think that the India folder is one of my favourites, especially the printed photos of Bollywood stars.

FleaMarket Finds #03

I picked up this amazing Vera Meat necklace from a collector of hers at a fashion flea market in Norrebro last weekend. It’s a dinosaur robot and he is AWESOME. I’ve been wearing every day since, it’s such a perfect weight and length.

FleaMarket Finds #02

I fell in love with this picture as soon as I saw it. Her Black Dress, His Vacant Expression, The Elaborate and Over-The-Top Painted Background, the Bouquet.

I love how Old Danish photo frames have curved glass in the middle making them look like Victorian bell jars, the pictures inside oddities to be observed.

 I like the idea that this may have been one of the couple’s first times in front of a camera, rather than the constant snapping and self-documentation of today.

Stick + Hook + Ribbon = Jewellery Holder

Just before it got quite so cold and icy I went for a walk in Faelledparken, a huge park area behind the hospital between Norrebro and Osterbro. Theres a lovely little lake with a bridge over it and the fresh air was crisp. I was looking for some good twigs to make little Christmas trees out of and generally enjoying foraging the undergrowth, looking at patterns on tree stumps and whatnot and I stumbled across this brilliant stick.

Inspired by an ornament I’d seen on a web-shop the week before I took the stick home, tied some ribbon to it and hung it from a hook in my room and hey presto, I have a lovely place to hang my necklaces, and some of the little stumps on it are perfect for hanging earrings off of.

Tug of War

This year I spent Christmas back in my hometown of Portsmouth on the South Coast of England. I love how many peculiar little traditions there are all over the country and the one I always try to catch is the Tug Of War between the divers and the fishermen over the water at Camber Docks in Old Portsmouth.

A rope is draped across the water from the Bridge Tavern on one side to the old fish market on the other side. As the game commences the divers take it in turns to shimmy along the rope into ndthe icy water as the rope is dunked into the water repeatedly. The contestant sees how long they can hold on or how far across the rope they can make it.

Afterwards everyone heads to the pub to warm up over some mulled wine or a good old fashioned pint.

So if you’re around the south coast on the 26th of December next year you should definitely try to make it to Camber Docks in Old Portsmouth for 11am, it’s something to see for sure!

I’ve been interning with Copenhagen based creative agency ArtRebels for the past couple of months. About a month ago I started a photography feature for the blog utilising Instagram as a way to promote local and international creative talent. Called ‘Tuesday Takeover’ the feature asks photographers, designers, artists, musicians, architects and general creative minds to hijack our Instagram account for a day.

From a creative perspective the possibilities of Instagram as a photographic tool are often overlooked or discredited due to its many hipster connotations. Limited to a square format and only accessible through smartphones, the medium of Instagram as a photographic format poses interesting challenges, but when looked at with the right eye can create intriguing and beautiful results.

http://artrebels.com/blog/tag/tuesday-takeover/

So if you have instagram follow @artrebels and look out for the #tuesdaytakeover each week!