Following from the success of their Carnets de Voyage, in which four contemporary artists were invited to illustrate cities they visited for the first time, Louis Vuitton will be launching two new travel titles this Summer.

By commissioning Japanese manga master Jiro Taniguichi and Italian illustrator Lorenzo Mattotti, to create a fresh and contemporary impression of two very different places, Venice and Vietnam, they are taking the art of travel to another level.

Italian-born Lorenzo Mattotti, who adopted Paris as his home, first came to attention with Fires in 1986, a compelling illustrated narrative about the perennial struggle between nature and civilisation. In his Travel Book dedicated to Vietnam, a country with a complicated artistic and historic connection to France, Mattotti is guided by a rich and dense palette of colours, producing a series of flamboyant and innovative illustrations.

Jiro Taniguchi grew up in a small southern Japanese town, a place that still informs the work he produces. When Youth Comic published A Desiccated Summer in 1970, his ability to create searing images twinned with almost poetic script set in motion a lifetime of comic making. A Distant Neighbourhood (1998), which won the Alph’Art best script award at the Angouleme Festival in 2003, was adapted to screen in 2010.

For the very first time, Jiro Taniguchi has chosen to collaborate with a luxury fashion house, Louis Vuitton, coupling this popular but satirical art form with a whole new mindset. The Venice Travel Book is a shining reflection of the Jiro Taniguchi’s unique art. Throughout this volume, Taniguchi takes the reader on an stunning visual journey by illustrating some of the most breath taking landscapes and monuments in Venice.

by Nico Kos Earle

 Both books retail at £38

The post The art of travel first appeared on The Glass Magazine.

In the first of a series of tales that begin from a Pullman Hotel in a number of locations, we explore the relationship of artist and patron and how a serendipitous meeting in a lobby or bar might just change the course of your career.

Meeting someone on the ascent is intoxicating, their energy and excitement is like the fizz of a newly opened bottle of champagne and it seems everyone around them is waiting hopefully for a glass full of their magic. One such person on the ascent is Irish jewellery designer Melissa Curry, who flew into London to attend the official launch of the Future Leaders Program, brainchild of the IIBN (Irish International Business Network). The IIBN is a not-for-profit and has at its very core a mission to support and promote entrepreneurs with a strong connection to Ireland.

We planned to meet in the lobby of the Pullman Hotel St Pancras, in part because it is one of the most inspired and humanistic meeting places in London, and for its serendipitous location accessible from every available form of transport that London enjoys. Designed by Mathieu Lehanneur, lighting is used ingeniously to create different moods throughout the open space – light boxes at the bar, coloured light beams in the stairwell and a nod to surrealism with a set of bowler hat lamp shades suspended over the internet area. When Melissa Curry arrived, her cobalt blue coat and brightly painted lips setting off her dark expressive eyes that shone with pleasant surprise, I knew we had picked the right location – everything about this place was sensitive to aesthetics without being superfluous. It celebrates design.

Checking into the arts room on the 16th floor, I could not believe my luck. Passionate about fine art photography, here was a room dedicated to a series of lover’s portraits from Carole Bellaiche’s Les Amoureax. Left to explore the pieces in my own private gallery, all on a theme of intimacy without overstating the erotic, as only the French can, Bellaiche’s photographs were the perfect choice for this very exclusive view. My eye lingered where it had never before, and my mind created sequences from what was about to unfold.

The fourth wall of this gallery room is an epic panoramic view of London’s skyline. Reaching up to the sky in the centre of the perspective was Renzo Piano’s glass fronted 87-storey masterpiece The Shard, like London Bridge’s answer to Norman Foster’s undulating glass 30 St Mary Axe (otherwise known as the Gherkin) in the city to the left. Seeing the buildings like this I was reminded of Richard Rogers’ manifesto that buildings should “reflect their structure, and create a space for things to happen”. Between the Pullman lobby and our room the scene was set for anything to happen – like the concept of “ma” or “ ”void“ ” so poetically described by Li Xiaodong, Professor of History and Theory at the Tsinghua University School of Architecture, in his installation at the Royal Academy’s Sensing Spaces Exhibition. Space is the true luxury of any cityscape, and thoughtfully arranged space is good for the soul.

That evening was the opening of the Crossings – The Journey to Peace, with photographs by Carol Allen Storey, in conjunction with International Alert at the Pullman Hotel. The images give us an insight into how open trade across boarders can positively impact international relations and promote peace. Incidentally sponsored by the Irish Embassy where we were heading, it was like a distant echo of how critical collaboration is to everyone’s future no matter where they are starting their journey from.

Melissa Curry’s journey as a jewellery designer is an incredible tale of triumph over adversity in both her personal life as a single mother and in a career as an independent designer. She has two distinct ranges of jewellery, a stand-out-and-be-bold range of vibrant coloured fashion pieces and a quietly provocative range in rose gold and silver that celebrates success. Curry conceived of a beautiful gold bar inscribed with the word “success” as a kind of amulet for the wearer, to encourage women to keep striving for their own growth and personal success. Unveiled on International Woman’s Day the first three pieces were given to Michelle Obama and her daughters by the Irish Prime Minister and his wife, Fionnuala Kenny. Success is about empowering women and girls globally – and is due to be launched in the USA later this year.

Invited to the Future Leaders Program launch in London, this was to be my first encounter with the IIBN, and to be fair I was overwhelmingly surprised. Hosted by the Irish Ambassador Daniel Mulhall and introduced by the effervescent IIBN co-founder Ross Finnegan at the Irish Embassy in Grosvenor Square, London, the message was simple, “Never forget where you are from and you will always know where you are going.” By creating a network of support for young Irish entrepreneurs through three vibrant Chapters in London, New York and Ireland, the idea is to encourage them to try, and if at first they don’t succeed to try again. In this way they are creating a circle of virtue, as those who they support will in turn bring up the next generation behind them.

With its fourth Global Annual Conference in New York scheduled for November 7 this year, it is clear that the IIBN are serious about helping to coach and develop the next generation of “rising stars”. That evening we were treated to CEO of WheyHey ice-cream Damien Kennedy’s hilarious and very self-effacing account of his journey from making high protein ice creams in his bedroom in frustration that there was nothing else on the market for his parents, both diabetic, to blowing up an industrial ice cream machine in Northampton, and finally delivering WheyHey ice-cream that night to the uber-trendsetter Harry Styles. He was deeply grateful for the support offered to him by the IIBN – and whilst the tale had us all killing ourselves with laughter its message was not lost. What goes around comes around.

After a brief detour to a secret little watering hole behind the Embassy with one to watch CEO Adrian Flemming of Manage CO2 and larger than life Sean Collins of Trinity Corporate, we returned to the Pullman for a nightcap. The lobby was a buzz with hotel guests all soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the freedom of light and space in the city that rarely sleeps and serendipitous encounters are often life changing.

by Nico Kos Earle

The post Brief encounters at the Pullman first appeared on The Glass Magazine.

It’s official – Art14 rocks. You just had to step inside the throng of buyers, dealers and artists all bopping their way into the main hall at Olympia to the sound of happy house to feel it. Everyone was there. With Pearl Lam Galleries taking pride of place right next to the Fine Art Society at the entrance it was clear that this was the International art fair of the year. Sponsored by Citi Private Bank Art14 showcased 182 galleries from 42 countries, presenting both modern and contemporary art in a price range that is attractive to first time buyers and big time collectors alike.

What’s more Art14’s commitment to staging works by established and emerging international artists gave the fair a unique design theme, with 24 projects in a range of media weaved into the fabric of its very user-friendly layout. Everything about this fair celebrates and encourages the discovery of talent. Zhao Zhao’s bloody red Waterfall installation, presented by the Alexander Ochs Gallery, dramatically recreated the Chinese Emperor’s throne then doused it in dripping red wax was sensational. Ramould Hazoume’s Rat Singer, Second only to God presented by the October Gallery – a canoe partially submerged in concentric circles of petrol cans was grotesquely compelling. Pearl Lam Galleries’ Cannonball Heaven by Yinka Shonibare was hilariously dark.

Meanwhile galleries such as Maddox Arts pulled out all the stops to give us a real taste of Latin American talent, such as Miler Lagos’ delicate newspaper mandalas set opposite a wall of erotic miniature drawings that you could look at through a magnifying glass. Forging ahead at the Fine Art Society is the fabulous head of contemporary Kate Bryan who is championing a generation of already collectable talent that will be considered masters for centuries to come. A selection from Annie Kevan’s Women and the History of Art is possibly her best series to date, while Chris Levine’s Geometry of Truth pulsing like a door to the future in its linen booth that tried to contain all its laser magic, was arguably the best in show. What I wouldn’t give to see that scaled up.

So much of the work at Art14 was instantly covetable – and there was a complete absence of the fearful trepidation that the more established art fairs can induce in the less seasoned collector. There in its midst I found my very own talisman for this decade, a piece that seems to represent all the possibilities contained in the 14th year of the 21st century.  Syzygy by Mat Chivers shown at the Millennium Gallery stand, and first seen at the Venice Biennale, is a brilliant illustration of the rough and the smooth – our growing awareness of nature’s fragile bounty in tandem to our capacity to discover and innovate through science. A hand carved block of Spanish Alabaster shaped like a cumulus cloud balances precariously upright opposite the geometric smooth faced solid darkness of Indian Black Granite on its side. Proportionally equivalent but substantially reversed these two sculptures work in “syzygy” to create the perfectly balanced vision … something everyone was drawn to.

Were these two shapes opposites? Not at all. The translucent alabaster cloud was carved intuitively from memory. The Indian Black granite anti-cloud was in fact created through a digital scanning of its “analogue” sister. This process uses millions of triangles to interpret the surface volume, which Chivers then reduces to a visible number forming a polyhedron. A milling machine then creates a mirror polished form of the computer rendered geometry – the absurd articulation of a cumulus cloud set in stone.

Presently commissioned to create a central piece for the new Mathematical Institute built by Rafael Vinoly at Oxford University, his work somehow contains and projects the duality of modern existence and our need to embrace technology without shattering our connection to the natural world or terminating our ability to escape into it. It seemed to punctuate the show itself and all who came into contact with it, just as Levine’s Geometry of Truth at the Fine Art Society recalibrated my perception. Somehow the quote I later found on the Millennium Gallery’s website seemed to touch on the intangible magic of Art14’s success:

“The point is that you are like a cloud: something that persists over long periods, whilst simultaneously being in flux. Matter flows from place to place and momentarily comes together to be you. Whatever you are, therefore, you are not the stuff of which you are made.”  

Steve Grand from Creation: Life and How to Make it.

by Nico Kos Earle

The post Find your talisman before it vanishes first appeared on The Glass Magazine.

The Belgians really love their food. Brussels’ proximity to its gastronomic neighbour Lilles, just half an hour by train, seems to have spurred the city on to strive for higher culinary standards. Per capita there are more Michelin stars in this city than any other in Europe, and while you could say this is the EU Gravy train in action, there is something so naturally enlightened about their attitude to food that the sweet scent of chocolate and waffles gently wafting along the impeccably clean streets in Brussels is like a first embrace.

Indeed the term café originated here, in the Medieval days that preceded Breughel’s legendary “hunters in the snow” painting, when hearth fires were prohibited in houses during the summer months to prevent catastrophic blazes in the wooden community, there was one person in each village charged with keeping a fire and hot water going.

In time this person started providing drinks for those coming to fetch water and warmth and so the café was born. Today Brussels offers such a rich and delicious variety of sweet and savoury, beyond the stereotypical moules frites and chocolate boxes, from utterly exquisite chocolate pralines at to the most succulent dos de cabaillaud at Lola on Place du Grand Sablons, you could be forgiven for wanting to gorge your way round the city.

However Brussels has many other attributes that perfectly counterbalance this, such as a gently rolling geography that gives the boulevards and streets that interlace like Dentelle de Brughes a delightful incline for meandering. What’s more their impeccable taste also extends to an expert appreciation for fine art, design and antiques that is manifest in a living gallery of boutiques worth travelling to in their own right. In this sense one of the only decisions you really need to make in advance is where to stay, and in terms of location – for its proximity to the train station Bruxelles Midi – to the fantastic array of walks through the Antique, Haut Couture and Museum districts – is the Sofitel Le Louise.

You can always tell the quality of a hotel by its concierge. Greeting us at the top of the escalator upon our arrival was Concierge Mariano, the kind of character who responds instantly to any enthusiasm with an anecdote: our reaction to the beautiful interpretation of lace on the lobby wall made of pale resin backlit with LEDS illicited a story about the women of Brughes walking through the streets with scented lace to their noses to mask the smells. Today the cities of Belgium are more like an emporium of scents, and beyond the check-in desk is an eccentrically flavoured welcome tea selection wafts invitingly.

The Sofitel Le Louise is unlike any other I have visited; its dark walls are hung with rotating – at the moment a Vietnamese performance photographer – all in keeping the hotel’s lightly surrealist theme. There is something very comforting about a place that does not take itself too seriously. The particular atmosphere of Le Louise makes it the preferred hotel for businessmen travelling alone in the week as much as young couples and families using it for a base to explore the city.

Sadly the hotel’s most celebrated feature – its generous outdoor terrace one of Brussels most popular venues for lunch– was too cold for us to enjoy. However Concierge Mariano made sure we were booked into an array of excellent lunch and dinner venues, such as the Michelin starred Les Petits Oignons where we indulged in mouthwatering steak tartar, mixed in front of us, washed down with Pinot Noir and completed with a zesty orange crepe suzette.

If good cooking begins with highest quality ingredients, then this humble little eatery is truly deserving of its accolade. Its situation is ideal for the perfect after dinner walk past the 48-stone figurines illuminated on plinths that line the gated exterior of the Place de Petites Sablons built in 1879. Looming out of the night like weird seraphs they seem to represent the ideal of unity in diversity (they show the 48 professions) all their individual characteristics hewn out of the same stone.

Perhaps it is the melting pot of cultures that makes Brussels so cultured in its tastes. The Flemish speakers and the French speaking Walloons co-exist in a bi-lingual society that is at once proud of its individual heritage and accepting of the other. The name for those of mixed heritage is Zinneke – the chef at Les Petits Onions, the maître d at Lola and indeed Sofitel’s walking encyclopedia of a concierge all refer to themselves as such. The cityscape itself, made up of a number of smaller villages that have eventually been absorbed into the whole, is a series of clearly defined zones that each has their unique characteristics whist still retaining their essential Brussels je ne sais quoi.

At the weekend the Place du Grand Sablons is transformed into an antique market that is unrivalled in any city centre, bar perhaps Nice. However, weekdays still present ample opportunity to find ancient treasures. With two bedroom apartments in this area going for under a quarter of a million euro it is possibly one of the best value for money districts left in Europe. Should you be that way inclined you might stop into Flamant for all your essential furnishings – its central China Blue walls set off the taupe and beige coloured furniture – begging for some old masterpieces to bring it all to life.

This is the perfect district for “chiner” or “fouiller” (browse or riffle as is the local term), but before you do step into the Notre Dame du Sablon for its brilliant stained glass windows have little rival and sing with cobalt blue, sunset orange and ruby red. However it is the monochrome part of the cathedral, in homage Notre Dame du Sablon that takes the prize. White marbled sculptures pulse with light against black lacquer walls above a pixilated black and white tiled floor.

Galleries line the streets of this district and offer wealth of choice for the first time buyer and the connoisseur alike, in addition to finding the perfect baroque frame to set it off. Next to Flamant is the wonderful Salblon Antiques Centre which sells everything from ornate chandeliers to Chinese vases. Philippe Dengs on 1 Place du Grand Sablons is bursting with objects of European art from 1900-2000, and the Zinda Gallery has an incredible selection of oriental carpets.

Past the Jewish Museum at the lower side of the place is another antique emporium where you will find the most eccentric array of finishing touches from the head and neck of several trophy kills and to a stack of gold gilt frames, grand piano, antler and murano chandeliers and even the shiny red and white horse escaped with Mary Poppins from the merry go round. Shopping in Brussels is surreal.

In this sense Patrick Roger’s shop on the corner of the Place des Petits Sablons is the apotheosis of what this district represents – the ultimate fusion of artist and artisan of taste. What is most alluring about his gallery is that the actual chocolates on offer are created with the utmost simplicity of purpose – for consumption – while his chocolate sculptures give the gallery its matchless aesthetic and intoxicating scent. Bold blocks of chocolate, opaque as ebony, have been worked into King penguins that huddle in the shop window – a surreal and welcome contrast to the chintzy window displays of competitors.

Should you be looking for heirlooms on a much smaller scale, this area is awash with trendy jewellery boutiques from Din Vhan to the independent jewellery designer and goldsmith Monica Kudlik. Tucked away on 1 Impasse St Jacques her one off pieces are miniature sculptures from an architect of stones. This alley also represents the city’s historic link to the Congo – which the infamous King Leopold sequestered as his garden – and there you can find some of the finest African Art dealers in Europe.

There in the window of the Congo Gallery is the prize – the kind of antique you could build a whole room around – a piece that has been dragged from pillar to post and somehow found its way here into this obscure little ally in the middle of the European Union. Taking my treasure back to the Sofitel Le Louise I have never been so grateful for a well appointed bed – which I did not leave until the following morning. Merci Sofitel!

by Nico Kos Earle

Rooms start from £93.00 per room per night at Sofitel Le Louise, Brussels

The post Your very own piece de resistance first appeared on The Glass Magazine.

Chris Levine is a light artist, otherwise known as the Golden Boy for his intuitive Midas touch that both illuminates his subjects and captures their essential glow. Recognised for his pioneering light art that harnesses the delicate colours of laser light to create emotive and mind-altering pieces, such as the Flower of Light, his series of 3-D portraits of a very select group of subjects has given us the defining 21st century version of the portrait and icon.

Created through a layering of sequential images which are then covered by a  lenticular lens and back lit, these light boxes move beyond the static tradition of a portrait – creating moments of transcendent eternity somehow pausing their essential glow. The list is unique, beginning with Grace Jones; he then took a defining portrait of HRM The Queen with her eyes closed, followed by the legendary Kate Moss, giving us the ultimate image of a hyper photographed face.

Having worked exclusively with female subjects it was a logical progression for Levine to find a male – but he has done this brilliantly by jumping into an entirely different tradition of portraiture altogether: equine. His subject is the legendary racehorse Frankel. If you were to compare this racehorse to an athlete he would be Hussein Bolt. No horse in the history of flat racing and has ever dominated the field with a succession of 14 wins of different distances.

Owned by Kahlid Abdullah and named after the late American trainer Bobby Frankel, he was trained by the late Sir Henry Cecil who lived to see his final and career defining win of the Champion Stakes at Ascot. “He is the best I’ve ever had, the best I’ve ever seen, I’d be surprised if there’s ever been better.” He told the BBC after the race. Setting a “New Benchmark of Equine Excellence” according to the World Thoroughbred Rankings Committee, he also resurrected the career of his trainer who had always done “everything by instinct”.

Sir Henry Richard Amhert Cecil was widely regarded a one of the greatest flat race horse trainers in history, a Champion Trainer 10 times at one point his stable was 200 strong. However at the turn of the century this number had shrunk to under 50 and until Frankel came along many had written the legendary trainer off into retirement. But instinct and passion burned bright and so it was that Frankel, the kind of horse who needed the type of trainer that Cecil was, who took his queues from the horse, found his perfect match.

What is most spectacular about Levine’s portrait, appropriately shown at the Fine Art Society who could easily source you a Stubbs, is how he captured Frankel in that winning pose. Neck stretched out as if he is crossing the finish line, Levine has immortalised him in his angle of glory. How he managed this is a blend of natural talent and great intuition – which completes this incredible story of winning gold. It also gives his exclusive catalogue of exceptional icons, Jones, HRH The Queen and Kate Moss, their very own horse to keep them company.

by Nico Kos Earle

Photographs at the private view by Justin van Vliet

Frankel is on display at The Fine Art Society Contemporary, 148 New Bond Street
London W1S 2JT
Tel +44 (0)20 7318 1895
Email: contemporary@faslondon.com

The post The winning light first appeared on The Glass Magazine.

Mr Grumpy hates shopping, specifically the Christmas shopping list and the New Year sales. I have always had to do all the gathering and face the crush of shoppers on Oxford Street alone. So this year I conceived of a plan that would provide us with an opportunity to spend time together while solving the problem of needing to buy presents. The plan was to get to the Grand Bazaar, Istanbul, where the whole idea of purchase operates within a different set of parameters: prices are negotiable and time for tea and Turkish delight eclipses any sense of urgency.

Amused by my suggestion, he booked the tickets and left the rest up to me. In the spirit of escape I found a room at the recently opened Shangri-La Hotel on the European coastline of the Bosphorus strait in Istanbul. Located in the Besiktas district, the hotel is within minutes of the magnificently opulent Dolmabahçe Palace, home to six sultans in the final era of the Ottoman Empire and then residence to Ata Turk who created the Turkish republic we know today. Everything depended on this choice, not in the lease because Mr Grumpy is very particular about pillows and space.

My first mistake was to stride enthusiastically up to a transfer desk and say we needed to get to the Shangri-La. If Istanbul presents the seasoned traveller with ample opportunity to drive a bargain, the reverse is also true. Anyone who displays the least bit of ignorance is fair game for a swindle, and we were duly taken for a 180 Lira ride that should have cost us 75. Happily the Shangri-La’s proximity to Istanbul’s central tram line, a funicular that goes up to Taxim square and a ferry that takes you across to the Asian coastline, means that this should be the only taxi you need to take. Something we discovered after our third costly error.

There is nothing Mr Grumpy hates more than being taken for a ride, so his mood was fairly acidic upon our arrival. However, walking into our generous room at the Shangri-La overlooking the Bosphorus I heard him catch his breath at the view, we were virtually over the water. The scene before us was epic: the Golden Horn Bridge stretched out across the strait connecting Europe with Asia whilst ferries and fishing boats interlaced the water’s surface. We instantly experienced the kind of tranquility that follows from seeing the horizon unfold in the distance. At this point someone arrived with a pot of welcome tea and Mr. Grumpy cracked his first smile of the day.

The room was so well appointed, and the bath grand enough for a Sultan set with great slabs of coal coloured Turkish marble veined with gold, we nearly settled in for the night. There seemed no end to the thoughtful additions and meaningful accents – such as a notepad and pen on a little ledge in the bathroom for those elusive insights. The bed being so inviting was too much for Mr Grumpy and he fell into a deep slumber so I left to explore the basement offerings of Hammams and Chi Massages by myself.

It is recommended to have your first Hammam on the evening of your arrival – so book in advance – as it is a popular luxury. Taking the glass elevator down to the Chi Spa they managed fit me in and gave me a disposable swimsuit so I could try the pool in the interim. The man mountain Ural gave me a brief tour and some goggles. Diving into the water the pearlescent mosaics rippled around me like a school of fish  – I was a mermaid. I stopped to catch my breath and coughed. When I finished my next lap there was a bottle of water at the edge of the pool. It was a Gatsby moment and I felt like Daisy for a fleeting second – until I remembered the appearance of my white limbs in a disposable swimsuit.

Returning to our room I found a very happy Mr Grumpy. He had heard about the Shang Palace, possibly the best Chinese cuisine in Turkey, and Mr Grumpy is a sucker for duck – especially after sampling the mini bar. There we feasted on twice-fried bean curd with three mushrooms, sea bass in a clay pot and one of the best Pinot Grigios I have had outside of Italy. By the evening’s end there was a delightful element of cultural confusion, eating with chopsticks in Istanbul, which heightened our sense of freedom and escape.

The next morning we opened our window onto Asia, and after a second Turkish coffee with the delightful Melinke from the Shangri-La, who gave us a map and a wonderful itinerary, we began our first walk through Istanbul. Our route went via the sensational Dolmabahçe Palace built to rival the finest palaces in Europe. From there you can take the funicular up to Taxim Square, which at first glance is disappointingly westernised, until you turn off into the back streets. Half way down the main shopping street off to the right is Mesrutiyet Cadesi (street), which takes you to the Avurpa Pasaji.

There we found our first cavern of delights from hand-painted ceramics in classical designs to hand blown glass lights in blood orange, cherry and grape hanging from the ceiling like fantastical fruit. Mr Grumpy loves to haggle for a bargain. His basic technique is to estimate what he wants to pay for something, then ask how much it costs. He then takes the value of that difference and subtracts that from what he wants to pay and offers it back. Eventually, given enough time and patience, he arrives at a deal. So I left him to it, as the glimmer of a promise from a shop window opposite drew me across the way.

DNC Designs is a treasure trove of antique and contemporary jewels owned by two sisters – there is a second shop further along the arcade – and thankfully they have a well appointed chair for weary husbands who loose their wives completely amid the colour and burst of gems.  There I found every single girlie Christmas present including my own – Istanbul is famous for its beautiful and opulent jewels but most were completely out of our budget. This shop allowed me to indulge my inner magpie from starburst crystal and emerald drop earrings to the most delicate repeating pattern chain of gold, turquoise, and amethyst – a hand made classic I will wear for life. Thank you Mr Grumpy!

In total we spent just over £120 and completed all our Christmas shopping – including for each other – result! My only regret was not having pounds or dollars with me as you can really drive a hard bargain with foreign cash in the present economic climate. The pressure was now off and we ambled smugly through the music district that leads you winding down back to the Bosphorus.

Dropping our haul back at the Shangri-La we ventured out again to the Grand Bazaar on the other side of the Galata Bridge and thinking it would save us time hopped into a taxi. Our driver took us for such a proverbial ride that you could hear Mr. Grumpy grinding his teeth with repressed rage. We should have taken the tram – by far the quickest and most civilized way to travel – not to mention it is precisely 3 Lire.

The Grand Bazaar is a magical labyrinth not for the delicate of heart – you need both time and money neither of which we had in abundance. I could have gone berserk with shearlings and rugs and dazzling jewels; what a sensational shopping experience infinitely more rewarding than any generic mall with the added caveat that if you think something is too dear you can argue the price. This was once the case in London – long before the war – but I challenge anyone today walk up to the counter at one of Bond Street’ s stores and try their luck without being escorted out.

After a slightly mad detour looking at shearlings, we concluded we needed to get some lunch. Istanbul is famous for its fresh fish, avenues along the Bosphorus are lined with brightly lit fish stalls selling catch of the day and the Galata Bridge is awash with fishing lines from sunrise to sunset. We stopped in at a little restaurant in the Hotel Spectra opposite the Blue Mosque and had a plate of fresh sea bass washed down with and orange and pomegranate cocktail.

Unable to visit the Blue Mosque, we followed a sign for the Arasta Bazaar that took us down a cobbled street behind it. There we found the jewel in the crown of boutiques and reason enough to visit Istanbul in its own right. The Cetinkaya Gallery (www.cetinkayagallery.com)  is both a gallery and a boutique that began with a project and has grown into one of Istanbul’s most successful cottage industry stories. In 2004, Cetinkaya employed 65 women to hand make silk embroideries using natural dyed threads and since then their number has grown to 350.  Prices reflect this and begin in dollars around the 200 mark, but anything you purchase from there is destined to be a family heirloom.

That evening we were invited by local friends Selchuk, Pusat, and Abdulla to have dinner in Facyo, a traditional family run restaurant over looking the Bosphorus. Over three hours we feasted on a constant stream of Mezze and fresh fish washed down with Raki, twice distilled grapes with aniseed. As the waiter filled up my glass with for the third time, Selchuk says ‘We have a saying in Istanbul that if you don’t drink Raki after eating fish then the fish will say “What fool has eaten me?”’ That seemed reason enough for us all to drink plenty.

One day I will return to Istanbul with a crate and a wad full of dollars and fill up my coffers with Turkish delights, beginning with a hammam at the Chi-Spa in Shangri-La to strip away any excess baggage.

by Nico Kos Earle

all images by Nico Kos Earle

A three-day itinerary to Istanbul staying at the Shangri-La Bosphorus costs from £775 per person based on two adults sharing a Deluxe room on a B&B basis including flights and transfers.

For more details about Shangri-La hotel visit Abercrombie & Kent or call 0845 485 1143

The post The gift is in the journey first appeared on The Glass Magazine.

The first time I boarded an American Airlines flight from Dallas to Oklahoma City eight years ago, it was half empty and exclusively full of men, rugged faces mostly hidden behind dusty ten gallon hats. Each time I return this connecting flight seems to be an indication of what I am going to find there; in 2008 we nearly crash landed and had to fly through two storms, and the oil and gas industry was doing just the same. This Easter the flight was full to capacity with well-heeled professionals, denim clad field men, ladies in Manolos, and fancy booted dealmakers all buzzing with excitement. It felt like we were all on our way to meet the Wizard of Oz.

To someone like me who grew up watching spaghetti westerns, with my dad telling us bedtime stories about Lucky Luke and Indian Jo, this place has a dreamlike quality to it. This is the land where the buffalo roamed free across the open long grass prairies hunted only by the Wichita and the Osages 500 years before the Europeans first arrived in 1541. The land of real cowboys unique for its long and continuous presence of Native American People, where your word is your bond and you only wear a ten gallon hat if you rodeo.

In the 19th century, the US government made Oklahoma a resettlement zone – heartwrenchingly known as the “trail of tears” – and is now famous for its “Five Civilized Tribes” – Chickasaw, Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole and Creek. You see these names everywhere – stamped on number plates of huge trucks and muscle cars – “Oklahoma” is a Choctaw Indian word and the state’s seal includes the insignias of these five Indian nations.

Luckily for me, I was meeting someone who is something of a legend in his own lifetime, D J Chernicky.  An independent oil and gas man, one part Slovak and the other Ukranian, his strong features tell a story of indigenous tenacity: he is a cowboy through and through. One of the rare few to weather the cataclysm of the ‘80s industry bust, he has built some of the country’s largest saltwater disposal wells. The fourth son of 10 children, his career had humble beginnings on the early morning paper rounds, but the regime stuck with him and this year he and his business partner successfully listed on the NYSE with an IPO for New Source Energy Partners.

A geologist, he understands the land and sees what wealth it still has to offer; but more importantly his vision to unlock its potential is one that reaches far into the future. In line with the great American tradition of philanthropy, he is a generous patron committed to reinvestment in infrastructure, architecture and the arts. Environmentally aware – something I was surprised to find in the context of drilling for black gold – his aim is to create a lasting legacy that mitigates the cyclically of boom and bust with something that stands the test of time.

In today’s present boom, Oklahoma City is one of the fasted growing cities in the United States, and with the benefit of hindsight has promoted on of the most exciting regenerations of a downtown area in the country. Its cityscape reads like a history lesson, where waves of period architecture that rise up on its expanding footprint during a boom, are then abandoned in the busts, and left languishing like old relics in a museum’s vaults.

They illustrate the epic and tragic cycles of prosperity and devastation this city has endured since it first came into existence under The Homestead Act, when those weary of taking on 160 acres of unbroken land opted for a lot in the town site instead. It was not until 1932 that the city had it’s first real boom thanks to the geographical genius of Dean McGee who unlocked the mystery of the formations below.

Coming regularly to Oklahoma City from Tulsa for business, Chernicky used to stay at the wonderfully renovated Colcord Hotel until he met the developer of Block 42 downtown. Walking into the top floor spanning 5,500 square feet with a 360 degree view of Oklahoma city – rising up around him with the derricks still in view and donkeys methodically nodding away in the distance – you can see why this man, who has made a life out of observing the land, had a coup de foudre. Although the developer had been keeping the top floor for himself, David bought it virtually on the spot and hired his architect, Dan Skaggs of HSE Architects, to turn the open space into a livable gallery.

The Penthouse was first described to me as all “shock n’ awe”, but in truth it is a work in progress where his expanding art collection is housed. The elevator that takes us to the top floor opens up right into the penthouse, his antique hardwood Buddha greeting you from the opposite wall, asking you to kindly leave your bad vibes at the door. There in the center of the entrance hall is a custom-made table in steel and glass by Tietsort Design found by Chernicky to emulate his childhood picnic table where he and his nine siblings ate all their meals. It is a symbol of what this place means to him, a place to be shared, where all his hard work and commitment to his ideals can finally be enjoyed.

What is doubly captivating about the 360 degree view of the city and land beyond is that the weather in Oklahoma can “turn on a dime”. Breathtaking sunrises are eclipsed by a charge of dark clouds gathering momentum on the horizon; dramatic vistas of clouds and storms are broken apart by miraculous sunsets. Apparently Oklahoma has an average of 53 tornadoes annually and storm watching is the states largest spectator sport, something I was soon to become acquainted with.

Once you have taken in the awesome panoramic view, it is the minutiae details that catch your eye. From the finishing touches to the thoughtful arrangement of space, everything has been meticulously designed. Each bathroom is a festival of mosaics on a different colour scheme, the ceilings are punctuated with custom lighting that highlight standout features in each room; even the utilities room is a masterpiece of functionality and design. Chernicky used Rick Phillips from Tulsa as his interior designer, Phillips worked with David Giasson of David Giasson Construction to achieve the level of detail and finish desired.

“I call Giasson the acupuncturist: walking the unfinished space with the lighting plan in hand, Giasson had drawn all of the trough lights on the concrete floor and with the approval of each location the lines were lacquered in placed then lasers used to pinpoint the fixtures in the ceiling.”

The kitchen is Poggenpohl with high-gloss pear wood cabinets. To unite the public spaces and create warmth and a sense of scale, Phillips designed pear wood panels in the living room, dining room and entry. ‘To make the space more comfortable, and visually appealing I paid attention to the volume of the spaces and to the scale. If you look closely, you’ll see that the straight edges and rectangular spaces of corridors and rooms are made hospitable and nurturing by the curves.’

In keeping with the theme of a living gallery all important table bases, like the steel picnic table, are works of art. The base of the bar is a Knut Hesterberg for Ronald Schmidt “Snake” Cocktail Table, the bedside tables are vintage Cardin. But it is the eclectic modern art collection that is most stand out, from local contemporary artists like Jose Pantoja recently exiled from Cuba, to a Dali bronze, The Surrealist Angel, that stands quietly on the sideboard for those who care to notice opposite a voluptuous woman in an apron by Tracey Harris through M A Doran Gallery Tulsa.

Another member of the Block 42 community is recently arrived director of the OKCMOA, not wanting to mix private with the personal he suggested I visit the museum and let the art speak for itself. The year 2002, saw the inauguration of the Donald W Reynolds Visual Arts Center with an exhibition of glass and drawings by Dale Chihuly. Bolstered by an overwhelming public response, the museum purchased the exhibition in its entirety some of which was anchored by the 55ft Eleanor Kirkpatrick Memorial Tower in the Museum’s atrium. Today OKCMOA is home to one of the most comprehensive collections of Chihuly glass in the world. Their translucence reminds me of sea flowers and underwater plants – like a tribute to all that swamp treasure that has given the state such wealth.

For millions of years Oklahoma lay under a shallow sea, then 300 million years ago vigorous tectonic shifts pushed mountains up forming water-filled basins in the surrounding regions – Arkoma to the East and Anadarko to the West and the Quachita.

These eventually filled up covering the remains of creatures and plants from the sea and swamps. Millions of years later these ancient basins provide Oklahoma with a treasure of black gold. “Finding, retrieving, processing and selling this treasure,” say Baird and Goble in the History of Oklahoma Chernicky gave me, “has determined the history of the state”.

There is something about the transformative power of Chihuly’s art that appeals deeply to a state that is so focused on processes of retrieval, and perhaps very reassuring about the creation of beautiful pieces that last for generations to come. “There is something about the endless variation and mutation in Chihuly’s work that gives it a tangible affinity with natural selection in the plant world,” says Tim Richardson, critic and historian.

Thursday evenings are special occasions on the Roof Terrace of OKCMOA where you can join downtown workers, the suburbs’ adventurous and the art crowd for Cocktails on the Skyline. They offer a “full bar, complimentary chips and sals and incomparable view of the Oklahoma City skyline” – unless you have been to Block 42. What you see is patronage on a grand scale, with each rising giant of industry competing with the rest to reinvest in the community that gave them the chance to become so big. The latest addition to the horizon is the Devon tower with 52 floors built to an exacting schedule of one floor a week. There is also a bar at the top where you might sip a dirty martini and look for the next bit of land ready for development.

Coming to Oklahoma – where cowboys and Indians still roam the prairies, not just as cardboard cutouts but in the heart and sole of its people – has ignited the spirit of my inner cowgirl, and given credence to my obsession with fancy boots. My new favourite expression is “I appreciate it” because when you really do, you start to reap the rewards. It’s all about the land, and what lies above it will eventually be compressed beneath it – so we had better make sure we surround ourselves with quality.

by Nico Kos Earle

The Roof Terrace opens at 5 pm on Thursday. Last call is at 8:30 p.m. and the roof and galleries close at 9 p.m.

For private parties and mini-breaks at The Penthouse contact: jennadeehodapp@gmail.com

Dale Chihuly is exhibiting at the Halcyon Gallery, London from February 8 – April 5, 2014.

The post Oklahoma City rises again first appeared on The Glass Magazine.

Ten years ago Fay Weldon was a writer in residence at the Savoy Hotel in London. Since then it has had a complete refurbishment, but its particular atmosphere, its essential Savoyness, and the kind of people who line the bar drinking Manhattans are still the same.

“A good time was had by all,” Fay declares as she stands on the marble steps of the restaurant overlooking the Thames, “but I did very little writing. You need trouble to write, some sort of irritant to get in the way, something to urge you on. I had no reason to be up in my room writing when there was such fun to be had at the bar. Everybody came to see me!”

Such is the allure of the Savoy that its reputation precedes it; no one in his or her right mind is going to turn down an opportunity to meet you there. Even the entrance to the hotel, set back from the street down a short drive, suggests you are stepping out of the ordinary and into a place where everything is ever so slightly more rarefied, and everyone is ever so slightly more discerning. Of course Fay Weldon, who at the time of her residence was mostly writing about contemporary women suffering the fools they had fallen in love with, had to wait until a suitable woman of substance sparked her imagination.

And so it was that Weldon, a prodigious writer of over 30 novels, began a new phase in her career. She ventured into historical meta-fiction, which in turn led to the recreation of a fabulous scene at the Savoy bar where many Manhattans were drunk. The details, how people dressed and how much things cost, were of course different, “but people behaved very much the same then as they do now”.

This scene takes place in Long Live the King book two of the Love and Inheritance Trilogy that begins with Habits of the House and ends with The New Countess. An epic saga set at the turn of the 20^th century, the plot branches out in multiple directions and addresses the difficulty of real relationships, through the convenient prism of “upstairs downstairs”. Weldon describes her move into the past as a “relief”, liberated from the complicated and often restrictive themes of the present zeitgeist. It also allows her to step away from the two dimensional role of modern woman writer, and explore the dynamic of a past imagined that overtly seemed more restrictive but in many ways was a more liberal and certainly full of possibilities.

“I suppose I used to write about the bad behavior of men; now I write about the bad behavior of women,” she says.

Fittingly the Savoy hosted a luncheon to celebrate the launch of her trilogy, which was attended by some of her greatest admirers. In the passage she chooses to read there is a moment of identity confusion for the protagonist, one which prompts her to say ‘I am lady nobody’ a line that clearly Weldon enjoys. A gem of a comeback line it also reflects the kind of attitude Weldon has to her own fame.

Fay Weldon, who still teaches creative writing at Bath University, is very candid about her craft. When asked about the fate of a particular character in a past novel she declares, “All sorts of things happen to the people in my novels, though I don’t much remember all the details of what happens to them. You need to set yourself up with enough to do so you don’t stop at the third chapter, but it is the themes that really interest me. The plot is just there to illustrate them.”

After the lunch I lingered a moment in the grand black and white marbled lobby to regain my composure, and brace myself for the crush of reality outside. Opposite a clean-cut man just slightly beyond his prime was crouched intensely over his phone. It was impossible not to hear him for the table between us was slim and the acoustics in that particular corner seemed to amplify his words despite his attempt to whisper. It seemed he was trying to broker some form of reconciliation with his estranged wife without resorting to lawyers. It was clear he still loved her and his sense of loss was palpable; a sentiment, impervious to the sands of time, that does not change. Not at all.

by Nico Kos Earle

Photos By Justin Van Vliet

The post A writer of residence first appeared on The Glass Magazine.

“I’d like to just get one of those pink clouds and put you in it and push you around.”  ? F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

When I first met Alex Innes, it was inside the front window of Harrods, where the Wraith, Rolls-Royce’s latest model, was shining in all the glory of its modern incarnation. There, amid a hive of excitement and flashbulbs, he kindly introduced me to the world of bespoke car design, and ignited a passion I had previously been unaware of – the genesis of a classic.  “We have quite a flat structure that exists within Rolls-Royce – we are a very small team with a very old and precious brand that needs to be handled with care”

The Wraith was five years in development, the most intensive part from a design perspective being the first 18 months. Historically, each new project at Rolls-Royce has begun with four to five themes, meaning different designers, at the very early stages. This differs dramatically to a brand like BMW in which a flagship model will have up to 20 themes at the outset. What is happening at this stage is that the bandwidth is being filtered.

There is quite a large bandwidth to begin with in terms of different creative direction, that exists as mostly sketches. He showed me his freehand pencil and marker sketch of a bar finished in Photoshop “you just cannot get this level of sensitivity any other way. The first big step change is when we go from 2-D to 3-D, when you get into virtual, the themes are refined down again.”

Clay modeling is all to do with surfaces, which is when they bring the model to life for the first time. “It’s an interesting point because surfaces are the form language of design – that’s how everything is produced so anything we work with is surface manipulation, surface sculpting, and definition – that is our representation of design.”

Indeed the making of a Rolls Royce used to be a very different process altogether with different Coach Houses, today’s equivalent of designers, creating their own and very distinct bodywork. Phantom II was probably the most prolific era of coach building which was from the 20s until about the mid-30s. The golden age of coach building was dominated by designers like Gurney Nutting and HJ Mulliner who defined the Rolls-Royce Phantom II Continental Drophead and Sedanca Coupe. Based on a chassis with a relatively short 144-inch wheelbase, the Phantom II Continental had stiffer five-leaf springs, and a 12/41 axle replaced the standard 11/41 unit, which permitted greater cruising speeds.

The legendary Captain Sir Malcolm Campbell, of Bluebird speed record car fame, swore by the Phantom II Continental and pronounced simply “a better car does not exist the world over”. Just 1,680 Phantom IIs were manufactured between 1929 and 1935, and of these, only 281 were Phantom II Continentals. True to coachbuilding tradition, multiple subtle variations in shape of the waist line, rear end, fenders, trunk and other minor details were available. Ultimately Nutting only produced 12 examples of the Drophead Coupe, of which four were fitted with a Sedanca Coupe bodywork.

They are considered possibly the best-looking cars of the period due to their magnificent overall proportions that command respect.  These legendary coach houses were an affirmation of British design pedigree, and in the modern sense of the word they were design houses. Each one had a very distinctive style and was preferred by different customers, “you had that opportunity to tailor each car in quite a visual sense by adorning it with different derivatives of body work”.

Today, vehicle invest is very sizeable even for the smallest of changes. There is simply not a business model that can support the financial outlay required, it would be like developing a new car each time. With prohibitive costs and stringent regulations, vehicle architecture is now in the era of monocoque chassis: in which the chassis is structurally integral to the body. The Phantom does hark back to that old coach-built era in that it is an aluminum chassis with a steel body, however it is still all very intertwined.

* * *

There is however one aspect the process of transition between virtual and real that is still very much down to the individual craftsman: the clay model. When I first saw one I instantly thought of the China’s Terracotta Warriors from the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty – commissioned for posterity. Heart breakingly, once the model is complete and the design is handed over to the engineers these fabulous works of art are recycled. “Once the virtual modeling has been complete, all the CAD modeling is done and we have three designs that are of a suitable standard – they are converted into a full size clay model of that theme to represent that designers vision. These are incredible things to behold.”

Crucially they are in wet clay, and the manipulation of these surfaces is all done by hand. It’s all skilled artisans who are sculpting the surface and the different contours of the vehicle. A team of five to six modellers work on a clay model for several weeks, if not months. Hundreds of hours are invested into that model. It is preserved in the sense that it is digitally scanned, and then when the surfaces are produced they are more accurate.  “Even in this age with all the virtual aids we have – there is no substitute for seeing something in real size. It suddenly becomes a very tangible and very real car and not just an idea,” he says. The clay model is, in a sense, the last act of the design movement  before the dialogue shifts to engineers who take over control of the momentum – up until that point it is very much a design driven activity and then it shifts.

“Of the two to three physical clay models made there will be a decision to go with one of them – this is generally the point where we pass it over. This whole process that involves the exterior is mirrored by a similar process for the interior.” A lot of the discussions around the car takes places within the design team, yet the vision is really at the discretion of our design director, Giles Taylor. Once the final three models are made the discussion widens to include the whole board and that of BMW.  Not wanting to change things that are sacrosanct to Rolls-Royce as a brand, there is clearly a deep respect for its history.

“There were certain criteria for that had to be adhered to during the making of the Wraith. There is this sense of command that you get from an elevated position, getting up and into a Rolls Royce, that extends to the authoritative design. With the Wraith we were looking to make this more dynamic.” Wraith is positioned to be the most powerful and dynamic Rolls-Royce in the company’s history. According to CEO Thorsten Müller-Ötvös, “This exceptional car will build on the finest principles of the company’s forefathers – the world’s best engineering, the employment of cutting edge technology and peerless craftsmanship.”

Reviving one of the most famous Rolls-Royce names first used in 1938 “Wraith alludes to an almost imperceptible but not powerful force, something rare, agile and potent, a spirit that will not be tethered to the earth,” added Müller-Ötvös. Demonstrating just how committed the company is to upholding this quintessentially British brand. The ultimate inspiration is, of course, the Honorable Charles Rolls, one of the company’s founding forefathers. His insatiable appetite for adventure encompassed all the innovation and engineering that allowed him to push beyond the limits of what was considered possible.

Lauded by King George V as “the greatest hero of the day” he became the first person to cross the English Channel and return non-stop in a flying machine. Whilst safeguarding the brand’s formality, the objective was to emulate this spirit and create something a little more avant garde that challenged people’s perceptions of what a Rolls Royce should be. In a way this is most elusive aspect of this industry – second guessing what the market might want but does not yet know they want, and creating something to supply that future demand.

Perhaps all this client focused bespoke work allows the company to get the most valuable insight into consumer needs, consumers that are part of an exclusive but growing number of hyper wealthy increasing 3-5 per cent a year. In my opinion, the greatest asset they have at Rolls-Royce is not their latest model but the people who work for them creating these incredible machines.

Alex Innes every inch the Gatsby man – young, fabulous and clearly very erudite. “Whenever you feel like criticising any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” – F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

by Nico Kos Earle

The post Rolls-Royce Wraith – The rebirth of a classic first appeared on The Glass Magazine.

On the craggy ridge of a moor, our ghillie Innes inches along the sodden ground with his elbows, his belly dragging through inhospitable growth. The glen is scattered with dark mounds, temporary shelters of upturned peat for the birch, juniper, oak, rowan and alder saplings, that alternate with Scots pine, to take root. In his sights is a stag marking its territory, trampling the newly planted saplings underfoot.

He is alone and shows little signs of fighting off competition – his modest antlers are no trophy. The light is fading, and the damp cold is working its way through the weathered skin on Innes’ hands, into his bones. He aims and with a clean shot takes the animal down with a bullet straight to the heart.

He now faces the thankless task of getting the beast off the hill. Sadly, there are still no large predators in the Highlands of Scotland who would make easy work of this and dispose of the  carcass. Innes must drag it through the moorland until he reaches a path. The moon is well up in the night’s sky by the time he finishes, and he could almost howl at it.

This is Alladale Wilderness Reserve, an hour’s drive north from Inverness, just inland from where the grey sea washes its salty breath upon a quiet coastline. Under the guardianship of Paul Lister, philanthropist and environmentalist, and a handful of dedicated men, these glens and vales are being nursed back to their original glory from the brink of ruin. Through a meticulously planned and executed program of reforestation, rewilding and the restoration of peatlands, they operate from a simple ethos: Leave the land in better condition than you received it.

“I have been on both sides of the debate about land use in the Highlands. My family were involved in commercial forestry, but over time I came to understand that the ecosystem of the Highlands was broken; the natural forests were gone, the soils depleted and the large predators were extinct. When I acquired Alladale in 2003, the aim was to repair some of that damage by restoring the native flora and fauna.”

Paul, who has also founded The European Nature Trust, like all great visionaries, has clarity of vision that extends to those whom he chooses to surround himself with; a cast of exceptional characters all united for a cause to ”let nature do what she wants to do”. Innes is no exception.

Straight-talking and unimpressed by media attention, once at the helm of a traditional sporting estate his energies are now concentrated on bringing this wilderness back to the point where they might initiate a controlled release of wolves and bears into the fenced reserve. His pragmatic attitude belies a deep affinity for nature and acknowledges the entire cycle of life and death, predator and prey, and what sacrifices are necessary to achieve the balance of a sustainable ecosystem. Over time, established woodland accessible to red deer will ensure better winter survival and a healthier herd, and the welcome addition of native roe deer.

Overseeing the planting of 800,000 native trees, funded under the Scottish Government’s Rural Development Programme, he has watched the bare hills once soured by heavy rainfall leeching out the soil’s goodness, slowly return to life. Standing over one of the many damns he made that stem the relentless flow of water off the once degraded peatlands, he cuts the figure of a doctor just returned from a night shift at A&E.

This is the man who would save your life should you find yourself stuck on the side of a hill in the howling wind, unless you were messing with his saplings. Guests can still take their chances at stalking here in one of the well-appointed lodges; but it is old school in an environment that only favours the brave.

Alladale Wilderness Reserve is the first of its kind in the  UK, more along the lines of Shamwari Game Reserve than a traditional hunting lodge. Presently 23,000 acres, Paul’s vision is to reach 50,000 acres and then initiate the rewilding of large predators, specifically wolves. Successfully trialled in Yellowstone National Park, the wolves catalysed a mass restoration of its eco-systems.

In George Monbiot’s TED talk he describes how he stumbled upon the ”widespread trophic cascades” that resulted from the rewilding of wolves. The deer had reduced the vegetation to almost nothing; once they were hunted again they radically changed their behavior avoiding valleys and gorges. The bare hillsides became forests, and the birds followed, smaller mammals returned and fed on the carrion left by wolves, then came the beavers, also eco-system engineers building dams. Doug Smith of Oxford University is presently preparing a paper on Alladale: Encouraging nature to come back.

However, this project throws up a whole host of issues around authenticity. How can they know if they are doing things the right way? What proof is there that this is what it would have been like without man’s interference? We cannot – we are a part of the chain and it is only when we engage with nature that the solution presents itself. In this context it is fair to say that, well, it just feels right. Among the few good men who are gathered here is Roy Denning a man with a face so open and kind, lined with years of smiling in the face of adversity, you might call him the godfather of British Nature.

Accompanying us on our walk through the reserve we fall into a more philosophical conversation about the age of man, and what this will be remembered for. For millennia man has incrementally augmented his dominance over nature until he reached the capacity, with the advent of the H Bomb, for its total obliteration. ”The age we have just lived through, might be considered in the future as the chemical age, high level use of DDTs and PCPs which caused great unforeseen damage. Perhaps this is the dawning of the age of preservation, one in which we all recognise the world is a finite resource.” Einstein was first to point this out, ”our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature.”

”Ha!” Interjects Jonathan Leake, a well seasoned environmental journalist – ”the deep green issue that dare not speak its name – over population!” It is one thing to cull the animals up here to regain the balance for all species to thrive – it is quite another to extend the debate to humans. For Paul the answer is quite simple, ”this has to be the age of retraction, where less is more.”

Ah but Roy, ever the optimist with a smile, quietly points out that as more and more women are educated so will the population decrease, not to mention the very real threat of pandemics. What is interesting about Roy is that he is grateful to Paul for this opportunity because with government run schemes – whilst the will is there – the feasibility studies take so long, and are so fraught with red tape, that projects rarely see the light of day. Here he has seen the successful reintroduction of red squirrel, osprey, sea eagles, and kites.

With a private or corporate benefactor things are more efficient on every level – success means good business. On this point, and at the heart of Alladale Wilderness Reserve, is an issue that unites us all, man and beast, land and trees: water. It is commonly known that we are made up of 90 per cent water, but it is a little known fact that over 70 per cent of the water that we drink in the UK is filtered through peatlands – the majority of them degraded through mismanagement and erosion.

Enter PEATLANDS+ and the irrepressible Renato Iregui. Originally from Columbia, this is a man on a mission to facilitate a jaw-droppingly simple solution. The best ideas always are. “Neither the restoration of habitat nor the prevention of species extinction is achievable without the mediation of water, both its purity and its flow. If you restore the water table then everything comes.”

Lifting a chunk of livid green Sphagnum moss out of the pooled dam, he squeezes it like a sponge, then flashing a smile, he enthuses, “this is what healthy peat looks like. By raising the water table you reverse the carbon emissions – approximately 10 million tonnes of carbon a year in the UK – and sequester billions of tons of carbon locked away in the developing layers of peat.”

As a part of its land management aims, Alladale hosted a pioneering scheme run by PEATLANDS+ that links owners of drained and damaged peatland with companies who want to mitigate their carbon footprint by doing something proactive on their own doorstep. Working with ICAP they blocked 20 kms of hill drains, on 224ha of degraded peatland, improving water quality and regulating run-off.

Does this provide drinking water benefits and flood mitigation, it creates optimum conditions for hydropower – such as they have on site at Alladale – due to the regulated flow of water. Landholders across the UK can now derive an income from the degraded peatlands they commit to restoring; Alladale is using the money to fund youth education projects locally.

Over eight weeks in the summer children within a 50-mile radius have the chance to participate in The Alladale Challenge; planting trees, scrambling in gorges and learning about wild animal management alongside leadership skills they are the future guardians of this land.

On the eve of our departure I speak with Fenning Welstead, a chartered surveyor whom Paul has known for over 35 years. He describes his daughter’s first kill – building a relationship with the animal as she stalks it, then overcoming her emotions to follow through with the shot, and finally dragging the beast off the mountain. It is a gritty tale about finding a connection again with nature and our role within it. We are not external to it. You simply have to go there to have this fundamental epiphany – it just makes sense.

A town is saved, not more by the righteous men in it, than by the woods and swamps that surround it.
~ Henry David Thoreau

by Nico Kos Earle

all images by Nico Kos Earle

[ted id=1816]

The post Let nature do as she wants first appeared on The Glass Magazine.

The morning began with a fresh coffee and oeuf au jambon at Bistrot Mazarin, next to La Palette, where we met Sebastiano Varoli. A curator with a very different perspective on how art should be exhibited, by this time next year anyone worth their sel with be familiar with his name. From there we walked towards La Seine, past the festival of galleries turning left onto Rue Jacob and on towards Le Musée d’Orsay to visit the Marlene and Spencer Hays private collection Une Passion Francaise.

All this we packed in before our private view with “plasticien” Roberto Platé at his exhibition in La Maison D’Amerique Latine http://mal217.org/english/. Part of the 1960s cultural revolution in Argentina, he was a founding member of TSE (Théâtre Sans Explication), and following the scandal of his installation Los Banios, and Eva Peron de Cope in 1969 Platé went into exile. TSE landed in Paris and they continued their collaboration into the 70s until Opera found him.

Walking us through his own exhibition, including a trip through those infamous “public loos” to see the outpouring of expression that had been so offensive to the Argentinian regime, he still the enthusiasm of someone who does not take anything for granted. They do not transcribe – it is a visual experience – just as the book published on his career that spans more than 40 years is completely without words.

Beyond the epic scope and scale of his work, was an extraordinary generosity with both his time and his process.

Working alone and obsessively with maquettes to configure the space, he then paints the finished perspective and presents to the director, thus avoiding any heavy handed moving around of his three dimensional vision. He set up this exhibition of his own work himself. Pulling back a black velvet curtain we stepped with him into infinity: a black pool lined with strip lights reflected endlessly in a mirrored ceiling.

Then standing in front of his design where Joan of Arc gets burned at the stake, he quotes, “Tu ne peut pas avoire peur du feu car tu est le feu.” It is an avant-garde moment, being inside the set within a set, with this master of space and environment living in Paris – the ultimate backdrop where anyone can act out their fantasy.

At midday we had a rendezvous on the right bank to see the finish of the Peking Paris Rally 2013 – and be there to salute my travel hero Michelle Chan and her partner Mike Reeves who had raced across the entire continent. Yin Xin met me at Place Vendome dressed in a cream 1920s linen suit and bowler hat. He was theperfect complement to the classic cars while highlighting the fact that there was only one contestant in the race who was actually of Chinese origin: Michelle.

As the cars turned into the final stretch we saw the flash of a Chinese Dragon and team Shiner soon cruised across the finish line in third position with their little daughter tucked under Michelle’s arm. It had been an epic race, potentially marred by the tragic loss of British motorist Emma Wilkinson but they had overcome every single hurdle that had been thrown at them and never lost their fighting spirit.

As Michelle later told me she had found her mantra when, in their darkest hour, an elderly couple standing by the roadside in the pouring rain held up a sign with these words, “Fortune favours the brave”. They were visibly still very much a couple and I envied them that more than their much-coveted trophy. They are every inch the Abercrombie and Kent dream.

After a long walk through the assembled motorcade which read like a history of the 20th century on wheels from a 1917 France Tourer to a 1970’s Lancia, we retreated to the left bank and hit LIPP for a late lunch: a platter of oysters accompanied by Mumm Champagne. Feeling inspired by the rally, and emboldened by the drink we spontaneously booked a 2CV Paris City Tour (www.parisauthentique.com) which picked us up on rue Jacques Callot outside La Maison MEERT – the Confiseur Chocolatier first opened in Lille in 18th century.
…

That evening we crossed the Pont Neuf to the Place Dauphine to have dinner at possibly my favourite restaurant in Paris: le Caveau du Palais. We had a table outside and as the sun went down a game of Petanques began in the sandy square as if we had been transported to a little village in Provence. Our entrecote a point with pommes sarladaise et haricot verts was washed down with a cool bottle of Brouilly. Its seasonal menu always includes its signature dishes of canard and entrecote.

After this we walked back across le Pont Neuf and along to le Pont des Arts, opposite L’Academie Francais. From a distance the bridge seemed to be covered in a shimmering mesh punctuated by the deep glow of the setting sun. As we approached I began to make out little padlocks, the names of lovers inscribed, tied to the bridge that unites walkers from the right to the left bank. It was a living tribute to the lovers drawn to this city of light, but also a powerful metaphor: you cannot have the right without the left, and love is like a bridge over the river that separates you.

“Sous le Pont Mirabeau coule la Seine et nos amours,
Faut-il qu’il m’en souvienne,
La joie vennait toujours après la peine.” Beaudelaire

Walking back to my mother Germaine’s apartment on rue Guenegaud we stopped to have a cocktail at PRESCRIPTION joining a young hip crowd deep in conversation sipping their cocktails to the jazz.

* * * * * *

If you need a taxi for your return journey make sure you book it the night before, as Paris is not a city where you can easily hail a cab. That morning with the early morning sun lighting up the mostly empty streets I had a moment to reflect on the difference between the city’s two banks of culture. Part of me loves the Left Bank so much I don’t want to write about it – it was like being in the perfect cocoon.

As I settled into my ample seat on the Eurostar I was grateful that it was facing backwards so that I could look at the city as I left. I slipped into a daydream and woke to the fresh scent of a croissant, giving me my final Parisian indulgence. Behind me, the exhausted organisers of the PekingParis2013 were catching some shut-eye – confirming that, unless you have a classic car or a private jet, this is the only way to travel. God bless the Eurostar: it is the bridge of all bridges – uniting us with the continent we all love.

 by Nico Kos Earle

The post Three perfect days in Paris 6eme Rive Gauche – day three first appeared on The Glass Magazine.

When Annabelle Wallis walks into the bar in the first episode of Peaky Blinders, she illuminates the dank post-WW I Birmingham set like a white flag flying above the parapet – it is a career-defining moment. She is striding into the room with a confidence of someone who has been preparing for this moment all her life. Just as she casts a spell over the bartender with her gentle Irish lilt and takes Thomas’s breath away, played by the steely-eyed Cillian Murphy, with her sweet but beguiling voice, her image is stamped indelibly on our collective consciousness.

Things have changed in the business. The almost impenetrable line that used to divide television actors from film has blurred as those at the top of their game follow the writers. “You have to go where the writing is because it has to be there on the page to start with. TV is now seen as an incredible platform for actors. With six hours to play with you can show an arc of your work, and develop a character is this multidimensional.”

Annabelle Wallis is a modern woman, driven by a strong desire to protect and nurture her own artistic freedom. In her interview with Glass, she talks about landing the role of Grace Burgess, and reaching that point where she earned the freedom to choose parts that allow her to evolve as an actor and reflect her true ability.

Annabelle Wallis. Photograph: Justin van Vliet

You grew up in Portugal, do you think being an expat gave you more depth or more scope when approaching characters?
You know my philosophy is that the world is a big place so if you get the chance to live abroad lessons in life it gives you are like no other. I moved to Cascias when I was one and a half. I do feel very fortunate that I grew up in a Latin culture and learnt another language. When I approach a character or a script I can approach it from different points of view, with maybe a more international perspective.

Do you find that it helped you to adapt better to different accents and train your musical ear?
For sure! We had 42 different nationalities in year at school and when one of the new kids would arrive we would adapt our voice to the intonations of their first language to try to help them understand, and speak in their accent. Now I use that all the time – I do all my pieces in an accent because my own accent is so mid-Atlantic that I have to adapt it with each part. In fact, before I go to a casting I ask them where the character is from and go with that, so I don’t throw them. Even if you go in as yourself you can throw them off … you want to go in as the person they are looking for.

Annabelle Wallis. Photograph: Justin van Vliet

Do you think that is how you got your first break – you had that element of surprise?
I’ve thought about this over the course of my career and I suppose I have very classic British looks but then I open my mouth and the way I speak has a very Latin intonation and I have a very forward way of communicating and I think that they are two extremes that need to come together.

That must be great on set when you have to integrate and adapt quickly to a whole host of characters.
It is so important to be able to communicate with people. For example a lot of the crew are foreign and finding a way to communicate with them makes all the difference. In an environment where there can be a lot of egos flying around, it always helps.

Annabelle Wallis. Photograph: Justin van Vliet

You come from the business – your father was an actor and your uncle Richard Harris – did that influence your decision to act?
Never! My mother had a very open-minded philosophy about having children, that they should be free to develop in their own way. I lived a very different life to the one I live now in London. Cinema was a luxury – you went once a week – the whole idea of celebrity was completely absent. But it was such an instinctual thing, like a path that was already paved that I could not avoid.

I think I found it hard to admit that I was doing something that was so intangible – so I fought against it. Coming from where I was coming from it did not seem like a reality but more like the flighty dream of a young girl. I am a bit of a realist, if I choose to do something I like to get it done.

So when did you begin to feel like it was going to happen and that you had broken through into the reality of your career? Was it your role as Jane Seymour in The Tudors?
You can never get too sure of yourself. I had never watched the Tudors, so I was sheltered by my ignorance about the show. When you are asked to do something like that, you don’t really realise the impact it is going to have. It was only when I went to America after I had finished and found there was such a huge audience there that it began to sink in.

The most dangerous thing for an actor, I believe, is to think of their worth – you know, to stand outside of yourself and observe and think, “Oh I’m in wonderful company now.” You know you have to work every day you are given because you may not have any work tomorrow.

Annabelle Wallis. Photograph: Justin van Vliet

Touching on the theme of America – do you see yourself moving there?
Now there is such cross-pollination between the US and the UK you cannot deny that you will be working between the two. I feel very European and I do miss it when I am over there – but I do love the sunshine. I am very fickle in that way.

Describe what it was like when you were given the role of Grace Burgess in Peaky Blinders.
Throughout your career, and especially at the beginning you don’t always have the freedom of choice or the access to scripts that you would really want. You have to get things under your belt to get people to notice you and be allowed to be in those rooms. When I got Peaky Blinders it was that moment of “This is just an incredible script, if I am able to be a part of this it really could be a game-changer.”

Not just in a career sense, but in a personal sense. You get to show yourself in a light that reflects your ability but you have, until then, not been allowed to show – because they have not been on the page or your character just does not have that longevity or scope. When someone like Steven Knight is writing your script it is just incredible, not to mention the caliber of people already attached.

Annabelle Wallis in Peaky Blinders

So what was it like being with that calibre of actors and having such a central role?
To be honest when I heard that Cillian Murphy was attached all I could think was “I would die to work with him”. He raises the bar so incredibly high that you either sink or you swim. If you fail in that moment then you are out. I love that – I love living like that: trying to prove myself in those environments – it is thrilling.

Did you feel like this is the moment you have been working towards all your life?
I felt so at ease: when you know you are protected by the quality of people around you and it is such a tight ship, you relax into yourself as an actor and you can really push your own boundaries because you know you are in a safe environment.

When you do projects are less good, like you when you are starting out, you are nervous not only for yourself but for what everyone around you is doing. The ship isn’t that tight so you really just can’t let go. When it is a bigger project it almost feels easier – you are there because you have proved yourself.

Annabelle Wallis in Peaky Blinders

What do you think it will take to maintain that?
I don’t want any favours, or my agents to talk to people, I want to go into that room and I want them to think I am it. That is what happened with the director Otto [Bathurst] on Peaky Blinders and that gave me the confidence I needed.

What’s next are there more strong women on the horizon?What is interesting is that they are all so different! Next role is Muriel Wright in The Man Who Would be Bond, co-starring Dominic Cooper as Ian Fleming that will show on Sky Atlantic. It’s your job as an actor to seek out the career that you want – the parts are out there but you have to make the choices to get those parts.

by Nico Kos Earle

The post Glass talks to Annabelle Wallis about her career-defining appearance in Steven Knight’s Peaky Blinders first appeared on The Glass Magazine.