photos: Matthias Piket
Lately, I’ve been totally into workshops. I like the feeling of learning new crafts and perfecting already existing skills. So I was more than happy when Huawei invited me to a mobile photography workshop by Paul Ripke. If you haven’t heard of this man, you should definitely google his name. He rose to fame with his book One Night in Rio where he captured the German soccer team up-close and personal at the World Championship in Rio back in 2014. But he’s not a typical sport and event photographer. With his work he comes so close to the action and the main protagonists that it almost feels like being right there between the athletes celebrating their victory.
With someone so accomplished of course there is a lot to learn, so after he introduced himself to us I was really curious what secrets of his success and profession he would share with us during this workshop. Much to my surprise, in the end the most valuable insight that I got beside a lot of technical stuff, was something quite more personal and inconspicuous…
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by Frank | Photos, Stories
I have the utmost respect for people who are skilled in traditional crafts. I think such a large part of our work is done by computers these days and in a way that’s great, but we also loose a lot of motor skills because of this. I remember times when I was so tired of only working on the computer that I started side projects that required my hands and my brain in different ways and it felt so good to finally create something physical with my own hands.
I think a lot of people share this desire to use their skills in different ways these days because I see that traditional and even new crafts are trending right now. The rise of maker spaces, DIY projects and workshops are proof of this.
With our guide for creatives, workshop list and review of up-cycling design we already shared a few opportunities in Berlin with you were you can get your hands dirty. Today we introduce you to another one: glass molding and blowing. We were invited by Berlin Glas e.V. to try out one of their glass blowing workshops to learn more about this highly sophisticated traditional craft and even create our own simple glass objects.
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by Frank | Design
photo: Frau Tonis Parfum
Autumn has come lovely people. We cannot deny it any more. It is, therefore, high time we started coming up with nice activities for this grey time of year. Quite a few times we have you aware of the fabulous, tempting offers by Priceless® Berlin and on this note we will carry on today. This time we have picked out a few activities for you for the cold days that will get your creative juices flowing. DIY has become such a pretty big trend; but in order to develop the right skills for it, think about participating at some of the workshops, that are offered in great abundance all over Berlin. We picked out a few exciting suggestions for you.
On board is also Berlin-re-cycle, whose workshop we recently featured in detail; there, you can work on your own upcycling lamps. Besides that, you can make your own perfume with the help of Frau Tonis or get a professional make-up by the MUD experts.
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by Frank | Design, Food, Products
Last week a brand new festival launched in Berlin that took over the beautiful Kaufhaus Jandorf at Weinbergspark. But the C-HR Festival is not just any kind of festival, it’s a festival for the future: The themes are sustainability, creativity, design, fashion and innovation. All of these are quite broad topics, but when you read the program of speakers and workshop hosts you will understand how it’s all connected.
We live in a world that is oversaturated by innovations, creativity and design. But we realized that many of the things that humans have developed in the past couple of decades brought a lot of negative side-effects with them. Effects that we were blind to for way too long, environmentally, economically but also socially. The C-HR Festival now wants to shed some light on some of the problems and solutions we have today and need to come up with in the future. There will be talks and speeches about pollution of the ocean, the psychology of creativity, the possible effects of veganism and so much more.
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by Frank | Events
Flowers are totally hype these days! With quite a few flower related start-ups and projects on the rise it seems they are taking over the reign from the trending positions of food delivery and dating apps of the last couple of years. The slightly antiquated job of the florist is now totally in fashion again.
Flower services such as Florale Welten, Damerius, Flowerstudio Berlin, Bloomon and many more are now reinventing the classical flower bouquet to make it into the contemporary, Instagram-worthy little pieces of art that people just can’t help but fall in love with.
Tollwasblumenmachen.de is an online magazine that is dedicated to the beauty of flowers and promotes all these little projects that we have here in Berlin. They also have a huge map and search function that let’s you find the best flower shops in your proximity.
This coming weekend they are organizing a huge Flower Market at Bikini Berlin that you shouldn’t miss. The amazing flower installation by Rebecca Louise Law in Spring showed us that flowers and the Bikini Berlin go really well together, so we are looking forward to this new flowertastic event.
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by Frank | Charlottenburg, Market
Barber shops, food vendors, tattoo parlors, furniture makers, micro brewers, barista – these are all big trends right now, not only here in Berlin but in other major cities all over the world. And contrary to the other common favorite dream jobs such as designers, architects and artists none of these require a university degree. Common trades and craftsmanships are having a big comeback and rightly so!
The Pilsner Urquell Werkstatt at Fluxbau is exactly about these kinds of trades that had a dusty old image for the longest time but are now becoming totally hip again. From June 5-13, 2015 they are showcasing a colorful mix of crafts and trades in their Werkstatt. You will be able to look over the shoulder of barbers, carpenters, cheese and sausage makers, smiths, leather makers, glass engravers and many more. Of course in the end of the day there is always gonna be some beer as well as a music program that includes the Berliner Kneipenchor, Frankie Chavez, Phia, TÜSN and many more.
But here comes the best part: Some of their trades and crafts you can even learn how to do yourself in workshops that you can participate in. Learn how to make tattoos, how to brew, how to bake the perfect bread, how to make woodblock prints, how to upcycle bottles and how to roast coffee. Sounds fun? Click on to find out how to win tickets for the workshops and the detailed program of the Pilsner Urquell Werkstatt!
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by Frank | Events
photos: Ale in Wonderland
This weekend a very special workshop is happening at the amazing Urban Spree gallery in Friedrichshain where you can get your freak in the most creative way. The workshop is about creating masks from scrap material and strange objects – cleverly timed to coincide with the upcoming carnival season. Led by artist Ambra Rosedorne you will be equipped with tools and basic materials, but you also have to bring some abandoned objects that you or other participants can use for their masks. It’s definately going to be bring your creativity to the next level. Enjoy the haunting photos by Ale in Wonderland of some of the previous masks of Ambra and be inspired for your own mask creation of Saturday.
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by Frank | Art, Events
With the final photo set of our House of Haunted Hearts Halloween event we want to show you the impressions of the costume workshop with the sweet guys from Dodo Magazine. They came up with really clever and cute monster costumes and it was really a pleasure for me to see our and their readers come together to get crafty. That’s a new one even for us! Here are some before&after GIFs from the participants. Thanks a lot to the make-up team of Jenna Smith, as well as to Glacéau vitaminwater and Michelberger’s Fountain of Youth for the refreshments! If you haven’t seen them, don’t miss the photo sets of the haunted house, the party and the haunted porn booth. The workshop photos after the jump!
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by Frank | Party, Photos
Tonight is Halloween and you probably aks yourself the big question: What the fuck am I gonna dress up as?! To give you a bit of an inspiration we assembled our favorite Halloween looks from recent years for you into a big party photo set.
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by Frank | Party, Photos
Halloween has been an obsession of mine since I was a pre-teen thanks to all the special Halloween episodes of all the TV shows that I was watching back than. Unfortunately at the time it was simply not common to celebrate Halloween here in Germany. So no scary costume, haunted house or trick’o’treatin’ for me, much to my disappointment. It’s only been in the last couple of years here in Berlin with all these international cultures coming together that I could finally participate in this American tradition.
This year I’m making myself a dream come true: The House of Haunted Hearts – our very own Halloween party. Of course us being I HEART BERLIN it’s not simply a party – it’s much more. Find out after the jump!
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by Frank | Art, Party