Russian Tattoo book

I went in to a museum of art and came out with a book on Russian Criminal Tattoos...
Anyway, what interested me were not the tattoos, though they are art pieces, interesting, scary and intriguing. What caught my eye was the photos of the people wearing them.
The photos are taken inside Russian jails and they tell so much of the state of the society they live in.
They show us the criminals of the street, many of them looks insane and they remind me strongly of photos from the beginning of last century made of patients. Those pictures were made for doctors case studies. These photos of Russian criminals show people on the edge of life, society and sanity. The photographer is conscious of his power to shine just a little spotlight on the people and the temptation to receive just those minutes, puts them in a vulnerable position. They are showing off their tattoos, but the voyeuristic camera lens undresses them and shows instead of cool tattoos the fragile person. To put these people into the context of the news we get from Russia lately, broadens at least my view of the country and the state it is in.
If you want to see more of this book it is made by Steidl in three volumes. I happened to buy the second one.

Awagami - Fine art paper

Another thing I found in Brussels was a Creative Art paper pack from Awagami Factory. A bag full of fun and beautiful paper. On the Awagami site you can read about how the Japanese paper is made in a different way then western made paper, but I'm more in to just looking at the nice papers with flowers and all. On the site though there is for everyone who admire paper a lot to look at. Walls made by paper, paper in every form for decoration, buy your own paper making set, go to a paper making workshop, etc.
I got the small "Creative Washi Pack", a very small taste of what they are able to produce, for me it is inspiring enough. On the outside of the pack there is a illustration of how you can use these papers into wrappings for different things. I like the illustration and would rather find more of those, giving me more ideas about that to do with my stack.
And for those of you wanting to get your hands on these here are the shops were to find it.
Enjoy.

Broleskine - hand made notebooks from recycled paper

Brussels is a wonderful city and in it I found wonderful things amongst others two notebooks which took my breath away. From old books, papers envelopes etc Broleskine makes new notebooks.
As they write about their work: 'From all sorts of books, papers, packaging, envelopes heather, Broleskine creates unique books. In a current design of the binding, Broleskine think in colors and textures, questions on paper and always in a spirit of recovery. Ruled, squared, colorful, screenprinted, collages, hand-stitched, these precious objects are never developed in the same way. Book tailor made, ready to read book dismembered, calendar reusable.'
It is a form of poetry in notebooks. The love for paperwork you see all through their book, which are also usable. Go to their site and brows and if you like me find it in a store, be amazed.
Here is their link to the stores and other places were you can find their books.
I found mine at bozarshop. Which is really cool and well worth visiting!

All images are from the broleskine.be site.