Do you remember when you used to finish a roll of film, rewind it and take it to be developed in its little black case? The element of surprise was fantastic wasn’t it?!

Cassia Beck has been telling me all about her vintage cameras and the inspiration behind her work.

‘Brighton is full of inspiration!’ says Cassia ‘I am inspired by shop window displays and the seaside attractions I once hated. The Helter Skelter and Carousel on the pier are part of my most popular photographs’.

Cassia evokes a sense of nostalgia in her work by using vintage cameras – the results look like something unearthed from a time capsule due to the scratches and fluff on the lens. She explains how she started out: ‘I knew someone who owned a Holga camera, I fell in love with the saturated colours, vignetting and light leaks’. She bought a Kodak
Duaflex which she uses to produce these fantastic images.

When you look at her seaside collection – the helter skelter on the pier and an image of the seafront carousel which she has romantically entitled ‘A Love Affair Rekindled’ – you really get a sense of good old fashioned ‘Britishness’!… of a time when life was simple.

As well as seaside icons Cassia also shoots and sells nature prints – images of beautiful flowers entitled ‘I loved You Once’ and ‘Raspberries & Cream’. And…. As if these fabulous images aren’t enough…. she runs a second online shop (via Etsy) called ‘Lola’s Room’. The images in Lola’s room have a different look and feel about them and are achieved using a digital camera and post processing to wash out and fade the colours. The images are sweet, nostalgic and contain plenty of pastel colours! – Reels of pretty cotton, jars of sweets, cupcakes…

Cassia sets up still life shots at home using her much loved vintage ornaments as props.

Currently Cassia is working on a project with fellow photographer Shannon Blue. It’s a year long project entitled ‘A Year in Pictures’ whereby each photographer takes one
photograph a week of an everyday subject and they’re displayed side by side. ‘We thought it would be interesting to see our different view of the same subject’.

You can follow this project via the blog http://everydayvision.blogspot.com/ and you can browse and buy Cassia’s iconic images for yourself on Etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=8201757 and Folky http://www.folksy.com/shops/CassiaBeck
Her work is also displayed at the IO Gallery in Brighton.

By Helen Ruff

As a result of the recession we’re seeing a much more modest approach to weddings and events and the ‘DIY’ wedding is becoming increasingly popular. i.e. renting a barn and putting together all the elements yourself. What better way to jolly up a barn (or any room for that matter) than to adorn the ceilings and walls with metres and metres of kitsch, colourful bunting! The effect is reminiscent of a post war street party and give a real ‘village fete’ feel.

Sue Maulin runs www.buntingboutique.co.uk and lovingly makes metres and metres of bunting by hand. She offers a delightful mix of colours and patterns, choosing her fabric combinations very carefully and often using vintage fabrics to create the unique overall look.

You can rent the bunting for a special event – every packet of bunting consists of a 3 metre length and each 3 metre length consists of 9 beautiful triangles. The hire price is £7 per packet. Or you can buy the bunting via The Bunting Boutique website.

Sue, who has a background in fashion, also runs www.magpieandme.co.uk – a textile label that produces handmade functional designs such as brooches, purses and bracelets. Sue is strongly influenced by vintage finds and loves to blend old fabric and trims with soft leather to make her accessories.

Each piece is handcrafted with love such as the ‘leather flower bracelet’. The strap of the bracelet is made from embroidered vintage trim. It fastens with a hand made loop made from embroidery silk and a small button. The flower is made from a lovely soft lemon leather and has a mother of pearl button in the centre.

Each bracelet is handmade and comes attached to a card.

by Helen Ruff

Forget anything you know about traditional food and pie making, Emma Wall a young designer takes you into a new era. Very much concerned with the new fast eating habits and their consequences on health Emma Wall decided to react. Thinking that the best way to touch the people would be to renew a traditional dish she chose to refresh the pie baking technique. Her pastry palette is meant “to build a better relationship with the cultures and pleasures of eating”. The pastry palette that you can see above is made of “a sycamore chopping board with a cooling, vitreous enameled reverse and the stencils stored within the board are made from food safe certified polypropylene”. This is a perfectly healthy panoply for cooking some healthy food. Your best chance to unite your family around a traditional pie with a modern look. With the stencil you can draw the union flag on your pie top “which reminds us the quintessential British nature of pie baking and presents us with contemporary alternative to pastry decoration.”

This description sounds like a perfect dinner but you need something else if you want to make sure you will eat with a good pace. Don’t worry! Emma has the solution, she made up a Slow Celebration Candle Stick because “eating by candle light represents the notion of slow or celebrating dining”. This special light will let you the time to dream and eat with some sparkles in your eyes. “This product allows a household candle, set into a silicone base, to drip wax back into liquid. After several uses the mould will be full and a wicked candle in the shape of a traditional ornate candlestick can be released” says Emma. She made up the romantic recycling candle. You can make up your own as your dining experiences accumulate. “Time goes by so slowly” as Madonna would say , don’t waste it, enjoy every single second as you follow the light like a butterfly.

With a modern pie and a slow candle stick maybe that you hold the secret of eternal life, so don’t turn your back to it, just take your time.

If you want more secrets about pie baking, slow celebration candlesticks or eternal life and much more join Emma Wall on her website: www.emmawalldesigns.co.uk.

Written by Nadia Bacha