See you soon!

Change is in the air.

I will be taking a break from ‘Alex Original Handbags’ for a little while. 

I won’t be doing any sewing and so will have nothing to blog about.

I’m moving back home to Quebec, Canada I am both excited and scared.

If you want to be contacted when/if I start up again then simply send me a short mail.

Otherwise pop back around in a couple of months to see if there’s anything new.

Thank you all for your support over the last couple of years and thank you also for all your lovely comments.

Heaven

Pure heaven for any crafter!  Or any want to be crafter!

Here are a few pictures my sister took when we were in Sofia - see and read more about our trip here.  She took these while I was trying to pick some ribbons and buttons without buying the whole shop as it wouldn’t have fit into my bag   What a variety, What choice.  There were actually ribbons and boxes of buttons from the floor to the ceiling! It was actually rather overwhelming.  On top of that the shop assistant didn’t speak a work of English…  or French… or German…  But it was all sooooooo cheap especially compared to German prices.  I could go back to Sofia just so that I could go back to that shop, oh and maybe for a few more of those nice ceramic bowels…

 

 

 

Happy Canada Day!

Being in Germany I often forget about Canadian holidays and celebrations.

But I just had a talk with my mom who reminded me that today is the 1st of July and therefore Canada Day.

So happy Canada Day to everyone who are still living there and to all of us living abroad!

Sorry!

Sorry for the lack of posts and pictures of new creations recently!  

I’m still excited about the silk-screen printing but I still have not heard back from the girl who is supposed to expose my images on my screens.  To be honest I’ve not finished any bags recently because I want to print on them.  I do have a small mountain that are started and waiting for prints, many others that have all the bits but aren’t started and yet many more that still need matching linings or zippers. So as soon as I get my images I can get started. I now have all the paints, clips, squeegees, etc.  I’m actually getting very impatient and am very keen on getting started.  I promise to take pictures of my first attempts and post these, even if they aren’t very good I think that it will need some practice.  It looked very easy watching my sister to them, but then, she’s been doing it for 10 years!

In the mean time I have actually starting working on a correspondence course that I had started years ago in interior architecture.  I thought it best to take the opportunity of some free time to actually try and get it finished.  It’s been nagging me for years, as all I had left to do was the final exam.  So, I’m now trying to actually do it.  It’s a lot more work than I had even imagined but I had already done soooooo much work, it would be a pity to loose it all.  It’s very interesting though the problem was that I had really felt overwhelmed by it all.  Now I’m just trying to do one step at a time.  Plus I have the benefit of being able to ask Susanne, the owner of ‘designe, kleine!’  who is also an architect to help me when I get stuck with the program.  This is a great advantage!

I’ll let you know how I get on!

Thanks for being patient with me!

An amazing day!

I’ve just noticed that the summer is finally here!  I know that it sounds weird but the weather has been pretty ordinary recently; raining far too often, being generally cloudy and very, very windy.  But last night I went out on a girl’s night out and we could actually stay outside and enjoy our wine without a jacket on until the terrace closed.

Today I went to handover my images to the women who will expose them onto my silk-screens. (I’m still unsure on the proper terminology.)  Anyway I was at her workshop this morning at 10:00 then got myself a huge coffee and sat along the river to just enjoy the nice weather and feel happy I am super excited about the learning to print and feel extremely inspired.  I think that my bags will be very different and much, much better with my new images. I will take pictures as soon as I start, of the new set up in my workroom, of my images and of course of my new bags!

This morning I had forgotten to take my camera, so I couldn’t to catch the moment. But I did find these great pictures on flickr of Frankfurt, I thought that it would be nice to share the view and feeling with you.  Click on the images to see Laternamagica’s photostream, he’s the one who took these great pictures.

What’s in your bag?

Back in March when I did the poll and competition I had a few great comments about what people were carrying around in there own bag.  I though we should try it again.  Here’s a picture of my bag, obviously one of my own creations plus it’s content.

 

In my bag:

• purse/wallet
• super old mobile – but it still works so why change it?!?
• box of staples as an example to get new more
• post card of sofia with my sister’s flight details
• advertising card for some free open air shows this summer
• keys
• labello for dried lips
• pen
• one of those cheap hotel combs

It would be great, even a little funny if everyone would participate.  Why not leave a comment with the content of your bag. Or even more better and loads more fun, send me a picture at: info(at)alex-original-handbags(dot)co.uk.  I will upload it with your comment and what you tell us  is in your bag. I bet it will tell us a bit about the person. Me, for example, I’m very practical and in my bag are only things I use and need.  But I bet there are plenty of people out there with loads of junk and funky things, which actually would be much more interesting!

I hope many of you will participate.

What an amazing weekend!

What a truly amazing weekend away with my sister! 

What an amazing city as well, it wasn’t at all what I was expecting, but to be honest I didn’t know anything about the country.

It was holiday, so we stopped for coffees often.  We also had some great meals accompanied by some great wines, we were also trying all sorts of weird looking or rather ‘new looking’ things from the markets. MMmmmmm! I love trying all sorts of new stuff.

 

The art is incredible, here are some hand painted ceramics and icons from small markets in Sofia. I got myself a beautiful plate but wish I had had more space to bring back loads more.

 

The architecture is also amazing! With such varying influences and styles.

 

It makes it much more difficult to get around when not only is it a new language but also a different alphabet. It means that you can’t even try to pronounce  anything.

  

I will tell you more about it all tomorrow, but I was rather pleased with some of these pictures, so I wanted to share with you all.

I’m so excited!

I’m so excited and wish today was tomorrow.  

Tomorrow morning I will be flying to Sofia in Bulgaria to see my sister, Cynthia!  I haven’t seen her since last summer when I went back home to Quebec, Canada with my husband and his parents. As nice as that was, it’s not the same when there are so many people around, as we have to speak English together, which is still weird after so many years.  We were brought up speaking French at home and with family but English at school. It’s not very typical for Quebec but I’m glad we did.  Though I do now have this weird mental block that when I speak one language with someone it’s hard to change it.  I know it’s silly.  So anyway, it will be nice to spend some proper time together, in french.  

In our early 20ies we did a few cycling trips together so we were very close.  But as we now live so far away, both work a lot and bascially have our own lives we’ve not been as close.  So I hope that we can find this closeness again.  I think so, she is such a great person. I actually have two sisters.  I am the eldest, then comes Cynthia, then Pénélope, the youngest.  She is so different, she doesn’t like to travel, though she has come to visit us here and also once in Cardiff.  She has been working in the same hotel for about 10 years, has her little house and lives a quiet life.  I always find is to amazing that all 3 of us are so different when we were brought up the same way, in the same house by the same mom.

Cynthia in Arizona after a snow storm!

Me, don't even remember where this was taken!

Writing about Cynthia and our trips, inspired me to start looking for old pictures, most are in a box in my mom’s basement but I did find these two.  They’ve been stuck up on the wall or on pin boards over the years.  I had to scan these, hence the bad quality.  This particular trip was in 1995 (I think). We cycled from Vancouver, Canada to San Diego, to Phoenix to Las Vegas and back to Phoenix.  It was such an experience!  I had quite a good figure back then too, wow, and we could eat anything!  We were actually ALWAYS hungry!

Anyway, that’s enough reminiscing…  Cynthia will be in Sofia for 10 days working in a printing workshop and Gallery.  She will then come to Frankfurt for 10 days and work in a printing workshop here.   But I just couldn’t wait until she came here, so I had a look for flights to Sofia and when I found some for quite a reasonable price I decided to so go over for the weekend! I know that it’s quite a luxury but why not.  I’ve never been to Sofia, and to be honest never even thought about it as a destination but I’ve read up a bit about it online and it sounds really nice, really different as in its history it has had many different influences.

I will bring my camera and hopefully get a few good pictures to share with you all next week.  I know that my blog is supposed to be about bags and crafty things but a little travel thoughts shouldn’t hurt, now should they?!?

Goals

One of my goals for this year is to learn how to print. I would like to be able to print directly onto my bags.  I think that it would really give them something special. In the past I have used prints from my sister and Kerstin, a local artist.  As much as I appreciate having their prints, I feel that they have a very different style. Their images, though nice, aren’t ‘me’. Also out of practical reasons they always print them on small material samples that I can then sew on to the bags.  So the mixing and matching of colours is not always easy.  It also sometimes gives the bag a bit of a patch work effect that I am not so fond of myself.  By learning how to print, I can then print directly onto the flap or body of the bag as well as pick my own images.

My sister's style

Kerstin’s style

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It all sounds so positive and easy.  But now that I have actually stopped to think about it all; what images to I actually want? And how do I go about learning all this? And even how do I set this all up in my workshop along with everything else? Well, in my case I am VERY lucky, my sister is coming to visit! She has studied printing and even teaches it back home in Quebec, Canada.  So, when she comes in a couple of weeks, she will teach me!  My only responsibility is to find some screens, paint and images. 

 

Easier said than done!  I have been trying to ‘win’ some screens on eBay but keep on being bid out.  These things aren’t cheap, even second hand. Plus there are so many types and sizes.  So far I have learned that the aluminum ones are better, according to my sis, as they are less likely to warp.  Plus a larger one, though more difficult to wash and store, is more practical than a small one for the range of images that you can use it for.  Also, you want one that is has a stretched screen as it is very difficult to do it yourself. 

I’m learning already, even before Cynthia arrives, but still don’t have one!  So I’m putting it out there. If you are from the area and you have a screen that you want to sell or you know someone that has one to sell, please contact me!!!! I know that it’s kind of cheeky but you never know!

Once all this is sorted I will still have to think up, draw up, look up, find, some images. So my second question is, what would you like to see? Do you like the birds? Would you prefer flowers? I do have some ideas but any suggestion is be good and very much appreciated

As promised

As promised last week, here are a few pictures from last week’s fair, Lokale Helden in Wiesbaden.  As I said in my entry about the event ‘Disappointent’ I loved the location and thought my stand looked great, especially as I was just next to the DJs.  The only problem was that we had no visitors.  To be totally frank with you, I even complained to the organizers.  I wasn’t the only one who complained either.  I wonder if they will actually do something about it though. 

 

  

It’s actually thrown me much more that I thought it had.  If your read my comments I had said that I wasn’t going to fall into self doubt as no one had sold well that day.  But it still has made me rethink the whole thing. I think that I will concentrate more of my energies into getting some shops to buy at wholesale from me, rather than participating at all the fairs I can find. 

So if you own a shop, why don’t you contact me for a wholesale price list  

Or if you know a shop near you where you think my bags would fit with their stock why don’t you let me know the name of the shop