Greenwich Market

Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny and warm day and I decided to go to the antiques market in Greenwich with C. because I wanted to look for some treasures. We got there early and had a coffee and hot chocolate on a terrace while basking in the warm morning sun. I’ve found some wonderful treasures, a Noritake tea set: six cups and saucers, six small side plates, a sugar bowl, a milk jug and a cake plate. The back mark seems from between 1911 and 1941.

I also found a cup and saucer by George Jones & Sons, Staffordshire and two tiny Chinese bowls to add to my rice pattern collection. And I bought three beautiful old books: I love how they’re bound, the covers and old pictures. One needs restoration work on the back but I learnt how to bind books while attending graphic art school so I can do some of it myself. It’s weird if you think of the fact that this book belonged to someone else over a hundred years ago…

The market is closed down as of next week, another beautiful and vibrant place gone because the borough sold the land to a property developer. These are the kind of places that make London London to me… Such a shame, but I’m happy I have something that reminds me of a beautiful day I got to spend there!

George Jones & Sons, Blue Dragon c.1891-1920

Noritake, c.1911-1941

Old books

Old books

Old books

Old books

The Troglodyte

I feel the need to think and be reclusive for a while so I can put my thoughts in order. I’ve started reading again which, in my case, is exceptional but I guess the words come looking for me in a different way when I decide to be quiet. It’s funny because it’s the book that I still haven’t finished *working on it though* and that I mentioned several times in previous posts. Last night I picked it up and started reading instead of playing a few of the very addictive Professor Layton puzzles on my Nintendo DS Lite

In quiet moments, if there ever is one, I’m working on my business website which will be a combination of a front page representing the business, a flash portfolio with work examples and a blog where I’ll discuss design in general, my own work for clients and other design related topics. Quite often I receive emails from companies asking me to write something about a product, design contest or an event. I received one from New York last week with the same request but this is a personal blog so I’ll use my other outlet.

Last night I read a chapter about ‘The Red Shoes‘ with an explanation about the deeper meaning of this fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen: ‘when a woman has a famine of the soul, she will take any substitutes offered, including those that do absolutely nothing for her, as well as destructive and life-threatening ones that hideously waste her time and talents or expose her life to physical danger. It’s a famine that makes a woman choose things that will cause her to dance madly out of control too near the executioner’s door.’

‘And when we hit bottom, it is exactly there where the best soil is to sow and grow something new again. In that sense hitting bottom while extremely painful is also the sowing ground. There are always more opportunities to get it right, to fashion our lives in the ways we deserve to have them…’ And that is exactly why I need to become the Troglodyte for a while: I want to create and design, be quiet, think, be in my own world/cave and like I said above allow answers to come looking for me, in other words: let things happen

A very addictive game… with amazing drawings and cute characters, a mix of Japanese and European [Eurasian *hehe*]