I'd rather not talk about it.

The letters were shipped and finally reached Mr Sykes at Teacake just in time for his spring exhibition on Sunday.  

Teacake continued:

The exhibition letters continued: The absolutely impossible concretesque coating nearly destroyed all spirits so I proceeded forth on the laser cutter, an excruciating 5 hours were endured with its deafening high pitched screeching, almost there though, almost there! Oh and I must not forget that there exists such a think called 'spray foam-coat', if I'd of know this my sanity may have been spared, sorry Gra!

Heatherwick vents

Fresh out of Fabric one saturday morning me and Chris stumbled on this beautiful structure by  St. Paul's cathedral (Paternoster Square). It's simply an air vent by Heatherwick studio that was ingeniously derived from an A4 sheet of paper scaled up to this magnificent size. Each tower is constructed from 63 8mm steel identical isosceles triangles which due to their folded nature wholly support the structure itself. For me the beauty of this construction is the thought of the original A4 paper model being sat in Heatherwick studio, on a shelf. That I find fascinating, something of this scale being conceived in the way it has been, the beauty of folder paper.

Paice award

£1500 for a design project of our choice, yes please sir! The Paice award, offered up for us Goldsmiths 2nd year design students as a way of realising a potential project of our choice, me and Livia had a few things on the cards but decided to propose to use the funds to initiate a project with children in disadvantaged circumstances being a subject close to our hearts. Through the KidsCompany charity who deal with such children we were channeled down to the underfunded St. Marys primary school in Stoke Newington to investigate the type of project the children would like to engage with. 

Our initial thoughts were to engage them throughout the creative process, from ideation, development, and execution positioning them essentially in the driving seat to foster an air of ownership which we felt would be beneficial all round to them and the project.

We arrived at the school with open minds, cameras and an array of materials for the kids to express themselves with. The school itself had preconceived ideas about the type of project them deemed would be beneficial to the children, a garden, playground improvements etc... but we the source of material had to flourish from the children themselves so we took them on a tour of the grounds, and encouraged them to document the factors they preferred and those they did not to eventually form the premise of the proposal.

It transpired that the playground was chronically devoid of visual and physical stimulus which was collectively confirmed, inciting a modeling session in the playground to conjure up scenarios of what the children would like having the power to do so. Some fantastic models and concepts were devised.

The workshop as a whole was successful, I was amazed by the unbridled enthusiasm of the children and fantastic ideas they struck up so we shall have to see what happens. What a fantastic bunch of kids, a little provocation goes a long way in formulated unprecedented responses.

Salt-Beef rant 2

The salt beef beigel store at the end of Brick land (Brick Lane Beigel Bakery) as we all know is revered, sworn by and ardently frequented by all that know of its admired and appreciated 24 hour existence and rightly so, their salt beef, gherkin and mustard doused beigels fail not to hit the spot anytime of the day or unearthly hour of the night, it is truly a gem. But, I must confess that whilst cycling through Hoxton last Wednesday, eyes prying for a morsel or two, I may have found its contender.

Halting in my tracks as a swarm of people crammed into a tiny cafes gangway, instantly compelled I breathed in and entered Franca's I believe it was called. Tiny, and with a menu so crammed I could make out one laminated sign 'New York Special', I saw 'salt beef £3.50' under the description and thought god yes. I stood for five minutes in the midst of 6 seemingly volatile yet confusingly coordinated Italian staff whilst golden omelets oozed on the back griddle, spaghetti flung into fresh, creamy sauces then promptly slapped into polystyrene containers. Coffee flying, steam rising whilst I stood, mouth watering profusely, observing my magnificent sandwich undergo construction. A large brown roll sliced, a fat wedge of firm, juicy pink salt beef undergo the knife, piled unashamedly thickly, gherkins, tomatoes and emmental cheese immediately followed by a brief grilling rendering distractingly golden. Now when I say this sandwich permeated my days remaining thoughts, I mean I thought of nothing else. It kept appearing before my eyes like little sun spots, little salt beef sandwiches flashing before my eyes. It was particularly good, different to Brick Lane, but worth the detour.

Teacakes all round sir!

A little signage for MR G.A Sykes's Teacake exhibtion at the end of the month. I will not be using foam coat ever again: 3 layers on 7 letters, sanding inbetween, its a bloody joke I tell you, if the letters can't be rendered beautifully blemish free then I shall be starting again on Monday, with the lasar cutter.

Salt-beef rekindling x

Omnipresent, pervading, pointless, revealing, baffling, overrated, insightful, tiring, provoking, mind numbing and faddish. Welcome to the blog. There's no doubt I could summon  at least ten thousand further adjectives to describe that which I am begrudgingly surrendering to. But truth be known, it is more simply a matter of me not being the least bit faffed in setting up my own website, just the prospect fills me with an array of undesirable emotions. So I declare that I shall update, as frequently as humanly possible events relating to that which I have been seemingly devoting my life, design and food. Impossible to exclude food. Therefore I feel the perfect rekindling topic is to be... Beef. Salt-beef as it so happens, and so it begins.