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WELCOME TO OGZINE.
Articles and pics about creativity and people who like being creative.
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If you like this, take a peek at our blog too, OggleBlog for short snippets on oggling life.
CONTENTS:
Ogzine Issue 2;
• Shauna Taylor (cover pic) reports from China on an amazing architectural array
• Paul Travers breaks free of the supermarket trap
• Music Producer Peter Larsen ruminates on the songwriter's journey
• Mel Larsen goes nuts over a recipe for a vegan dessert
Click on OgZine issue 1 to read the following articles;
• Dominic Sedgwick interviews cult opera singer Ernesto Tomasini
• The London Print Studio showcases young participants' work in London Prints
• Artist Lucy Noakes explores the world of the miniature
• Finance expert David Frederick discovers the global domain of the VA
• Estate Agent by day Writer by night, Paul Travers creates his dream life
• Hannah Taylor shares the joy of scrapbooking
• Beverley Ward braves the cold and stays on trend in Canada
• Music Producer Peter Larsen finds wisdom in baking bread
• Karen Brotherton talks about her creative process
OgZine is part of our £10k charity challenge. We are raising funds for Plan International and Kiva, two organisations that support children and communities in developing countries. You can find out more, see how we're doing and make a donation by clicking these links for
Please note: all opinions and views expressed within articles featured on OgZine belong solely to the author contributing that article (or to interviewees quoted within said articles), and do not necessarily represent the views of the oggleverything and OgZine owners, or of the other authors and contributors.
Thank You
OgZine 01 was put together by a team of volunteers who supported our Fundraiser Challenge. Scroll down to read all the OgZine 01 articles.
We are still raising funds for Plan International and Kiva, two organisations that support children and communities in developing countries. You can find out more and make a donation by clicking these links for
With some of the funds raised so far, we gave a loan to several businesses run by women including this one, the Khadidiatou Ndiaye Group in Senegal who sell fish:
For the Ogzine and the OgZine & OggleBlog Launch event we say a huge THANK YOU to:
Natasha Graham at NG Associates for event organisation - ngassociates(at)hotmail.co.uk. Volunteers: Sarah Cretch, Yaa Antwi-Nsiah, Jason Marshall, Melanie Knight, Tim Waterfield, Kim Morgan and Mary Rahman for Press work. All OgZine and OggleBlog contributors. Donald Seepaul at Indus Digital for design and print of flyers (dseepaulATaol.com). Keith Forbes and the reddogexperience for dj and vj equipment. Everyone who donated raffle and auction prizes. Clare Fischer at The Red Hedgehog - great new arts venue for London, available for hire. All performers at the launch event:
Rosalyn Wright,
Sylvia Hallett,
AgentSimon,
Vox Simba, colin(at)ethnovox.com,
Juwon Ogungbe,
DJ Globalesque,
Gosia Dzik-Holden
My Process
Illustrator Karen Brotherton talks about her creative process.
As far as my creative process goes, I tend to work quickly, pushing all of my imagination into a piece to form a general idea. Once I have an idea of the message I want to send, I go to work with hand drawing the illustration, before manipulating the image further on screen. Adding colour digitally afterwards means I get an amazing colour palette to work with. As colour is something I see has the most important structural element in visual communication, compositionally, colour brings everything together.
Hand drawing all my work is something that is important to me as an artist. In a digital age, its good to get back to basics and actually get involved by manually producing visuals. It is something I intend to explore further, and work at finding a happy medium of digital and handmade practices.
The piece titled 60yrs of Human Rights (see title image above) I did for a designer called Zara Arshad. She brought a big bunch of up and coming illustrators together, and asked them to produce mini protest boards. She did this in order to highlight the subject of freedom of speech, whereby the illustrator was allowed to simply say 'anything'.
Therefore I produced two board illustrations based on this idea that due to the human rights law, you can say just about anything no matter your race or background.
About Karen Brotherton
I am a 22yr old illustrator from the north west of England. Having graduated last year, I am currently pursuing my dream of getting to draw all day, and call it a job! A lot of my work is based on nostalgia, as I grew up in a small town with not a lot to do. Therefore, drawing, my imagination and the rolling countryside seems to have influenced my illustration a lot. www.karenbrotherton.blogspot.com
© Karen Brotherton, 2009
OgZine is part of our £10k charity challenge. We are raising funds for Plan International and Kiva, two organisations that support children and communities in developing countries. You can find out more, see how we're doing and make a donation by clicking these links for Plan International or Kiva
Tiny World
Lucy Noakes explains her fascination with all things miniature
“There was a lacquer trinket-box, padded inside and with the lid open, which they used to settle; and that useful stand-by a chest of drawers made of match boxes.”
The Borrowers, Mary Norton
I can still remember the first miniature I ever made. I must have been about eight and my subject of choice was a chocolate cake with a creamy centre with red dots along the top to represent cherries. Of course, the power of memory is a funny thing, and the ‘cake’ no doubt was more like a blob sculpted by my infantile imagination. Nevertheless, the plasticine treat was to be positioned pride of place in my doll house sat between a full jar of marmalade and an uncut bread roll. The miniature, of course, implies perfection, a world full of daintiness, preciousness and charm. However, every small world has an inventor and every inventor wants to make something new.
Today I am writing as both an inventor and a passive observer. My earliest memories of observing the miniature and the yo-yoing of scale and proportion were through following the journey of ‘Alice’ and ‘The Borrowers’. Despite the strong portrayal of the nonsense in both tales, we realise that amongst the slightly mentally challenged Hatter and the ‘human beans’, the jam tarts and the transformed match boxes are all existent in our world. Through this, the miniscule draws us closer but we are unable to get close enough, we can not cross that barrier into the small world. If given the chance to consume the contents of the ‘drink me’ bottle and to shrink to the size of a walnut, the charm would be lost. The beauty of the miniscule is in its un-attainability.
In essence, that is what I love about all things small: in all its sweetness there is a bitter sting. Someone once told me as a comment on my size (I am a teeny 4ft 10) that ‘poison comes in small bottles.’ That was the moment when I realised that the tables have turned. Not long after, I came across the work of Tessa Farmer and I am still bewildered by the nightmarish beauty she depicts. In her installations there are carcasses of all creatures great and small: a swallow, a rat, a fox and battling mayflies are treated as vessels to be captured by mischievous ‘fairies’. These ‘fairies’ are ten millimeters tall and made not from a baby’s first laughter but from tree root and insect wing.
On witnessing Farmer’s piece, 'The resurrection of a rat', I felt torn between amazement, repulsion and again the overwhelming feeling of nostalgia (of capturing ear wigs in empty coffee jars and making mud pies). As observers we become dehumanized, transformed as giants in a Lilliputian universe, bewitched and unable to resist the nightmarish lore of a visit to the deepest and darkest part of the woods. I believe that this is an example of how powerful the miniature can be; we do not know what waits for us until we are too close.
To invent a diminutive existence however is somewhat different to discovering one. To the artist, dollhouse owner or model maker their tiny creation is a universe that they can control or perhaps a place to escape the giganticness of life. For me, it is about trying to capture the magic of child play in everyday life whilst most of us overlook it. I think it is about time that we became just that little bit more curious.
© Lucy Noakes, 2009
About Lucy Noakes I graduated from a degree in Fine Art last year and since leaving I have spent my time making sugar cube houses and miniature realms that I 'find' in my garden which I document through photography. My life long fascination for jewellery (I can not go outside the house without wearing any) has lead me down the path of creating my own, inspired by the imagery of children's literature. Today, it is Tweedledum and Tweedledee's embroidered collar, who knows what tomorrow will bring. www.lucynoakes.co.uk
OgZine is part of our £10k charity challenge. We are raising funds for Plan International and Kiva, two organisations that support children and communities in developing countries. You can find out more, see how we're doing and make a donation by clicking these links for
Voice in Drag
"The famous castrato-style performer whose high falsetto can plummet to deep baritone with startling effect"(The Evening Standard)...Dominic Sedgwick talks to the man Time Out called a 'Voice in Drag'
Ernesto Tomasini is a man of many parts. Born in Sicily’s capital, Palermo, at the age of 10 he was kicked out of the choir by the priests of the Santissimo Salvatore for "singing mass as Julie Andrews".
Classical actor, singer, comedian and alternative cabaret artist, Tomasini is possessed of an extraordinary vocal range that soars the four-octaves from basse to high falsetto. He has starred or participated in an equally extraordinary range of projects from experimental theatre with Lindsay Kemp to the West End stage in Chicago – The Musical, also appearing in concert halls, theatres, nightclubs and cultural institutes around the world.
Feted for being both erudite and entertaining, True or Falsetto: A Secret History of the Castrati was developed from one of his ideas by scriptwriter Lucy Powell. A musical play in which he sang, danced, acted and cross-dressed his way through musical history, it looked at "the human side of what it meant to be created for art".
In 2007 he began an ongoing artistic relationship as vocalist and collaborator with composer Othon Mataragas, whose recent album, Digital Angel, features Ernesto’s voice on a number of tracks.
This year he is busy co-devising a piece for Riverside Studios; on the set of a new film starring Derek Jacobi; and making an appearance on Brother Focus: For the Inaugurator of the Pleasure Dome, an album of previously unreleased tracks to raise money for pioneering experimental film maker Kenneth Anger, featuring artists such as Marc Almond, Antony and the Johnsons, Coil, and Rickie Lee Jones. (Listen to Tomasini on LastFM)
Tomasini now lives in London. I asked him a few questions…
1. For many people there is, perhaps, one moment that they never forget of first hearing a piece of music that really touches them, and for musicians this moment probably determines their future. The first piece of music which really touched me was Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade”. I was about ten years old at the time, at home from school due to illness. Being bored I put on one of my mother’s two discs of classical music - I’d never heard anything like it - it had so much journey and magic in it. Was there a particular song or piece of music that inspired you to love it, and where were you at the time?
The first music experience that I remember was a production of Verdi's Nabucco at the Palermo Opera House, I was dragged there by my dotty godmother (an avid Opera lover), I must have been 4. I fell asleep some time during the third act but I don't think it's by chance that Verdi became my favourite Opera composer.
As far as recordings are concerned my childhood is haunted by the voice of Julie Andrews, not so much in her more popular roles but in some obscure soundtrack that I was given as a present (by the same dotty godmother). It had Kurt Weill, Cole Porter, Noel Coward, George Gershwin and Music Hall songs in it; riveting stuff. I learned how to sing by duetting with her on this and other records (in the same octave!!!).
2. An ideal audience - which characters from history would you most like to entertain?
Alexander the Great for the sheer decadence of it all, they tell me that his parties could become quite - ahem - naughty.
Also, Galileo Galilei: I would have loved to sing to him a piece that I am writing right now, an ode to science and the "scientific mind" that would have been most comforting to him during his more difficult times.
And finally the greatest artist of the 20th Century: Walt Disney! Forget about Stravinsky, Picasso or Brecht, the artist that more than any other has left his mark on the last 80 years is Disney. I would have loved to see the horrified expression on his face after one of my acts... I like to think that he would have declared my persona to be... unbankable.
3. Some of the venues where you have performed sound fascinating and very beautiful, such as the Medieval Castle of Itri in Italy, and architect Alvaro Siza’s Galician Center for Contemporary Art in the old town of Santiago de Compostela. Which is your favourite performance location to date, and where would you most love to play in the future?
My favourite venue so far is the Royal Albert Hall: It is such a joy getting on that gigantic stage, gazing at that magnificent auditorium, being swept off your feet by the huge orchestra behind and showering in the thunderous applause at the end of every piece; what a thrill!
I particularly love those London theatres where, at the beginning of the past century, they used to perform the so called "intimate revues" (those of Charles B Cochran, for example). Any of these would be on my wish list for the future.
4. Which three composers, living or dead, would you most love to have write for your voice?
1) Francis Poulenc: we would have liked each other and I could have served him well.
2) Rozz Williams: I would love to sing twisted versions of deathrock, or punk or even heavy metal. There are elements of them in some of the stuff that I do but I would love to go for the full shebang.
3) Othon Mataragas: and luckily he DOES write for my voice. His music is my absolute favourite. It would be even if I were an audience member but the fact that he chose me to sing it gives me rushes of bliss that, at times, are truly overwhelming. The man's a genius and we haven't even heard the best of him yet!
5. Perhaps singing was invented thousands of years ago in caves where the voice echoes back to the singer. Today concrete stairwells have a similarly resonant acoustic. Are there spaces where you secretly sing?
Funny you should say that as stairwells in theatres are the places where I regularly hide to warm up my voice. I have my favourite secret spot at the Adelphi Theatre in London's West End: a true Phantom of the Opera hideaway where one can wail away undisturbed.
6. What question would you most like to be asked, and if I asked it, what would be your response?
I would like you to ask me: "Mr Tomasini what do you do in order to keep yourself so lean, young and beautiful?" I would flap my lashes and, almost blushing with false modesty, I would lie by telling you that I'm a teetotal!
© Dominic Sedgwick, 2009
About Dominic Sedgwick
Dominic Sedgwick is an artist, singer and songwriter. Originally trained as a biologist, Dominic was educated at Imperial College, The Royal College of Art, and Blackheath Conservatoire of Music. He is a director of Ginkgo Music www.ginkgomusic.com, a charity committed to halting deforestation by creating projects linking ecology & music, currently developing forest restoration projects in Scotland, Ecuador and Afghanistan.
OgZine is part of our £10k charity challenge. We are raising funds for Plan International and Kiva, two organisations that support children and communities in developing countries. You can find out more, see how we're doing and make a donation by clicking these links for
London Prints
INTERVIEWS with YOUNG ARTISTS at THE LONDON PRINT STUDIO:
Jenni Allen talks to Sarah Murphy and Mat(ilda) Keane
participants in the youngartists’programme at londonprintstudio
Interview 1: Sarah Murphy, participant at the London Print Studio. Age:24
Current job title or if you are a student what are you studying and where?
Designer/Seamstress.
What Young Artists’ workshops did you attend at London Print Studio?
Photoshop – Using a photographic image, I learnt how to select specific areas of an image and edit it, by changing the colours and adding filters.
Urbanology Street art workshop – working with Cept who is a professional street artist, I developed images using graffiti techniques.
How did you create your image?
Screen print, digital print, stencil, and working on it with pen.
What medium do you usually work with and how did the course relate to it?
I usually work with fabric, but all my sketch work and shape development, are done more so as illustrations, so this related pretty well. Also, the style or research and work I do was highly applicable to the Urbanology course.
Do you have any hidden talents, how did you discover them?
I’m pretty good at face painting, its not that hard, but when you’ve painted a dinosaur's mouth on someone’s face its great!
Favourite food?
Bannoffe pie
What is your favourite time of the day and why?
Morning, when its bright and fresh
What colour do you see when you shut your eyes?
Purple
Favourite London place to hang out?
Markets
Shoes or Trainers?
Boots
Tube or Bus?
Bus
Summer or winter?
Summer
Swimming or running?
Swimming
Sport or Theatre?
Sport
One or Two?
Two?
Noisy or Quiet?
Noisy
Spiderman or Batman?
Batman
Andy Warhol or Banksy?
Andy Warhol
INTERVIEWS with YOUNG ARTISTS at THE LONDON PRINT STUDIO:
Interview 2: Mat(ilda) Keane, participant at the London Print Studio. Age:22
Current job title or if you are a student what are you studying and where?
Architectural Studies BSc at the Bartlett, UCL (majoring in international development and design).
Which Young Artists’ workshop did you attend at London Print Studio?
Comic workshop, Print making workshop, Photoshop workshop and Graffiti workshop (LPS love).
How did you create your image?
'Sting 1 & 2':The title of the Comic book workshop was 'What are you afraid of?', my answer being stinging nettles, heights and mushrooms and so I spent the initial workshop practicing drawing and looking through comic books to get ideas of how to convey a story, in the second workshop I drew up my ideas first in blue pen and then with black ink over the top.
'Theatre design' is a drawing that was previously created as part of my architecture portfolio, in the workshop I produced a silkscreen of my images (which was part of the learning process).
What medium do you usually work with and how did the course relate to it?
I usually draw by hand, photograph and etch and I wanted to build up a greater skills base and to understand how to lay out a page the graffiti workshop and the comic book workshop helped in that respect. I wanted to learn different drawing styles so the comic book workshops were really useful.
Do have any hidden talents, how did you discover them?
I have an incredible internal body clock. If I want to wake up at 9:33am I tell myself that I want to wake up at that time and I wake up at exactly that time, therefore I never need to use an alarm.
Favourite food?
Taramasalata, marmite and sushi (not together)
What is your favourite time of the day and why?
4am, it is so quiet, it allows you time to reflect in peace and there are fewer distractions (BBC news 24 has terrible programs on at that time which I’m addicted to!)
What colour do you see when you shut your eyes?
Yellow
Favourite London place to hang out?
Greenwich Park
Shoes or trainers?
Trainers
Tube or bus?
Neither, I only ever cycle anywhere
Summer or winter?
Summer
Swimming or running?
Swimming
Sport or theatre?
Theatre
One or two?
One
Noisy or quiet?
Noisy
Spiderman or Batman?
Batman
Andy Warhol or Banksy?
Both!
Sarah and Mat(tilda) attended the youngartists’programme at londonprintstudio.
The youngartists’programme gives young adults, aged 16-24 the opportunity to work with professional artists and state of the art equipment.
Workshops and tasters are FREE
For more information follow this link: http://www.londonprintstudio.org.uk/E_youngartists.html
Interviewer: Jenni Allen at The London Print Studio
All images © The London Print Studio, 2009.
OgZine is part of our £10k charity challenge. We are raising funds for Plan International and Kiva, two organisations that support children and communities in developing countries. You can find out more, see how we're doing and make a donation by clicking these links for
Brrrrr!
Beverley Ward attempts to stay warm and in fashion in sub-zero temperatures
My husband warned me, he warned me several times in fact, that it would be cold and although he had spent many winters as a child in Alaska, even he wasn’t prepared for what was to come.
I arrived in Montreal on September 20th, the end of summer sun was still shining and the celebrated North American autumnal colours were just starting to evolve. I had flown my bike over so immediately I explored my new neighbourhood, as I was also warned that the seasons change very quickly and before I know it, we’ll be in the depths of winter.
I felt at home in this über cool city that has the chic of Europe in the gargantuan of North America. Everyone was still dressed in shorts and flip flops, summer dresses and big shades and a vast amount of outdoor and ‘terrasse’ dining was still in abundance. Within two weeks the season started to rapidly change. The temperature dropped from 20° to 15° and the evenings were becoming chilly.
By November the temperature was sub-zero and the first snow fall appeared at the end of the month. Along with the weather the ensembles started to change. Scarves and hats were appearing, heavier jackets and coats and inevitably knee high boots. Only having summer flats I had to buy a pair of boots and on seeing them my husband stated ‘they’re not going to see you through the winter’ and of course he was right. Within a month I had to purchase a pair of water, wind, cold and snow proof boots, it was like buying my first gym membership, I never thought I’d see the day.
It is now January and I am obsessed with winter clothing. As the temperature has declined amongst snow storms, I have had to purchase a further duvet style outer garment to prevent my internal organs from freezing up…literally.
I seem to be staring at people on the street, what are they wearing and can you stay trendy with all the puff and wrap you have to adorn yourself with to step outside? As always the young and trendy set will eliminate anything that isn’t necessary to their look and this can include a decent sized coat. High heeled boots are still the norm along with the UGG which in my opinion, when wet must be like walking in sodden slippers.
The young professionals go for the strong, classic brands which include Canada Goose (CG). I myself have surrendered to one and can honestly say that is a whole different world of warmth.
There are many other fashionable brands to help you keep warm including North Face and Colombia, which are more friendly on the purse. Vintage clothes layers are also popular amongst the young and trendy. For those who have a little more to spend and who fall more into the practical category there is Kanuk an exceptional Quebecoise brand of outer clothing.
In general the winter attire consists of a minimum two layers across the entire body. My cousin who works as a baggage handler at Trudeau Airport braved the elements wearing three layers of trousers, three tops, two jackets and two pairs of gloves in a wind chill of -36, really brrrrrrr!
What about evening wear? Are the ladies here as mad as those in the north of England where they will brave the cold on a night out without a coat and still wear strappy sandals? I was sitting at a bar one night before the cold really kicked in and asked the friendly female staff there whether the girls in Canada were chivalrous to fashion…the answer was definitely ‘NO!’ Low and behold there were no open toes out on the street although you could see that a couple of layers had been sacrificed for their look.
I am hoping now I’ve seen the worst of it, the weather that is. My wise packing of M&S long sleeve vests and leggings have formed a valuable base layer and fortunately I haven’t gorged on too much tasty cheese and baguettes, therefore my jeans are able to fit comfortably over it. Skiing is on the agenda which will be another cloth buying adventure and what I have learnt from this is that I can stay fashionable even if I do look a bit like the Michelin Woman!
© Beverley Ward, 2009
About Beverley Ward
"Born in London and recently relocated to Montreal. A musician, (in particular vocals) loves fashion although I can't always afford it"
OgZine is part of our £10k charity challenge. We are raising funds for Plan International and Kiva, two organisations that support children and communities in developing countries. You can find out more, see how we're doing and make a donation by clicking these links for Plan International or Kiva
What is a VA?
David Frederick discovers VA va voom
John Lennon sang, “Imagine there’s no countries, it isn’t hard to do.” Petra Boucher has done just that with ‘Your Virtual Ally’, her Virtual Assistant small business.
I must confess to being one of the silent majority who would not have placed a Virtual Assistant in my top ten of creative businesses. What is a virtual assistant exactly? Is it something to do with making things with the aid of the internet? These thoughts were running through my mind as I prepared to meet Petra.
To those of you who leapt to my aid with the answer, “Isn’t is it like a PA or a secretary?” You are getting warm. The role may embrace some of the tasks provided by a secretary or PA. But as Petra explained, “none of these are business partners, they just complete tasks. A Virtual Assistant is an administrative support service with that difference - more akin to a business partner. We understand our clients’ business and move along with them almost like their shadow. However, this is all done from my own home office.”
Despite the clear and concise description of the business, Petra’s initially omits to mention two important features about her business. Firstly, she has never met any of her clients. Yes, that’s correct: never shaken hands over a deal or shared small talk over coffee face-to-face. Secondly, two-thirds of her clients are based in the USA. Yet they pay her every invoice and they have built up strong relationships. These relationships are as strong but somewhat different from those between myself and some of my own personal assistants with whom I’ve shared perhaps too much small talk over coffee.
At the outset this seems difficult to grasp or understand. How does Petra from her modest base in south-east London, provide administrative support to clients based in far off places such as Atlanta, Colorado, Maryland and California? Usually, the myth perpetuated by aspirant entrepreneurs is that becoming a global business requires you to have a central London location with all the perceived trappings of enterprise. However, without marble flooring, a water fountain or a vacant boardroom, Petra has successfully built her global business.
If working in close proximity is a challenge, working across different continents, time zones and sectors as Petra does, presents its own range of problems. Petra doesn’t see these features as potential problem sources however: “It is people who cannot be supported virtually, not businesses. People bring to the virtual relationship their own misconceptions, issues and barriers. Any business can be supported virtually. I haven't come across a business yet that cannot be supported virtually.”
Petra’s business is reliant upon building good relationships. Although trust can be instantaneous it often takes between 18 months to 2 years to establish a comfortable and secure working relationship. “Some relationships have been difficult and if after six months we’re not moving forward, I let the clients go. Otherwise I find it draining” she says.
For the 5 years that Petra has been a Virtual Assistant, she has learnt that regular communication is necessary and setting and renegotiating deadlines for the completion of tasks helps to quickly solidify the relationship. This is of great importance as she is working across different global time zones.
“A quick response with a mention of ‘I’ll get that task done at set day and time’ ”, Petra says is important. She develops this further by maintaining regular calls, with at least 75% of her clients having fortnightly status calls and some 50% having weekly calls. This allows her and her clients to stay in regular contact and monitor how they are meeting their goals, “Communication is not only key, but clients also need to hear your voice.”
Effective time management is critical for Petra. Her working day often kicks off around 10am. Morning tasks tend to be dedicated to her management of her UK clients. As the day progresses, and North America wakes up, Petra’s emphasis moves to her US clients. She often works until 8pm to allow her to work until midday for her Californian clients. Working across different time zones doesn’t present Petra with a problem. However, in the past it has been problematic for some US clients who have wanted her to provide an afternoon presence. Unfortunately, Petra was unable to accommodate their requirements, but she has now developed a partnership with a Virtual Assistant in the US to cover these hours.
Despite the great fears about trust that seems to be embracing the world over at this time, Petra manages her US clients’ bank accounts online. For one client she regularly manages their business travel including booking flights where she has an expenditure limit of up to $10,000 per flight.
Clients’ trust is assured as Petra is a member of Assist University, (AssistU) her professional body in the USA which has an extensive code of professional ethics. Furthermore AssistU President, Stacy Brice has provided testimony of Petra’s professionalism.
The swapping of places with her clients is something that Petra feels is essential in the development of business ideas to take her clients’ business forward.“I put myself in their shoes and learn about their goals, what makes them feel easy and what is natural to them. Sometimes a simple change can make a great impact on them such as on their time management system. It is important to know their routines. If a routine changes I will contact them to enquire what is going on.”
Business survival and growth has also developed from her creative nature. Petra has developed a portfolio of knowledge and skills from working across a range of sectors. These skills are now being marketed in different formats to provide her with additional income streams. One such skill that Petra acquired last year was becoming a Certified Authors Assistant. This was acquired to assist a client in their book creation, publication and sales process. The business’s continual growth from gaining new skills prevents Petra becoming pigeon-holed by clients and contributes to more client sales. A much desired feature in the current economic environment.
In Petra’s business there are no countries, just clients and creative working patterns. Her practice reflects the words from that famous chorus, “You may say I’m a dreamer, But I’m not the only one, I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will live as one.”
© David Frederick, 2009
About David Frederick
David is an accountant with over 25 years experience in finance, business consultancy, education and training. David contributes to accountancy education via his role as a university lecturer and examiner for professional accountancy bodies. He has served as a chairperson, treasurer and board member for a range of national, business, community and arts organisations.
As an accounting and financial trainer David has developed and delivered training programmes nationally and overseas. He has co-written one accountancy textbook and has written numerous articles on business, finance and accountancy. In recent years, David has been responsible for producing a monthly in-house small business newsletter for a London enterprise agency. David is currently extending his writing portfolio by undertaking freelance writing assignments for websites and publications.
OgZine is part of our £10k charity challenge. We are raising funds for Plan International and Kiva, two organisations that support children and communities in developing countries. You can find out more, see how we're doing and make a donation by clicking these links for
Being a Magpie
Hannah Taylor invites us to step away from the television and get into scrapbooking ;-)
I’ve kept a scrapbook for as long as I can remember. As a teenager, my walls were covered in letters from friends, photographs, sketches, bad poetry, and vintage postcards. It was a natural progression for me to keep these images in a scrapbook, to reflect on when I needed inspiration. The beauty of a scrapbook is that it works on so many levels. Most obviously, a scrapbook becomes a visual diary. Old train tickets and birthday cards evoke memories which words cannot.
A scrapbook is a record of your inspiration and adventure. It makes our memories tangible through relics and artefacts that you can touch and possess. It may become a much adored time capsule in generations to come, or a wealth of inspiration when the time comes to decorate your home. The only rule should be that there are no rules; over thinking what goes where takes the joy out of scrapbooking. It’s much better to use your instincts- much in the way a child would. My scrapbooks include everything from gig tickets, fashion spreads, wall paper, menus, set lists, lyric books, doodles, newspaper articles, autographs, maps, love letters and ukulele chords! If it inspires me in any way it goes in there.
Scrapbooks also work in a similar way to mood boards, and shouldn’t just be limited to images. Broken (but loved) jewellery, band badges, friendship bracelets and festival wristbands add another dimension and work especially well to decorate the cover of your scrapbook. You’ll need a glue gun to fix them, and don’t be surprised when your scrapbook triples in size- but mixing texture and media is another way to further express yourself. A scrapbook shouldn’t require much thought- instead it should tap into your creativity, be instinctive, subconscious- and nurture your imagination. All it requires is scissors, glue, and an open mind.
© Hannah Taylor, 2009
About Hannah Taylor
Hannah Taylor lives in London. She likes peppermint tea, Oscar Wilde and the smell of limes
OgZine is part of our £10k charity challenge. We are raising funds for Plan International and Kiva, two organisations that support children and communities in developing countries. You can find out more, see how we're doing and make a donation by clicking these links for
Dreams/Action
Paul Travers finds out you CAN have it all
“You cannot move forward without an exit plan” I was told at a recent business meeting. Well there's a thing. Aside from this being a load of old rubbish modern speak, I found myself wondering where was the adventure, not to mention joy, in such a view. The idea of spending my entire time trying to get out of whatever it was I'd got into struck me as exhausting, but then I guess that was the point; knuckle down, head down, eyes down, focus down. Be exhausted, and then at the end of it all, reward yourself with escape.
The accepted and encouraged course of life from school onwards is that we'll find a job and dutifully climb the ladder of promotion, wending our way through tiers of management and Holy Grail systems handed down from above. If we're lucky we'll eventually find our niche, specialise in a chosen field and become a 'real credit to the company' in our particular area of expertise. And then retire on a pension.
Super.
I've just finished reading two books by Tom Hodgkinson, 'How to Be Free' and 'How to Be Idle', in which he extols the wisdom of lying in, growing your own veg and, most interestingly, not specialising. That's a brutal summary of his writings but that last idea really struck a chord. “Let's be Jacks of all trades and master of none” says Tom, alarmed at us all being stuck in a wheel of having to earn more and more to sustain our upwardly-mobile aspirations, while out-sourcing areas of life because we no longer have the time to clean, paint, cook or even buy food. He's certainly onto something but I'd like to go one further; let's be Master of many trades, not just Jack.
Variety is most definitely the spice of life but so often a second or third interest gets relegated to a few hours at the weekend, never allowed to impinge on the sacred cow of 'the job' and resulting in some level of disappointment, resentment or at the very least thwartedness around our passions. So let's all ditch that. I mean it. Throw it out. And before you drift into thoughts of “pie in the sky” and “eek - what about my responsibilities?”, I'm going to give you a real-life example of someone making this happen, and how fortuitous that it should be one of the most interesting people I know. Me.
I'm a director of an estate agent in London; it's something I enjoy and have done well at. I've worked in property for 22 years so I'm comfortable, confident and competent which is a great place to be and I've no real desire to get out, but I've come to realise that it's not all I want to have ever done. There’s evidence of this in my recently co-founding, on the most shoestring of budgets, a not-for-profit music label committed to halting deforestation, which I squeeze into spare moments and evenings. I also love writing and want to pursue it further and I rather fancy living in some foreign cities for a few years. The point is that my brain thrives on variety, perhaps chaos, and I'm not alone. So bless the property crash and global economic downturn for giving me the space to look outside my life. I have a dream, and I’m going to live it.
The only way I'm going to experience living in a foreign city is to move to one; moving to a foreign city means I can't be at the office every day in London; spending more time on the music label leaves less time for property. Action is the key, but we often need a tickle to get things going and what shifted my rear into gear was the first day of a travel journalism course, where the tutor asked “What are your dreams and what would stop you?” For almost every student the answer was money worries or fear of the unknown. How easy it is to see through a problem when it belongs to someone else! Worry and fear stamping on my dreams? No thank you. So that very afternoon I met with my business partner to get on with creating the future.
Now, if there's a sure-fire way of getting what you want from life, it has to be plying your victims with food; my personal recommendation is Flaneur on London’s Farringdon Road, (particularly the applestrudel cake, where resistance is engorgingly futile). Combined with a generous helping of garrulous charm and in this particular instance, giant dollops of glorious French cream, success is guaranteed; your own enthusiasm and passion as addictive as the cake you’ve just devoured. And in June I'm moving to Amsterdam.
We (my business partner and I) struck a deal where I'll come back one week a month to work at the office and attend any meetings, and then be available on the phone or online for another few days while en continent. That leaves me 20 or so days every month to do as I wish; music label, writing, travelling, whatever. Exciting, huh? And when I told my friends, one of them asked if he could move into my flat. In return for charging him a modest rent, I get to come back to the spare room for my weeks in Blighty. He gets to cut his costs and I don’t have to pay to move my stuff into storage, which makes up for any loss of income.
None of this seemed remotely possible a few months ago; it was simply off my radar in terms of ‘what was done’. I was blind, now I can see. So whatever trees are blocking your view of the woods, get talking to everyone about your dreams, and then be amazed as they help to make them possible. You don’t have to know how it’s all going to turn out, in fact you already don’t. Instead of working on your “exit plan”, stay on and enjoy the ride.
© Paul Travers, 2009
About Paul Travers
Paul Travers is a born and bred Londoner; 39 and still going strong. When he's not hanging around the south bank or entertaining friends with his recently found cooking prowess, he's a director of estate agency New London and of Ginkgo Music, a not for profit music label. Interested in far too much for his own good, and certainly more than he can actually do, he's most at home surrounded by the simple pleasures of a fine single malt and an admiring public.www.writes-of-passage.co.uk
OgZine is part of our £10k charity challenge. We are raising funds for Plan International and Kiva, two organisations that support children and communities in developing countries. You can find out more, see how we're doing and make a donation by clicking these links for
Zen Bread
Peter Larsen finds happiness in a recipe for disaster
I woke up this morning in a bad mood. My wife spotted it instantly. Although I was getting a little snappy with her, my real problem was on a much larger scale than anticipated. You see I’ve recently started baking bread which is quite a departure from my day job as a music producer, and have been quite excited about the prospect of supplying our household with good old-fashioned nutritional values.
Well, as you might expect it didn’t go according to plan. My first attempt was o.k., not Gordon Ramsay approved but more like ‘promising’, at least enough to make me want to try it again. Second attempt was a disaster and that really got to me because I hate wasting food but it ended up in the bin.
There was a lot of salt in that last loaf. Maybe I misunderstood the instructions, didn’t read them properly or maybe it’s simply because I’m foreign. I moved from Denmark to London about 20 years ago and sometimes I still manage to mess up simple sentences, especially when I get nervous and in breadmaking terms that means using ‘tbsp’ when what is called for is a humble ‘tsp’. O.k anyone could make that mistake and in all fairness, the bread looked the part but looks aren’t everything (in fact they are highly deceptive and without substance). Anyway, I noticed the middle of the loaf seemed strangely soft and doughy. Note to self: always remember to measure the ingredients. Looked great on the outside, hollow on the inside just like a cheap pop record.
Then my wife walked in and laughed the way only a wife laughs. “Are you really upset over such a small thing?” she said. “Ahhh yes…” I said, I shouldn’t be but knowing that I got ‘the form right but the content so wrong' brought me back to that old art school argument.
“I just wanted it to be great, my loaf could have been a contender,” I said. “Well Rome wasn’t built in a day,” she said, (which was true, more like 1,000 years for phase one).
In 1971 Joni Mitchell released the album ‘Blue’, which has become a classic. In 1977 Fleetwood Mack released their groundbreaking album ‘Rumours’. In 1980 Talking Heads released the album ‘Remain in the light’ which saw a whole new mixture of grooves and ambiance never heard before. On Tuesday 20th Jan 2009 I got back on the baking horse again.
“So what?” You may be thinking, and rightly so, because I am not entirely sure what my point is apart from the simple fact that I’ve realised ‘I love baking bread’. I may not be very good at it right now but I am willing to learn and I reluctantly understand that practice makes perfect. I have no ambition, I don’t dream of becoming a star chef, I just love being in the kitchen and get a great deal of joy and happiness out of this simple activity.
© Peter Larsen, 2009
About Peter Larsen
Peter Larsen has worked for more than 10 years in the music business lending his skills to writing and producing for major label artists such as David Mcalmont, Michelle McManus (uk pop idol winner), Kate Walsh (UK itunes no 1), Lindsay Armaou (Bewitched), Patrick Duff (Strangelove), written music used by BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, ITV1, Sky etc, music for adverts, television, string arrangements and worked with some of the best musicians around.
OgZine is part of our £10k charity challenge. We are raising funds for Plan International and Kiva, two organisations that support children and communities in developing countries. You can find out more, see how we're doing and make a donation by clicking these links for
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