We, too, think home is one of the best places to drink coffee
We love coffee shops. We can’t think of a much better way to pass the time than working on our latest project over a fine single estate brew or browsing a magazine with a Flat White. However, sometimes there’s no place like home.
Over the past year and a bit, we’ve taught hundreds of people how to make better coffee at home at Coffee School and supplied many of you home coffee-making kit. So we were delighted to take the team at Stylist through a range of home coffee-making options for their recent coffee feature.
If you want to make better coffee at home, enrol in Coffee School or talk to us about the best equipment for you at home.
You can read the article at: www.stylist.co.uk/life/recipes/how-to-create-the-perfect-cup-of-coffee
Coffeesmiths Art: ‘Tales of the Faether’ by Gretchen Jacobsen
Gretchen Jacobsen’s whimsical illustrations imbue endemic New Zealand birds with the stuff of fairy tales and legends
‘Tales of the Faether ’ by Gretchen Jacobsen
Department of Coffee and Social Affairs
3 May – 13 June 2012
Taking a liberty with fairy tales and legends of old, illustrator Gretchen Jacobsen has concocted a new series of stories that reconsider Northern Hemisphere folklore in the context of a land once ruled by birds. The characters that emerge are whimsical and yet recognisable, inspiring a new round of migratory story-telling.
“I grew up on a large farm that was settled by my Scandinavian great-grand parents in Aotearoa, The Land of the Long White Cloud: New Zealand. An isolated island where, before humans arrived, no mammal lived - birds reigned. Birds who, left to evolve over millions of years without mammal predators, grew into unique species of all sizes and imaginings, many of them flightless, ground-nesting and fearless.
Among them were giants that stood 12 feet high and the world’s largest raptor to have ever lived. In 1770, European explorers were forced to anchor their ship eight miles off the coast of this island, so the deafening sound of the birdsong didn’t keep them awake. The naturalist on this ship wrote that ‘Their voices were certainly the [most] melodious wild musick I have ever heard, almost imitating small bells but with the most tuneable silver sound imaginable.’ Since mammals stepped foot onto this magical land, 42 per cent of its terrestrial birds have been lost to extinction.”[1]
Jacobsen’s deft pencil and ink illustrations demonstrate not only the enduring power of fairy tales but also the richness that exists in picturing the past, which at times involves imagining the unimaginable. Rather than just acting out a role these newly-born avian ancestors are the embodiment of their assigned human narratives. The Tui, one of New Zealand’s most strikingly beautiful birds whose song is distinct and varied for having two voice boxes, flourishes in her role as Siren to a flightless Kiwi Ulysses.
Jacoben’s humourous and insightful visions make all the more pertinent the devastation and loss of a sentient bird society.
Gretchen Jacobsen gained a Bachelor of Media Arts with a Fine Art Painting and Illustration major at WINTEC, New Zealand. Namesake of the ‘Jane Doe’ or ‘everywoman’ character deeply rooted in German fairy tales, Gretchen lives and works in London. To view more of her work visit gretchenjacobsen.blogspot.com
The easiest way to stay informed about Coffeesmiths Art exhibitions is to sign up for our Art Updates.
[1] Taken from Joseph Banks’ diary, noted 6 February 1770, aboard Captain Cook’s ship the Endeavour.