Category: Tel Aviv

Art · Crafting · Design · Tel Aviv · Uncategorized

Life on Mars

Posted on by Marilyn Ambach

Welcome to Life on Mars. My creative world. What a wonderful world of hobbies: cooking, knitting, sewing, scrap-booking and even some weird freaky hobbies involving witches and miniatures. So besides being overwhelmed I tried to focus on what I’d like to do with all this material. Here’s something I bought:

And here’s the result; what I made with it, the “life on Mars colored pouches collection”

or in details:

And now I just need to sell them and make room for the arrival of a very special sewing machine from Australia, to be continued….

Art · Design · Fashion · Lifestyle · Music · Tel Aviv · Uncategorized

F . A . D . T . L . V .

Posted on by Marilyn Ambach

Israel’s second city and cultural and commercial capital, Tel Aviv was named “The Mediterranean Capital of Cool” by the New York Times. It’s a city that makes you feel alive. It’s constantly changing, moving, developing itself. Only a 100 years old (which is young for a city) and still, so much to be done. Luckily we have a lot of entrepreneurs here bringing in the things a city needs to sustain its adjective “hip”. The hippest thing in Tel Aviv lately is called F.A.D. It is a 30-day curated pop-up shop of limited edition fashion, art and design.FAD2 fadd15 fadd14 fadd13 fadd8 fadd9

Created by Design Space* and Shoplifters**, this creative space is a multidisciplinary art project featuring all sorts of creative fields. A refined 1000 sqm space dedicated to Design / Contemporary Art / Fashion / Books / Music / Technology / Lectures and much more. From clothing to Art and Design, from flower shop to coffee shop, looking for products from israeli creatives, while browsing the library of magazine and art books. All aesthetic grounds are covered, from classics, to creations by young israeli designers, these girls are are precise collection fed by emotions and creativity. The space is hosting 40 industrial designers, and  18 contemporary artists – from Israel and abroad.

There will be special events including an exclusive private Wallpaper evening. In short: if you’re hip and you’re in Tel Aviv, you’ll visit F.A.D. Whether you shop till you drop, get inspired, do your nails, read a book, drink, eat, “mingle” or just be amazed and look around. Thank you girls – Nitsan, Anat, Gilat, Salome and Emmy.

Come visit: F.A.D. –  Elfassy street 15 – Everyday: 11h-21h, Friday: 10h-18h

Photography Solal Fakiel. High production.

*about Design Space: Design Space was established in 2010 to encourage artistic innovation and provide a platform for progressive art of all media, featuring both emerging and established artists’ work. The Gallery is presenting various fields of design, ranging from furniture and industrial products to diverse art exhibitions of newcomer artists and designers. Through collaborations with various creative sectors, Design Space produces projects and initiatives, extending its vision internationally.
As a gallery, design space organizes solo, collective, and group exhibitions, alongside presenting special projects and events conceived by outside curators.

**about Shoplifters: Unique conceptual Fashion Events – Aesthetic chaos

my photos:

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Tel Aviv

A day in Tel Aviv

Posted on by Marilyn Ambach

Is there a better way to start your day than with a fresh fruit juice? My favorite combination is banana, melon and dates, but it sounds better to say it in Hebrew: “banana, melon, tamar”. Dates come from the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) and they have been a staple food of the Middle East for thousands of years. Dates provide a wide range of essential nutrients, and are a very good source of dietary potassium. The sugar content of ripe dates is about 80%, or in other words, a perfect substitute for sugar. My juice in one hand, blackberry and Ipod-touch in the other (do you wonder how I manage that? Well, both have broken screens from falling), I go on to my next step: textile searching.

It’s only recently that I found myself interested in or should I say passionate for creating, crafting and D.I.Y. My latest? Sewing. I started a sewing class, ‘borrowed’ a real old-school Singer sewing machine and started discovering another yet amazing world. So I walk to Nahalat Benyamin Street, the textile center of the city, only a few minutes from my house on Rothschild Boulevard. This historic street was established even before Tel Aviv was born in 1909. Formerly a run-down province of the textile and haberdashery trade, recent years have seen it redeveloped and rejuvenated as a busy pedestrianized precinct full of fashionable cafes and arty shops. Today I’m looking for denim-like textile for a shirt for the next class, but as I discover a tiny store with so many colors and fabrics, I of course end up buying more. In my head it goes like this: here, this fits for pyjama pants, this for a scarf, this for a pillow, this for the inside of a pouch and so on.

Later today, after procrastinating for months, endless repeats in to-do lists and phone reminders AND one car ticket too many, I will get to the municipality for some parking stuff  (do you guys have Easy-park in Antwerp?). The Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality (http://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/english) is really very active, efficient, young, involved and hip. Today there is some art on the stairway.

No way I’m taking my car there, so there are 2 choices left: my bike or the “monit sherut”. FYI: my bike is a Belgian bike of over 35 years that I brought with me when I moved here in 2007. My mom used to ride it with me in the back. It’s an old school bike and people stop me in the street to ask me where I bought this retro cool bicycle. A “monit sherut” is a share taxi that falls between a taxi and a bus. Sherut meaning service, these yellow vans follow fixed bus routes and you can stop them anywhere. Payment is done by passing money to the driver in a “human chain” formed by the passengers seated before. The change (and the receipt, when requested) are returned to the person who paid by the same means.

As this being my first blog and just a fragment of my life and of this day, how do I end it? I’ll just share my last ritual of the day: my favorite Yogi tea in my favorite cup.

“Layla Tov” dear readers – meaning sweet dreams in Hebrew…

              Marilyn

 

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv… tell a vibe

Posted on by Marilyn Ambach

Together with about half the world’s population, I wake up excited for one of many morning rituals: coffee. Where? Which? How? With whom? And if you can add something sweet: lamalo (lamalo meaning ‘why not’ in Hebrew).

It’s been over a year since I quit smoking and I’ve developed this          pseudo-need for sweet. I used to not even like chocolate, and  now I feel this urge for sweet taste in the mouth. So my favorite pastry of the moment: chocolate yeast cake. Doesn’t sound as good as it tastes and no it’s not a fungus. In Yiddish it’s called Babka, for all of those with Yiddish skills. Even Martha Stewart has a recipe for it, but it’s not the easiest to bake: http://www.marthastewart.com/312994/chocolate-babka

My favorite Tel Avivi coffee place of the moment is called Ben Ami (www.benami.co.il) and it’s very well located. First of all it’s a two-minute walk from my home. It’s located on a junction of 3 streets: Nahmani Street, Melchett Street and Montefiore Street. What’s in the middle? King Albert Square and yes it is named after our Belgian king that came to visit in the early 20th century. The view from the cafe is on one of Tel Aviv’s finest buildings and it’s called the Pagoda. Built in 1925, it is one of the most typical constructions of the eclectic style, combining oriental and occidental motives. It was originally built for a rich textile negotiator from New York called David Moshe Bloch. The architect, Alexander Levi, originally from Berlin arrived in Palestine in the twenties but went back to Germany in 1927 and died in Auschwitz in 1942. No one really knows if someone is living there, but it’s very well maintained. Rumor has it, it’s owned by a Swedish jewish family that owns Puma.

When wondering what it is that I and so many others like so much about Tel Aviv, there are many answers. How can we describe this vibe to those who never came to visit? To those who don’t get to see this side of Israel in their media? Enter my blog! Tel Aviv gets so many adjectives; it’s young, vibrant, happening, cool, hip, in, hot, fresh but why? Some say it is because it’s the city of contrasts, clashes and paradoxes. The mixture of old versus new. Orthodox versus secular. East versus West. Europe versus USA versus Middle East. Tradition versus innovation. A synagogue versus a gay bar. An old colonial house versus a Philippe Starck tower. It’s this clash that gives the city its surprising and slightly uneven gait.

Let’s keep blogging and unravel the secrets of my dear city. Till later, Marilyn