Bobbin Talk

Garden

Been dreaming of gardens lately and planting my own flowers and vegetables. Isn't this be a nice entrance to a magical garden?

Photo taken at Saugerties, NY.

You can buy this art photo for $10 as a 4"x4" print on supra lustre, metallic or matte Kodak paper. Professionally printed and shipped to you in a rigid cardboard mailer. (S&H $2.50)

paper options

lustre - slight sheen (not glossy) metallic matte

Gifts from Bulgaria

I love buying gifts for friends from trips and love receivening them too :) I'm always amazed by the hand-made textiles from Bulgaria. Such bright colors. I am traveling back to New York today and this is what I'm bringing back for friends this time:
Hand-woven wall decorations with little bell at the end.

Traditional hand-painted wooden containers, which hold a small vial of rose oil from the Rose Valley in Bulgaria

 

And these are my favorite: little dolls in traditional folklore dress, accompanied by rose oil.
 

All photos with the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone 3GS

Varna

Two weeks flew by so fast especially being relaxed with my parents and feeling spoiled... Today is the last day of my trip and I walked around with my mom to take one last look at VArna, eat some ice cream and take a few photos!

The main cathedral of the city of Varna

 

I'm already eating ice-cream here and no I didn't buy two, one of them is my mom's who is taking the photo...

 
Above is the Opera House in Varna

 
And one of my all time favorite restaurants on the beach. It is completely open with gorgeous views of Black Sea

Nostalgic

A couple of weeks ago before I even knew I would travel back home to spend some time with my parents I felt the need to walk around the town where I grew up. I felt almost panicky that I might not come this summer and started dreaming of strolling through the familiar streets, lying on the beach or just relaxing at my parents summer house. Now that I am here and I do walk around, I catch myself reminiscing of the times when I was growing up and walking the same streets. So many things have changed and others have stayed the same. I see some of the trees I used to climb when I was little and they all have grown so big! I can't even reach the bottom branches. When did we all grow up so much? It feels like yesterday I was a little kid... One thing is always here though, the beauty of what used to be my grandma's and now is my mom's garden. 
Here are some more photos of our house here in Varna and my favorite monastery:

My mom uses ceramic figurines of animals like roosters, chickens, ducks and even fish and places them through out the garden. They are quite colorful and make wonderful accents. I love looking at them, but the stray cats that pass through the garden get really startled and spend some time inspecting them.

 
My grand-parents build a gazebo next to the house many many years ago. It's still there unchanged and that's where I have my morning tea and afternoon snacks, and we all gather around to have dinner together.

 
My mom has flowers literally everywhere... And yes she does water them EVERY evening!!

 
Back view of the house...

 
The next couple of photos are of the Saints Constantine and Helena monastery. This is where we had our wedding last summer. It has been renovated since I grew up and is one of those really special places where you do feel re-energized and holy!

 

 

All photos taken with Hipstamatic app on my 3GS iPhone 
 
  

Enjoy Your Weekend

For the next couple of weeks I'll be writing from Varna, Bulgaria. It's where I was born and my parents still live. I had a quick opportunity to fly back here to see them and enjoy the beginning of the summer and didn't even hesitate. I bought tickets and in a day I flew over the ocean to find myself back in the house where I grew up. For those of you who might not know, Varna is a city on the Black Sea coast and has four seasons with sunny hot summers, but the heat waves of July and August seemed to have come really early this summer. I got greeted by a blazing sun and temperatures of 90 degrees Fahrenheit. I am certainly not complaining, but the flowers in my mom's beautiful garden are literally getting baked. My mom is a landscape designer and an avid gardener and likes her flowers perfect! I on the other side, {to her horror} thought that the drying flowers look even more interesting than the lively ones and took more photos of the imperfect ones. Here are some I took yesterday!
The first image is the entrance to the house.

 
These are some of my mom's favorite roses.

 

And here are the ones who are starting to dry out in the unforgiving sun...

 

I think they are all beautiful, or maybe I'm just grateful to be back home for a couple of weeks!
Hope you enjoy your weekend as much as I am right now...

All photos, taken with the HIpstamatic camerea on my iPhone 3G

 
 
  

Birthday Photos

When I was little my mom used to dress me up and take me to a professional photographer every year on my birthday {today}! The photographer would set up the lights and choose the props. {... you gotta love the two curtains with leafy pattern behind me...} My mom would dress me up and do my hair. In this photo I am holding fresh flowers she picked from our garden!

I didn't think much of it then, it was just something we did every year, but now that the years are going faster and faster I appreciate it so much more! It was about creating a special memory every year and acknowledging not just my birthday but also my mom. She's been begging me for years to revive the tradition and get professional photos done every year! I wish I continued the tradition through the years, but nowadays with digital cameras and fast prints the art of studio photography gets somewhat forgotten! I think I'll start all over again! Wouldn't it be fun to have all your photos from every single birthday you ever had in one album?

Not sure how old I am in this photo, maybe 7 or 8... maybe older...

Hottest Day - Brightest Dress

I love the Hipstamatic photo app for the iPhone. You can get such a wonderful vintage feel and look with your own iPhone. Here is a photo of my dress on the boat to Governors Island en route to the Parsons-LVMH event The Art of Craftsmanship Revisited. You can learn more about this incredible partnership on the official website: ArtofCraftsmanship.com I'll be posting coverage of it later tomorrow, but for now here are some photos I took with the Hipstamatic app.

I premiered my most colorful dress in the hottest day of the year!

A boat sailing back to NYC.

Governors Island is 800 yards just south of Manhattan, a short ferry ride. It used to serve as a was a military base - home to the US Army and after 1966 it served as the operation base and residence for the Coast Guard. Now it is open to the public June 5 - Oct 10 Fri, Sat, Sun.

Guests of the LVMH party frolicked happily on the spacious island, enjoying champagne, wine and artisanal foods.

Hyeyoung Kim and Akalaksna Baenchata were happy graduates even before they knew they were the winners of the LVMH contest.

This was actually the sunset on the way to Governors Island, but it really looks like the moon, doesn't it?

All photos by Aneta Genova, , {Hipstamatic app, John lens, Kodot Verichrome film}

ART by Kate Gilmore

What is art? And how do we know what is GOOD art?

I was walking around Bryant Park when I saw Kate Gilmore's installation "Walk the Walk" and was stricken by how exhausted some of the walking girls looked, so I thought: "I should film this" and here it is:

Then I read the New York Times article " Pounding the Pavement on a Bryant Park Pedestal" by Randy Kennedy and I understood what the art piece was about, but it still seemed a bit frivolous and abstract. And then a week later a friend invited me on a member's tour of the Whitney museum where the curator Gary Carrion-Murayari personally introduced us to the art in the 2010 Whitney Biennial, and there it was again, the name Kate Gilmore and another art piece by her. In this one she is fighting her way out of a toll sheet rock square. Completely enclosed in the tight space she pounds the walls with her own hands and feet, dressed in a feminine dress and shoes and wearing nothing but light leather gloves. "What does it mean?", you say. The New York Times article explains this project as: "the absurdity of contemporary life" and Whitney Museum as "the fight of women with daily obstacles". An the other project "Walk the Walk" in Bryant Park as "the determination it takes just to walk down a busy city street", expressed in the girls walking endlessly on top of the Bryant Park cube... 

I have daily struggles! I walk around... even endlessly or aimlessly sometimes! Why is it that I still don't feel convinced? I do understand the concept now, but I'm thinking of maybe surrounding myself with a pile of clothes and fight my way out of it with shoes in my hands.

Would that be art?

What if I write up a smart concept behind it and tie it up to social behavior?

What is art? Is art legitimized if someone paid for it?

Mannequins

Enjoy your weekend! 

Photo by Aneta Genova

Parsons at Saks Fifth Avenue

I am excited and happy and sad for all the fashion design students who just graduated from Parsons yesterday! Excited and happy because I've had an opportunity to get to know so many of you! You are so talented and I wish you all the success in the world! I hope to see you all conquer the fashion world, whatever path you take! Sad because I won't see you roam around the Parsons corridors dragging countless bags of patterns, muslins and garments looking cool as only young designers can! I will miss you all, but you are in my heart and you will always have this blog to go back to! And for those of you who have my cellphone all I have to say is: Midnight is the cutoff for text messages, UNLESS there is a fierce fashion emergency!

This time I'm going to stray away from my usual coverage and am shamelessly posting photos of myself! Sorry if I missed taking a picture with you, I probably took a photo OF YOU and I'll post it later! Also look for more photos in the Parsons blog at: Fashion.Parsons.edu I'll be posting more photos there later today.

I'm with the fabulous Fay Leshner in front of her garment!


With Frank Nathan and Fay Leshner


With Mary Chin


With Benyam Assefa

With Laura Siegel




With Jenny Han and Hyeyoung Kim

Photos by whoever was around and willing to take a photo! :)