A GEM In TANGIER

Masculine Edge

1. Craftsman 1470pc Professional Tool Set

Ferrari via GQ

Kitchen via Erin Martin Projects

Tom Dixon Lights

Miles Redd Kitchen

Todd Romano Living Room

Italian Style via The Sartorialist

Men's Dressing Room

Tom Kundig Pool and Gym via AD

Martin Gee Apartment

Office Source Unknown

1938 Alfa Romeo's Lungo Touring Coupe

Gio Ponti Blue Diamond Living Room

Denver Art Museum North Building by Gio Ponti

Gio Ponti

Francisco Costa Apartment Via AD

Miles Redd Bedroom

Mad Men's Don Draper

Pinstripe Arm Chair via Inside Man Apartment Therapy

1963 Aston Martin DB5 via GQ

Pinstripe and Silver Via Apartment Therapy

Douglas Friedman Office Space

Roman & Williams Living Room Elizabeth NYC

Roman & Williams Black and Caramel Kitchen Elizabeth NYC

Roman & Williams Office NYC

Hank Azaria Dressing Room via AD

Hank Azaria Office/ Games Room Via AD

Kitchen via Apartment Therapy

AMC's Rubicon TV Show

Rakovsky Loft via Anima

Restoration Hardware Aviator Office

Ryan Gosling via GQ

Tom Kundig Living via AD

Cordoba, Spain (by etoma)

NAMASTE

     "Life is not measured by how many breaths we take,but by the moments that take our breath away. Maya Angelou"

  Beautiful pictures of the incredible power of yoga in our world, taken by Robert Sturman whose expansive photography shows us how Yoga heals people everywhere from our city streets to the depth of Africa to our prisons. I Just chose two examples out of hundreds named The Girl with the Ganesh Tattoo and Sunrise on The Sound. It brought me serenity straight away, and also got my ass to the yoga studio in a flash.I could picture this images in massive sizes in a yoga studio, how beautiful would that be! Come on someone do it.  

Love your work, 

To see more of Robert Sturman's photography here are the links

robertsturmanstudio.com

www.facebook.com/Artist.Photografia

Dar Maktoub Essaouira

"There is a place where words are born of silence, A place where the whispers of the heart arise. There is a place where voices sing your beauty, A place where every breath carves your image in my soul."   Rumi

Art dealer Dorothea McKenna's Elkon first encounter with this beautiful 18th Century Riad was love at first sight. Located in the the magical fishing town of Essouria, the riad was in total disrepair. Seduced by Essouria and its riad Ms McKenna bought it only after few days having arrived in the town. Whilst back in France she met a dashing designer named Salem Graasi who happened to be traveling to Morocco that following week, he went to see the riad and came back inspired , Dorothea hired him to oversee the renovation.

Inspired by such books as Arabesques by Jean Marc Castera, mosques and palaces of Spain and Morocco they sourced the best woodworkers, tilers and stone carvers and painters. Moroccan artisans are renowned for Zellige and Mashrabiya techniques. As you can see from the images the riad was completed to perfection, a creative splendor.

Today the riad is named Dar Maktoub (House of Destiny) and Dorothea and Salem got married. What a fantastic story Dar Maktoub indeed a labour of love.

Listen to :  Golou Limma by Chaba Zahouania who is Algerian but thought the song was perfect for this story.

Sourced via,

http://www.architecturaldigest.com

California Niemeyer

While researching all of Oscar Niemeyer's work on the week of his passing I stumbled upon these images.

This 1963 Californian Mid Century Modernist house has an incredible history, It was commissioned by Film maker Josef Strick and his wife Anne after meeting Oscar Niemeyer in a film festival in Brazil. It was a complicated commission as Niemeyer was not allowed to enter the country because he had connections to the Communist party, regardless that he had designed the United Nations in New York. Not putt off by the challenge he cleverly designed the house via Aerial photographs and Topographical surveys. How is that possible! There was no internet or fax in those days all by mail from California to Brazil!

Oscar your genius will never be forgotten.

Que Marvilha xo

Sourced via The189.com, Architectural Digest

A Wally Of A Dream

"A man is never Lost at Sea " Ernest Hemingway

Darkness has set in here in England, and am craving the sun and the sea like crazy, for me there is nothing like that first dip in the ocean after cold winter months. As I live in London I try and escape by looking at images of islands , beaches and boats. I stumbled on this incredible image of  the sea and in it this unique beauty of a  power boat, what was it? The razor sharp perfect lines looked it had come from the future , am usually more old school but this boat has soul and spectacular craftsmanship.

Luca Bassani Antivari  a man with 40 years of sailing experience created his masterpiece when he could not find a boat that fit into all his requirements, so he decided to craft his dream into a reality. Combining his passion for design, performence and his passion for the sea Wally Boats was born. Whether its a speed power boat, a sailing boat or a yacht the Wally World of boats are innovative and intriguing.

Wally has a project in collaboration with Hermes called the WHY, is it boat, an island, a house on the sea? I think its all of them, what genius!!  The Wally Company are also famous for their phenomenal racing engineering , in the summer they stage more than 30 races called FT Wally Grand Prix Series. At the moment some of their boats are taking part in the Transatlantic Maxi Yacht Regatta from Tenerife to Virgin Gorda.

Wally Designs are the two time winners of The Compasso D'Oro the world's most prestigious prize fro industrial design.  

Luca Bassani Antivari followed his vision and turned into a reality and boy am I glad he did, Would be perfect in a Bond movie. 

Have a look at the website there are so many choices to look at, more technical information for those who want it and a lot of interesting projects.

Ship Ahoy! xo    

All Images via  www.wally.com                 

MUSICAL INTERMISSION

DAFT PUNK GET LUCKY Ft PHARRELL WILLIAMS (Live Performance )

Happy Summer feeling song, perfect for this Sunny Friday in London! Pharrell is feeling it too! 

Via www.theinspiration.com

Photography by Xuebing Du

Instagram: xuebing.du

Sebastiao Salgado talks with Benedikt Taschen about Genesis and his profoundly moving experiences of what he has witnessed on his journey through the lens.

  TASCHEN

INSTITUTO TERRA

Dashi Namdakov: A Nomad's Universe

“I would like to understand Buryat and Buddhist tradition rationally, yet I believe something within me knows it better than I do." Dashi Namdakov

Dashi Namdakov lives in the South Eastern part of Russian Siberia near the absolutely magnificent Lake Baikal, the world’s cleanest and biggest fresh water container - one of the Worlds Natural Heritage Sites. The local people Buryats believe the Lake to be sacred.

Dashi was born in 1967 in a small Buryati village near the Russian Chinese border. His father was a well-known craftsman in the village who was famous for his versatile abilities to make things with his own hands furniture, metal handles and even carpets. His wood-carved sculptures of buddhist gods and tangkas (Buddhist icons) were installed in monasteries. So, from early childhood the kids learnt different skills through helping their father.

This is the atmosphere Dashi has grown up in and by the time he became a young man he had a good command of various manual skills. But at the age of 15 Dashi suddenly got very sick and for 7 long years no doctor could heal him. The boy was near the death's door.

Finally the parents found themselves at a shaman who found the cause of the sickness. It was the negligence that people show to their roots, their predecessors and their names. She made her ritual. Incredible enough but the pain stopped instantly. And 7 days later Dashi was in another city looking for a job. That shaman predicted that Dashi would see a huge success due to his ability to observe the beauty of the surrounding world and to recreate it in metal.

He moves to Ulan-Ude, Buryati central city and starts his carrier in the workshop of the locally well-known sculptor G.Vasilyev. In 1988 Dashi is admitted to the University of Fine Arts in Siberian Krasnoyarsk city. This is where Russian famous artists Lev Golovnitsky, Yuri Ishkhanov, Azat Boyarlin and Eduard Pakhomov taught him the academic art.

After graduation in 1992 Dashi returns to Ulan-Ude. In the year 2000 after his first personal exhibition in Irkutsk it becomes clear that a new star was born in the world of arts. The exhibition came as a furore to the art establishment. The first exhibition was followed by other successful venues in Russia and other countries.

The mysterious images often haunt Dashi during nights when the consciousness is in transition to another world inhabited by celestial creatures and spirits. Dashi scrupulously renders these visions to the paper for him not to forget - and then the night dreams are imprinted in bronze or silver.

Dashi's sculptures belong to other, remote worlds where the man and the cosmos are one, where every single thing is an integral part of the universal construction each having its own individual place and yet constantly reincarnating. This is the oriental idea of the world seeing beauty in the fragile harmony of things and fearing to break this beauty with an awkward move.

This is why old shamans talk to the spirits and heal people in Dashi's world. His old warrior does not look barbaric at all rather he is tired and wise. However one feels that his wisdom does come from a lot of pain. Knowing the real cost of the victory the warrior becomes wise and thus more humane than anybody else. Dashi's women are sensual but shy in the oriental manner. Looking at a wild fallow deer how can anyone fail to see a beautiful girl? If one takes a close look at the world around he must be able to see its beauty.

"The Creator is wiser than you", - say Dashi's sculptures.- "If you take the world as it is its secret beauty will come out to you".

"My Grandpa was a very gifted story-teller. He knew a lot of legends and stories about Buryats. And I remember them with my bones, inwardly. This feeling is very strong and more on subconscious level. I would like to understand Buryat and Buddhist tradition rationally, yet, I believe, something within me knows it better than I do. My teacher at the Art School was Lev Golovnitsky, a very fine and good Russian sculptor. And he helped me to appreciate and understand the art of sculpture and world tradition. And I am a student of Michelangelo and Bourdelle, Bruegel and Old Japanese art. And I am also myself. " (Dashi Namdakov).

Text above from Halcyon Gallery,

I have always been fascinated by Nomadic Tribes and the lands of Mongolia , Siberia, Russia and central Asia. Especially their traditions and mystical faiths of Shamanism and storytelling. Dashi Namdakov has managed to capture all of these things and more in his incredible sculptures, paintings and jewellery design. This is is his first solo show in the UK, The collection includes 45 sculptures and drawings created by the artist over last 12 years and showcases the artist’s extraordinary craftsmanship and highly original style which combines traditional spiritual imagery with present day realities, make sure to also go and see this and the sculpture in Marble Arch. Out of this world.

Thank you Halcyon Gallery for bringing us such a magnificent talent,

16th of May-7 July 2012

Halcyon Gallery

144-146 New Bond Street

London

Photos sourced via,

www.halcyongallery.com

www.dashi-art.com

www.khankhalaev.com