Balata Dorote, 62 years old Natawa, Fiji Islands. Fish caught by her sons.

The night before photographer Gabriele Galimberti set out out on a trip around the world, his Tuscan grandmother made him her special ravioli. The meal inspired his project “Delicatessen With Love”, a document of the grandmothers of the world and the special dishes they cook for their families.

Susann Soresen, 81 years old – Homer, Alaska. She cooked moose.

Lebgaa Fanana, 42 years old – Timimoun, Algeria. Couscous

Boonlom Thongpor, 69 years old – Bangkok, Thailand

Jenya Shalikashuili, 58 years old – Alaverdi, Armenia. A roll of minced beef, rice and vegetables wrapped into grape leaves.

Fatma Bahkach, 59 years old – Aghrimz, Morocco

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A baroque fantasy land of leopard rugs, oriental textiles, mirrored walls, trompe l’oeil art, marble bath tubs, art deco light fixtures, Agyness Deyn’s Williamsburg loft has a lot going on – to say the least! It’s a little kitsch, a little grandma takes a trip, and we love it. The former model sold the apartment in 2011 and we dread to think what became of it. The real estate pictures have been circulating for the last year to harsh criticism – one interiors blog saying: “makes me want to laugh, cry, and puke all at the same time – apparently on the market for $2.5, I think I’ll pass.”. Admittedly her style is not for everyone, but this trove of treasures and curiosities is anything but boring.

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We stumbled across these beautiful images, created by Flickr user totaviva. Using Google Earth he then stitches together landscapes from all over the world, using colour grades to highlight the beautiful patterns that only nature could create.

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Designer Martina Spetlova was studying chemistry in Prague, before she began a career as a fashion designer, graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2010. Her scientific mind reveals itself in her work with her commitment to exploring unique textiles and the meticulous construction of her garments.

For her fall 2013 collection Martina works with pleated leather and woven satin and leather pieces in a beautiful and unusual colour palette of ice blue, mustard, sherbert orange and a soft pistachio. We’re anticipating big things from this designer.

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Hilda Hellström is a Swedish-born London-based artist who investigates ideas of myth, perceived reality, universal truths and subjectivity. Her father is a carpenter and her mother a psychoanalyst, these two inclinations compound within her in beautiful way.

In 2011 she worked on a series of tiles, urns and vessels (pictured above & below), titled “Sedimentation”. Working with the ideas of creation, both predetermined and naturally-occurring, Hilda created these vessels inspired by ancient rock formations. The materials she used are man-made, but the beautiful marbled patterns are beyond the control of their creator, taking shape and forming their own patterns “naturally”. Hilda’s work often plays between control and coincidence.

During the Summer of 2012 Hilda worked on a project for Swarovski’s exhibition themed on “Memory in a Digital Age”. Using Google Earth Hilda digitally travelled to Wattens, Austria – the headquarters of Swarovski. Using topography of this mountainous region, she made a cast to create a a suspended crystal shaped like Tyrollean mountains.

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PET waste is a major environmental concern all over the world. Every society in the world consume larges amounts of plastic, but the very thing that makes it so useful to consumers – durability – is what makes it so hard to dispose of. Plastics outlive it’s consumers, taking more than the average human lifetime to decompose.

In 2011 designer Alvaro Catalán de Ocón was invited to take part in a project initiated by Hélène Le Drogou, a psychologist and activist concerned with the plastic waste that contaminates the Colombian Amazon (interestingly sponsored by Coca Cola). Using traditional textile traditions of the local people the creatives heading up this project developed a product that would take full advantage of the long lifespan of PET and give it a new life. The result was the PET lamp which was presented to the marketplace at the prestigious Milan Furniture Fair this year.

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We spotted the work of Andrea Bergart on one of our favourite blogs Sight Unseen. Andrea’s paintings are bright and fancy-free, inspired by the vibrant textiles of Ghana, where she studied – she now lives in Queens, New York. She also experiments with silk canvases painting the surfaces with dyes. She has even had the pleasure of painting a cement truck.

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We first wrote about Laurenceairline when designer Laurence Chauvin Buthaud launched her second collection a year ago. Born in Cote d’Ivoire, Laurence moved to Paris as a small child. After working for Louis Vuitton, she decided to branch our on her own, reworking the vibrant prints of African textiles into modern menswear, featuring paneled shirts, tailored shorts and suit pants.

Her SS13 collections is called Koutoukou after a tropical drink from the Ivory Coast. Using cotton poplins and matt waxed cotton, coloured with prints inspired by Moroccan tiles, Japanese etchings and fan patterns.

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Snake print can be tricky to work with – it has to be used carefully to avoid looking garish. I wonder if it is the slimy reptile itself that influences people’s subconscious? We loved Bec & Bridge‘s version for their Summer 2013 collection shown at MBFWA. They managed to create a snakeskin look soft and polished in silky pastel and cool blues.

*Think Positive printed this on silk satin.

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The Awesome Project is just that – an awesome project by illustrator Madalina Andronic & designer Claudiu Stefan. Working with porcelain, hand-painted with the dainty illustrations of Madalina, they create beautiful objects – including homewares and these incredible porcelain collars. But the object of their project is not to just create beautiful work. Both creatives are from Romania and want to encourage and keep alive the folk art traditions of their culture in a contemporary context.

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