Design Week: Jewellery, Jellies and was Sarah Richardson here?

Design Week, which in Hungary seems to mean Design more-than-a-month, finally wrapped up.  We tried to see as many exhibits and fairs as time allowed (see highlights here and here) but of course we missed a lot.  I wanted to share my absolute favorite stop - a cute little gallery - because the exhibits were so creative, innovative and chalk full of gorgeous inspiration.

First, a quick taste of the jewellery exhibit on display at the time:

by Kecskes Orsolya

by Huber Kinga

I loved ogling the jewellery, especially since I like to make my own (see here, here and here for a few examples) but the display - suspended Styrofoam planks - caught my eye as well, because it was simple but so clever!  A striking black and white photo exhibit provided a pretty backdrop.

When we headed to the basement, a second jewellery exhibit awaited us.  The jelly fish-like jewellery, floating in the darkened space, was quite a sight.

Upstairs I met my dream installation!  Each gallery guest was invited to take a "scarf" from the display and add it to the mannequin representing the sea and the mannequin representing the Hungarian Lake Balaton, to help shape our collective impression of what those bodies of water look like.  You know I am obsessed with Lake Superior and the colour turquoise, plus I love interactive anything, so I spent forever loitering up there.

The last little nook (was this small gallery not packed?!?) had some beautiful back lit photographs.  Remember how Sarah Richardson did something like this to a client's photo for a retro-inspired space?  I wasn't sure I liked the idea before, but now I'm sold and really want to do this - maybe with one of my photos of Budapest?  I'll add that to my list of things I'll probably never get around to.

Suffice to say, we were really into these exhibits.  My Mom leaned in so close she almost touched the jewellery with her nose . . .

. . . while I had waaaay too much fun in the scarf exhibit (I'm trying to see which one goes with my scarf, for no apparent reason):

I think the point of the exhibit, as cool as it was, may have been lost on me.

Budapest Design Week: Kreatim and Nemurimuri

Budapest Design Week (er, month more like) has had no shortage of markets, fairs and strange names.  We decided to take a look at Kreatim, an artisan market held four times per year, housed in the amazing 

Iparművészeti Múzeum (museum of applied arts).

With a roof like this, you just know there are good things inside:

Like this ceiling.  My gosh:

Because there was a small admission fee, we took the opportunity to take in the museum exhibits, also, including an amazing art deco exhibit where I managed to snap one forbidden photo for you.  I am 100% going to weld some nested tables just. like. these.
 

Kreatim:

The admission fee also had the welcome side effect of smaller crowds and, overall, delightfully fewer instances of pushing, shoving and being touched by strangers.  Which I am learning is a privilege I have taken for granted back home (the not being touched by random people at random times.  I often feel like a sardine here - we will walk 5km home to avoid the packed streetcar, but that's another story for another day.  Back to the pretties).

 

We didn't buy anything from this market (applause, please, for the restraint we exercised), although I am tempted to buy some of Mester Borbala's prints of Budapest, that feature abstracted city scenes mixed with Hungarian text.

I go weak in the knees for anything with text (exhibit A, exhibit B, exhibit C), and Hungarian text is just extra enticing (exhibit D).  I still need some thinking time, though.  Like I mentioned yesterday, Hungary & I have a history of bad decisions. 

Parliament, Image from Mester's Blog

Image from Mester's Blog

The streetcar stop that takes us to the library; Image from Mester's Blog

Nemurinmuri:

 
At Nemurimuri, a market/installation (that was so wee, we almost walked right by), we did take the plunge and pulled out the Hungarian Forints.  We each bought this cute print by Tascali David ("lesz" is a Hungarian word that sounds like "less" and the saying means, roughly, "it will be how it will be," a spin on our "it is what it is" - which is an expression Hubby despises, so I only love this more).

Imagine a whole wall of quirky graphic art:

Photo Via

I also bought this tote:

I desperately want a tote with Hungarian text (mmmm, text, text, text) but this saying was so perfect for me!  Plus the tote is handmade in Hungary with a neat design twist: the bow snaps off and is interchangeable (I also have yellow, orange and brown bows! 

I also loved these mint and gold bracelet by Juhos Janka, but they were a touch too pricey for me.  Perhaps a thrift store bangle and some spray might have to suffice.  I spy a DIY . . .  



Now it's back to work for me!!

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Budapest Design Week: WAMP

I teased you about Budapest Design Week's art markets, design fairs and the goodies we bought.  One of the fairs we perused was WAMP, which is actually a monthly event but was a little extra special to coincide with Design Week.

For starters, they moved to a gorgeous building:

My eyes kept wandering up to the ceiling . . .



 . . . although the hand crafted wares were pretty eye catching too.  From cute felted wool place mats to handmade leather bags and shoes, there was an incredible variety of really unique things.  A little overwhelming, almost.  

So what did we buy?  We actually exercised a lot of self restraint (it doesn't hurt that I use mostly cash here and I never seem to have a lot once the bills are paid). 

Mom bought the painting below.  The artist (Gerebecz, Nandor) had painted it the night before and was so excited Mom loved it so.  The painting is of a street in Budapest, with St. Stephen's Basilica in the background.  Nandor painted from a photograph he took (and gave us each a magnet with the photograph on it as a gift).  

This version (we think it's made with a stencil and layers of paint, because they're so similar) remained:

I have been looking to buy stuff I "need": stuff that I would buy at home and use daily, not impulse tourist finds I'll fall out of love with or never use (been there, done that).  Because my cellphone case was falling apart (plus this lame blackberry one was the only one I could find to fit my HTC wildfire) I was in search of a handmade leather case. 

After being scared away by $45.00 handmade leather cases elsewhere, I was nervous about even asking prices at WAMP.  But I found a coral leather case I loved, by Berecz Vanda, and tentatively asked.  Guess how much it was?  $5.00!!  I thought I had moved the decimal point over incorrectly (it was 1000 HUF - I cannot get used to spending these giant sums).  The quality and style beats any of the cases I had previously drooled over.  And you cannot beat $5.00.

It seriously looks like it was made to match my phone.

The woman who makes them also designs gorgeous purses.  Mom is contemplating buying one and I think I am going to buy a spare case - this time coral with turquoise leather lining (see last photo).  Aren't we good?  We each bought one thing we really liked.  Which was really tough, but with all of the other design fairs, we knew some restraint was necessary . . .

Source

Source

P.S. For something gorgeous and candy coloured of your own, don't forget to enter my KitchenAid stand mixer giveaway! 

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Budapest Design Week: Slow Design

Research has taken a priority over sightseeing in Budapest, but we have made time to take in some of Budapest's Design Week. 

Can you believe how giant these sculptures (outside of the Design Terminal) are?

Slow Design Exhibit:

The theme for this year's Design Week is "Slow Design".  An exhibit of "Slow Design" kicked off festivities, with some designers and artists recycling and revamping many everyday goods, from t-shirts to empty birth control packages and plastic water bottles, to create artistic and usable items.  Other designers focused on created sustainable design that doesn't wreak havoc on the environment during the design and manufacturing process.

You can spot the birth-control-packages-turned-lights in the top left of the photo below:

25 Vases: Georg Schnitzer & Peter Umgeher (PET bottles covered in paint)

A+Z Design (vessel once used for lard storage re-purposed as a stool)

Maria Westerberg (t-shirts woven like Finnish rag rugs to make a colourful chair)

Fiskars Village - Imported from Finland:

Just upstairs from the Slow Design Exhibit is a gorgeous sampling of artwork from members of Fiskars village, a community of artists in a small Finnish village (read more here).  These are the kinds of pieces I think really embody "Slow Design": pieces that stand the test of time, and don't become disposable, because of their aesthetic and also the quality of materials used.  The collection spanned many years, but I think any of the pieces would have been at home in a contemporary space. 

Howard Smith c. 1987

Howard Smith

Camilla Moberg: ISIS green glass, Blown by Kari Alakoski, Photo: Winfrid Zakowski

Onoma Pop Up Shop:

A sampling of wares are for sale in the Onoma Pop Up Shop, a temporary miniature of the original shop in Fiskar's Village.

Hungarian Fashion Pieces by Lack

Even everyday buildings, like the Bank Centre, is also exhibiting Hungarian design.  This exhibit, Hungarian Fashion Pieces by Lack, was weird at first (the bankers watched us looking at the designs), but ultimately it was interesting to see high fashion contrasted with every day life.  Plus, it was really nice that there were no crowds!

 

Open Studio Tour

Design Week also offered the opportunity to check out some studio spaces of Budapest designers.  We didn't visit many, but we did stop by the home/exhibit space/workshop of a local leather artisan, Anna Olah, whose home captivated me even more than the bags.  Of course, it was a white-white-white space with pops of colour.  The twist?  A row of colourful doors:

I snapped this during the open studio tour - love, love, love the colourful doors!

Photo from annaamelie.com

Photo from annaamelie.com

Photo from annaamelie.com

And there's more!  Later this week: art fairs, craft markets, a jewellery exhibit and some goodies we took home.

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