Month: March 2011

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A bit of luxury on Women`s Day

Hey,

This will be a short update. We really had a tiring day. But it was worth it.

As you know, 8th of March is an International Women`s Day. This year it was a double celebration as Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras) happened on the same day.

Photo by Mal

So to honour these two important occassions, we did some crazy and sweet stuff. First of all, a big thank you goes to Charlene of Soap Cafe. She really helped us to prepare some magnificent gifts for our female friends. And luxurious at that. Heart shaped body lotions with glitter. Hand made, vegan and 100% organic. Named “Diva”. Beautifully packed with a gift card. We were able to suprise our friends and they loved the gifts to pieces.

Hey, after all what are friends for? To be spoiled (a little bit). 🙂      

If you are unsure where to go if you need to get an unique present, seriously Soap Cafe is the best place. And we do not say that because we had our works showcased there. We say that, because we can always count on Charlene and her amazing skills.

Charlene will be participating in the Patches Market on 13th of March in Valletta so if you feel like meeting her and seeing what she has to offer, we encourage you to do so.

Here`s how the gifts looked like:

Photo by Mal, product by Soap Cafe

Another gorgeous thing done today: we got a big bag of assorted sweets to the office and delivered it on all three floors. Everthing was eaten by the end of the day and everyone was content. A perfect farewell to the Carnival season. As usual we had a blast, nothing cheers you up on a cold (and windy day) like chocolate. Tested and approved.

In the end we want to send our warm wishes to all the girls, women, ladies and grannies out there. You are splendid, all of you, you make half of the world`s population and seeing how many of you went out today to demand what is rightfully yours, made us so proud to be females. This small polaroid below  is for you.

Digital polaroid by Mal

 

Happy Women`s Day wherever and whoever you are.

 

Love
Mal+ Rita

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Of Valentines and cyber punk

Another day, another update at the blog.

Today we want to share two series of digital polaroids with you. One was created for an office party. The other is not yet finished, it will be growing a bit in the coming days but we want to present it anyway. The series is called Attica.

Both Rita and I hate boredom. The routine is creative minds` biggest enemy. Thats why, we are always trying to change our surroundings, we look for something new, we don`t wait for things to come our way – we make them happen. It is maybe unusual but believe us, life is so much better that way. It is the good time and good memories that count.

Photo by Mal

Disturbing office life in a posivite manner is one of the things that we do. Mal works for Igaming company, people come to the same place everyday, spend their nine hours there and head home. Nothing wrong with that but it doesn`t take that much to actually have a really wonderful atmosphere at the workplace. You need a proof? On Chinese New Year, Mal brought real dumplings and shared with her colleagues. She made them with a help of her friend Lily. Just a small plate of dumplings and suddenly everybody felt different. Sometime later another colleague came with home made pancakes while somebody else bought pizzas for everybody on the shift.

Photo by Mal

This Valentine`s Mal decided to bring a party to the office. After all it is really sad to be working on such an important day. Plus in February two years have passed since Mal joined the company. So there was a reason to celebrate.

To have a real tea party, we needed teas and cakes. And good ones! Thankfully, we know exactly where to get the most amazing sweets on the island. Busy Bee in Msida is known as one of the oldest coffe houses in Malta and they produce quality cakes, sweets, chocolates. So we visited the shop and agreed that we would get two gateaux: almond cake with amaretto and pavlova and dark chocolate with profiterols. Sounds heavenly? We told you that Busy Bee produces amazing things and they taste just as they look. We couldnt help ourselves and we took a shot of each cake as a memento. They now illustrate this blog entry.

Photo by Mal

 

To go with the cakes, we needed a good selection of teas. Things got a little complicated here because tastes are diifferent. We did a brainstorming session and settled on fair trade herbal teas. We decided to have three different types: Jasmine/Green Tea, Bluberry and Oolong and White Tea with Pomegranate.

Impressive menu one must admit. Mal took the cakes to the office on 14th of February and watched her colleagues amazement. Obviously the cakes got eaten immediately, while teas lasted for a while. The day ended on a really nice note with people joking, recalling stories of their past Valentines and being simply happy. Many people actually mentioned that it was the best Valentines Day they had in a while. And Mal agrees. It was just perfect.

Photo by Mal

And as any artist Mal celebrated Valentines preparing a digital polaroid for the ocassion.

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We know how to party, but our usual day is not cakes and suprises. It`s rather hard work on two fronts. We both have our day time jobs and we try to balance it with our creative projects. Sometimes you have so little time for working on something artistic that you keep the ideas written in a notebook and you can only do some partial illustration to it.

 
 

Photo by Mal, concept by Rita

 

This is a case with Attica. Memorial Attica is a building and a very important place in a large universe that Rita and I created some ten years ago. It is a classical cyber punk environment set in the years 2050 – 2090 in Tokyo. We have so many plots inside this universe that it would be impossible to mention them all here. Hopefully with time we will be able to close this saga and perhaps release it in a form of books or online comics.

Photo by Mal, concept by Rita

Within the cyber punk universe,  Memorial Attica is the control center run by Peter Boyle – very influencial and resourceful business man/politician/innovator. It is a fortress that holds both offices for Boyle`s Research Network Foundation and his living quarters. It towers over the Tokyo skyline.

Photo by Mal, concept by Rita

If we have a spare while, we return to this universe and try to close the loop holes. Recently Mal realized that she had taken many shots of the Portomaso Tower and tried turn them into polaroids. Just to visualize how Memorial Attica would look like. It was the best choice for reference, as we dont have that many modern skyscrappers. For those who dont know, Portomaso Tower is based in St. Julians in Malta and is the highest building on the island at 22 floors. Memorial Attica as we see it, would be much taller with some 120 floors (yes it is in the far future and it is a part of a futuristic metropolis) but we did those polaroids to see how Attica`s character would be. We think Portomaso Tower did a great job at pretending to be something its not. But please judge for yourself.

Photo by Mal, concept by Rita

Attica series is in progress so in the future we may return to it to present some more reference/character ideas. But so far we are quite content. Those polaroids are both dark and futuristic. They have this sense of danger and fear and mystery about them. And that is exactly what cyber punk is all about.

We`ll see you later.

Mal+R.

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Soap Cafe

Welcome back.

 
 

Photo by Mal

 

February passed so quickly that we didn’t even have a chance to update the blog once. But then again, we had so much work that our days should have 48 hours. Just to give you an example: short story written (now awaiting Rita`s drawning to be finalized), t-shirt designs done, a ton of new digital polaroids made, a Valentine Day party organized at the office, a collaboration for poems/lyrics is underway, attended a conference about leadership and a concert (the same day!) and we have been having a try at window dressing. And that combined with daytime work, running house chords and sleeping. Uff….

Photo by Mal

Multitasking seems to be our middle name. Over next few days we will be posting the stuff done in the last 28 days. So stay tuned.

Masks by Rita Dabrowicz

Today, we want to tell you about our small project done in collaboration with Charlene Mercieca. She`s an artist, soap maker, manager, organizer of workshops and owner of Soap Cafe shop in Malta. We have no idea how so much talent can be squeezed into a small body, but believe us, once you meet Charlene in person, you will be amazed. Beside running a unique business, Charlene is optimistc and incredibly friendly. Everyone visiting Soap Cafe is welcomed with a glass of tea and you can spend hours chatting and looking through a large selection of soaps, body products, teas, spices, jewellery and other gifts.

Photo by Mal

Photo by Mal

Photo by Mal

If you want to see for yourself, please visit the link below:

http://soapcafemalta.com/

Soap Cafe opened in December 2009. It speclializes in hand made soaps and free trade products. Charlene uses only local products (to reduce carbon footprint and to ensure top quality of ingredients) so everything is vegan and you can be sure that no animal or other being was hurt in the process. No bad stuff also goes into the sopas so your skin wont suffer. Charlene believes that beauty and health goes together so at Soap Cafe you may also find hand made scarfs and jewellery, a wide selection of fair trade teas, spices and olive oil.

Photo by Mal

Photo by Mal

Photo by Mal

Her soaps and bath salts are incredibly creative – she can make anything from rosees to a muffin and sushi. In just over a year her establishment became recognized to the point that somebody tries to eliminate Soap Cafe from the market. We dont want to dwell on the topic and give those cowards a free publicity, but that included reporting her to authorities and getting her Facebook profile banned. So far Charlene is fighting with a grace of a Jedi knight and we hope that she will become victorious in the end.

Photo by Mal

We have known Charlene for over a year and always admired her approach to life. She is so full of energy. So when she expressed her desire to host other artists in her shop, we knew we`d love to collaborate with her. Thats how the Carnival project was born.

Photo by Mal

A while ago, Rita produced masks made from pape mache and hand painted them. We thought it would be a great idea to display them in the window at Soap Cafe, creating an unique exposition just in time for Carnival. Charlene agreed and last week we meet up at the shop to bring some Mardi Gras spirit to Malta. It took about 2 hours to position the masks and to create the display.

Photo by Mal

Photo by Mal

Charlene also decided to make a special soap named Carnivale for the ocassion and to decorate it as a traditional Maltese sweet Prinjolata. This exclusive item is to be sold only during the carnival period, so you better hurry and visit the shop to get yourself a piece before it sells out.

Photo by Mal

Rita reserved herself first piece on the spot.

Photo by Mal

Mal as a photographer was running around with a camera taking photos. We hope that you like this little project. We hoped to create something new and hopefully we will see other establishments following and coming up with creative and artistic window displays.

We will write again asap.

So far its good night from us and kudos from Charlene.

R+M+C