Shop and Work Spaces in Köln

Three years ago, I took a notion that I would like to live in Paris. I took time off from my steady, pensionable job (which was making me miserable at the time) and lived in the Latin Quarter for a month. But I couldn't bear it. I barely survived three weeks. My niece had been born in Germany (she was born while I was still in Ireland) and I couldn't wait to go and meet her. Here I was, on continental Europe and so was she! So I abandoned ship, I left Paris a few days early. I paid a ridiculous price for a train ticket to Köln.
All of that is an unecessary prelude really... the real story starts like this...
I had a few hours to kill in Köln before catching my next train. I went walking through the city. I was blown away by all the high street stores. Every shop you could name. From the UK or France or Germany or Italy - Pimkie, Body Shop, l'Occitane, HandM, Next, Benetton, Penney's/Primark - they all had huge branches in Köln. I don't really favour high street shops but I couldn't help be astounded. Brussels was similar but not as big, and not all together on the broad pedestrianised street: Hohe Strasse and Schildergasse.
And then I meandered on to smaller streets. And loved what I saw there too. Designers with workshops behind their shops. So a shopfront, and then maybe a mezzanine floor where the clothes were being sewn and made situated above the till / dressing room / stock room. And there was more than one of these! I loved it. Eagerly, I asked the shop owners and designers for their business cards. I saw it as maybe an option for me. An alternative to returning to my dreary desk in Dublin.
And on my next visit to Köln, I was excited to revisit this street. Of course, I hadn't made any life changes. I had returned to my safe job. So I was seeking inspiration and reassurance that these alternative places existed.
But I couldn't find the shops. I walked along the streets where I thought they were. I had mislaid the business cards. I remembered "Breite Strasse" very distinctly. I walked it and the adjacent streets. No luck. Maybe they'd gone?! Maybe they couldn't survive? The dream isn't a practical reality. Other "cool" shops were now inhabiting the streets in the area. Gentrification.
I have visited Köln twice at least since. And each time, I've walked in the vicinity of Breite Strasse hoping to see something I'd missed. It's put me off Koln. I don't like the place as much anymore. With the hipster Belgian Quarter. Sure, I've discovered the amazing Die Wohngemeinschaft hostel, the fab hairdresser a few doors up, Mythos, and the lovely coffee shop called Yummy Müslibar.
But back to Paris... the other day I was going through my old travel diaries. And I was delighted to find, tucked into the back of the Paris scrapbook, the business cards for the designer-maker shops in Köln. With trepidation, I checked their webpages. And I was ecstatic to discover that they both still exist!

rkm-kleiderkunst.de
schinkelwitz.de

I blame the map on one of the business cards for my confusion. The map highlights Breite Strasse and other streets in the area and only has a big spot on the shop location... but *doesn't* hightlight the actual street that the shop is on.
The street name? Auf dem Berlich. And I can't wait to go back to Köln and walk along it.

The birth of a new blog

Over this past while, and especially these past few days, my interest in sewing has grown. It is fascinating - FASCINATING - to see the variety of blogs that are out there.

• Some people blog to gather their own ideas together like a collage (which is what this Design blog has been for me, a collecting-point for my thoughts and little by little I can see my own style become recognisable)
• Some people blog for support and to share their projects and ideas
• Some people blog as a business - they promote their shop or their products
• Some people blog to promote their ideas and way of life, to voice their opinions

One blogger, Adrienne, from All Style All Substance, is doing a thesis on feminine studies, and if I understand correctly the topic is sewing and women and the blogosphere.

I enjoy my Design History Musings very much. And I am still grappling with what "design" really is... or at least what it really is for me.

I don't want to confuse my sewing projects with my design musings. I want to partake in the sharing and commenting and admiring of the community of sewing bloggers! And my sewing projects don't need to be interrupted by postings about spoons!!!

There are many other online ways to gather together sewing enthusiasts. And by 'sewing' I really mean dressmaking because there are quilters and crafters out there and they're a whole other kettle of very interesting fish! Other tools include

• burdastyle
• flicker for photos
• etsy or dawanda as an online shopping 'street' for retailers, consumers and window-shoppers all
• pinterest (although I don't get the need to link to facebook or twitter)
• facebook
• twitter
• patternreview

But for all that, I find blogs are leading the way.

My past few posts have been very wordy... that needs to come to an end too! More images, please.

I bought this postcard in the Museum in Ixelles in Brussels recently. I saw so much on my month in Europe that I haven't processed the half of it! I loved the postcard because the work is so concentrated and the pencil is touching the paper. He his Paul Hankar, an architect during the Art Nouveau style period. It is a poster drawn by Paul Crespin (1859-1944) and shows Hankar's concentration while doing the work and his body bent over the desk. I need my mind to give way to my hands and give way to physical production too.

I chose another two postcards while I was away; it strikes me now that they all have that theme of physicality and concentration on the task at hand.
This one is of a choral singer doing a solo line, or maybe she is a soloist and the other singers behind her provide backing... I'll never know! It resonated with me because I sing. I sing in a choir. And just before I left for Europe, I sang at the funeral of a good friend's grandfather. And I daresay I didn't look as composed  or as humble as this soloist does!

The image is a painting by Henry Lerolle (1848-1929) entitled À l'Orgue. I picked up the postcard in the Orangerie gallery in the Jardin des Tuilleries in Paris.
The next image could be haunting, but when you study the girl, she is just so concentrated and so immersed in reading the pages that the feeling changes to one of intrusion on her space. I imagine she's reading a script and about to go on stage. Or maybe she's directing the play or the film or... I don't quite know why I like it and I don't quite know why I can't help looking!

This postcard was bought in the Pompidou Centre in Paris. It is from an oil painting by Gerhard Richter (b. 1932) and is entitled Lesende.
I hope these three images are a satisfactory way to remind me of the purpose of this particular blog and to satisfactorily make the move to a dress-making only blog. Find it at fuail.blogspot.com

When a spoon becomes a knife...

I love spoons. But this is taking it too far I think. In a café in Paris last week, I ordered cheese. A round portion of goat's cheese arrived and a basket of bread (baguette).

Instead of providing a knife to spread the cheese onto the bread, I was given a spoon!

Maybe this is common, maybe they had no knives to spare.

Maybe it was practical. The cheese was rather oozy. And very yummy. Such a simple meal. Washed down with a glass of wine, of course.

Cuillère à moka

I have known that a cuillère à café in French is the equivalent of a teaspoon.

Now I have become acquainted with a cuillère à moka. An even smaller version for dissolving sugar in a small cup of coffee.