A Knitter's Wet Dream (part 2): Wild and Woolly is born

Au bonheur des tricoteuses at Wild and Woolly: 

A knitter's wet dream (part 1): the empty shell

These last few weeks I documented the transformation of a very old empty hairdresser's shop in Hackney into Wild and Woolly, a mine of supplies, advice and inspiration for beginners and experienced knitters alike. This is Anna Feldman's baby and she writes about the whole experience in her blog. Here are the "Before" pictures, the "After" ones will be in part 2 very shortly:

                                                       Below the stock has arrived!

Pretty in black & white

I enjoyed the first flush of colour in the garden as much as the next londoner, and decided to test an old 50mm (a humble E series from Nikon) on my digital DSLR at maximum aperture (f 1.8) on the first blooms. The light breeze was enough to make the background and foreground almost abstract. I'd left my black and white settings on and here is the result :

Rachel Ann Stevenson's weird and wonderful world

Last Tuesday I went to Macclesfield to photograph sculptor Rachel Ann Stevenson in her studio. She has been working on some new pieces ahead of the 2014 edition of the Other Art Fair. I love the expressiveness of the faces of her bronze pieces, and the way she uses taxidermy without making anything feel morbid:

Portrait of Sam Enthoven, writer extraordinaire!

Sam writes fantastical action thrillers for 11-15 year olds; his books are published by Doubleday in the UK and Razorbill in the US. I photographed him at home for his new author picture.
The bat visible behind his shoulder on some of the pictures was made by a friend to ressemble one of his characters, complete with drooling blood!

Orchids galore at Kew

It is the Orchid Festival at Kew Gardens until 9th March. They are displayed in the Princess of Wales glasshouse, so weather is irrelevant...Well worth a visit:

Courtney Barnett at Rough Trade East, London

I recently discovered the songs and music by Aussie Courtney Barnett  and was thrilled to learn she had a few gigs in London... Alas they were sold out but the excellent music shop Rough Trade East had organized a lunchtime gig today. I went along and took lots of pictures; as usual with music gigs, the light is terrible and you have to shoot a lot to get a few decent ones:

 You can listen to/download/buy her double EP, A Sea of Split Peas here. Well worth it!