June, 2013

Kazumi Tsuji Dinner

June 6th, 2013

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On their last night staying with us, Kazumi Tsuji cooked dinner. Kazumi lived in San Francisco so her cooking is a mash up between Japanese, American, and Italian.

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We used a mish mash of tableware: Teema (for some reason we only own four cereal bowls, but there were six of us), beautiful lacquer bowls bought from Sabita in Sapporo on our honeymoon, Kazumi Tsuji glasses, Masanobu Ando plates…Japanese cooking is all about the small and many plates, so it’s fun to get to use an assortment of beautiful pieces in one sitting.

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(Clockwise from top left)
Mussles in a white wine and garlic sauce
Spinach salad with toasted sesame seeds
Eggplant and zucchini, hands down the crowd favourite. I wish I knew what she did!!!
Tomato, steak and onion…stew?

It was such a treat to have Kazumi cook for us!

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Norihiko Terayama’s window installation at Mjölk

June 6th, 2013
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When Norihiko visited us in April he spent two days creating a beautiful window display for his exhibition “My Garden”. Since the results were so inspiring, he suggested that we frame it.

Ok, so I am no videographer (Kings of Convenience served as a lovely soundtrack, but of course that’s a no no). John just pointed out to me that videos are usually taken on the panoramic. Yup, makes sense! Anyway, the point of this quick video is to show how methodical Norihiko was with his process. He would select the pieces according to the spacing, and then use a little table brush to keep the floor clean before continuing. Two days on his hands and knees and a lot of coffee!

A few weeks ago we met Peter & Elizabeth Porebski, who have a professional framing business The Gilder, and got to talking with them. They came up with a plan and a few days ago we set about the task of transferring every little piece to two 4′ x 8′ canvases. We selected a nice Japanese washi paper to serve as the background.

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We used our iphones to photograph placement.

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A pizza break and then back to it!

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Then Peter & Elizabeth came to the shop with prepared frames and we hung them just in time for Kazumi’s show. They will be on semi-permanent display – one day they’ll probably make their way into our home but for now they will be in the shop for all to enjoy!

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Edwards Gardens

June 3rd, 2013

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Last Monday on our day off we headed across town to visit Edwards Gardens for the first time.

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I am uncertain whether Elodie liked the gardens. In every photo she resembles a fancy Wednesday Adams.

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We decided to free the child from her stroller, which we then had to confiscate as she couldn’t NOT push it. Toddlers, part 1.

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Overlooking the gardens from the lookout mound.

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Toddlers, part 2. Teeny tiny rocks.

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Ladies with matching hats.

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Toddlers, part 3. Running off to clearly out of bounds areas.

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A pretty boring green house. Geraniums? Also, I’m not going to lie, we were a tad disappointed there was no Japanese garden. I guess Vancouver has us beat on this front.

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Toddlers, part 4. More of the same.

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Some nice greenery over here…

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Sniff, sniff!

The cafe was disappointing, but to be expected as I think it’s city run and they just cannot seem to get their game together. I mean, let’s not even begin to discuss the High Park restaurant. Could be amazing.

All in all, it was a nice place to wander around, though we have High Park so I am not sure we’d head across town when we have our own little piece of idyllic parkland right in our back yard.

 

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Kazumi Tsuji @ Mjölk

June 1st, 2013

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On Thursday we hosted a solo exhibition of Kanazawa based glass artist Kazumi Tsuji. We were particularly excited about this exhibition because we had just met up with Kazumi in Japan the month before, and also spent the last 4 weeks putting the finishing touches on Mjölk Volume II, which Kazumi has a large feature in. So we were definitely in Kazumi-mode in the weeks leading up to the exhibition. By the way, our second book is at the printers as we speak. More on that later!

If you are not familiar with Kazumi Tsuji’s work, or the show in general here is a little summary. Kazumi’s special glasses are a collection of clear mouth-blown glass with a thin delicate layer of black/purple glass on top. Kazumi then cuts patterns into the thin black glass to reveal the clear glass beneath it.

Along with her notable clear and black glasses, we were also showing special blue glasses during the exhibition. These are very special because they are the result of a years worth of broken glass from Kazumi’s studio. The discarded glass is collected and melted down, the result was a surprise – an incredibly rich blue glass! These are the unique and signed works only available during this exhibition.

Above: Our Studio Junction crafted tea carts holding unique glass bottles and funnels made for the exhibition.

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The clear air pitcher holding some flowers.

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Our black bookcase with black glassware.

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Very special large bowls with various cut and etched patterns.

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The collection of “Reclaimed blue” glasses on an oak table by Børge Mogensen.

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Triangle shaped bowls.

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Decal by Sali Tabacchi.

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These two are the cutest, aren’t they? Friend of the shop Vincent with Kazumi Tsuji.

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Did you not hear about our exhibition and you wanted to attend? Please sign up for our newsletter!

Thank you to everyone who attended!

For those who missed the evening, the work is still on display and we will be adding pieces to the webshop soon.

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