Weekend in London

Last weekend we went to the Taste Festival in Regent's Park. It was a great evening of sampling all kinds of food, from Isle of Man cheddar to organic yoghurts to taster dishes from top London restaurants. For the £10 of show currency, I ate a Theo Randall courgette fritti and chocolate fondant, Sizchuan spicy tofu, Indian poories form Café Spice Namaste and many many more free samples.



And on Monday we went over to D&AD New Blood. I was particularly impressed by the Duncan of Jordanstone College show and I liked that you could make your own badges at the LCC stall.

Make London

I've only recently become aware of The Make Lounge - they run craft workshops in the capital as well as supporting local craft fairs and other events like Urban Knitting. I'm looking forward to going to the We Make London craft fair in Covent Garden on Sunday, which will mostly feature sellers from Etsy. All great stuff, just makes me wish I had more time to concentrate on crafts! Check out their blog for upcoming events.

P.S. Mostly for my reference, to-do list for the near future:
- Re-do my craft site
- Get new prints ready (got new printer today, squee!) and up on the store
- Re-do portfolio
- Threadless ♥ lomography t-shirt design

Yesterday..

..Popped over to Brick Lane to check out the Free Range degree shows in the flesh. Particularly impressive was Middlesex University's Jewellery show, and of course the Brighton University graphics and illustration work (where I picked up a lot of beautifully designed 'calling cards' which will be gracing my wall soon).


Illustrator Aimee Holmes from Brighton


Jewellery by Charlotte Mobbs from Middlesex

Cooked a lovely dinner afterwards. I love summer food - the tomatoes are so juicy and inviting.


Red onion, tomato, asparagus and mozzarella tart, salt'n'chilli roast new potatoes and some more asparagus.. yum

V&A China Design Now

We went to see the China Design Now exhibition at the V&A yesterday. Being massive fans of Chinese design and culture (and having visited Shanghai in October) it was fascinating to see all the incredibly modern and exciting work that's going on over there. The exhibition was cleverly split by region and theme - video art and graphic design in Shenzen (see dolls above), fashion and more avant-garde art in Shanghai (see dove below) and architecture and urban regeneration in Beijing. Definitely worth a visit if you're into that kind of thing.


(More photos on my Flickr.)

On my own art front, the dolls have had a bit of a pared-back redesign and are now looking like a nice cohesive little set. Prints should be up for sale soon after Easter, procrastination allowing. I've also had a tidy-up of some old drawings which I'm going to get printed too.