Container Ships Around the World.

Check out these amazing examples of shipping containers transformed into a new life form from around the world.

Australia

USA

Canada

Indonesia

New Zealand

Scotland

The Netherlands

Angola

Cuba

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Source: http://www.thedailygreen.com

Swimmers.

Our new house is big and accordingly there are a lot of big, empty white walls, begging to be filled with color, or something, anything. That was task #1 in the new house - finding a hammering and putting some things on the walls. Luckily, we had recently purchased two new pieces of art that we were keen to display.

The artist is Miguel Costales. He is Spanish. He has a charming accent and adorable dimples to match. He is humble and simple. He exudes a sense of coolness and confidence that kind of makes you want to be friends with him and chat for hours over a beer. 

Miguel is inspired by the beach and natural objects. The result is art that feels intimately connected to the Swahili Coast.

 

We bought two of his swimmers, but continue to be inspired by many of his other water colors and carved objects.

Dar-based folks, some of his pieces are still on sale at Makutano House, otherwise you can contact him directly and perhaps even visit his studio in Mbezi Beach, or else karibu kwetu to enjoy his art.

Goodbye Cottage, Hello Change.

Two weeks ago today, we received news that we were going to be kicked out of our house in Dar.

This news struck me like a load of bricks. We had finally managed to kick out an oh so dreadful roommate. For the first time in our married lives we were going to have a place to call our own. We had pored love and attention into this cute little cottage full of potential to make it feel like a home. Things were looking up, excitement was in the air.

As if this news was not disappointing enough, Andrei was traveling in the Democratic Republic of Congo and I was scheduled to be in Mwanza aka the "Rock City" the day our lease was slated to expire. I pleaded for an extra week's stay in the house so that Andrei could be part of the decision-making process, and so that he could be here in person to help with packing and moving. No dice. In lieu of a renewed lease, or even a helpful compromise, the owner was sending in a wrecking ball. And these plans could not be delayed, even by a mere three days. I guess there is no room for delay when there is money to be made. The average rent in our neighborhood in Dar is approximately $4000/ month, far more than what we were paying for this little humble house. With green eyes, she could not muster any empathy towards my situation. I wish her all the best with these untempered dreams.

I spent a couple of days absorbing the impact of this news and mourning the loss of the place that we had learned to call home, even throwing out some rather idle threats to Andrei that I was going to book a one way flight out of here, and he could meet up with me whenever he so chooses, wherever that may be....um, right!?  Very mature, Matty.

After spending sufficient time licking my wounds, I finally took up a broker who told me anything he thought I wanted to hear until I wrote a check, a big fat one, in fact. I toured seven places around Dar es Salaam, each one more depressing than the next. He finally convinced me to push our budget up by a very minor amount so that he could prove to me just how far that minor extra amount would buy up for us. I felt I was walking into a trap, until his promises did not fall flat.

And with that we have inherited a new little house to call home. Ok, its not so little, but it comes with an awesome garden, where Andrei and I can take up one of our favorite past times - gardening and entertaining. While our house will probably look something like this over the coming weeks as we get settled, I promise more pictures as things come together.

Colors of the Oasis.

Let me just put this out there – I LOVE ikat! My next dream vacation would be a shopping spree to Uzbekistan to purchase ikat textiles galore – oh the joy!

So you can imagine my disappointment when I learned that I missed the opportunity check out this exhibit at the Textile Museum during our recent trip home to DC. Alas.

Here is a little bit about the history of Ikats. Ikats display Central Asian artists’ and weavers’ attention to the harmony between design, color and execution in order to create their master works. 19^th century Central Asian ikats are distinguished by bold, original designs using vibrant colors. The name Ikat is derived from the technique used to create them, whereby bundled textiles are bound and dyed several times before weaving, resulting a tie dye like pattern.

In Central Asia, a man’s clothing defined his status in society and proclaimed his wealth (hmm…not to dissimilar from NYC streets today, huh?!). But the home is where honor and wealth were on full display – homes were filled with the richest ikat textiles and many family ceremonies were celebrated in surroundings made beautiful with textiles. What a minute, was I born in the wrong era and on the wrong continent?!

But today, Ikat inspirations are everywhere in home design world. Here are a few inspiring images of ways to insert a little bit of ikat into your abode.

Please spread the word.

As promised, I am writing a follow up post about the sale of sea shells not so close to the Indian Ocean sea shore in downtown Ukraine. 

I will begin with a loosely related passage from an exceptional book that I just finished reading Emergency Sex:

In Mombasa, Heidi meets James, a Masai “tribesman”. Following a romantic walk down the beach, she happens to notice that she is one of several solitary white women, all fairly young and attractive, with their own Masai tribesman. She casually remarks to herself, “Great, now I have turned into one of those rich white chicks who pick up poor, attractive men in third world countries for sex.”

In what appears to be a typical romantic ploy, James leads her onto a dhow, and following a short ride, they land directly onto a reef that she describes as filled with puddles that hold the most magnificent sea creatures – anemones, urchins, and starfish – with splashes of bright, living color everywhere – purple, red, blue, yellow – just lying about in shallow pools of water, waiting for the tide to come in and rescue them.

Tropical paradise at its finest, so it seems. Except that, the "curio trade" threatens to render this image obsolete. Borrowing from the "authority" in this area, I will explain.

The sale of shells and other organisms, mostly to tourists or shell collectors, is known as the curio trade. Shell collecting is a hobby with a long history. By the 17th century, seamen on trading ships were bringing home shells as curio. In the last 50 years, with increasing possibilities to travel, the purchase of shells has become a common practice for visitors returning home with samples of the bizarre and attractive sea life from remote corners of the world.

Throughout the Western Indian Ocean (and apparently Ukraine), road-side shell stands and shops are common, retailing mostly large, attractive and colorful gastropod shells, chunks of hard coral, turtle products or jewelry made from these. The business may not appear to be very large but the sheer volume of shells and other marine curios (that is to say, interesting and bizarre dead sea creatures) sold is staggering. The collection and export of shells and other marine curios is mostly unregulated, but indications are that hundreds of tones of cleaned shells have been exported over the last thirty years.

This practice holds damaging environmental consequences. The damage to shallow coastal habitats caused by turning over boulders or prizing coral off the seabed may have considerable local impact on the productivity of the area. The trade in dead coral and turtle products is banned in many countries outside of the Western Indian Ocean and tourists carrying these items back home run the risk of being fined and having the articles confiscated. The removal of these animals not only reduces the productivity of shallow coastal habitats but also the attractiveness of the habitats to tourists.

However, the book further warns, even collecting empty shells can be damaging for two reasons. Firstly, hermit crabs need gastropod shells. Without empty shells, hermit crabs may totally disappear from an area. The second reason is that empty shells serve as a hard substrate and are a vital component of the overall growth of the coral reef. Many organisms (corals and sponges) settle onto such hard surfaces. Collecting is therefore NOT RECOMMENDED, unless this activity is pursued to establish a properly identified and cataloged collection of shells, which will be available to specialists, and thus add to the knowledge of mollusks in an area.

While measures have been taken to restrict the collection of shells, for example by enforcing regulations banning collection inside marine protected areas (as a side note: Kenya's effective use of regulations stands in contrast to Tanzania; it is said that weak enforcement inside marine protected areas combined with loose enforcement of bans against dynamite fishing in Tanzania, make the reef a startling and defacto aqua "border" between the two countries), the general recommendation is to limit the sale and import of shells. Until there is a system of management which ensures the collection of species sold is not depleting the wild stocks or interfering with the balance of life in the shallow marine habitats of the region, these activities should not be encouraged.

DO NOT BUY CORALS OR OTHER CURIOS. Please spread the word.

Do You Rue?

The hugely anticipated Rue Magazine opens on line this week and it promises to be good. For those lacking patience, here is a sneak peak. 

So, do you rue?

He said, She said.

As most of you are well aware by this point, my interest in home design and fashion borders on the verge of obsession. I have found a great outlet to explore these interests in the form of blogs, especially as conversations with the less than interested husband often leave me wanting. When Andrei and I fail to see eye to eye on matters of fashion and home design, I find that his perspective and opinions are often truly hilarious, even when he fails to see that my opinion is of course, the "right" one. Alas, I did not marry a gay man...

It seems I am not alone in this aspect of "marital bliss," Alison of My Little Happy Place has a hilarious feature, called "He said, She said." As you may guess from the title, basically she shares home design images with her husband and records their respective reactions to each image. I encourage you to check it out, well worth a few laughs. But I digress...

Recently Andrei picked up an issue of Elle he found lying around our bedroom. Casually flipping through the pages he stumbled across this Chanel ad, and so began our version of "He said, She said."

Andrei: Beautiful.
Matty: er, um...
Andrei: These images are going straight onto the man repeller.
Matty: Yea, seriously, I just dont get it.

And so it seems, Andrei and I have agreed on one thing, the Chanel Fall 2010 collection is simply atrocious, or maybe to be fair, we simply just do not get the appeal of fur covered everything living in the tropics. In the ultimate ironic twist of fate, images from this collection have made their way into the header of the man repeller blog.

For the record, this does not mean that I no longer covet the fabulous $3000 white quilt Chanel purse. Its a classic. Yes, I am living as an unpaid student intern in one of the poorest countries of the world and longing for a $3000 purse. And so it goes...

Books by the Foot.

I feel like a real grown up. Andrei and I just bought our first piece of furniture. It is a book shelf. And I  am in love. Upon its entry into our new home, I set about the task of arranging all of our books and treasured objects on the hard wood shelves. Oh joy. It turns out I am not alone in this rather strange idea of fun, feast your eyes on these images from i suwannee who uses her blog to showcase her fetish for artful bookcase arrangements in her regular feature, bookcase of the day, it is pure delight.

Here are some of my favorites.

Incidentally, if your book shelves at home are looking a little sparse, did you know that you can order books by the foot? I remember when Andrei introduced me to this concept, when we first started dating, I nearly choked. As we were passing a gorgeous home in Dupont Circle with some mightily impressive book shelves, I casually commented, Oh my, check that collection out. Andrei said, you know you order those things by the foot. WhAAt?! Is this a past time for the rich, instead of developing a collection over time. Andrei laughed, perhaps, but this was originally a service to set designers, or people in the staging industry. Either way, if you are looking to impress a certain someone with your home "library" this could prove a useful option. If it is not the literary impression you seek to impart, you can also feel free to order foot upon foot of books along more aesthetic persuasions, feeling blue today anyone? how about firey red or maybe just warm red? or are you looking to follow popular whims right now and go green? or how about some white on white action?  And so it seems the fun never ends when contemplating books by the foot.

Weekend Purchase.

Tinga Tinga, everywhere!

Tanzania is home to Tinga Tinga art.  Inspired by nature, this art form is fun, colorful, and playful.

 Artist: A. Hasani

 Artist: Ally

Artist: Amadi

Artist: Ibra

Artist: L. Nangida

Artist: M. Chiwaya

Artist: Mbwana Sudi

Artist: Shabani

Artist: Sufiani

Personally, I think that some of these paintings would look adorable in a child's bedroom.

This school of art was started by a single man in 1968, named Edward Saidi Tingatinga (1936 - 1972). Unfortunately, he met a rather young and untimely death as a result of being hit by a police bullet. Amidst growing popularity with ex-pats living here and tourists on safari, the family of Tingatinga decided to start the Tinga Tinga Arts Co-operative Society in 1990. Today, the Co-operative boasts over 100 active artists and can proudly proclaim itself as one of the largest illustration, design, and arts studios in the world. But the actual number of Tinga Tinga painters is estimated to be on the order of up to 1000, located mostly in Tanzania, but also found throughout other parts of the world. 

Tinga Tinga's roots and origins are likely linked to the African tradition of decorating hut walls. Below is a hut wall painting from 1906:

Today, the paintings usually depict a wide variety of stylized African animals in bold color palettes. The painting techniques consist of mostly enamel colors on canvas or ceiling board, although the signature Tinga Tinga style is sold on a wide variety of products, including T-shirts, pencils, plates, cups, and beyond.

Our favorite bar in Mikadi Beach is decked out in Tinga Tinga paintings.

Tire covers on SUVs are a great way to demonstrate your passion for this art form. Below are some pictures of our most recent acquisition:

But my favorite example to date is the Tinga Tinga motorcycle. It took approximately 10-15 painters five days to paint the motorcycle, starting on 12th December 2008.

 And here are the results:

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References:

http://www.tingatingastudio.com/menu_about.html

Photo Credits (Process of Painting Motorcycle):

http://www.afrum.com/index.php?hash=8b48b73408076bafc4e0311a51208b95&categ=art_cur&action=vypis&select=366

Painting Images:

http://www.afrum.com/index.php?hash=c0ec351bcdb6b2889d17ac6a453ee605&categ=gal&action=none&select=17