Wonderful Vincent

My husband always has a hard time finding shoes that would fit him perfectly so he has already had several pairs custom made for him by The Left Shoe Company. Being on their mailing list, he recently received an invitation to the opening of an art exhibition at their store in Helsinki. As soon as I heard there would be Vincent Bakkum’s paintings I convinced him we should attend.

The opening was yesterday afternoon and we couldn’t go after all. However, we were in downtown Helsinki a couple of hours earlier. While he was taking care of some urgent matters I rushed to the store. Of course, the paintings were there by then and I could have a look practically all by myself.

Vincent is a self-taught painter and illustrator, a Dutchman who has lived in Helsinki for years, I suppose a couple of decades at least. (I understood he has recently returned to Holland.) He used to work as a model and the idealised world of fashion can be seen in his paintings of beautiful young women reminding of fashion photography and art nouveau. He also enjoys painting (stuffed) birds and still lifes.

You can see more of Vincent’s works, represented by agents in Helsinki, Paris and Tokyo, and read about his sources of inspiration ‘beauty doomed to rot, colours bound to fade’ on his website here.

The Left Shoe Company manufacturing custom-made gentlemen’s shoes was established in 1998 and currently has stores, in addition to their home base Helsinki, in London, Copenhagen, Dubai, Naples, Grosswallstadt (Germany) and Kobe (Japan). A store will be opened this summer in West Hollywood, Los Angeles. You can read more about the company here.

Working on glass

I just started a project and I’m hoping announcing it here will speed up the process because there is a time limit. And my own deadline is even tighter. Now back to cutting glass so I can start grinding the pieces today. I love what you can do with stained glass but I’m such an amateur I had better stay by the desk and let the laptop be for once. So cheerio for a while! I’ll show you the outcome if there will be one.

The blind man's village

Back to Spain, the Álava province of the Basque Country and Elciego, the place where I recently took you on a tour at the distinguished Marqués de Riscal winery here.

The origin of the name of the village – el ciego, the blind man – is not known. According to one legend a blind man once had a tavern or inn on the location of the current village. The first written records on Elciego date back to the 11th century but the existing historical buildings are from the 16th and 18th centuries.

The present Álava province was once a region where Christians, Jews and Moors coexisted for centuries. It was also once a border area between the Kingdom of Castile and that of Navarre thus burdened with a constant risk of conflicts. Villages such as Elciego were therefore given privileges leading to an increase in population of both noblemen and commoners in the region, and to reinforcing the defense of the villages. In the late 16th century, King Felipe II granted Elciego the status of a town. However, these days a municipality with a population only just exceeding 1,000 is probably considered a village.

Elciego demonstrates all the characteristics of the medieval communities in the region. The main attributes are location on a hilltop and buildings of stone. Furthermore, every village has at least a couple of sanctuaries.

The parish church Iglesia de San Andrés:

Basilica of Virgin Mary by the Square, Ermita Nuestra Señora la Virgen de la Plaza:

They have a nice main square, in this case a most lovely, rather large one also called Plaza Major and surrounded by buildings from the 16th and 18th centuries.

They have a number of historical buildings with exquisite details in stone, wrought iron and carved wood.

Ajuntamiento or ‘town hall’ with the coat of arms donated by King Felipe II: 

Following two photos: ‘Casa de los Hierros’, ‘ the iron house’,  officially Palacio Navarrete Ladrón de Guevara. The coat of arms is that of a bishop who was born there.

Coats of arms most skillfully carved in stone are a common feature of old palaces and mansion in this area and they can also be found on facades of buildings that are not that ancient.

Following two photos: Palacio Ramírez de la Piscina.

Although the Álava communities display similar characteristics they are by no means the same. Each and everyone has its individual charm, Elciego even more so thanks to the fabulous creation of Frank Gehry (I posted about here) literally only a stone’s throw away.

Not quite yet

We are not exactly there yet but have seen some promising progress in the past few days.

I took a walk with Jack today, or rather Jack took a walk with me, and we cannot draw but one conclusion: we are about to enter proper spring and we might, just might, be awarded at least some kind of a summer also this year after all.

A couple of weeks ago, I cut a few branches from my forsythia and put them in a vase. It seems most of them are skipping the early spring phase. Let’s hope this is an omen! Some magic would definitely be of use around here.

HT 5: Framed embroidered flowers

Time certainly flies. Tomorrow will be the first of April and I haven’t posted anything on my Handmade treasures series in March.

So here is one of my most recent flea market finds, embroidered poppies and forget-me-nots in frames painted in glossy black. By chance, these are two of my favourite flowers. But then again, the list of my favourite flowers would be such a long one almost any flower would qualify, at least if embroidered.

I don’t know yet where to hang this treasure. For the present, it is standing on my ‘sewing’ desk. It may stay there permanently to inspire me into action. I have some projects I should implement in the next couple of weeks. If these flowers can’t make it happen I don’t know what could.