Cover of Cardiff Life and inside spread!

It’s with mixed amounts of joy and weirdness that I find myself walking around Cardiff city centre and being confronted by own image adorning the cover of Cardiff Life this month!

It’s so exciting having a photo as a front cover, and I think the beautiful architecture of the Morgan Arcade really showcases just how gorgeous these arcades are.

Inside the mag you’ll find a big spread, with a feature about me and the project written by Jennifer Geddes, and pictures from some of my favourite shoots, including Folk Farm, New York Deli, Looby Loo’s, Spillers, Catapult, Jonathan David and more.

Pick up a copy in lots of places, but there’s lots to be found in the arcades themselves.

I’m off to find a suitable frame for that lovely cover….  🙂

Cardiff Arcades Project at Big Little City – preview!

Voila!

Well well well, after four months of work on the project and two weeks of organising the exhibition, I’m pleased to say it is now finally, finally up on display.

I wildly understimated how long it would take me to finish the display, thinking I’d be out of Big Little City by lunchtime. No problem, I thought foolishly. So extreme panic started to set in when Dan Green shouted there was only an hour left until we had to be out of there. What? But I’ve only done half my board… uh oh.

But it turns out he was giving us all false deadlines to make sure we got on with things and I just about managed to finish on time. I can’t wait for people to see it when the exhibition opens. Official launch is on Wednesday 22nd June, when everyone is free to visit between 5-7pm for the launch event. I’m going to try and bring cupcakes (not that that should entice you at all, of course…) so I do hope you can make it.

Not to worry if not, as the exhibition runs until July 22nd so you’ve got a whole month to see it. Let me know what you think, either in the guestbook you’ll hopefully find near my display or in the comments box below, by email or via Twitter. Check out the slideshow below to see images from today, starting with the old exhibition that was in my spot, finishing with the final product.

The exhibition runs at Big Little City, upstairs at the Cardiff Story, the new museum for Cardiff on the Hayes, Cardiff city centre. The postcode is CF10 1BH. Opening hours are 10am-5pm Monday-Saturday and 11am-4pm Sunday.

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Cardiff Arcades Project at Big Little City – few days to go…

Well there’s only a few days to go until the project is exhibited at Big Little City and the nerves are starting to kick in. Fortunately I think I’m pretty much all prepared and ready to go with almost all of my prints ready and a rough idea of what I want to do with my space (which I’m not sure how big or exactly where it’ll be yet just to add to the nerves!).

I picked up the bigger prints today from the wonderful Gallery 66 in the Royal Arcade, a shop I heartily recommend to anyone looking to get some prints or artwork made up – really friendly too!

You may have come across my leaflet in the city centre today as I distributed it to quite a few shops and places, if you’d like a bunch of them (I do have rather a lot) drop me a line and I’ll arrange for you to get some.

If you’re a member of the press you can come to the changeover day on Sunday (19th June) when all the artists will be taking down the old work and putting the new stuff up. I’m aiming to get there from pretty early on (10ish) so if you want to come and have a chat I’m pretty friendly so stop by!

Other than that there’s a launch night on Wednesday (22nd June) from 5pm-7pm which everyone is welcome to come along to.

Can’t wait to see you all there, see how the prints look on the wall and hear what people have to say! Have a look at some of the pictures below to see some of the preparations 🙂

Just a reminder: head on over to the press section of the website to download some resources to help you cover the project/exhibition for your publication.

One of the small sets of prints, featuring macro close-ups of watches from Jonathan David

The stacks of small prints, there's about 350 of them! Not sure how many will make it into the final exhibition....

The bigger prints, portraits in A4 and some of the architecture shots in A5

Box of leaflets which arrived this morning...

Beautiful Moo cards..... although it's incredibly hard to part with these!

xx

Spillers Saturday Sessions No. 7: H Hawkline

Hard to believe that 7 weeks have gone by since the first Spillers Saturday session, but here we are. Yesterday’s affair was another mellow session, with most people sitting on the floor to take in the beautiful tunes of H Hawkline, without his band. You’ll have to imagine them, if you like.

As usual, not many words – just straight on to the pictures. Enjoy! Next week: Meilir.

Saswa: Gorgeous gifts, jewellery and something a little bit special in the Royal Arcade

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I popped into the gorgeous little Saswa shop in the Royal Arcade last week to have a chat with one of the owners, Liam, and to drool over the beautiful jewellery on display… and I suppose to take a few snaps too while I was at it.

Liam is a bit of an arcade veteran, having worked in it for over 15 years. Starting off in Cameraland just a couple of doors away, he joined Saswa a few years ago. The shop was set up in 2001 by Yashira, who gives it her name. Well sort of, it comes from her little brother being unable to say her name properly.

The shop originally sold hippy type stuff but the owners found it wasn’t really working for them and changed to the gift/jewellery/general niceness route after a little while. Today the shop stocks great worldwide and local brands while also sourcing unique pieces that you won’t find anywhere else.

Next time you’re looking for a little trinket or two for a present (or for yourself!) I’d advise you to pop in, there’s a great selection and I’ll certainly be heading there when I want something a little bit unusual (necklaces with real flowers in anyone?).

Before I ramble on too much, make sure you check out the Saswa website to find more information about the shop and its stock and enjoy the pictures below, and there’s a few more over at this Flickr set. As always, comments, feedback and suggestions very much welcome.

Exhibition preparations: business cards and leaflets ordered!

Please excuse me a little self indulgent post right now… but I’ve finally ordered my business cards and leaflets to promote the project and accompany the upcoming exhibition at Big Little City.

If for some reason, you’d like a copy of the leaflet electronically, head on over to the press section of the website where you can download a copy. In the press section you’ll also find a selection of low-res photos for use on blogs/websites to promote the project.

I hope you like the leaflet design, look out for a real hard copy that you can hold in your hands very soon!

Oh and obviously, leaflets aren’t free to produce, so if you’d like to help out with this project financially, every contribution, no matter what size, is very well received. Find out more here.

Big thanks to Tomasz Ronda for helping me out with the design!

Seren Boutique – fabulous clothes and a hidden gem upstairs…

Last week I had the pleasure of spending a couple of hours in the lovely Seren Boutique over in the Morgan Arcade.

A beautiful shop run by Linda, the business originally started over in Tenby but was brought over to Cardiff a few years ago as the trade in Tenby was a little bit too seasonal. Before starting her clothing shop, Linda had been a myriad of things including teacher – something she shares in common with fellow clothes-shop owner Frederique from Rouge, who just so happened to be in the shop having a chat when I popped in – it’s a real sense of community round here.

The clothes themselves are sourced from all over the place but you’ll generally only find one or two of each design in the shop, and, pleasingly, it’s not as expensive as you might think for a small boutique like this. They do a good trade at this kind of year for things like wedding outfits and prom dresses, but there’s lots of gorgeous little bits and pieces that I reckon it’s well worth a visit no matter what the weather.

I’m a bit of a magpie when it comes to jewellery, and this was no exception, I loved some of the gorgeous trinkets on display – I’m only sad I don’t have more money to splash out on this kind of stuff more often. Still, it’s a great place to pop in for something small even if you’re a bit short of cash for a whole outfit.

Whenever I see a set of stairs in an arcade shop, I tend to dash up there pretty quick to try and get an aerial shot of the shop. But upstairs in this shop is something rather special. Linda told me that I had to check it out, and what I found was fascinating. Basically, the upstairs (which is sometimes used as a – giant – changing room if the main one is in use) has been left untouched for over 100 years. What does that leave you with, original peeling paint and what must make for a fantastic portrait backdrop. Indeed it seems lots of art students and photographers like to use the space for their work – I’ll be tempted to pop back one day myself for just such a purpose.

So next time you’re in town, probably shopping at St David’s, why not have a quick diversion to Seren, it’s pretty close to the Hayes entrance of the Morgan Arcade, you never know what special little find you might discover… enjoy the pics, as always, feedback, comments etc very much welcome.

Spillers Saturday Sessions No.6: Martyn Joseph

I don’t think I’ve seen Big Little City quite so packed as for today’s performance by Martyn Joseph. Roars of applause and cheering rippled through the weird acoustics of the exhibition space as once again people sat down, stood up and gathered around to enjoy another free performance courtesy of the Spillers Saturday Sessions.

As always, I won’t bother with too many words. Just enjoy the pictures.

And find out more about Martyn on the Martyn Joseph website. And obviously, you can buy his albums at Spillers.

Oh and we’re now officially halfway through the Spillers Saturday Sessions run… unbelievable!

Wide angle deliciousness from the Royal and Morgan Arcade.

One of my absolute tip-top favourite things about the arcades is the stunning architecture. When you look up something magical happens. It’s a real wow moment, and I still get it even after seeing them probably thousands of times. I took some photos in the Morgan Arcade a few months back when it was dark. They were pretty good, but when the sun is shining and the sky is blue, a whole other dimension comes alive.

Just gorgeous.

I don’t need many words to introduce this post. Just enjoy the photos.

Feedback welcome!

And don’t forget to check out these other wide-angle photos:

High Street Arcade
Castle Arcade
Morgan Arcade