#SISTERMAG24
SWEET PA P E R
TA P E T E : SISTER-MAG.COM COLE & SON
2
LETTER FROM THEA
Dear readers, the first months of 2016 have passed quickly. Behind the scenes, our team has been working tirelessly on numerous projects like the second issue of our very own travel and shopping magazine Dearsouvenir and the relaunch of both the Dearsouvenir and Lebenlang websites. The topic of this 24th issue couldn’t be further from an online magazine: paper. We didn’t only consider this common item as raw material but wanted to know more about its function and structure in our everyday lives. For a long time, money made from paper was the real deal but is now, like so many things, being replaced by digital transactions. The motherland of all paper for us was Japan as many friends and contributors visited the insular state in our name and brought back beautiful pictures, memories and paper.To read more about their adventures, click (here ). This issue’s cover also shows off a special kind of paper: wallpaper, complemented by articles about hand made paper and printing paper. Our model Anna
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SISTERMAG 24 | 05 / 2016
is a true social media queen from Pinterest and Dawanda and one of our oldest german blogger friends. We tamed her blonde curls into an Amber Valleta Style, removed the glasses and ta-dah: one of the most charming covers of all time! Throughout this issue, you will find plenty of wallpaper patterns, generously supplied by the lovely company Cole & Son! After all the previous projects, it seems the appropriate time for food: this issue is all about reducing sugar intakes with dark chocolate (here ). Our partner Alpro also contributed lots to this topic, more information about cutting out sugar from your life can be found (here ). Another important part of #sisterMAG24 was the colour dark blue. Our new friends over at ZALON, the curated online shopping service by Zalando, let me test their service. Want to know which outfit I ended up choosing? Click here to see my stylist’s choice. Cristopher Santos also took new team pictures for us (on the right hand side) as our team keeps growing steadily! Katja joined us as content manager for Lebenlang as Laura joined me and Sandra in organising this sisterMAG issue. Sandra also took care of our youngest publication Dearsouvenir to publish this brilliant second issue (see here ). Sadly, we have to say goodbye to our interns Nina and Zoe who have become an important part of our team as we welcome Lydia into the COP-family, who will support our content team. A lovely, warm May from all of us, enjoy the issue and we’re looking forward to your feedback!
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COP TEAM C R E AT I O N
THEA Chief Editor & Design
EVI Fashion
MARIE Design & Produktion
O P E R AT I O N S
NADINE Operations
SANDRA Content Management
LAURA Content Management
MARKETING
TONI Marketing & Finance
LUISA Marketing & PR
ZOE Marketing
PA R T N E R S
LY D I A Content Management
NINA Content Management
ALEX Sales
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14 TREND: MATTE LIPS Maybelline shows a new IT Look every month
16 TREND SPOTLIGHT: CANDY COMPANY
S IL K PA P E R 24 BEAUTY PAPER Delicate paper with a surprising power
26 MANUFACTURER SPOTLIGHT Interview with Embacollage
32 CURATED SHOPPING
178
The sisterMAG Special about ZALON
80 LETS GO TO JAPAN! 88 JAPAN PAPER: THE ALLROUND TALENT
94 THE PAPER WORLD Best paper shops in Paris, Tokyo & Berlin
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108 VEGAN FOOD SCENE IN TOKYO Blogger Angie Li takes us with her
122 THE BLUE MAGIC OF SHIBORI The wonderful dyeing technique from Japan
I L L U S T R AT I O N : MOUNI FEDDAG
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B I T T E RS W E E T 130 THE SWEET SIN: SUGAR What is sugar? And where is it hidden? The Cultural History of sugar
144 FINDING THE BALANCE Less sugar with our partner ALPRO Interview with the Alpro expert Clean Treats with our Food Blogger experts
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Sugar Balance Plan with The Tasty K and Alpro
170 BITTER AND SWEET – THE BIG SISTERMAG CHOCOLATE FEATURE Maybe the most chocolate history of the world A fair thing – Fair Trade stories around the idea of chocolate Chocolate recipes from Karin Klammer
206 TAKE YOUR PICA: WHEN PEOPLE DEVELOP AN APPETITE FOR PAPER
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PAPER S TACK 216 FASHION AND WALLPAPER Patterned fashion in front of coloured wallpapers: Designs from Evi Neubauer
226 THE COMEBACK OF THE WALLPAPER The best wallpaper trends for your homes, put together from Sophia Schillik
236 PAPERMAKING What you have to know all around the making of paper from Birgit Franz
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246 DESK TO SUCCESS Paper Artist Ines Koudis
256 TENSILE TESTING The sisterMAG guide to paper and printers
262 DESK TO SUCCESS Paper Artist Rogan Brown
272 DIY PAPERMAKING for beautiful results
286 THE HISTORY OF CALLIGRAPHY Between blood pressure, handiwork and art – The development of Western calligraphy
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296 SHOW ME YOUR WRITING The teaching of graphology, discovered by Marion Sendker
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S W E E T & S MA RT 312 CASHLESS SOCIETY The History of Money: A Future without cash?
318 STARTUP SPOTLIGHT: ORDERBIRD
324 DESK TO SUCCESS Sissel Hansen from Startup Guide
334 SHOW ME YOUR GLASSES Glasses shops online: VIU, YUN, Vasuma & Specs Berlin
356 DELICATE GLASSES IN PASTEL Style Shoot from Tabea Mathern
366 STARTUP SPOTLIGHT: POST COLLECTIVE
PA RT NE RS You can find our partner features by noticing the logo on the right page of every promo. Thanks to the partners who enable us to publish sisterMAG regularly for you.
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#24 CONTRIBUTORS OH HEDWIG FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
DAS COVER PHOTOS Oh Hedwig HAIR & MAKEUP Franziska Dominick MODEL Anna Neumann OUTFIT Evi Neubauer WA L L PA P E R S Cole & Son
SISTER-MAG.COM
When Saskia wrote to us a few weeks ago we were immediately impressed with her portfolio and the atmospheric pictures on Instagram. In no time she helped us with various shootings for Dearsouvenir and the poster for »NACHTSCHICHT « (will you visit us on 3rd June?). And of course the s isterMAG cover – we are looking forward to many more shoots!
MAËLLE RAJOELISOLO Illustrator
We do not often have the pleasure to actually meet our international contributors for coffee. During a short trip to Paris we managed to get coffee with Maelle, who we've worked with for the first time in this issue. She is the illustrator behind the wonderful Alpro girls!
KIRSTEN KAMINSKY FOOD BLOGGER
Actually Kirsten wrote us because of a posting of Lebenlang. However we found Kirsten to be just perfect for our Sugar Balance plan with Alpro. Her recipes for the plan come in an exotic look!
TEXT Birgit Franz marketingundtext.info
ILLUSTRATION & LAYOUT
Natascha Safarik tintenfuchs.net
Theresa Neubauer @thneu
Thomas Gorski airteam.camera
Sophia Schillik cucinapiccina.de
Marie Darme @maridam_
Elisa von Hof Xing Profil
Marion Sendker @lamaridda
Dana Lungmuss hello-danane.de
Alexander Kords kords.net
Jette Virdi jettevirdi.com
Katharina Kraatz katharinakocht.com
sisterMAG Team Alex Sutter Thea Neubauer Antonia Sutter Nadine Steinmetz Laura Glabbatz Nina Förster Zoe Blechschmitt Maureen Schneider
Angie Li @angie_lcc Sarah Nitschke Xing Profil Christine Pechatschek rosarothochzeiten.com
Mathilde Schliebe schlie.be Maelle Rajoelisolo maelle-rajoelisolo.com
TRANSLATION Tanja Timmer @tanjastweets
Carl Richter Xing Profil
Alex Kords kords.net Christian Naethler @iamvolta
STYLING Rosa Biazzo rosabiazzo.com Hürriyet Bulan botanic-art.de Ruth Fredershausen ruthfredershausen.jimdo.com
Saskia Hilgenberg saskiahilgenberg.de Evi Neubauer Pinterest Profil Nina Thielen mijune.de
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Ira Häussler @goldblackandi Zoe Blechschmitt @znaomib Marion Sendker Katrin Greyer SISTERMAG 24 | 05 / 2016
PHOTOGRAPHY
PROOF
Saskia Bauermeister ohhedwig.com
Stefanie Kießling @KiesslingS
Rogan Brown roganbrown.com
Alexander Kords kords.net
Christiane Hübner renna-deluxe.de
Amie McCracken amiemccracken.com
Andrea Indrich indrichfotografie.at
Christian Naethler @iamvolta
Karin Klammer kklammer.at
FOOD Nadine Burck dreierlei-liebelei.de Deniz Fiçicioglu fructopia.de Sara Heinen lovenonpareille.com Kirstin Kaminsky thetastyk.com
Ira Häussler @goldblackandi
Sarah Timplan allesundanderes.de
VIDEOS
HAIR & MAKEUP
Tabea Mathern tabeamathern.de Helena Melikov melikov.de Zoë Noble zoenoble.com Cristopher Santos cristophersantos.com
Claus Kuhlmann clauskuhlmann.de Lucas Milhomem
Franziska Dominick franziskadominick.de Patricia Heck patriciaheck.de
MODELS Karin Grüttner innenaussen.com Annette Höldrich ladyofstyle.com
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Anna Neumann annasterntaler.blogspot.com Ricarda Nieswandt 23qmstil.de
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Claudia Steinlein glamupyourlifestyle.com
#24 DOWNLOADS PATTERNS
24/1 – Silk top with flowers
24/2 – Checke- 24/3 – Checkered 24/4 – White red, long pants pyjama blouse pants with wide waistband
24/5 – White silk shirt
#SUGAR BALANCE WITH ALPRO
Clean Treats from Clean Treats from Clean Treats from 3-Day Sugar BaLove Non Pareille Dreierlei Liebelei Fructopia lance Plan from The Tasty K
BITTERSWEET
Hearty Chocolate Sauce
SISTERMAG TESTING
Pumpernickel Sandwiches
Chocolate Truffles
Chocolate Avocado Mousse
(ALLES UND ANDERES
)
Italian noodles Three kinds of dips Strawberry salad rhubarb cheese cake
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EDITORIAL
One new it look every month Maybelline bring the most current trends from
New
York
to
you.
This
month:
matte and colourful lips. A statement for everyone who has an exciting life, power woman and supergirl simultaneously. The right choice for everyone who wants to underline their personality. That's why Maybelline New York has created an ItLook that goes with this trend. "Live It Vivid" combines matte lips with a simple eye makeup (including WOW brows). More inspiration and step-by-step you can find at: maybelline.de/itlooks. How do you interpret this It-Look? Show it using these hashtags:
#liveitvivid #mnymakeithappen
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CANDY COMPANY SISTER-MAG.COM
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EDITORIAL
T REND S P O T L I G H T CANDY COMPANY BRANCH
Interior Design
INTRODUCION
Candy Company is a furniture conLOCATION FOUNDER
LOGO
Leipzig
fectionery
designing
individual
Kirstin Overbeck, Benjamin Hein, Willi Mölller und Jonathan Geffen
fashion. We design and manu-
collector's items in a sugar-sweet facture the liquorice in the workshop of our design office “etage8” in Leipzig. Our office is located in the creative hub of the wallpaper factory (»Tapetenwerk«), not far from the old cotton-spinning mill. Distributing the Candy-Collection, we sell our lovingly created unique pieces, inspired by the childlike enthusiasm for sweets.
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Furniture, we carry out service contracts in the field of product and industrial design as well. ORDINARY WORKING DAY
Our days are usually very packed and our work takes place mainly in front of the computer, so we always look forward to being productive in the workshop. Apart from that, we are keen on holding our meetings outside or playing a game of darts every now and then to get a clear mind. YOUR PRODUCTS ARE MORE THAN JUST SPECIAL: WHO IS
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH
RESPONSIBLE FOR THE
THE IDEA TO SELL »SWEET
DESIGN?
FURNITURE«?
The idea has developed from a study project on the subject »coppered clever«
and has gained great
popularity at various exhibitions, so that we finally wanted to bring the furniture to the market after
Kirstin is in charge of designing the furniture; she has probably the biggest sweet tooth of us all. As a true expert in the field of confectionery, she would never run out of ideas. WOULD YOU TELL US WHAT
graduating from university.
YOU A RE CURRENTLY WORKING ON?
HOW MANY PEOPLE WORK FOR YOUR COMPANY?
At the moment, we are preparing
Currently, we are four people at the
for the launch of specific pastel
company. Next to the production
tables, inspired by ice-lollies and a
and distribution of our Candy-
coffee table with a Toffifee surface.
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EDITORIAL
We want your mouth to start watering in the living room — that would fit perfectly with the magical summer feeling. Moreover, we are working on a furniture brand for aesthetic auxiliary furniture named Mormor. That type of work covers a whole different field, but it displays our
generalist
formation
and
reflects our social responsibility as designers. WHAT IS THE MOST IMPOR TANT TO YOU REGARDING YOUR PRODUCTS?
We do not want to make a kitschy, scaled copy of already existing sweets, but we aim to incorporate individual elements with recognition value into the draft of a furniture. We work mainly with wood, because we like the way wood feels, how it smells and we enjoy simply the processing of it. IS THERE CURRENTLY A CER
Kirstin Overbeck, Benjamin Hein, Willi Mölller und Jonathan Geffen
TAIN, IMPORTANT TREND FOR YOU IN YOUR INDUSTRY?
Regardless
of
the
Candy-
CandyCoDesign
candycompanydes
happy simply because it makes
@candycompany_ design
because they are furnished with
INSTAGR AM
Furniture, which makes people them think of their childhood and
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sweets, we as a design office deem the development of products regarding the demographic change as an exciting and necessary field. Therefore, that trend is important and necessary to us. WHAT ROLE DO TRENDS PL AY IN YOUR WORK?
They are rather secondary, because basically, we want to develop independent products which are able to outlive trends. Of course, we keep ourselves updated about current trends in colours and materials.
WHAT ARE YOUR TOP TRENDS OF THE CURRENT YEAR?
Natural materials combined with pastel tones, a retro approach and targeted specific highlights in bright yellow — since this applies exactly to our furniture and especially the new tables. Apart from that, we think that copper, brass, cork and velvet will stay with us for a little while. WHAT ARE YOUR GOAL S FOR THE UPCOMING TWO YEARS?
With our two different furniture
INSPIR ATION?
brands,
We always keep our eyes open and try to pay attention to every detail in our environment. Moreover, there are many flea markets in Leipzig which gives us the wonderful opportunity to be inspired by the breath of decades.
established in the market, grow
SISTER-MAG.COM
we
want
to
become
further and keep enjoying our jobs.
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WEBSITE
www.candy-collection.de
EDITORIAL
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Silk paper
Thinnest
Paper
with a big effect MAC Blot Film Best for men and women: create matte skin without powder
You can do it with paper! Most recent developments have seen paper transform into a versatile beauty essential. The space-saving product can be used as blush, foundation, bronzer and blotting paper. The true miracle: your skin will look just as fresh and new as the delicate paper itself. Try it yourself and be prepared to fall in love!
SISTER-MAG.COM
Tatcha Aburatorigami Japanese Beauty Paper A beauty paper made from abaka and gold flakes for matte, even skin
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SILK
PAPER
Blush Paper Make your face look fresh and sunkissed within seconds with the blush and bronzing papers from Mai Couture.
Catrice Blush-to-Go Great for on the go: use these blush papers for a glowing comlpexion
Bobbi Brown Blotting Paper Absorb sweat and oils with the Bobbi Brown blotting papers
Dr. Jart+ Pore Minimalist Black Charcoal Sheet Mask A black paper mask that diminishes pores and clears out the skin
Scented paper for your wardrobe A different kind of paper to put in you wardrobe. For fresh smelling clothes all the time!
Paper Mask from Lululun These masks may look slightly creepy but the wondrous product by Japanese maufacturer Lululun will make your face feel softer than ever before
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In the paper issue of our sisterMAG we want to introduce you to some interesting companies and shops. One of our most recent discoveries is ÂťEmbacollageÂŤ, which is a Danish retailer for packaging material. A beautiful website, where we always find great products for events or postal shipping. Following you can find an interview with the German team, which is based in Hamburg.
Paper paradise SISTER-MAG.COM
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SILK
PAPER
Please tell us, in a few words, who you are and what you do For more than 10 years now Embacollage  has stood for typically Scandinavian, high-quality design in packaging. For two years the Danish company has been successfully trading in Germany from its newly founded branch offices in Hamburg. What kind of product range do you cover and what makes your packaging solutions special? Our portfolio is made up of a wide range of standard assortments of innovative packaging like gift wrapping, gift boxes and gift bags; it covers everything from paper bags to silk paper, magnetic collapsible boxes, cotton and felt totes and ribbons. We have a special focus on customized products which we produce for international brands and companies, especially brands in the area of fashion and interior for large chains, corporations and retail clients. Our packaging has that certain Scandinavian
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From Paper boxes to carrying bags: Embacollage are all high quality products and well conceived practicality
SISTERMAG 24 | 05 / 2016
something« represented in many small details in both print and design which makes it unique. hat does the production process look W like? Let’s take one of your paper bags as an example; can you walk us through the different phases? We produce all products according to the customer’s specifications, so it’s hard to describe a general exemplary process. The customer selects the desired size, area density, colour value etc. and our graphics team creates a suitable layout including logo, colour perception and pattern. Once the layout has been approved, samples and colour-proofs are produced and the actual production begins. Special tools and presses are made for each order to ensure the correct size of the bag, and the exact placement of the logo and slogans to be printed on it. How do you cooperate with your customers? Are they actively involved in the production process? The customer is part of the design process and we develop the bags together. They are not present at the actual production process, however. You are originally from Scandinavia but also have offices in Hamburg, right?
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WRAPPING PAPER
SILK
PAPER
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Where do you produce your products – in both countries? Our headquarters are in Denmark, located north of Copenhagen, and for two years we’ve also had offices in Hamburg, Germany. Our sales people visit our clients all over Germany. Consultations, creation, graphics etc., everything is combined under one roof. We cooperate with production partners all over the world. Depending on the desired product and material these locations can vary. Your Website suggests that you are all about incorporating current trends. What are some trends in packaging right now and how are these reflected in your products? Mesh bags and totes are very in right now. The material has mainly been used in the fashion industry; it’s what the lining of your tennis bottoms are made of. :) Our graphics team in Denmark scout the entire globe for inspiration and new ideas that make it all the way into our product catalogue. here do you find inspiration for a new W line? Our design team is constantly scouring any and all channels related to topics like fashion & lifestyle and interior design. Inspiration also
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SILK
PAPER
comes from window shopping and the second nature »style check on the road.« What is your typical working day like? Every day is a diverse mixture of product presentations for clients or at a showroom, inquiries and calculations, telephone consultations, briefings and the creation of scribbles for confirmed orders for the graphics team; and much more. I n your opinion what sets you apart from your competition? What makes our packaging special is that it just has »that certain Scandinavian something« represented in many small details in both print and design. For example a small »add on« like a pendant on a tote ,or hot-foil embossing for a bold statement, or a truly special combination of colours in a print pattern with matching corded ribbon handles.
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PROMO
T E X T : Thea Neubauer F O T O S : Cris Santos
C U R A T E D INTRODUCTION & SELF EXPERIMENT
SISTER-MAG.COM
S H O P P I N G 32
SILK
PAPER
The fashion grouch, the workaholic, the openminded shopper looking for something new – »curated shopping platforms," or online style consultancies, have identified many different target groups. For several years now these services have been popping up all around us, with the occasional neat box and tied bow appearing on advertising posters or respective pictures finding their way into our Instagram feed. What is these services’ unique selling point? Who’s behind the idea and what exactly can we expect from it? sisterMAG has decided to find out and investigated the phenomenon of cardboard boxes being shipped all over Germany containing outfits for both men and women.
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SISTERMAG 23 | 02 / 2016
THE BEGINNINGS Like so many ideas, this one, too, comes to us from North America, where pioneers like Trunk Club (for men) and Stich Fix (for women), Frank & Oak (Montreal, Canada) or Shoedadfzzle (El Segundo, California, USA) have revolutionized the long-established structures of the retail industry. A keen sense of style isn’t necessarily most startup founders’ strongest suit – just think of Mark Zuckerberg’s hoodies and the array of t-shirts and worn-out jeans worn by titans of the new tech industry. Fashion and technology, however, have been indivisible for years now. Frank & Oak’s successful ecommerce models were just one important milestone. They produce every single item themselves and none of them cost in excess of $50; with a new collection out every month, subscribers receive their men’s magazine with their box and just select their desired items. While men of the older generation are likely to stock up on a year’s worth of their trusted style of pants should they find themselves at the mall, the generation of 20 to 35-year-old male customers is much harder to please. Frank & Oak CEO Ethan Song explains in an interview how a "once-a-year-shop at which you spend $2,000 on clothes is out of date. Nowadays, customers want to mix and match brands and find their own individual combinations. Fashion and clothes are consumed in much the same way as information and media: in bite-sized portions." SISTER-MAG.COM
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SILK
PAPER
T H E U S E O F P E R S O N A L / C U R AT E D S H O P P I N G
Have you ever used a personal-shoppping-service before? *
W
n Yes - more than once n Yes- only once n No - but it's interesting n No - I am not interested OM M n No - I am not EN EN interested in fashion n No - I have never purchased fashion online Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long promise of a personal consultancy for this new way of shopping to and an individual service. Services make its way across the Atlantic like ZALON (our partner for this Ocean to Europe. The first sisterMAG issue, which is why services for men in Germany we are taking an extra close were the online shops Outfittery look at them) also offer personal and Modomoto. In 2014, Zalando telephone consultations. The joined the movement with their underlying business model is the ZALON service and also extended main way by which the individual the target group to include women. service brands distinguish The Berlin-based start-up Kisura themselves from one another. exclusively targets women. Some of the services introduced in this issue employ internal stylists while others, like ZALON, rely on external consultants who come H OW D O E S I T from a variety of backgrounds WO R K ? beyond their careers as online fashion consultants – you will find One aspect all curated shopping anything from a stage designer to services have in common is their proprietors of their own fashion boutiques. * Quelle: GfK-Umfrage im Auftrag der OUTFITTERY GmbH, 08/2015
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SISTERMAG 24 | 05 / 2016
PROMO
WHY DO WE NEED ONLINE-SHOPPING? An obvious answer to this question can be found in the claims the different service providers use to promote their offer. But the people who can tell you what it’s really all about are the ones behind the outfits. We have talked in depth to the freelance stylists while researching the story for our big ZALON self-experiment – and of course we have asked them about the 'why', too. Rosa Biazzo explained to us how »curated shopping is just a great way to be inspired by professionals. I think most people aim for a high-quality wardrobe that is at least a little stylish. But many people don’t have the time or patience to learn about fashion, lines, proportions and colours; and many simply don’t care all that much. And that’s no problem: everybody has their own individual talents and interests! It’s the same as me going to the baker in the morning to buy my rolls instead of baking them myself. Access to people who can help you – because you are looking for guidance in what happens to be their passion and expertise – is one of the great advantages of specialised societies such as ours. The services of stylists and personal shoppers, however, are something that is still only made use of very discretely. Over here, anyway – in the U.S. the situation is very different. Many customers feel like everybody is expected to know what suits them best and works for their type. Asking someone for help in these matters on this side of SISTER-MAG.COM
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From sporty looks to #Girlboss ensembles for business meetings: Tell our stylist the occaison and they will pick the perfect outfit! (Fotos: IG @ zalon_by_zalando ) the pond is seen as an admission of weakness and incapacity.« Stylist Nina Thielen added another aspect to this reasoning, which has to do less with keeping your stylist a secret but is more about not being able to afford a personal style consultant: »For the longest time a stylist was a luxury only celebrities and wellto-do business people could afford – individual style consultants that work for curated shopping platforms like ZALON have made the services of a stylists affordable for everyone! Someone who will help you find the perfect outfit for any occasion from the huge range on offer. Not only does this save the shopper a lot of time in searching for the right item to wear, it also guarantees new and fresh impulses that make great additions to an existing wardrobe. A wide network of different freelance stylists also ensures that all styles are covered.« More about the stylists and their motivation on the following pages!
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PROMO
F O T O S : Cris Santos
Ăœ B E R B L I C K
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for more information watch our stop-motion VIDEO
The name »Zalon« invokes the Berlin of the 1920s. This was the time when fashion changed from a sign of your membership of a certain class to an expression of your individual style. The salon was the epicentre of the social life: it was the place where dandies and flappers would meet to discuss art, politics, music – and of course fashion. More importantly, though, they wore the newest styles at the salon to impress their friends and make their mark.
NAME
ZALON sees itself in just this tradition: Stylists showcase their current trends, create images, ideas and vision, and help other people dress more fashionably. In this sense Zalon is the contemporary »salon«! The name ZALON is an embodiment of just this vision and it reminds us of Berlin's times gone by. Also, the »Z« alludes to the parent company Zalando, which adds recognition value.
THE SERVICE IS FREE! 39
HOW IT WORKS:
SHOW ZALON YOUR STYLE
YOUR STYLIST CHOOSES
TRY IT ON AT HOME
FOUND IT: THE PERFECT LOOK SISTERMAG 24 | 05 / 2016
PROMO
Video: CL AUS KUHLMANN Handmodel: EMILY G. Production: THEA NEUBAUER Illustration: MARIE DARME
Our first full-time stop-motion video! When I told our videographer via Whatsapp about my plan, he was really confident and said, »We can do this.« We are really in love with the final result, because it shows exactly how to use SISTER-MAG.COM
BEHIND THE S
#styledbyzal
the Zalon service. It was a lot of work, though. All of Zalon's clothing was recreated out of paper by the designer, Marie. Emily, the hand model, had to move her hands really slowly in and out of the frame for hours. Because it's very different to "normal" videos, Claus had to carefully put frame after frame together. We hope you will watch the video and try Zalon yourself. We even set up a promotion code for you (DEZALONSISTERMAG)*!
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SCENES
lon
* Promotion code = 15% sale. Valid until end of July 2016 41
SISTERMAG 24 | 05 / 2016
PROMO
MY SELF EXPERIMENT T H E A’ S Z A L O N PAC K AG E
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I have to admit I am something of a tough customer for a fashion consultancy. I have been interested in fashion since my early childhood and have my mum to fall back on who sews bespoke designer items for me and my sister. But I am still eager to try out the service and happily commit to this experiment with our sisterMAG partner, ZALON. Parallel to this self-experiment, my Content Manager, Laura, and I are also organizing the photo shoot with our bloggers (see page 48) which gives us further insight into the ZALON processes.
package handling are not going to be an issue. That’s incredibly reassuring. One of the very first questions on the online form has me pondering for a good few minutes: Am I »playful,« »elegant,« or »minimalist?« Well, probably not the latter (judging by my colourful mix-andmatch outfits), so I decide to click on two of the pictures displayed hoping that the stylist will draw the right conclusions when I describe myself as both »playful« and »elegant.«
My favourite fact: ZALON is not a call centre with bored account advisors at the other end of the line. ZALON secures the services of more than 200 freelance stylists for their customers who create individual looks from the entire Zalando range. It’s such a great advantage to be backed by the German online retailer. The Zalando portfolio is huge, and you also know that returns and
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playful?
elegant?
SISTERMAG 24 | 05 / 2016
PROMO
I further select my age, my favourite brands, the medium by which I want to get in touch with my stylist (either by phone or by filling out an online survey and ordering my first box at the end of it) and I´m shown three styles from which to choose. Pinterest boards help further determine the desired style and I opt for a blonde in her midtwenties.
FASHION EXPERTS
I like the fact that I can finish the entire ordering process online because talking on the phone is not one of my favourite pastimes.
Experienced style experts create a perfectly individualised look for you.
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PERSONAL CONSULTATION
The stylist is always there for you and responds to your individual wishes. You can also talk to your stylist about your ideas on the phone.
So I continue to answer many more questions on my preferences concerning pants, jackets, tops and shoes. I feel I should have used the commentary function more than I did, because at the end I found myself equipped with quite a few peplum tops. Not quite what I would have chosen myself but that’s why I
have decided to try ZALON – to be inspired. A couple of days after finishing the online form I get to review the box my personal stylist has compiled online and have the chance to ditch pieces (plus give a short reason why I did) before they are sent. The final version of my box has a blue pattern, a handle (nice detail), and contains four tops, one skirt and two pants, one dress, one waistcoat and one pair
ZALANDO SERVICE
The usual Zalando service: Take what you like and send the rest back. Consultation and shipping included.
I pick the option to order my box right after filling in the questionnaire.
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PROMO
Inside the box is a style card including all the items I purchased together with a personal message.
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My favourite: the spotted heels by 46 Dune.
OUTFIT 1: white blouse (Liebeskind), suede skirt (Dorothy Perkins), pumps (Dune)
of court shoes. It also comes with a short personal message from my personal stylist and a blue ribbon on top. I get to try on everything in the comfort OUTFIT 2: striped top (Mint & Berry), of my own home: the shoes are great jeans (Levis), (albeit a bit high for every day) and pumps (Dune) their colour goes with just about Try it out with our code: everything. The pink suede skirt is a properDEZALONSISTERMAG (15%) surprise; I would never have picked it for myself but I like it a lot better than I thought I would. The mom jeans go back because they got the thumbs down from my boyfriend – too baggy ;) On the whole, this is a really well thought through service and my expectations have been met fully: I have been sent several items I would never have ordered myself! Now I’d be interested to hear about your experiences. We have created a promotional code for you (DEZALONSISTERMAG). If you decide to try out the service we would love to see a picture of your box (#styled_by_zalon). 47
OUTFIT 3: Poppiedress (Wallis), shoes and belt (private)
OUTFIT 4: yellow top (mint & berry), white pants, pumps (Dune) SISTERMAG 24 | 05 / 2016
PROMO
B L O G G E R
M E E T
The big ZALON style shoot photography: ZoĂŤ Noble Cris Santos styling (MUH): Patricia Heck
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Our feature wouldn't have been complete if we wouldn't have asked some testers for their opinion. Thus we looked for some bloggers from the sisterMAG network who tried ZALON themselves. In our office four different bloggers met their stylist in person and we want to show you the results, plus talk a little more about the participants.
S T Y L I S T
WHO'S WHO … »I am excited to see if my stylist understands my style, but also chooses pieces I love that I wouldn't have gone for myself!«
Annette
Lady Of Style
Claudia
Glam Up Your Lifest yle
Karin
Innen und Außen
Ricarda
Ruth
Nina
Rosa
23qm Stil
Saskia
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PROMO
ANNETTE
RUTH
»The confidence and experience of the stylists are excellent!« AN N E T T E
Fotos: Cris Santos
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ANNETTE 53, from South Bavaria. She has two children, a son who is 23 and studies business administration in Bayreuth, and a daughter who is 21 and studies fashion communication and promotion in London. During the day, she has her »real« job as a head secretary and travel manager at NATO, but uses every free minute for her »second full-time job« as a fashion and style blogger for women over 40 with the name »Lady Of Style« . "My activities are completely different, which is why they keep me balanced! Also, I mostly deal with men in uniforms in my job, whereas my blog aims for women that I want to inspire with my style." In both cases, I like the international work environment and the worldwide contacts.
experimental "Interestingly enough, the older I got, the more open I became! In earlier days, I would never have worn the style mix I mentioned before. Today, I like to combine a leather jacket with a dress or an elegant blouse with leather leggings." "I like to wear a feminine and elegant style that I individually combine with trendy and cool pieces.
this really makes you look old! I think that what’s »appropriate« doesn’t depend on age – even over 50 – but on the occasion."
Next to a sloppy and colourless style, there's nothing I dislike more than a lady-like style. A style like
my style 51
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PROMO
F O T O S : Cris Santos
Stylist
Ruth Fredershausen
favourite piece
dream piece favourite brand
favourite colour combo it-piece for spring SISTER-MAG.COM
definitely the classic striped shirt. I like to have it in different versions. It’s not very original, but it’s forever: a Birkin bag! There are a lot of great brands and designers. I’m inspired by Sacai, Stella Jean, Dries van Noten and, most recently, Gucci. beige, gray, nude My individual it-piece: my classic trench with snake print
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»After I saw my stylist had checked her profile and Pinterest boards, I had the feeling, »That fits perfectly!«. I loved her displayed favourites and was super exited what she would pick for me.« A N N E T T E ABOUT RUTH
RUTH has lot of experience in working as a stylist for fashion and advertising customers. She found the offering of Zalon by chance, shortly after the launch in May 2015. Since June 2015, she has been working as a freelancer for Zalon. Outside of her job as a stylist, she runs a label for a machine embroidery called SCHNABEL. She designes and produces individually embroidered products and embroideries. You can use the whole range of products of Zalando. How do you get along with that? Experience and filters. If you work with the range on an everyday basis, it doesn’t feel so vast anymore. Also, we can filter it for different criteria like colour, size, price.
I like it to be casual, individual, minimalistic, classic and, in summer, a little boho. I also like them all together since I love stylistic inconsistencies!
What does your styling process look like? How do you choose outfits? First of all, I visualize my customer and their wishes based on the information I have. Then I start with a "key piece" and use it to put together the outfit. Adding shoes and accessories is normally my last step.
With curated shopping, I like most that I advise so many different people. If you are open to it, it’s a lot of fun!
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PROMO
Outfit 1
»My evening look is a dream! Ruth asked me what I would love to wear but never did before: Marlene pants!«
Evening-look
AN N E T T E
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I really liked my daily look, and the style would have fit, though I already owned some similar pieces and the colours were a little too modest. But I absolutely wanted to keep the white and sleeveless blouse in wrap look (I love everything wrapped!) that was recommended! That’s why I asked for some alternatives – which all hit the bull’s eye. A dark blue wrap dress with a classic blazer in matching
Outfit 2 Day-look
Outfit 3 colours, small 7/8 pants in dark blue with big white dots, and dark blue pumps.
Day-look
It can all be combined and is perfect for me! I work with high-level visitors every day, and an appropriate look is important for me – not stiff, conservative or boring, but representative and feminine.
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PROMO
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ROSA Fotos: Zoë Noble
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KARIN
KARIN, 34 years old and from Stuttgart. She is self-employed, travels a lot, and loves the impressions she takes from different places and people. Her blog is called »Innen und Außen« My style is a mixture of elegant every day basics and a slightly sporty trend piece, combined with several accessories. Fashionable but comfortable shoes are important to me since airports can be really big.
Tried it yet? I was styled in a large premium department store once. It was exciting but I didn’t buy anything.
When I buy clothes I remain faithful to my favourite colours and subtly integrate a hot trend piece. I really have to like it a lot to add it to my wardrobe.
Open to experiments? »I wish that my stylist is able to enthuse me for the hottest trends without dressing me up.« KARIN
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PROMO
F O T O S : Cris Santos
Stylist
Rosa Biazzo
favourite piece of clothing dream piece favorite brand absolute no-go 2016 favourite colour-combo it-piece for spring SISTER-MAG.COM
That changes frequently; at the moment it’s my extra long knit jacket A beautiful haute couture dress by Dolce & Gabbana Elisabetta Franchi, at the moment Now and forever: boleros Yellow–nude; white–silver, turquoise–white–yellow
culotte
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My style is labelled by stylistic inconsistencies. I believe that this is what makes fashion really exciting – surprising, but harmonious and wearable at the same time. Also, courage is a big issue for me.
ROSA works as a fashion designer, stylist and personal shopper. She has been with Zalon from the start. "I only styled employees of Zalando within the first week. That was fun, although we had some minor slipups. When the site ultimately went online, everything was perfect."
Clothes are not made to hide behind, but to emphasize personality and to feel good. Every day I try to dress so I can get out of the house and feel great. It always looks different and depends on many factors like the weather, the occasion, or my mood.
As a stylist, she works together with photographers, and they realize creative visions as a team. She likes to amaze the viewer of the photos and draw them into the dream worlds they create. As a personal shopper, she helps her customers find their style or refine it.
You can use the whole range of products of Zalando. How do you manage such a huge amount of choice? That’s really a challenge but also an advantage since we can put together very individual outfits that match both the body form and asking price of the customer. The many filters that you can use while shopping on the Zalando site are a great help. 61
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PROMO
»The complete outfit was a sensation from top to bottom. I would have put every piece into my shopping bag – but only after hours of search, offline or online. I'll definitely order my next desired outfit: a dress for being a wedding guest. I’m already looking forward to it.« KARIN
Outfit 1
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The biggest advantage of an online-curated shopping? I can order while sitting on my couch without clicking through the online shop for hours or having an idea what I actually look for. It was gloriously uncomplicated. The obligatory data I had to give in order to inform my stylist is so extensive that nothing could go wrong. I like the
Outfit 2
Outfit 3
possibility to talk to my stylist over the phone. A personal conversation helps both sides to find the perfect outfit.
I wanted a stylish and slightly summery outfit for a get-together with colleagues – casual but also a little bit elegant.
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PROMO
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CLAUDIA
PROMO
NINA
»Even if I’m over 50, I like to dress fashionably. Fashion is ageless.« CLAUDIA
Fotos: Zoë Noble
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CLAUDIA is 52 years old and works in a logistics company. For almost four years she has been running a fashion and lifestyle blog for women over 40: »Glam Up Your Lifestyle« . Fashion has always been an important issue in her life and she loves to live out this passion with her blog. Although it's quite time consuming, she really enjoys its developement and the many people she has met through her blog so far.
My style I would describe my style as ›easy chic‹. Simple, uncomplicated, but with a chic touch. I like my style to be minimalistic and want to be dressed well without great effort. Even if I’m over 50, I like to dress fashionably. Fashion is ageless.
Tried it yet?
Expectations
I already tested an online style counselling for my blog. It was exciting for me to see how that worked online. When I’m in a store, I rarely look for advice.
I expect that my Zalon stylist helps me look for an outfit for a certain occasion so I can save myself from looking in stores and online shops.
Maybe because I assume that the saleswoman is not a trained style advisor?!
It would be nice if my stylist would surprise me with a piece of clothing that I would never have chosen myself because she could better imagine that it would suit me.
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PROMO
F O T O S : Cris Santos
Stylist
Nina Thielen
favourite piece of clothing
dream piece favourite brand absolute no-go 2016 favourite colour-combo it-piece for spring
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At the moment, it’s definitely my pale pink Vans Sk8 HI I always wanted a Constance bag by Hermès, but will I ever be able to afford it? I don’t have one – if i fall in love with it, it’s secondary for me which label it’s from. Last: the vast amount of space leggings black and white, combined with neon pink mirrored sunglasses and a great blouson
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NINA is a trained trend researcher with an education in tailoring ladies’ clothes. In 2010, she started the company VON JUNE with her childhood friend Rebekka Dornhege Reyes. They’ve been working as stylists for magazines like ‘Cosmopolitan’, ‘Myself’ and ‘Zeit Magazin’ Their label, MIJUNE , is the first free project they started with VON JUNE. They are especially inspired by distant countries and beaches where they collect a lot of ideas, as well as materials. Since May 2015, she has been working for Zalon by Zalando as a freelance stylist.
My style? Minimalistic, sporty, fresh and puristic – I like uncomplicated and straight cuts. Pieces that you throw over and that look like being dressed, without a big fuss! Always combined with an individual highlight, which could be a loud colour or a conspicuous accessory, like one of our TUK MI bags by MIJUNE.
"I was excited about how I could integrate the online style advice into my other projects. In theory, I can work wherever I have peace, WiFi and a computer – very practical for a person like me who gives in to wanderlust time and again."
» I always try to add some pieces that get my customers out of their comfort zone and give them new impulses. « NINA
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PROMO
»I wanted an uncomplicated office outfit that would also go well with a date. The red coat wouldn’t have been on my personal list, so it’s great that the stylist chose this beautiful piece. The coat is fantastic!!«
»My outfit matched my taste perfectly!«
CLAUDIA
Outfit 1
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The handling of the Zalon process was quite easy. I was able to choose many ideas and criteria – even things I don’t like at all. The contact with the stylist was uncomplicated. She asked the right questions in order to find out more about my wishes. The fitting of the different outfits was fun. And I wanted to keep them all.
Outfit 2 Outfit 3
In some online shops the selection is too big for me and the browsing takes too much time. A stylist can selectively find my desired pieces. When I need a new outfit for a special occasion, it saves a lot of time to let a stylist put together the outfit.
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PROMO
UN BO XI NG SISTER-MAG.COM
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RICARDA Fotos: Cris Santos SISTER-MAG.COM
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RICARDA, 44 years old, married, a mother of three children, blogger »23qm Stil« and content creator. A regular day for her looks similar to the life of many other working mothers – but after she gets the family ready to go, she sits down at her desk in her home office to work on content for her blog, organize workshops and conferences for BLOGST, or create content for other publications. The evening belongs to the family again. Since she travels a lot, her everyday routine can of course look very different as well. My Style? Casual, minimal, natural.
Open to experiments? Unfortunately I’m not that experimental; I prefer to stick with my style and brands that I’m familiar with. It’s too bad, though I find it difficult to step outside of my comfort zone.
I enjoy shopping online, but I also like to shop with friends. Since we’re all working, it’s difficult to find time to organize a shopping excursion or seek advice. For me, the advantage in ZALON lies in the consultation, selection,
and development of my style. I think it’s great that you’re able to have a personal conversation with a stylist – perhaps it will encourage people to be more open about trying something new.
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Why ZALON? SISTERMAG 24 | 05 / 2016
PROMO
Stylist
Saskia Hilgenberg
dream piece
favourite brand
favourite colour combo
it-piece for spring SISTER-MAG.COM
Sometimes I think about designer handbags, but nowhere near often enough to take the plunge and make an investment. I am very spontaneous when it comes to buying new things. I couldn’t decide on one. I really love small French labels like Valentine Gauthier and American retro, but also German classics like jeans by Closed and lala berlin. Of course, my wedding dress was by Kaviar Gauche. So many! Classic would be navy and red, or a bit more daring: mustard and cobalt blue. But the list goes on and on. Shoulder free blouses.
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SASKIA is from Berlin and studied business economics at TU Berlin. She worked for several advertising agencies and did pretty much everything from lifestyle to cars. After having her oldest son, she gave birth to twins, which turned her life around. She hadn’t really shared her love for fashion up to that point, so working as a stylist, editor of online shops, and cofounder of mummy-mag.de was a big step. Mummy Mag is a blogazine, although she does publish a printed version (the Mummy Mag Paper). She covers all the beautiful things that come with being a woman and a mum. "A friend of mine told me about Zalon and told me that Zalando wanted to establish a platform for stylists."
The first thing that comes into my head is the word "colourful." Even though I love bright colours, my style is rather casual and chic. I need items that I feel comfortable in and that fit into my very active lifestyle of balancing trips to the playground, meetings and being at home.
What does your styling process look like? First, I focus on what the customer wants. I try to find out what they really need as opposed to just listening to what they think they want to buy. Most of the time this gives us a centre piece, which I then use to curate the rest of the outfit.
ÂťI really like working with people and helping them be the best version of themselves. Styling others is something that comes very natural to me because it combines my love of fashion and working closely with a customer.ÂŤ SASKIA
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Outfit 1
»My favourite outfit was one with wide pants, a basic t-shirt, white sneakers, and a denim jacket because it best suited my style. I can wear this particular combo anywhere – in the office, while travelling, or during a daytime event.«
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Outfit 2
»Every selection could be wonderfully paired together.« RICARDA
It was a lot of fun to talk to Saskia and reflect on my personal style through our conversation. My daily routine is often too timeconstrained to allow for such consideration. It was great to talk about brands, trends, and preferences to determine what I do in fact like and don’t like.
Outfit 3 Aside from one vest, I loved every outfit Saskia selected for me. She found pieces that perfectly complemented my style and made a few choices that encouraged me to try something new. I would have never personally chosen a bomber jacket, but Saskia found a light one from Won Hundred that was an ideal fit. She also chose a black dress with a turtleneck – which I would have never otherwise considered – but won me over with its casual elegance. Try it yourself with out code
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(15%)
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SILK
PAPER
Destination JAPAN
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Impressions from
ZOE NOBLE
PROMO
Photographer, friend & contributor Zoe Noble travelled to Japan in April 2016 and brought back these memories and impressions.
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Japanische
INSTAGRAMMER die im Feed Spaß machen
@_tuck4 Takashi Yasui – Photographer from Tokyo
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@japanloverme Sharing the Worldwide Japan Love #JapanLoverMe
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@hiroz
Photographer in more cities
zzzz
Tokyo and many s worldwide
SILK
PAPER
@nao_cafe_
@kyoko_plus
We have no idea what she is writing about her pictures, but the photos look divine and delicious!
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Wonderful food creations with a bit of Asian charme!
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Impressions from
SUSANNA CORNIANI Born in Italy, Susanna moved to New York and now works as a photographer in Ireland. For sisterMAG she shows her memories from Japan.
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1 - Nakameguro Cherry Blossom, Tokyo 2 - City Tempel Osaka 3 - The National Art Center, Miyake Issey Austellung, Tokio 4 - Detail of the main gate into TĹ?dai-ji Temple, Nara 5 - Worker on the Tsukiji-Markt, Tokio 6 - Ema, (wooden plates on which you can write your wishes and then leave at the shrine for the wishes to come true), Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto
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7 - Komokuten Statute in TĹ?dai-ji Temple, Nara
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SILK
PAPER
Text: Carl Richter
Japan PAPER
The Japanese All-Rounder It is the seventh century A.D. While the mentioning of the word “paper� in Europe still causes bewilderment and perplexity, Buddhist monks from China and Korea have already been working for 700 years on perfecting this extraordinary material. Only a few years later, the secrets of its production would reach the Japanese islands and seal their entry into the Asian competition for the noblest, purest and most durable paper.
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tr ti
PRODUCTION, STEEPED IN TRADITION
While the Japanese papermakers initially only imitated the techniques of their Chinese neighbours the “Japan-paper”, called Washi, would quickly become an independent product, even a specific form of art. Along with the development of a special fabrication technique, the search for new raw materials was important. The scholars of the “White Art” focused in particular on plants with very long fibres, which allowed them to form the characteristics of the paper just as they wished. Even today fibres taken from the bark of the mulberry tree, also known as Kozo, as well as fibres from the Japanese paper shrub Mitsumata, and from the rare Gampi are used for the production of Washi. They furnish the paper with exceptional strength, depending on the proportion, and also with a glossy, or a particularly delicate surface.
tra
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radi ion SILK
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Given their distinct peculiarity, unmixed papers are particularly desired. Having harvested branches and stems, the fibrous bark is peeled and cooked. Then, fresh out of the pan, it goes into the bleaching process.
Traditional lightening takes weeks and is achieved by using only water and sunlight. Since caustic chemicals are largely left out of the production process, the durability of Japanese paper still exceeds the durability of ours, by a lot. The fibres are freed of all impurities and hard spots, which is conducted by laborious manual work under running water – just as it was 1.300 years ago. Through hours of pounding and beating the silk-like fibres turn into a fine mush, called pulp. Mixed with water and the sticky root sap of the Abelmoschus everything is now ready for scooping: Over and over again the papermakers plunge wooden sieves into the aqueous pulp, inducing the fibres to connect.
adi
Pressed and dried under the sun, the finished paper sheets are formed.
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USE
ve we du
The production of Washi is steeped in one thousand years of history.
Initially, only aristocrats and Buddhist scholars used Washi as a medium for writing, but it quickly spread throughout the whole country. From about the 11th century, Japanese papermaking was stylized into a specific art form and the paper was processed with complex design prints and collage techniques. Due to an enormous tensile strength and high aesthetic quality, new application areas have emerged for the use of this paper over the course of time.
ver erďż˝ we enďż˝ It can be folded almost indefinitely without tearing, which is why it is particularly suitable for Origami. Outstanding features like this make Washi a material, inextricably linked to the culture of Japan. You can find it anywhere; used as packaging material, for clothing, as well as a building material.
It can even be found in the form of a translucent
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er� en� ung SILK
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fabric, known as Shoji, which is a form of traditional wall design. Washi has found its way into everyday life, it therefore perfectly reflects the Japanese sense and feeling of beauty.
info WHERE
TO
BUY?
Colourful and multi-coloured Japanese paper for origami is available here: japanwelt.de – bit.ly/1TLb4fC Various types of designer papers, fibre papers or Japanese textured craft papers can be found here:
r� en� Takumi – bit.ly/1q1A87w
Handmade Washi is available here: The Japanese Connection – bit.ly/1TupfTQ
Printable or translucent paper and many more varieties can be found here: The Japanese Connection – bit.ly/1TupfTQ
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BERLIN
PARIS
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Foto: madmoisell.com
A Paper Wo
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TOKYO Three cities and endless possibilities for crafters and creatives! Three experts in Berlin, Paris and Tokyo have put together their favourite spots and shops, where you can really fill up your paper drawer! Who are our experts? Caroline from »Madmoisell« in Berlin, Anne Ditmeyer from »Prêt A Voyager« in Paris and Iwonka with her blog »Toteone« for Tokyo.
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Foto: Susanna Cormiani
orld
SILK
PROMO
Berlin 6
U Senefelder Platz
U Rosenthaler Straße
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Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz
1 2 Oranienburger Straße Weinmeisterstraße
Hackescher Markt
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All Tips for Berlin are by craft blogger Caroline with her Blog »Madmoisell« . Her blog is a massive inspiration for everything around FashionDIYs, interior and presents as well as decor!
1 Luiban
more Pics!
2 Tukadu
I could have spent hours at Luiban; from Japanese paper to masking tape and even oxidizing copper tape, it has everything a stationary lover’s heart desires. Many products at Luiban are produced by hand in Berlin and Japan and are only available in limited quantities – absolutely fascinating for me.
Tukadu is my favourite address for pearls and knick-knacks, a place to find truly unusual jewelry. How about a pair of teddy bear earrings, for example? I always discover small treasures while I’m searching for pearls for jewelry projects and am very easily inspired by the shop’s impressive window displays.
Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 28,
Rosenthaler Str. 46/47,
10178 Berlin
10178 Berlin
Mo-Sa from 12-8 p.m.
Mo-Sa from 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.
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3 RSVP
4 Papier tigre
If you’re into paper crafts, I can definitely recommend at stop at RSVP. The wonderful printed papers, masking tapes and stamps immediately put you in a creative mood. The other day I even discovered fluorescent ink for stamps and masking tape with cat patterns. I really appreciate RSVP for its outstanding materials and friendly service.
Papier Tigre is originally from Paris and can now be found in Berlin Mitte as well. As the name suggests, here you’ll find wonderful paper and notebooks with geometric patterns; I especially admire all of the vibrant colours. You’ll find a cute cafe right next door, in which you can indulge in a coffee with a view of the minimalistically designed shop.
Mulackstraße 14 & 26, 10119 Berlin Mo-Do from 11 a.m. - 19 p.m.
Mulackstraße 32, 10119 Berlin
Fr-Sa from 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Mo-Fr from 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. Sa from 11:30 a.m. - 7:30 p.m.
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Foto: paperama.de
5 Knit Knit
6 Frau Tulpe
I can’t tell you how long I’ve been looking for a hip wool shop until I finally found it at Knit Knit. Right now I’m especially fond of wool in the »chunky« style, which you’ll find in abundance at Knit Knit. You can also partake in several monthly knitting workshops, which is a fantastic opportunity to meet other knitting enthusiasts and motivate each other as a team.
Frau Tulpe is a paradise for the fabric-obsessed like myself since you can’t discover such incredible patterns and colours elsewhere in Berlin. I always used to order brands like Kokka and nani IRO with much effort from Japan, which I can now find in several rooms at Frau Tulpe. From materials by many Japanese and American fabric designers to organic fabrics and fancy sewing accessories, you can really find anything here.
Linienstraße 154, 10115 Berlin Mo-Fr from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sa from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Veteranenstraße 19, 10119 Berlin Mo-Fr from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sa from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
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Paris 2 4
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Anne Ditmeyer with her blog »Prêt A Voyager« is the absolute Paris-expert. All the small parisian shops are her specialty. She even created a "Paris - Small Shops" map, which you can buy here I'ts a small guide to France's main city, that you can find in biggest boulevards, as well as in the smallest side shopping streets.
1 Adeline Klam
2 Slow Galerie
An inviting space that is part Japanese paper shop, craft supplies, and workshop, this is one of the more colorful shops in Paris. Of special note is Adeline Klam’s book on paper flower making. (adelineklam.com ) 54 Boulevard Richard Lenoir 75011 Paris Mo-Sa 11.00 a.m. - 7.00 p.m.
A small gallery in the 11th arrondissement is both a showroom and tea room, with regular openings of featured artists. In addition to selling beautiful work (primarily screenprints), they also have a nice collection of notecards for sale by French artists and illustrators. (slowgalerie.com ) 5 Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 75011 Paris Tue-Sa 11.00 a.m. - 7.30 p.m
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3 Rougier & PlĂŠ
4 Papier tigre
Mega craft store with a few locations around the city. It may not feel uniquely Paris, but it has endless supplies for your creative travels. (rougier-ple.fr )
Stationery isn’t as popular in Paris as one would expect, but the three French designers behind Papier Tigre bring their A-game to beautiful paper goods. In addition to regularly collaborating with various designers, they also have a shop in Berlin. (papiertigre.fr )
108 Boulevard Saint-Germain 75006 Paris Mo-Sa from 9.30 a.m. to 7.00 p.m.
5 Rue des Filles du Calvaire 75003 Paris Mo-Fr from 11.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. Sa from 11.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m.
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5 gibert jeune Primarily a supplier for university text books near Saint Michel in the 6th arrondissement, it’s worth a visit for the school supplies and notebooks, as French notebooks have distinct lines. (gibertjeune.fr ) 10, place Saint-Michel 75006 Paris Mo-Sa from 9.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. 15bis, boulevard Saint-Denis 75002 Paris Mo-Sa from 10.00 a.m. to 7.00 p.m.
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Tokyo
4
3
1
5
2
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Iwonka is a blogger who moved recently to Berlin, after eight years in Tokyo. Her page ÂťToteoneÂŤ covers fashion, new designers, beauty and travel in Japan and the world. We first met her in when she visited our office for her day job in My Little Paris. Her instagram: @toteone .
1 Itoya Ginza
2 Wrapple
Itoya is a paper lover dream come true, over 9th floors, showcasing the finest papers and stationery from Japan and the world. The shop makes bespoke notebooks and cuts paper into required measurements, offers countless options of greeting cards and and over 1600 different types of pens. (www.ito-ya.co.jp )
this new store in Shibuya not only features over 8000 different craft supplies including wrapping papers but also hosts weekly workshops on wrapping techniques by popular Japanese artists. (www.wrapple.jp )
2-7-15 Ginza, Chuo 104-0061, Tokio Mo-Sa from 10.00 a.m. to 7.00 p.m. So from 10.30 a.m to 7.00 p.m.
Shibuya PARCO Department store 15-1 Udagawacho, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan Mo-Sa from 10.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m.
SISTERMAG 24 | 05 / 2016
3 Ozu Washi
4 Isetatsu
In Nihonbashi district you will find Owu Washi the Washi (Japanese traditional paper) shop in Tokyo, that has been operating since 1653, featuring a variety of papers from all over Japan. The best part is that they have a testing station, equipped with various types of papers and ink, so you can try everything out. (www.ozuwashi. net )
A small shop founded in 1864, run by the fifth generation of the family of printmakers. The shop stocks an enormous range of beautiful, brightly patterned Japanese paper, notebooks, letter sets, and traditional prints. It’s speciality is chiyogami: gorgeous, colourful paper made using woodblocks. (www.isetatsu.com
3-6-2 Nihonbashi-honcho Chuo-ku Tokyo, 103-0023 Mo-Sa from 10.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m.
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)
2-18-9 Yanaka TaitĹ?-ku, Tokyo Mo-Sa from 10.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m.
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5 Tokyu Hands A crafts oriented department store, and if you go there you will most likely spend several hours checking countless floors with paper, writing materials, ornaments, stickers, diy ideas, and souvenirs. The shop staff can check on their smartphones and tell you in real time which products are bestsellers and which colours are most popular. (www.tokyuhands.co.jp ) 12-18 Udagawacho Tokyo 150-0042 Mo-Sa from 10.00 a.m. to 20.30 p.m.
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Text & Fotos: Angie Li
VEGAN FOOD SCENE IN
Blogger Angie Li takes us with her
What would be the first thing that springs to your mind when talking about Japanese food? Sushi? Sashimi? Or curry rice with pork cutlet? True, the culture of Japanese food places much emphasis on seafood and meat. Therefore, as a vegan, visiting Japan has always been considered as a challenge. I still remember how terrible my first trip to Tokyo was since I first turned vegan (which was 3 years ago). Even as an Asian, I could not manage to communicate with Japanese people properly. Hence, ordering food at an ordinary restaurant was a pain. At that time, I needed to carry a life-saving sheet of paper with me to ensure that they understand what vegan means. On this sheet, I asked my Japanese friend to write for me a description of food that I cannot eat. So whenever I walked into a restaurant, the first thing I do is to show them this paper. And for most of the
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case, they will just tell me that they could not offer any food to me, even though I pointed at a salad with salmon and asked if they can just take away the salmon. Isn't it weird? When I asked my Japanese friend, she told me the reason why they refused to do so is because they think that it is unfair to the customer, as they had to pay for the same price with a Âťlower qualityÂŤ dish. By that time, you can only get decent vegan food at a few vegetarian restaurants there, which may not be close to where you stay or the places where you visit. Okay, so all these are about three years ago. In February 2016, I visited Tokyo again for the Tokyo Marathon 2016. Given my previous experience, I was quite worried before my trip. So I did lots of research beforehand and what surprised me is that I realized that there is a significant increase in vegan restaurants in Tokyo (yes, vegan, but not barely vegetarian). I was relieved but I still brought along with me the life-saving sheets and tons of energy bars for fear that I did not get enough food for my marathon. To my surprise, during the entire trip, I needed not use the paper at all and all the energy bars remained untouched. I kept stuffing myself with so many delicious vegan food in Tokyo during my stay, and I bought so much food that I needed to carry some back to Hong Kong. For those who are worried about eating healthy in Tokyo, let me assure you with some suggestions and tips below.
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My favorite vegan restaurants in Tokyo:
Pure Café is an eatery attached to the lifestyle salon Aveda located in the Aoyama district, near the Omotesando station. It is one of the oldest vegan restaurants in Tokyo, which opens everyday. It serves not only lunch and dinner, but also breakfast and afternoon tea. In Pure Café, you can find western food such as salads, pastas and sandwiches, incorporating with strong Japanese elements. For example, for breakfast, it provides savory options like salads and bread with tofu cheese and sweet options like the typical granola with soymilk and my favorite muffin with
tofu cream. Pure Café makes the best vegan muffins in Tokyo! The muffins came in different flavors everyday, with my favorite being the caramel nuts with peanut butter. And for lunch, you can choose salads, rice plates and sandwiches. The pickled burdock sandwich, for example, is so flavorful and filling that you will forget it is actually vegan. The crunchiness of the pickled burdock and carrots paired nicely with the soft and fluffy bread.
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To get there, get off at the B3 exit of the Omotesando Metro station, turn left and walk straight until you saw a green building covered with grass. Then, turn right and you will see it.
Address: 5-5-21 Minamiaoyama Minato, Tokyo Opening hours: Everyday | 8:30am–10:30pm (last orders 10 pm ) Website: www.pure-cafe.com
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Similar to Pure Café, Sincere Garden Café is a café located upstairs of a spa and wellness center. It mainly serves Japanese vegan cuisines with some western food choices such as its signature vegan burger. This café also provides takeaway lunch
box specials at a discounted price for people working nearby. One of the most attractive things of this café is that it provides a large variety of vegan desserts, including vegan muffins, caramel nut tarts, apple pie and cheesecake etc.
Address: 1-2F, 3-5-4 Kita-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo Open: Everyday | 11.30am–8pm (last orders 7pm) Website: http://sincere-garden.com/#cafe SISTER-MAG.COM
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Restaurant 8ablish is a newly opened vegan Mediterranean restaurant in Minami-Aoyama. It was opened on December 2015 by the same group of people behind Pure Café. Unlike the above eateries that are more casual, Restaurant 8ablish is more like a fine-dining restaurant.
Every dish is beautifully presented, innovative and carefully designed that you will not find similar things elsewhere in Tokyo. Its signature dishes include the tofu, tempeh and vegetables souvlaki with soy yogurt based tzatziki and affogato with vegan soft serves.
Address: 5-10-17, 2F Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo Open: Lunch 11:00am–4:00pm (l.o. 3:30pm) Dinner 6:00pm–11:30pm (l.o. 10:30pm) (l.o. 9:30pm on every Sunday) Closed on 2nd & 3rd Tuesday Website: http://eightablish.com
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If you are looking for some decent and authentic falafels in Japan, Kuumba du Falafel is definitely your destination. Given that it is located a bit far from the Shibuya station (around 15-minute walk) and without a sign outside its shop, it would be a challenge for tourists to notice this shop. But because of this, together with the interior and vibe, customers get a chance to escape from the hus-
tle and bustle outside, and enjoy the tranquility inside. As shown in the name of this café, it’s not hard to know that it specialized in falafels. You can either choose to have your falafels with pita bread or salads. What’s more, dishes are available at different sizes, catering for people with different appetite. It also provides lunch set everyday which includes a falafel plate and lentil soup.
Address: Me Building.1F 23-1 Shinsen-chou, Shibuya-Ku, Tokyo Open: Lunch 11:30am–2:30pm (Tue to Sat) Dinner: 5:30pm–9:00pm (l.o. 8:30pm) Sunday & Holidays: 11:30am–7:00pm Closed on Mondays Website: http://kuumbainternational.com/ SISTER-MAG.COM
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For those who love artisan food, organic fruits and vegetables, you should spend some time on the Farmer’s Market at the United Nations University. In this market, not only can you find organic and local vegetables, artisan products made by locals, but you can also enjoy some cold-pressed juices, as well as homemade bread there. It is held every Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 4om outside the United Nations University, in the Aoyama district.
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Address: 5-53-70, Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Website: www.farmersmarkets.jp
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Another interesting fact I learned from my Japanese friend is that although Kombucha is gaining more and more popularity in Japan, you can only buy it from the drug stores. The reason behind this is that according to the Japanese laws, any beverages containing alcohol can only be sold at the drug stores and the manufacturer has to pay the alcoholic taxes on this. Therefore, if you wish to buy kombucha in Japan, be prepared that it will be very pricey and difficult to find. Thus, there is a trend of people living in Japan starting to make their own kombucha. There are classes and
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a community there which people are willing to exchange information and ingredients for kombucha making. There is also a newly opened kombucha bar at Asakusa opened by the famous health food instructor Woonin, where people can try out different flavors of kombucha and beverages made with kombucha.
Address: 2-6-7 Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo Website: Facebook page
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TEXT & PHOTOS: Jette Virdi WORKSHOP: Kathryn Davey
Japanese colouring There’s something quite magical that happens when your fingers turn blue with indigo – a sense of connection back to the 8th Century in Japan where Shibori, a technique for creating patterns in dyed cloth by binding, stitching, twisting, folding and compressing, was common and indigo was the main dye used.
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warm Water And so 10 ladies of all ages and interests have turned up on a drizzly rainy Saturday morning to eagerly await the moment we can plunge our hands into the green vat of indigo bubbling away. Kathryn Davey, our delightful and intriguing teacher, has been telling us of her love for this simple yet effective technique that has slowly crept into every part of her life. She has a lovely ease about her, which instantly makes you want her to be your friend. Combined with knowing exactly what she’s talking about, it's pretty inspiring, to say the least. We watch as she mixes warm water with Indigo crystals, soda ash and colour remover. She asks who’d like to stir and I immediately get involved with a hubble bubble approach. As I slowly stir the Indigo vat with a long wooden spoon, we can see the crystals dissolve, the bubbles start to
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form on the top, and the water, quite surprisingly, turns green rather than indigo blue! Leaving our indigo vats to settle, we move across to work stations where all manors of fabrics – cotton, muslin, velvet, linen and more – await us. Kathryn deftly shows us the simplest of folds and we follow in suit. The first round we nervously look around as encouragement is given; some opt for rubber gloves to protect from the deep blue. I, on the other hand, want my fingertips stained. As we lower our folded fabric into the water (so the indigo goes into the cloth properly) and then into the bubbling indigo vat, a flurry of butterflies wash through you. How will the pattern come out? Will it be deep blue or light? And as I found out, that was the beauty of Shibori – you never know. Each piece is unique and special, and quite effortlessly beautiful.
soda
oxygen
Throughout the day, each folded technique increased in difficulty and the patterns became more intricate. It was quite marvelous to share and connect with the group of ladies who came from different backgrounds, some preferring the straight block look of Itajime and others trying Arashi or Storm patterns where
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Indigo fabric is folded, then wound around a pole, tightened, and squished before being wrapped with string. As we hung our fabrics up on the drying lines, we couldn’t help but marvel at our work, each one so different even though we had used the same technique. The light through the window hitting our drying pieces was so beautiful, the green slowly changing to blue. Indigo dying works on oxygenation, which basically means that the blue appears
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Folding fabrics
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due to the fabric hitting oxygen. When you first remove your bound/stitched/twisted fabric from your indigo vat, the fabric is green. And as soon as it hits the air, it slowly starts to turn a deep blue. The deeper the blue, the more times it’s been dipped and left to oxygenate before rinsing in cold water to stop the process. Shibori is one of those things that gets under your skin, and you
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suddenly see endless indigo and white possibilities in every piece of fabric you come across. Chairs seem to call at you to be covered with indigo specks; that old shirt would look so much better in deep indigo, and so the list goes on. If you have a chance, I would highly recommend learning this skill. Although it can seem quite easy to learn, it's really an adventure in patterns waiting to happen. Kathryn hosts a number of workshops and sells all manor of gorgeous Shibori pieces, so do head to her website. www.kathryndavey.com
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Pattern: Cole & Son
Bitter
sweet
THE SWEET SIN
sugar.
DIE SÜSSE SÜNDE
You can’t imagine a life without it: the sugar cube in your coffee, 100 g in your cake, but also the sugar in your chocolate bar or even in your herring salad?
Die Sü
The sisterMAG team looked closer at the phenomena »sugar«. In the upcoming pages sisterMAG is going to give you an overview about this topic and also a little introduction into the cultural history of the »white gold« sugar.
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BITTERSWEET
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I n f o s & Te x t : Katharina Kraatz
Although our idea of sugar usually concerns white crystals in a dish, scientifically speaking the term »sugar« covers all carbohydrates. Their building blocks are the so-called simple sugars: glucose, fructose, galactose, and they’re found in various forms in all plants, as well as in milk. By far the most well known is the disaccharide sucrose, or table sugar, which consists of one molecule of glucose, and one of fructose. Sucrose is isolated during the industrial processing of the sugar cane, which is then converted through many steps into the sweet crystals we use for baking, cooking, or sweetening of drinks.
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BITTERSWEET
intrinsic
VS.
... and lactose
Sugar delivers energy. The simple sugar glucose is often considered the »fuel of cells« since its energy can be received and processed by all cells. In addition to its energy density, it is also often regarded for its »empty calories«. This doesn’t mean that sugar has a low calorie count, but rather that
the
calories
extrinsic
consumed
through industrial sugar contain
no nutritional elements, such as vitamins, minerals or other trace elements. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that you only base 10 per cent – better yet, five per cent – of your daily energy intake on the consumption of added, extrinsic sugars. Too much sugar is considerably damaging to your teeth, and a catalyst for obesity and diseases like Type 2 Diabetes.
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Sugar as an
ENERGY SUPPLIER The WHO differentiates between intrinsic and extrinsic sugars in its recommendation. Intrinsic sugars are those that develop naturally in fruits, vegetables, and milk products. Extrinsic, or free sugars, on the other hand, are all those which are added to food by manufacturers or consumers. Sugar from honey, syrup or fruit juices is considered extrinsic. Is free sugar worse than naturally-occurring sugar? Yes and no. Basically, sugar is sugar since the compounds are the same and there is no difference in how they are metabolized by the body – regardless of whether they come from an apple or refined household sugar.
5 0 g Fr u i t - M u e s l i = 10,9 g sugar = 3,6
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Free, extrinsic sugars increase the energy density and calorie count of food, however, without simultaneously improving its quality. A whole fruit contains intrinsic sugar in addition to essential minerals, trace
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elements, vitamins and especially fiber. A healthy, balanced diet containing lots of fresh fruits and unsweetened drinks won’t be compromised by occasional indulgence in a piece of cake or chocolate, so don’t forgo the pleasure. It becomes problematic when the balance shifts towards a diet that is based on sweet treats with high amounts of added sugar. Obesity and associated health problems result when you don’t burn this sugar through regular exercise.
Breakfast
BITTERSWEET
10 g soluble Cappuccino
An example If you can't miss out on your daily dose of powder-cappochino, you should know that 2 sugar cubes are already included. So you might want to skip your aditional third piece.
6,5 g sugar = 2
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100 g ies b a b jelly
g 0 5
a g u s
r
7 1 =
!!!
It’s getting more problematical as soon as the sugar content increases and sweet opportunities take over. As long as we don’t transform sugar into energy and action, we increase the risk of overweight and other relating diseases.
id i
sweets&snacks
A lot of s ugar is h
ng even
200 g = 26 g sugar
in regular
fru i t -
=7,5
ogh
j
s.
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u rt
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BITTERSWEET
50 g cho col ate
= 29 g sugar = 9,6
In addition to household sugar, which is not unfamiliar to us, there do exist several other alternatives that can sweeten up your life e.g. natural sweeteners like honey, agave syrup, maple syrup or coconut blossom sugar. These sugar forms are quite as sweet as the common (cane) sugar. Also, there exist Stevia products, fructose-free sweetener, artificial sweeteners like aspartame, saccharin or cyclamate (often found in »light« products) or erythritol and xylitol, the so called sugar alcohol.
1 bottle (130 g) fruity smoothie = 17,4 g sugar = 5,8 137
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With a recommended average daily intake of 2,000 kcal for active women, the amount of added sugar consumption should therefore not exceed 25 grams, or five teaspoons, a day. Men, at 2,400 kcal a day, should not consume more than 30 grams, or six teaspoons, of sugar. At 100 grams a day, Germany’s average consumption per capita far exceeds the recommended amount.
hearty dinner? What? There is sug ar in herring salad? 150 g herring salad in Dip-sauce = 26 g sugar = 8,6 SISTER-MAG.COM
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BITTERSWEET
80 g Barbecue sauce = 21,6 g sugar = 7,2
A look at the list of ingredients of a processed product is often revealing. It’s not only the term "sugar" that refers to to added sweetness – any ingredient with a name that ends in "-ose" suggests that it is a type of sugar.
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A short history of
THE SWEET GOLD 8000 BC Sugarcane is discovered in stone age
isation in I l l n ta
dia
7c
The sweetening comes to Europe because of Islamic Expansion
11c
C r y s
Crusade = Sugar comes to the rest of Europe
sing slav a e e cr
ry
16c
Sugar is an ingredient in many of the foods we eat – even some rather unexpected ones. On average every German consumes around 30 kilograms of the sweet commodity each year which can not only lead to obesity, but also tooth decay and unbalanced insulin levels. The World Health Organization-WHO-recommends a maximum intake of 25 grams of sugar per day. Germany, with 131g, clocks in at more than 5 times as much. Why and when did humans have the idea to boost their food with sugar anyway? In the early days of humanity and for many centuries, honey fulfilled the human needs for sweetness quite sufficiently. But then, about 8000 years ago, an adventurous Stone Age man had an outrageous idea: he chewed on a plant. Lo and behold, it tasted sweet! The plant, which we know as cane sugar today, and which only grew in
growing of sugar in tropical areas (colonial times)
in SISTER-MAG.COM
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BITTERSWEET
Text: Alexander Kords
East-Asia at the time, was soon grown with this exact purpose in mind. But its overall importance was limited, for the moment. It wasn’t until the ability to crystalize sugar was developed in India that the topic came back into focus. The Indians used to boil a juice from sugar beets which they would then pour into a conical vessel. A hole at the bottom of the funnel allowed for the non-sugary syrup to drain and leave crystalized sugar inside the vessel. Turning the cone on its head would give you sugar; and even if the yield didn’t quite rival the Sugarloaf in Rio, it is what the Mountain was named for. The conical loaf shape made for easy transport which was soon capitalized upon: Via the early Muslim conquests sugar made its way to the Mediterranean and all the way to Spain in the 7th century.
The crusades of the 11th century carried sugar into the rest of Europe. Like many other new or newly traded products, sugar originally was a luxury and reserved for the haute bourgeoisie, while the common people had to continue to make do with honey. Sugar cane grows best at high temperatures of between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius; so in the 16th century Europeans set up plantations in the tropical regions they had conquered. And since they didn’t fancy doing the tedious and arduous work involved in harvesting and processing the cane themselves, slave trade experienced a shocking boom. Millions of sub-Saharan Africans laboured on the plantations run by European conquerors,and endured the physical burden of satisfying an increasing demand for sugar. The importance sugar had reached at this point can be seen in France’s decision to,
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when faced with the necessity to trade land, preferred to give up Canada than loose the islands of Guadeloupe, St. Lucia and Martinique where sugar cane could be grown. The Netherlands, too, decided to give up what is now the East Coast of the United States in order to capitalize on the tropical climate of their SouthAmerican colony of Suriname. For a long time, sugar cane remained the only source of sugar, but in the 18th century a second source opened up; and we have a man called Andreas Sigismund Marggraf to thank for it. His father ran a pharmacy in Berlin which meant that Marggraf, born in 1709, grew up learning the basics of pharmaceutics and chemistry. Arguably his greatest achievement was proving the high sugar contents in the Mangelwurzel (aka mangel beet) in 1747. Even though Sigismund was well aware of the significance of his discovery he never tried to
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turn a profit from it – he was a true scientist! Instead he focused his attention on determining the iron content of a water source in Berlin. He was able to prove that the water possessed curative powers, and it is largely thanks to him that this part of the city where the source was located still bears the name Gesundbrunnen (German for well of health). Just as an aside. Maggraf let his pupil Franz Carl Achard further the research into sugar. It took him a while, but in 1799 he finally managed to produce sugar from beets. This prompted Frederick William III, the then-King of Prussia, to give Achard a sizeable grant which he used to build the world’s first beet sugar factory in 1802. It was located on the Cunern Estate which today is part of the Polish village of Wińsko. He also grew beet which, at a sugar content of 16%, doubled that of the Mangelwurzel. Only four years
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A. S. Marggraf finds a high percentage of sugar inmangel-wurzel ry o t ac
ip sugar n r f tu
With around 670 million tons a year, Brazil is the most important producer - in some places production conditions haven’t changed all that much since colonial times either. Globally, almost two billion tons of sugar are produced each year, 200 million of which aren’t actually used but discarded. So health aspects aren’t the only angle from which we should consider our relationship with sugar.
18c
1799
F. C. Achard succeeds in winning sugar from turnips
F i r st
later Achard’s factory was burned down in the Napoleonic Wars and when Achard died a poor man in 1821 it was largely unnoted. The Brits had been blocking imports from the Caribbean. Napoleon quickly realised the potential of sugar made from beets and expedited its production. At the beginning of the 20th century it was further aided by industrialization, but despite the rise of sugar beet, around 70% of sugar is still made from sugar cane.
19c
Napoleon supports the production from sugar made from turnips
until today 70% of the raw material is still won from sugarcane
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PROMO
P h o t o s : Cristopher Santos A l l I l l u s t r a t i o n s : Maëlle Rajoelisolo
Finding the
BALANCE At the present time it seems, that food regularly is seen as the total enemy of well-being and a slender figure. Nutrition experts and editors lately recommend to eliminate sugar out of our daily eating habits.
sisterMAG wanted to look closer at the phenomenan »sugar« and did some research, revealing some astonishing facts (e.g. you will be surprised how much sugar a portion of barbecue sauce contains), that we want to share with you in the follo-
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wing pages, together with our partner Alpro . Mainly known for their good alternatives, made out of soya compared to common milk products, Alpro recently introduced a variety of unsweetened drinks. Another reason to try them out in some recipes, together with different food bloggers in our network! The special highlight in this episode: our 3-days Sugar Balance Program that we also offer as a download starting on p.166 . However, we want to emphasize at this point, that it is not about banishing sugar completely out of our lives. We want to show you how you can achieve a slightly more conscientious handling of sugar in your daily life!
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PROMO
Taste should never be a compromise for a healthy diet. Within this, reducing sugars and saturated fats are key. Alpro offers a wide range of foods and drinks with varying amounts of sugars. From unsweetened products to products low in sugars, right through to gently sweetened indulgent ones. There is something for everyone.
AMAZING FLAVOUR.
Lower in sugars
Nutritional labels can tell you how much total sugars are in a food or drink. The total amount of sugars in a product includes both naturally present sugars, and sugars that have been added. Dairy foods naturally contain sugars; the milk sugar lactose to be more specific. Soya foods don’t. That's why we add a little to our products, so we can offer the best taste experience. Alpro offers a wide range of foods and drinks with varying amounts of sugars. Most of our products have the same, if not lower, amounts of sugars than comparable dairy alternatives. The comparisons on this page showcase that.
LESS SUGAR FOR
BREAKFAST
2,5g
0g
13,6g 5g
WATER
ALPRO Sojadrink Original
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7,5g
COWS MILK ALPRO Sojadrink (light) Choco
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9g ORANGE JUICE
CHOCOLATE MILK
A comparison
ZUCKER PRO 100 ML BZW. 100 G
vs.
vs.
COWS MILK (light)
ALPRO Soya Original Fresh
CHOCOLATE MILK
ALPRO Almond Dark Chocolate
5g
2,5g
13,6g
7,5g
PLAIN YOGURT (light)
6g
ALPRO Simply Plain without sugar
0g!
ALPRO Simply Plain
ALPRO Plain with Almonds
2,1g
2,2g
ALPRO Plain with Coconut
2,1g
SUGARFREE! Alpro products which are marked orange are free from sugar or sweetener. They can officially be called sugarfree, because they don't contain more than 0,5 g sugar for 100 g or 100 ml. FIND ALL UNSWEETENED PRODUCTS HERE 147
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PROMO
We’ve already learned a lot about sugar so far, but the most important question is: How can we put it into practice in our daily routine? How can we avoid those sugar sins that we’ve presented you in the previous pages at home and therefore improve our own sugar balance? We’ve checked the food products that we’ve presented you at the beginning of this section concerning their ingredients and we can introduce you now: Our Clean Treats!
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All these alternatives contain a lot less sugar and taste extraordinarily good. These recipes were created by the bloggers: Sara Heinen – Love Nonpareille Deniz Fiçicioglu – Fructopia Nadine Burck – Dreierlei Lieblei
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PROMO
Garlic-herb
Barbecue sauce
150 ml Alpro almond drink, unsweetened 80 g chickpeas (from a can or a glass) 1 Handful fresh herbs * 1 clove of garlic 2-3 tbsp lemon juice ½ tsp salt pepper
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*which herbs? Classic style: chives, parsley, dill Mediterranean style: thyme, oregano, rosemary Oriental style: cilantro, mint, flat leaf parsley
Wash the herbs and pluck the leaves off the stems. Peel and press the garlic. Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until all the herbs have been fully minced. Add salt, pepper and lime juice to taste.
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15 Minutes
250 ml sauce
info
If you compare the colour of this sauce with a store-bought variety you will see how few herbs storebought sauces contain. Thanks to the herbs’ full aromas this sauce does not need any additional sugar.
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PROMO
You can’t make a cereal bar completely without sweeteners (or it’ll just taste like bread). But thanks to the fruits and rice syrup in this recipe the sugar content is still way below that of ordinary bars and you can adjust it to suit your needs.
Yoghurt-cherry
Cereal bars 100 g wholemeal spelt flour 100 g oats ½ tsp baking powder 50 g dried cherries 30 g puffed quinoa 200 g Alpro Natur unsweetened
1 tsp vanilla-essence 4 - 6 tbsp rice syrup * *depending on how sweet a tooth you have you may want to consider replacing this for a different sweetener
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Pre-heat the oven to 200 °C. Chop the dried cherries. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir with a spoon until a dough has formed and starts coming off the bowl edges. Spread the dough onto a parchment lined baking tray; to a height of about 1cm (0.4”) with straight edges. Place in the preheated oven and bake for about 25 minutes until golden-brown. Cut the dough into bars while still warm and then let them cool thoroughly.
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10 + 15 min
10 bars
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PROMO
5 Minutes
2 glasses
Recipe and photos: Sara Heinen SISTER-MAG.COM
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With just three ingredients and generous serving of unsweetened coconut drink this smoothie is gorgeously tasty and creamy even without added sugar or a banana.
Pineapple-raspberry
Smoothie
200 g fresh pineapple 100 g frozen raspberries 200 ml Alpro Coconut Original
Chop the pineapple into rough dices and place it with the other ingredients in a food processor. Blend on low for a short while then increase to full power and continue blending until a smoothie has formed. Pour into two glasses and enjoy straight away.
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PROMO
5 Minutes
Recipe and photos: Nadine Burck SISTER-MAG.COM
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1 large Glass
Just right for the office in the hot time of the year: a fresh Frappuccino made with Alrpo's Almond Drink. We make this ourselves because the options from the ready-made shelf are full of sugar. Nadine has made an easy-peasy healthier version for you!
Almond drink
Frappuccino
~ 10 ice cubes, made from alpro
Almond unsweetened + two more for decoration
1 small cup of coffee 1 small cup of alpro Almond unsweetened
Just place all the ingredients into a power blender and process them for about one minute on its highest setting until a slightly frothy liquid has formed. Pour into a large glass and top with two or three almond ice cubes – cheers!
2 tbsp maple syrup
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PROMO
Recipe and photos: Deniz Ficicioglu SISTER-MAG.COM
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A firm handle on things: Make your halloumi veggie burgers shine this summer with these fluffy soy drink buns which will add a touch of sweetness to their taste! The best excuse ever to show sugary supermarket burger buns the cold shoulder.
a new twist on
burger
FLUFFY SPELT BURGER BUNS
1. 10 g fresh yeast 75 ml unsweetened Alpro soy drink
Mix yeast and soy drink in a small bowl and let sit for 5 minutes.
2.
Sieve flour into a bowl. Add olive oil, coconut sugar, egg and salt and mix well. Add the yeast mixture bit by bit and knead for 8 to 10 minutes (until it starts to come away from the walls) using a food processor with a suitable blade. (Spelt flour needs extra kneading to activate the gluten and let the buns rise properly.) Cover the dough and let it sit in a warm place for 45 minutes.
3.
Line a baking tray with parchment. Punch the dough flat using your fist and cut it into
130 g spelt flour (type 630) 100 g spelt flour (type 1050) 50 ml olive oil or soft butter 2 tbsp coconut sugar 1 egg 1 pinch salt some water for brushing
2 tsp sesame butter oder soy spread
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PROMO
Recipe serves: 6 small burger buns
method 6 pieces. Lightly cover the patties with flour and form them into balls using your hands. Try not to knead the dough further and use as little flour as possible so the buns will stay fluffy. Cover the buns with cling film and let them rise for another 30 minutes.
4.
Pre-heat the oven to 200°C. Brush the buns with some water then sprinkle with sesame. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until golden-brown turning the tray once. Remove the buns from the over and immediately brush with some butter or soy spread; cover with a cloth so the crust won’t get too hard.
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PROMO
Recipe and photos: Deniz Ficicioglu SISTER-MAG.COM
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Who can resist a sweet scone with their coffee? The sweet triangular treats are irresistible and a sure way to blow straight past your daily sugar limit. Instead of opting for glazed chocolate, try this discreetly sweet mixture of rice drink and coconut sugar with ripe strawberries. Filled with such goodness it’s even alright to make them that bit bigger.
Scones
Strawberry-rice drink
Makes 6 large scones
1. 1 hand full of strawberries 1 tbsp coconut sugar 300 g spelt flour (type 1030) 1 tsp cream of tartar baking 2. powder ¼ tsp Himalayan salt 80 g cold butter 130 ml unsweetened Alpro rice drink
Sieve the flour into a bowl; this will make the scones fluffier. Add baking powder and salt and stir in with a wooden spoon.
3.
Cube the butter and gently knead it into the flour using your hands. There is no need to incorporate everything perfectly and it’s fine if pea-sized bits of butter remain.
4.
Mix rice drink, rice syrup and vanilla then add to the flour mixture carefully blending everything with a wooden
50 ml rice syrup
½ tsp ground vanilla Coconut sugar for sprinkling
Pre-heat the oven to 220°C. Cut the strawberries into cubes, sprinkle them with coconut sugar and set aside for 5 minutes.
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PROMO
method
spoon. Don’t over-mix! It is alright for the dough to still be sticky at this point. Cover your hands with flour, take the dough from the bowl and place it onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Spread it into a flat rectangle then cut into triangles using a sharp knife.
5. Distribute the scones evenly on the tray and sprinkle with some coconut sugar. This will give them a nice crust.
6. Bake the scones for 15 to 18 minutes until they are goldenbrown and the dough on the inside is no longer sticky. Turn the tray once half way through.
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PROMO
&
present
K y t s a T r e g g o with Bl
3 days - 11 Recipes 100 x hmmmmmmmmmmmmm 0 x too much sugar! It’s been known for many years that sugar isn’t good for us. Everyone eats it because it is in everything and, let’s be real: sugary stuff just tastes really good. What only a few people know is that sugar can be categorized into the one that is actually bad for our bodies and the ones that don’t harm them. In general, our bodies need sugar to transform it into glucose, an important source of energy. Naturally, these sugars only occur in combination with vitamins,
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proteins and minerals which our digestive system needs to fully process the sugar. Thus, healthy sugars are a source of energy instead of bad news for blood sugar levels and more. The sugar balance plan aims to help you switch from artificial sugars to healthier alternatives without having to give up on sugar completely. The only thing you need are natural ingredients and your kitchen!
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Recipe: Kirsten Kaminsky The Tasty K
Download Program
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PROMO
Things To Avoid Sweetened drinks are one of the biggest unknown sources of unhealthy sugar. Instead, try drinking vitamin waters, plain water or tea with a little sugar.
DAY 1
Breakfast : Banana-strawberry smoothie bowl Lunch : Buddha Bowl Dinner: Sweet potato wedges with salad Snacks: Date-nut energy balls, Vitamin water and Cappuccino with soy drink
DAY 2
Breakfast : Rye bread with curd cheese and chia-berry jam Lunch : "Zoodles" with avocado pesto Dinner: Cauliflower-potato-soup Snacks: Yoghurt with fruits, Vitamin water, Rooibos Latte with soy drink/ green tea SISTER-MAG.COM
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DAY 3
Breakfast : Lentil-herb omelette Lunch : Thai spring rolls with peanut dip Dinner: Curcuma coconut curry Snacks: Walnut brownie, Vitamin water
xoxo Kirsten
The plan can be downloaded here:
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the big sistermag chocolate feature
Bitter [ AND SWEET
Bitter and tender – We got to know photographer and graphic designer Karin Klammer via Instagram, and her pictures (@karin_klammer) immediately filled us with enthusiasm. For this issue Karin fully dedicated herself to the topic, »Bitter and Tender,” which goes along with recipes from Mousse au Chocolat to spicy chocolate sauces for venison, beef or pork. But first, we begin with with a short historical outline to discover where dark chocolate originally comes from. An info feature in the style of sisterMAG!
}
photos & production: KARIN KLAMMER
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Text: NINA FÖRSTER
A TRULY
chocolaty
STORY
...takes us through the history of a particularly popular sweet treat. We may now think of chocolate as first and foremost sweet, creamy and maybe even stuffed, but when it was first discovered, chocolate was consumed in a very different way. The story begins in the lowlands of the Mexican Gulf Coast, which from 1.500 until 400 BC was home to the Olmec civilization. They were the first people to grow cocoa trees and probably also used their beans to make chocolate. At least that’s what we can assume from the fact that their language, which is in the Mixe–Zoque language family, had the word "cacao." Back then it was pronounced something along the lines of »kakawa«, from
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Maya Chocolate where it made its way into modern Middle American languages. The first written documents regarding the production of chocolate weren’t created until much later. Clay vessels used as burial gifts for the dead of the Maya people provide evidence of their chocolate consumption. A handled pot bearing the word »cacao« in Mayan hieroglyphs was found in a grave full of drinking vessels. The Maya enjoyed their chocolate in many different ways but liquid as a water-based drink – seems to have been the favourite. It was customary to season the beverage with chili. Other popular uses included porridge, mash and cocoa powder. Chocolate was reserved exclusively for the
And Aztec makes chocolate nobility, however, and a popular treat at engagement and wedding celebrations. In their heyday the Maya conducted trade with the Aztec people who, thanks to the extensive network of longdistance traders, were now able to get their hands on the beloved cocoa bean. When the Aztecs conquered the Maya, the province of Xoconochco, famed for its high-yielding cocoa harvest, became part of the Aztec empire.
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Where chocolate is concerned, both peoples’ traditions were very similar and the conquerors adopted many techniques from the Mayans. Cocoa products were still reserved for members of the nobility and high dignitaries. Chocolate was known as »cacauantl«, which translates to »cocoa water«. The Aztecs stored cocoa in great quantities (which the Maya hadn’t done) and the empire’s capital, Tenochtitlán, is rumoured to have boasted a stock of around 40,000 loads
worth of cocoa beans - an amount equivalent to 960 tons. In 1521 the conquering empire was overthrown and power moved to the Spanish. The bitter taste of the chocolate was not to the Europeans' liking and it wasn’t until a version sweetened with cane sugar was introduced that their delicate palates were satisfied. The new chocolate became an instant hit and also spawned varieties seasoned with spices like cinnamon and aniseed. The Spanish didn’t like the name either as they felt it was too close to their word »caca« and renamed the delicacy »chocolate«. The conquistadors made sure supply for their fellow men across the Atlantic was secured, but even in Spain the very first piece of chocolate was reserved for nobility. It went to Prince Philip. In 1585 the first official shipment of cocoa beans made its way from Veracruz to Seville and chocolate’s conquest of
Lady enjoys chocolate - a painting by Jean-Étienne Liotard SISTER-MAG.COM
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Europe was on its way. During the 17th and 18th century, the craze for the new sweet, hot drink spread like wildfire. But despite its almost universal popularity it also sparked a controversy which was to last for more than 200 years. Catholic scholars argued long and hard about whether hot chocolate was food – and hence subject to lent restrictions – or drink. In 1728 the first chocolate factory opened in Bristol – J.S. Fry&Sons processed cocoa beans by hand. Chocolate production in
its modern sense only developed another century later when the Dutchman Coenraad Johannes van Houten developed a hydraulic press to grind chocolate powder. The introduction of the chocolate bar by Fry & Sons made the sweet treat available to everybody. Since the 19th century, the Swiss have been regarded as the World Champions of Chocolate. They created the most successful kind of chocolate the world has seen to date. Three years after the chemist Henri Nestlé had first produced milk powder, Daniel Peter used this invention to make a wholly new kind of chocolate: the international bestseller and still-as-popular-as-ever milk chocolate!
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A LONG
JOURNEY
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IT'S A
fair THING
With so much new knowledge about this sweet little sin in your heads, you’re now probably dying to get some in your belly, right? Great thought! But make sure you do it in a sustainable and fair manner: on the next few pages we will tell you everything there is to know about fair-trade chocolate.
WITH THE SUPPORT OF:
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story no.1
Christina } Cocoa Farmer in Guenge
In Guenge, there are 48 peasant farmers who are part of the cooperative CECAQ-11.
and her husband. The four oldest children already moved out and started their own families.
Five of them are women. And one of them is Cristina Sanchez da Silva. She is 52 years old and lives here with three children
Thirty years ago, Cristina was a worker at a government cocoa plantation. Back then, there was no consideration for quality
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cacao, and communism lead to mismanagement. With the land reform, Cristina became a peasant farmer, just like 8,000 other former field workers. She and her husband own a piece of land on which cocoa trees, plantain plants and tubers grow. From 2009 on, the cooperative made its final changes. Before, Cristina didn’t know how to farm her land with profit.
a TV set and a radio that she could only afford through the fair trade of GEPA. Despite the additional revenues, the cocoa farmer and her neighbors live a very simple life. They can rarely afford more expensive food like fish and normally eat fried land snails and plantains. Her dream? "I wish we could move into a small town house built of stone," she says.
Nowadays, there is training on how to cut trees, how to ferment and dry fresh cocoa beans, and how to sell high quality raw cocoa.
info
In past times, Cristina got about 36 cents for one kilogram of cocoa. Thanks to CECAQ-11, she now gets more, around 40 cents. Additional payments from sales follow. She can expect 64 cents for one kilogram now.
The biggest European importer of fair traded food and handicraft products is GEPA – The Fair Trade Company.
The cocoa farmer hopes that the cooperative continues to support her. She lives with her family in a number of wood cabins. A porch is her kitchen. The family shares two rooms. She is particularly proud of
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GEPA
Its partners are peasant farmers and craftsmen who are joined together in cooperatives. Partners who are disadvantaged in the world market need fair trade conditions to change the quality of their life. By trading products fairly, GEPA ensures sensibility and the promotion of work and life conditions of its partners. SISTERMAG 24 | 05 / 2016
story no.2
Emma } Fair Trade Cocoa Producer
Emma Georgette lives and works in the Woroyiri, a village in the West African country of Ivory Coast. Emma is 53 years old, a cocoa farmer and mother of six children. Her husband is too old to do the hard field work, so he split
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his land between his two wives. Emma is the proud owner of 2.5 hectares of acreage. On Emma’s land, teams are at work. The cocoa field is harvested, the pods are carefully broken open, emptied and fermented. Since the cocoa farmer is a businesswoman, she is in charge. Remarkable: Around 900 kilograms of cocoa per hectare are harvested on her land.
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For all participants, the cocoa harvest is hard work and especially sweaty, considering the high humidity on-site. The harvest is enormously eased by members of the cooperative Ecojad. That’s because Emma is an official fair trade cocoa producer. Children don’t work as harvesters here; rather, they go to school and do their homework. The harvested beans are delivered to smaller temporary storage facilities, and the farmers immediately get the minimum price. From here on, transport to much bigger storehouses takes place. A modern machine that was purchased using fair trade money cleans the cocoa beans. As soon as they are freed from dust and dirt, the cargo is filled into export bags. They are numbered to ensure a clear allocation.
Thanks to the cooperative, Emma’s yields rise. As a cocoa farmer, she can secure the income for her husband and her six children now. She earns 1,374 euros per year. Other cocoa farmers normally only generate between 610 and 760 euros. Emma is especially proud of her first own bed that she could only afford through the additional revenues. The most important thing for her? »That my children receive good education to have better future prospects.”
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info TRANSFAIR The charitable organization TransFair started working in 1992. Its objective is to support disadvantaged producer families in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and to improve their working and living conditions significantly by doing fair trade. TransFair awards the fair trade seal for fairly traded products. SISTERMAG 24 | 05 / 2016
story no.3 Interview with the
co-founders of:
Choba Choba }
At this startup based in Bern, the cocoa farmers are co-owners of the company and therefore involved in its decisions.
The Peruvians directly profit from the success of the final products – they have company shares and receive 4% of the revenue as a direct distribution. The price for the cocoa is determined by the farmers and not by the international commodity exchange. This approach is unique in the world. As a so-called social startup,
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Choba Choba wants to ensure the improvement of the cocoa farmers’ living standards and the preservation of their ecosystems. There are new products every two months – three bars of different dark Choba Choba chocolates, only available in limited numbers and sold in a box. For that, only one cocoa variety from one peasant family is used, which makes every production unique.
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w w w. c h ob ac h ob a. c om
BITTERSWEET
Who are you, how old are you and where are you from?
How did you get in touch with cocoa, its growers, and Latin America?
Eric: My name is Eric Garnier, I'm 33, a Frenchman living in Paris.
Eric: I worked 10 years as the Communication Director at the leading fair trade and organic chocolate brand in France.
Christopher: My name is Christoph Inauen, I am 34 years old and live in Bern. What exactly is your job? We are two of the 36 proud CoFounders (34 cocoa farmers, Christoph and I) of Choba Choba and work as co-CEO (in job sharing with Christoph) of Choba Choba.
I was also in charge of the support to the farmers’ organizations we partnered with and the cocoa supply chain.
Christopher: I first came in contact with cocoa in 2006. Back then, I worked for an NGO in Mali, and my
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neighbours just sold one of their children for 25 euros to a cocoa plantation in Ivory Coast. In 2007, I started working for a bigger Swiss chocolate producer where I managed the cocoa acquisition for eight years and developed and implemented a sustainability strategy. SISTER-MAG.COM
I was member of the management (executive board), and a large part of my job was to build up long-term relationships with cocoa farmers in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. So I travelled a lot, got to know many peasant farmers personally, and initiated and implemented projects with several organizations
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(state, NGO, private industry).
Eric: Christoph and I have been travelling to the Peruvian Amazon region of the Alto Huayabamba, buying organic and fair trade cocoa and developing sustainability projects with the cocoa farmer communities of Pucallpillo and Santa Rosa. Not only did we visit them for business purposes, but we actually spent a lot of time with them, sharing their day to day life, sleeping at their houses during all these years. Step by step we learned more about each one of them as individuals as well as their social, economical, natural, and cultural environment. Much more than merely cocoa suppliers, they quickly became friends and family.
Christopher: I was deeply impressed by the incredibly opulent and beautiful nature of the Amazon region and the open-minded, honest and dynamic character of the farmers. Because we came back to Alto Huayabamba Valley continually and were allowed to spend nights at the farmers’, Eric and I became part of their everyday life. Every time I travel to the Alto Huayabamba Valley, it feels like I leave my family in Switzerland behind for a while to visit my other family in Peru. When and how did Choba Choba start?
Eric: After so many years of cooperation and friendship, we as well as the farmers actually realized that the impact on their communities was still too limited.
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We knew something better could and had to be done. So together with the farmers we decided in 2015 to create a new model, to build up Choba Choba (meaning Âťyou help me, I help youÂŤ in Quechua) a new chocolate brand in which small-scale farmers own and run the business together with us; turning the chocolate business upside down, considering them as entrepreneurs and not just as anonymous raw material suppliers. Letting them define what the fair price for their cocoa is. Allowing them, as shareholders, to take part in the decision-making process and in the benefits of our new venture. Choba Choba is the logical result of years of work hand in hand with the farmers and SISTER-MAG.COM
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hours of discussions with them on how a new model, a different project, could generate more impact for their families and their ecosystem. What are your plans with your start-up?
Christopher: Our primary goal is to start a chocolate revolution. We want to create a movement for an alternative chocolate market in which the cocoa farmers have a say. We see ourselves as just one example and would be happy to form a movement with other participants and companions. Of course, we want to promote our brand as well. We want to distribute our products globally and operate our own shops in the world’s metropolises one day.
Eric: Our mission as a social startup is to demonstrate that this somewhat crazy project is viable and has real impact on the farmers’ lives and their communities. Concerning the consumers, we would like to offer chocolate lovers all around the world exclusive and
unique chocolate creations.
Where do you see yourself in five years? Eric: In five years, I would like Choba Choba to become internationally recognized on one hand as an example of an alternative business model that is economically viable and can have a direct and significant impact on the cocoa farmers, and on the other hand as a chocolate brand that offers exclusive chocolate creations through an approach and traceability that is unique. On a more personal level, I see myself spending my time between Europe and Peru, continuing to share this meaningful adventure with my friends in the Alto Huyabamba valley from whom I always take an incredibly positive energy. This project is bigger than life.
Christopher: I see myself as a happy family man (I have a daughter who is 18 months old, and we expect our second child at the end of August) who committedly fights for a new chocolate world with Choba Choba.
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story no.4
Hilde Devolder Chocolatier Ghent Chocolatier
Photos: HELENA MELIKOV SISTER-MAG.COM
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Please tell us who you are and what you do. I am Hilde Devolder and I am a chocolatier in Ghent, Belgium, Burgstraat 43. When did you start your business and how does everything developed? I started my business in October 2010 and offered tiny homemade pralines made with as little sugar as possible and only the best ingredients. I also offered a range of nuts and fruits covered with milk or dark chocolate. Bags with different white, milk and dark chocolate pastilles with different flavours or origin. Every year the assortment grows with different flavours of pralines; with bars, with orangettes and gingerettes; ‘karakjes’ (little tiny squares) with nuts; chocolate circles with nuts, seeds, and dried fruits; marzipan bars covered with dark chocolate or marzipan potatoes covered with cacao powder. For Christmas, New Years, Valentine's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, and Father's Day I make new items of interest and unique pieces. Since a few years ago I also sell
bean (tree)-to-bar chocolate. For instance, I sell to Marou - Faiseurs de Chocolat, The Grenada Chocolate Company, AMMA, Rózsavölgyi Csokoládé, Pacari, Åkesson’s, Cacao Hunters, Original Beans, Naive, Mulaté… What does a working day looks like for you? Every day is different. One day I have to make fillings for the pralines, and the next day I have to cut them and envelope the interior, then decorate them individually. I also keep the shop open myself. I have to think about the next event of the year and be ready for that in time. And then there is all the paperwork, placing orders, bookkeeping, interviews... so a lot of work, really. Do you work on your own or with a team? Most of the time I work on my own. If necessary I get the help I need to be ready in time. With the flexibility of the people who work for me, I can manage it well. Is there any chocolate you love the most? I really LOVE dark chocolate. 100% well-made bean-to-bar dark
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Hilde Devolder
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Chocolatier
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chocolate from The Grenada Chocolate Company or the 85% Heart of Darkness bar of Marou - Faiseurs de Chocolat. In fact I love all the bars I sell in my shop, so it’s difficult to choose one. It also changes year by year. Every new batch is different so it’s hard to tell what I like the most. How much chocolate do you eat ? Every day I eat chocolate. Sometimes it's a bar, sometimes it’s a praline, or I make a hot chocolate with almond milk before I go to bed. Good sleep guaranteed! About 50 grams and 1 cup a day – that will do! You combine many different tastes and textures. Where do you get your inspiration from and how do you test new products?
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It all starts with an idea from something I saw or tasted elsewhere or something that happens by accident. When I travel, I always look for things I can use in my shop. I try to visualize it and I start. Trying things out is the best way. Sometimes this is very frustrating, but if I go beyond that point, then magic happens. The point is to never give up. Is there anything special about Belgian chocolate? That’s a tricky one. I don’t know. Belgian chocolate used to be very special. Now it’s more a mass product. My preference goes to the French Valrhona chocolate and the good bean (tree)-to-bar chocolate. Why should someone visit your shop? Because of the tiny chocolates with all different flavours,
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each one made and decorated individually by hand. They are 100% homemade with the best chocolate in the world. You can select your own box or you can go for an assortment box. Then you have a nice selection of mostly dark chocolates and a few milk chocolates with all possible
Favourite places in gent
textures. For the Santas, I have Christmas balls and trees; big and small decorated Easter eggs, filled Easter eggs; decorated hearts for Valentine's Day; and unique pieces for every important moment of the year. And because it’s a small shop, we are happy to give you personal advice.
Tokyo sushi
le Botaniste
Botermarkt 10.
Hoornstraat 13.
Sushi restaurant & Asian cuisine. Made fresh as you order.
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Plant-based food made with love from scratch, using only whole organic ingredients.
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p ho
lam K me
: k a ri n s o t
r
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spicy
chocolate sauce (for game, beef or pork dishes)
20g butter
1 red onion, finely diced 1 bay leaf
1 pinch of cardamom 1 pinch of cinnamon
1 pinch of fennel seeds 100ml red wine
750ml beef stock
20g dark chocolate
1 pinch of salt and pepper
1. Melt the butter in a pot and sweat the onion and fennel
seats in it. 2. Add wine, bay leaf and stock, bring to a boil and let simmer to reduce for 30 minutes on medium heat. 3. Add cardamom, cinnamon, salt and pepper. 4. Remove the bay leaf, remove the pot from the stove and let it cool down a bit. Then add the chocolate and let it melt into the broth. 5. Puree sauce using an immersion blender before serving.
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chocolate
Truffle for 7 pralines
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100g dark chocolate 100ml cream
20g butter at room temperature Cocoa powder for rolling 3 tsp hemp seeds
3 tbsp chopped pistachios
3 chopped After Eight thins
2 tsp lime zests
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Preparation
1. Chop the chocolate into small pieces and transfer into a bowl. 2. In a pot, bring the cream to a boil, then pour over the chocolate. Keep stirring until a smooth paste starts forming. Add the butter bit by bit and incorporate well. 3. Add additional toppings as desired and blend well. 4. Refrigerate the mixture for 30 minutes, then use a teaspoon to form small balls. Refrigerate these for another hour. 5. Roll the chocolate balls in cocoa powder.
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Av SISTER-MAG.COM
se o us
oc
hocolate c o ad m
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avocado
Mousse au Chocolat
1 banana (peeled and frozen)
4 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 chilled avocado
1 tsp lime juice
2 tbsp maple syrup (for vegan option) 2 tbsp cold water Process all ingredients using a blender. Sweeten with more maple syrup or honey to taste.
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download all recipes
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Text & Photos: Marion Sendker
TAKE YOUR PICA: WHEN PEOPLE DEVELOP AN APPETITE FOR PAPER
Paper has next to no nutritious value at all. Yet still there are people who consume it in just about all its forms: Toilet roll, gift wrapping, paper tissues and stationery are staples of their diets. It was its scent that captured the girl’s imagination: toilet roll. It smelled so nice she had to taste it. She was overwhelmed by the desire to run her tongue along the soft, fragrant cellulose fibres, to bite into it, to chew it and swallow it. So she gave in, tore off a sheet and stuffed it in to her mouth. The scene kept repeating itself for half a year; a couple of sheets of toilet roll each day. Then she stopped - and only several years later came back to the roll. And then just a few sheets weren’t enough to satisfy her appetite. ”Whenever I’m afraid or under a lot of pressure I stuff some 25 sheets into my mouth and eat them within a couple of minutes. I am addicted!« The girl prefers not to give her real name, nor tell us where she‘s from. She is ashamed of her penchant – or should that be »addiction«? But she wants to speak out, share her story; and maybe even stop eating toilet roll. She has
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posted a message on a website where people can share their stories anonymously. Several users have already commented and expressed their sympathies. Savannah98, as she calls herself online, is not alone.
The magpie’s disorder The condition is referred to as pica and takes its name from the Latin for magpie (pica pica). Both the bird and the word seem unusually beautiful choices to link to such a disorder. Experts define pica as »a qualitative disorder of eating behaviour« which means a person is prone to eat materials not meant for human consumption. Like toilet roll. Where exactly the desire for cellulose fibres comes from has not yet been conclusively determined but there are clues and the beginnings of a hypothesis. SISTER-MAG.COM
Dr. Thomas Knecht, head of forensic psychiatry at the Psychiatric Centre Herisau in Switzerland, is one of only a few experts in the world who have done research into pica. The psychiatrist has defined two different triggers for the disorder: »It can either be caused by a deficiency within the organism or by a psychological or neurological malfunction within a neuropsychiatric disorder.« In other words: pica is a special kind of eating disorder which – unlike anorexia – can have purely biological or cerebral causes. It comes down to a simple principle: When the body detects a lack of vitamin C it sends signals which – in the best case – prompt a person to ingest fruits or vegetables. The body’s search for a suitable equivalent to the insufficiency detected, however, can be derailed. »Somehow the body isn’t able to tell what it is
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lacking and in search for relief can make mistakes.« In one specific example of such a malfunction the body will detect an iron deficiency and the person affected will respond by eating soil. Soil pica is especially common in children. »During periods of growth the body requires higher amounts of trace elements and minerals” explains Dr. Knecht »a deficiency is not uncommon during such
beneficial for you digestion” Dr. Knecht expands. But he also stresses that there is a thin lines between stimulating your digestion and giving yourself a life threatening intestinal obstruction. Due to the body’s inability to digest paper it remains inside the intestines where it can agglutinate and – worst case scenario – get stuck. The psychological effects of paper pica,
PICA (LAT.) MEANS MAGPIE periods and children may start eating soil or licking paint off walls which can actually be lethal.« Paper pica does not usually carry a risk of death as paper is made of cellulose fibres which the body cannot digest. Ingesting small amounts of paper can even be
however, are negligible: »Paper is neutral; cellulose does contain sugar molecules, but those too are indigestible for our bodies.” Humans do not produce suitable enzymes to break down paper. But many animals do: Goats, for example can digest paper and
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even live on a paper diet. Some humans instinctively ingest paper in many different forms to balance out a physiological deficiency. Just like the magpie which is known to pick up an indiscriminate collection of materials with its beak to aid its nest building people suffering from pica eat a variety of objects to support their body. It may sound like a paradox at first, but pica is a disorder focused on the self-preservation of the affected organism.
»Finish your plate, please!« These deficiencies don‘t necessarily have a biological background. Pica can be a sign of psychological or emotional suffering. People suffering from depression, schizophrenia, autism or psychosis are more prone to unusual eating disorders for a variety of reasons. In these cases the progression of their pica is often tied to the main illness; when this is in remission so it the pica. In this sense it is a disease without limits: there is paper pica, cigarette bud pica, hair pica, plastic pica, coin pica, and so on. The disorder can even focus on ordinary foods which in SISTER-MAG.COM
small amounts are not harmful at all. If a person eats two pounds of mayonnaise a day, a physician will class this as mayonnaise pica. One kind of food has become so important to the patient that they can do without anything else, but not without this food. Dr. Knecht is also familiar with cases of china pica which has sufferers eat small bits of their tableware. Parents‘ incouraging their children to »finnish their plate« suddenly appear in a whole new and not all too flattering light. Our body cannot digest or break down china or cutlery and any pieces swallowed will make their way through the gastrointestinal tract »as they are«. »You’d be surprised which kind of materials make their way through and reappear on the other side in the natural way« Dr. Knecht admits. But wedgings within intestinal loops are a real danger and often lead to cramps and bleedings. »In these cases you need to act fast” the expert adds as a warning. Eating broken bits of pottery, cutlery and their own nails is a common phenomenon among people deprived of their freedom:
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in jails and on closed psychiatric wards. »A patient may swallow a knife and then walk up to the nursing staff and tell them ‚Hey, I just swallowed a knife. This is going to get dangerous, I have got to get out of here to a hospital; I’ll need surgery.‘ And it’s not uncommon for these patients to then try and escape while they are being transferred.« Experts don’t simply call extreme cases like this knife pica; swallowing sharp and dangerous items is referred to as autophagy. What both disorders have in common though is the attempt of a person to exert pressure on the people around them by eating objects. The objective is to gain attention and pursue an urge for freedom. People who eat paper, however, don’t do so in a demonstrative was but rather quietly and secretly. The motivation is a very different one. »And in many cases the person affected will not even be able to
name it, but it is still there.” says Dr. Knecht
Escaping pica It is next to impossible to describe a standardized sample progression of a pica patient’s therapy. In some cases the body will develop counter-regulatory mechanisms and the eating disorder will go as quietly as it came. In any other case it is important to find the underlying cause; an eating disorder more often than not is just the tip of the iceberg. Dr. Knecht suggests consulting your GP first. »In case of a deficiency the lacking nutrient needs to be replaced. In underlying cases of schizophrenia or depression these should be treated; if these treatments are successful the pica, as a symptom, usually disappears too. In case of nontreatable disorders, behavioural or educational therapy may help.«
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Dr. Thomas Knecht
Admitting to the to eat balls or habit is a first pellets made of important step clay. In several towards success; African societies like the one pica is understood Savannah98 took as a ritual« says © Dr. Thomas Knecht by starting an Dr. Knecht. It exchange with fellow sufferers is a difficult phenomenon to on an internet platform. But such categorize and it always needs to a step on its own is not enough be considered on a case by case and can actually intensify the basis. A child that puts a handful symptoms because sufferers of soil into his or her mouth or feel a sense of reaffirmation or chews on a blade of grass, a may discover new varieties of student swallowing a crib sheet their disorder. »I prefer Angel or anyone accidentally eating a Soft Double Sheets« one user piece of bread packaging stuck shares »but Charmin will do if to a roll is not a pica patient. It’s necessary.« Another one admits: people like Savannah98 for whom »I was so afraid something might a banality has become a serious be wrong with me. I would like medical issue. to stop, it is disgusting and strange and it makes me feel like a freak all the time.« There are cultures in which pica is part of their traditions. »At certain festivals it is common for the attendees SISTER-MAG.COM
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info
Pregnant women are considered a high risk group for pica due to the infamous weird food cravings known to arise during pregnancy. The body is building a whole new organism and needs to widen its nutritious repertoire; both where quality and quantity are concerned. An embryo’s needs are very different to those of a grown woman. When the mother-to-be expands her diet pica symptoms can occur. But they usually subside once she has given birth. Incidences of pica vary considerably depending on global regions: As a general rule the disorder is much more common in socalled third world countries (with a reported lifetime risk of 66%) as it is in the industrialized world; where in turn anorexia is more common. The reason for this distinct spread pattern is general a lack of nutritional awareness as well as the more practical scarce supply of basic staples. Chewing your nails is not a symptom of pica but rather an impulse control disorder. Collecting your nails to eat them in vast amounts, however, qualifies a pica. Excessive consumption of chocolate or junk food is usually not a sign of pica. The compulsion to eat excessive amounts of chocolate, chocoholism, is categorized as addictive behaviour rather than an eating disorder. Chocolate is known to contain several psychotropic substances and have properties connected to caffeine, cannabis and amphetamines; so its consumption exposes you to actual psycho-stimulants that affect your cerebral metabolism. Chocoholism is especially common in people suffering from a serotonin deficiency.
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Wallpaper pattern: Cole & Son
Paperstack
FASHION
& Tapestry
FEATURE Photos: Oh Hedwig
Design & patterns: Evi Neubauer
Styling: Franziska Dominick SISTER-MAG.COM
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Model: Anna Neumann
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… IN THE TROPICS I N T R O D U C T I O N BY E V I NEUBAUER
Just shy of 5 meters of fabric, 5 patterns and two weekends — that is all it takes to create, by which we mean sew, the basis for your holiday wardrobe. It’s a familiar question: What do you wear on day trips in Malaysia, India or Thailand? You will want to see temples but also stroll around markets and pay a visit to the botanical gardens. It’s hot and humid — and shorts are a no-go, as are sundresses for women. So I set out to sew five items of clothing which coordinate well with each other and include full-length yet breezy trousers and light tops. Silk and cotton are your go-to materials for such items. I hope you will enjoy sewing — and of course wearing — them. I have tested the patterns on a three week journey around the Indian Ocean!
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Pattern mix This outfit boasts a striking pattern mix of plaid pants and flower pattern top (silk). Add our choice of wallpaper and you’re in complete pattern overload, but it works! We suggest you just be bold!
download pattern – top download pattern – trousers
Pyjama
Admittedly, this outfit is not for the fashion conscious lady! But in addition to its undisputed suitability for the bedroom, the pyjama look has been acceptable salon and street wear for quite a while now. Celebrities and fashion bloggers alike (see here) agree: This is the comfiest trend look ever!
all day
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The jacket sports charming details like different fabric pattern applications at the collar and red piping.
download pattern – pyjama-jacket
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Helle Hos SISTER-MAG.COM
The easy way If plaid patterns for both jacket AND pants are a bit more than you think you can take, you can obviously opt for a subdued pattern for the pants; or simply choose a nice creamy white hue. The sewing pattern makes for a super-comfy piece thanks to the elastic waist which is especially pleasant in the heat.
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download pattern – light trousers
Light pants, light top, tartan shirt or flower pattern top: every item in the sisterMAG mini collection goes with any other: so just mix and match to your heart’s content!
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white on white
dowload pattern – light top
A keen eye for details
This look reminds us of Sex & The City, tropical nights and an easy style. The white top is made of heavy silk and flatters the figure. The sequin buttons at the back make for a lovely detail. So just slip into your sandals and off you go to explore the Oriental market!
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Bling
# ethno necklace with gemstones by Max & Co
# Sandals in Black and Beige from Paloma Barcel贸
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new clothes for the walls
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Text: Sophia Schillik Fotos: Tapeten (Cole & Son
)
For a long time, wallpaper was considered to be the epitome of smugness. In the early 1990s, the triumph of white walls started. But some years ago, wall decoration had an impressive comeback. New materials, an overwhelming selection of shapes and colours, and uncomplicated wallpapering techniques made it possible. Our special on wallpapers shows the differences, explains what has to be kept in mind, and gives insight into the current trends.
Origin and development of wallpaper
The human wish for beautification of their home is as old as their thirst for knowledge. At all times and in all cultures, we decorated and clothed our homes. Even our 227
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Stone Age ancestors painted the cave walls. Roman reliefs, frescos and mosaics prove our desire for wall design. In the Orient, people hung big carpets on the walls or decorated them with hangings made of leather. The Greek word »tapes« (carpet) and the Latin word »tapetum« (carpet, ceiling) still remind of this initial kind of wall design (in German, wallpaper is called »Tapete«). In China where the wallpaper originated during the Han dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD) the wallpaper strips were made of preciously embroidered silk and were reserved for the aristocrats and their palaces. Wallpaper made of sensitive Chinese bamboo paper only prevailed from the 4th century on and boomed between 960 and 1370. From the 16th century on, it arrived in Europe. Here, it also was a
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privilege of the elite for a long time until the people started their own production of wallpaper. From the 17th century on and thanks to the combination of paper production and print, the extremely elitist luxury good became a product that was affordable for middle-class households as well. In France and England, the first paper factories came to existence and produced patterned single sheets, the so-called dominotiers – the predecessors of today’s wallpaper. Almost a century later, there were ceiling-high strips of wallpaper; new hand printing, template and wooden model techniques and the invention of the round dip sieve fueled the development. In the 19th century, the industrial wallpaper production started. A long and exciting career that is not over yet.
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Holy wallpaperpaste: WHAT DIFFERENT WALLPAPERS NEED
When it comes to types of wallpaper, you think of different colours, shapes or materials. But principally, wallpaper differs in the carrier material – paper or fleece. If you want to save time, you better use fleece: The handling is easier, there is no soaking time, and there are many more advantages to this kind of wallpaper. But wallpaper that is made of paper is not yet obsolete. There is often talk of wallpaper made from plastics or metal, textured or photo wallpapers – they all denote the surface. This has to be kept in mind and may not be confused since the carrier is crucial for the procedure of wallpapering, the handling of the surface, and the result.
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Wallpaper made of paper:
Wallpaper made of paper is the classical wall decoration. The spectrum of qualities, colours and shapes is indefinite, even for many manufacturers, and the brilliance of the hues is unrivaled. They are available with embossed or plain surfaces. Furthermore, there is a difference between light (about 90 g/sqm) and heavy (up to 180 g/sqm) wallpapers made of paper. High-quality wallpaper made of paper has many layers, but normally there are two. While the top layer is printed or embossed, the lower (paper) layer acts as carrier material. There are many materials that can be applied to it: velour, metal coating, natural material like cork, cloth, vinyl, PVC foam, or just paper. There is often talk of cleavable wallpaper, which means that the top layer can be removed while the lower paper layer, the carrier, remains on the wall. But this is only possible with wallpapers that are made of paper and have a layer made of vinyl or PVC foam. Important: Wallpaper that is made of paper always has to be pasted. Only after soaking in paste can the wallpapering begin. There are some simple tricks for an optimal re-
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sult without any hideous bubbles, folds or bulges. Windows and doors should be closed and the radiator should be switched off, otherwise the paste can’t ingress into the wall. This way, the wallpaper dries faster than the paste. Old wallpaper has to be removed beforehand. In the worst case, the wallpaper comes off the wall again, especially in a draft. The general rule is to stick to the soaking time and to wallpaper seam-to-seam without overlapping. Wallpapers with big motives have to be wallpapered edge-to-edge: The patterns of the cut strips of wallpaper have to be compatible on the wall. Admittedly, that’s a bit tricky.
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Fleece wallpaper:
Fleece wallpaper is a wall covering with a carrier material, a base made of cellulose and fiber. Over the last years, it developed into a genuine alternative to wallpaper made of paper. Depending on the manufacturer, fleece wallpaper is also available with different surfaces like vinyl, PVC foam, velour or photo material. The advantages are obvious: It is hardly inflammable, doesn’t contract or expand during the wallpapering, and conceals even smaller cracks or bumps in the rendering base. It’s also very durable and resistant.
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Fleece wallpaper But the decisive advantage of fleece wallpaper is the easy processing; complex covering of the wallpaper with paste is obsolete. Instead, special wallpaper glue is applied to the wall, and the wallpaper strips are put from the roll to the wall and are pressed to the wall. This technique is called wall glue technique. It’s important to know that a fleece carrier is more transparent than a paper carrier. This is why the surface has to match the colour of the wallpaper. Also, a primer has to be applied: Like with wallpapers made of paper, the strips are difficult to remove if the surface wasn’t carefully primed before. The glue also works significantly better after priming. Wallpaper primer for fleece wallpaper can be purchased in construction markets.
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New patterns, great material: THIS IS THE TREND FOR WALLPAPERS
A metallic look is not only hot on the world’s runways. Walls also like to be decorated with the precious sheen. Real gold, brocade, silver yarn, and shiny leather are way too expensive, so you can use skillful imitations – timeless, elegant and deceptively realistic.
Retro patterns arise again and again. However, muted shades are used today instead of loud colours. Subtle graphic patterns replace pop art. Contemporary retro wallpaper brings excitement and personality into a room without exhausting the eye. Designers like Orla Kiely or Trine Andersen of Ferm Living lead the way.
The black and white chic with all the nuances doesn’t spare our walls. Whether they show classic stripe patterns, geometric shapes, forests, or genuine landscapes in black, white and grey, this look is the real deal for purists. And you surely can't get enough of it.
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Natural materials, especially cork, create a warm atmosphere and a pleasant living space. Cork is sound-absorbing, anti-allergenic, easy to clean, and – last but not least – sustainable. Also, wallpaper made of natural materials like grass fabric, bamboo, or small stones are starting to roll. However, the application of these unconventional materials requires certain know-how.
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Paper is a foodstuff, a quick-change artist and a jack-of-all-trades
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Text: Birgit Franz
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| Bilder: VDP Online
und Gmund Papier
PA P E R M A K I N G A day without paper? That’s simply inconceivable. Even if you have swapped the traditional, rustling morning paper for its tablet version, it’s not long after you get out of bed that you lay your hands on the first piece of paper of the day: from toilet roll or cleansing tissue to a cereal box or a carton of milk – or the insoles of your shoes. Paper, including cardboard, is still one of the most ubiquitous materials around. Anyone with a wastepaper basket can attest to how quickly they tend to fill up. In addition - or maybe rather as a countermovement – to e-papers and the idea of the paperless office, many people have also re-discovered their fascination with paper and stationary. On just about any local High Street you can now discover small shops stocking versatile papers ranging from postcards to writing and wrapping paper, to blank books making the most of new types of paper, with new finishing options and new ways of binding.
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Since its initial conception, the process of papermaking hasn’t changed all that much, and yet it has come a long way. The paper industry has responded to increasing ecological demands
and amended its production processes. Paper is a rewarding substance for engineers and technicians as it can take nearly any form and is extremely resilient. Paper isn’t only used SISTER-MAG.COM
to make books, but also book shelves, lamps, beds and chairs. A model maker even built a 1'2" fully functional mini V8 engine from paper and in Israel, and an equally functional bicycle made from cardboard is approaching production maturity. Even houses made from paper are no longer a utopian idea: In Switzerland, an architect is planning 400 residential units built from a material which at its core has a paper-based honeycomb structure. With an annual production of 22.4 million tons, Germany is the fourth largest paper manufacturer in the world, eclipsed only by China, the United States and Japan. Almost half of all this paper is used for packaging (49.5%). Graphical papers are the second largest group, making up 38.1%; only 6.5% comprises tissue and other hygienic paper. Special papers, including roofing and tar paper, photo and filter paper, as well as electrical insulating paper, only make up a similarly small portion of 5.9%.
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Millennia old tradition For the longest time, Chinese scholar Cai Lun, who first documented the production of paper in 105 AD, was credited with its invention, but archeologists have now found papers they believe to be much older. Paper reproduction in China was a well-kept secret. And even then paper wasn’t exclusively used for writing; toilet rolls and wallpaper have been around since the 5th century AD. Paper money has been used since around 650 AD. By way of the Silk Road, paper made its way to Samarkand in 751 AD. From there it quickly spread into Egypt, where it soon replaced papyrus. The Arabic conquests brought paper to Spain, where it was first made on European soil in 1144 in Valencia. Another 200 years later, in 1380 AD, paper finally reached Germany. Ulrich Stromer, who ran a large trading house with a long-distance trade division in Nuremberg, built the first paper mill. The mill secured its survival mainly through
the production of packaging materials and playing cards – which facilitated a passion that spread quickly throughout Europe at the time – rather than writing paper. The development of the letterpress by Johannes Gutenberg in 1445 supported supported both the democratization of knowledge, which was harnessed by the middle classes, and the
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emergence of bureaucracy. The number of paper mills in Germany increased steadily and still could barely satisfy the demand as there soon weren’t enough rags and cloths available to be used as base materials. It wasn’t until the 19th century that wood became the primary raw material in paper production.
Such stuff as paper is made of We get the name »paper« from the Latin »papyrus« because the ancient equivalent of writing paper was made from the leaves of the papyrus plant which grows in Egypt, throughout Africa and the Mediterranean. Elsewhere people used whatever materials
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where available: The pulp used to make paper in China contained bamboo, silk and the bark of the mulberry tree while in the Arabic world hemp, linen and even cashmere were used. The Aztecs used the fibers of the agave plant while Europeans went for old cloths as base material. Since the industrialization paper as we know it has been made from wood. Yet the idea that forests are dying because of our excessive paper consumption is wrong. Only one fifth of all the wood produced in the world is used to make paper; windfall wood and waste from sawmills is also used. Newspapers are up to 90% recycled paper with an average amount is 64%. With the introduction of two environmental certificates, FSCÆ and PEFCô, the paper industry has committed itself to the promotion of a sustainable, ecological and social forestry
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Take plants and water…
which includes efforts.
reforestation
Producers also constantly search for new materials. Where extreme resilience is required very short cellulose fibers (which are only a few millimeters long) are mixed with long synthetic fibers which make the paper virtually tear-proof. Agricultural waste is also used to make paper. Bavarian paper manufacturers Gmund offer beer paper while the portfolio of the Italian company Favini includes paper varieties made from fruit and nut residue. 15% of the paper consists of orange peel, coffee, almond, olive or avocado residue. There is even a vegan cookbook printed on apple paper.
Making paper is brilliantly simple and the production process, regardless of whether the paper is handmade or industrially produced, hasn’t changed all that much over the centuries: From plant-based materials, water and additives, such as dye, at paste is made – the so-called pulp – and then spread out on a sieve. The fibers connect to form a sheet which then just needs to be drained of the excess water. When making paper at home you will most likely use scraps of old paper as your raw material; in the industrial production process a mixture of fresh wood (i.e. both wood and fibers), wastepaper, minerals and additives is used. The wood is ground while water is being added; it is boiled in water and chemicals to make cellulose. Any ink is chemically removed from the wastepaper and its fibers
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drain PA P E R
press dissolved in water. The pulp is then spread onto the sieve via the headbox and immediately sheds excess water. The thus created web of fibers is then pressed through numerous pressing rolls which drain it of more water. Any remaining liquid is evaporated by the heat in the dryer section of the paper machine. The paper is then refined in the calender section and the finished product is then rolled onto reels or cut into layers of sheets.
Coated, glued, embossed The German pulp and paper association (Verband der Deutschen Papierfabriken e.V.) has 3000 different types of paper SISTER-MAG.COM
on record. As a paper enthusiast you are forgiven for thinking that there are many more than that; this impression is in part created by the many different values of area density (grammage; see box) available but mainly down to numerous finishing techniques. The aforementioned paper manufacturer B端ttenpapierfabrik Gmund alone identifies 100.000 types of paper in their portfolio. Two basic finishing methods for paper are coating and calendering. Calendering smoothes the paper and gives it extra shine by pressing it through hot rollers at high pressure. Calendered paper is used for advertising magazines, paperback books, office stationary etc. Coating
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dry
smooth paper means adding a layer of pigments and binding agents. Coated paper is used to make art books, glossy magazines etc. Fine papers you buy at a stationers, but increasingly also magazines, book covers, business cards and packaging for perfumes, go through extra treatments which can involve embossing and spot coating or the addition of metal foils or thermal paper, laser cutting or flocking. These exciting graphic and haptic effects give the paper an individual look and feel.
roll up
If you would like to see paper being made it is well worth checking with a nearby paper manufactory. Many of them, like Gmund, offer guided tours of their factories. There are several museum in Germany (a list can be found on Wikipedia) like the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, Deutsches Museum (German Museum) in Munich and also the paper museum Steyrermßhl in the Austrian state of Salzburg in which you can see paper being made and which offer workshops in which you can try it yourself. When the paper density of a sheet is given as 80g/m² this
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Photos: Verband Deutscher Papierfabriken (www.vdponline.de ) They show the process of papermaking.
PA P E R P R O O F
PA P E R T E C H N O LO G I S T S CHECK THE RUNNING
PA P E R M A K I N G FA C T O R Y SISTER-MAG.COM
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GRAMMAGE value refers to the weight of the paper for the area indicated; it’s the so-called grammage. Bible paper or India paper, has a paper density of between 25 and 60g/m², ordinary writing paper of between 80 and 100 g/m². Watercolor papers are available from 120 to 250 g/ m², photo paper and postcards range from 250 to 350 g/m². Are density only has a mediate effect on the strength of a sheet of paper. Volume paper for example can have the same weight as ordinary writing paper but be twice or three times as thick. In order to create volume several layers of paper may be compressed. Business cards by Moo for example are made up of four layers to create an area density of 600 g/m² which strictly speaking puts them at the border to cardboard which comprises all paper with a grammage upwards Photo: Gmund Papier (www.gmund.com of 600 g/m².
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)
Desk t o Success N째5
INE S KOUIDIS
Paper Artist W EBSITE
www.ines-kouidis.de CIT Y
Berlin PICT URE S & TE X T
Elisa von Hof
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… she makes works of art from old newspapers.
You know you've made it in the arts scene when the Kardashians call to ask for pictures. Well, you‘ve made it to Hollywood, in any case. This is what Ines Kouidis from Berlin did. The artist‘s collages are in great demand. Why? Because 247
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Desk t o Success
she makes works of art from old newspapers. What may sound rather dubious at first turns out to be a real treat to behold. For six years Kouidis has been creating mosaics from yesterday’s headlines, pasting cuttings from papers and shreds of paper together to create portraits of celebrities and iconic figures. Frida Kahlo meets Brigitte Bardot, Sean Connery cosies up to Marlene Dietrich, Amy Winehouse next to Elvis. All of her pictures depict people who have made a noticeable mark on our culture and who are immediately recognisable. Piece by piece and shred by shred, they come alive in SISTER-MAG.COM
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her Berlin studio. Kouidis often focuses on personalities from the mid-20th century; musicians and style icons from the 1950s and 1960s are her favourite. "I enjoy creating images of people I like. If I don’t care about a person I find it hard to focus on their portraits for weeks on end," she explains. She does indeed have to look her subject in the eyes every day. With the Beatles she didn’t find that hard to do at all. Her newest project sees all four mop-tops next to each other, on separate easels yet forming a union: Ringo, John, Paul and George with impish grins snapped at the height of their career. In order to fully capture the Brits, Kouidis has done research into each of their biographies, learned about their private lives and individual ways of life, read their lyrics, and, of course, listened to their music. Again, and
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again, and again. Kouidis doesn’t just use any piece of paper in her art, either; she only uses pictures and visible terms that have a relation to the celebrity. To do this successfully, she has to get to know her subject fairly well. While working on Audrey Hepburn or Elizabeth Taylor, she watched their films for hours. With Elvis Presley, she listened to his music on vinyl on her record player from the 70s. Even if someone were to look at her creations with a magnifying glass, every single shred would still make sense and tell its own little story about the subject. "Of course this can hold up the process and I think a lot about whether a piece is suitable for a certain person and reflects them in some way," says Kouidis. Take Marilyn Monroe – looking at her shoulder, you can read
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the word »birthday« and also see a grinning president Kennedy peek out from her hair. These are allusions to the famous birthday serenade and her alleged affair with the former head of state. Kouidis smooths the white coat she always wears in her studio. Because of the glue she uses, her hands are sticky. She wipes them on her coat. After hours of working in front of a canvas, her coat often gets stiff from dried
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glue. And so does everything else, like her paint brushes and the pencil she uses to trace a portrait’s outline on the canvas. She mounts the photographs of her subjects to the easel with a hair pin for inspiration. Everything gets sticky. Sometimes even her mobile phone, which is usually her cue to take a break. "When I am all immersed into the person in my current project, I am prone to losing myself in them and forgetting about everything around me," she says.
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When the 52-year-old commences a new project, she first finds a suitable photo of her subject and traces the likeness on a canvas. She then adds compelling elements, changes facial expressions and gestures where necessary, and decides the angle of light and shadow to determine where the lighter pieces should go and where the darker ones belong. And then she starts her paper chase.
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She orders newspapers and magazine, buys photo books and glossies; a time-sensitive and often expensive task. In order to be able to use the most authentic pictures, she buys many old newspapers. These can be real collectors' items and only available from enthusiasts or specialised retailers. Orders of 300â‚Ź are no exception. For her series on the Beatles, Kuoidis managed to unearth Bravo
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Desk t o Success magazines from 1967. When she finds an item like this on eBay, she gets really excited: »It can be really hard to cut these magazines into pieces. They are chronicles of our history," she says while applying
glue to a shred of paper. Looking at the work in progress through her black-rimmed glasses, she considers the best spot for the shred. The words »I love rock ‘n‘ roll« are legible on it. She decides to go with George. "Sometimes
when I haven’t seen one of my pictures in a long time, I am surprised what I can find in it," she says.
of her pictures back then were mounted to the walls of the school halls. It was then that she decided art would be her way of making a living. After finishing school, she studied at the Freie Kunstakademie in Berlin and created watercolour and acrylic paintings before discovering collages in 2010. She started
Sitting still is not for Kouidis. She does crafts, sews, and restores furniture. It all started in elementary school when she first discovered art class. Many SISTER-MAG.COM
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with a picture of her children and discovered that drawing and collage technique make a good combination. She tentatively added some paper cuttings to a pencil drawing of her twins. When she shows her creation to friends,
decides to buy it.
family, and acquaintances, they get excited and want a version for themselves. So Koudis continues to work with glue and paper. Her next collage, a considerably less timid approach, shows guys smoking in front of the skyline of New York. It is a great success. A physician from Manhattan discovers it on her website and
other day, she saw a poster on an advertising column promoting an event at a Berlin discotheque. She got out of the car, tore the poster off, and took it home in her handbag. Even while leafing through magazines in the doctor's waiting room she will tear out the occasional headline. She just can’t help it anymore.
She has been under the spell of the meticulousness her puzzles demand ever since. She is always on the hunt for the perfect scrap of paper in and outside her studio. Waiting at a red light the
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Desk t o Success Kouidis can work on the same project for weeks, always adding just one more piece that may work. But there comes a point when she has to tell herself that she is done. "I have been known to add another scrap or two even days later," she admits with a grin. Then she carefully peels a piece of her current mosaic off from a protruding edge and replaces it with another one. »Usually, once I have finished, I am reasonably happy with the result. It’s my ambition to create the image the way I saw it in my head and that can take some time," she says. The Beatles are almost done, but she is not entirely happy with George yet. He needs more attention, but she must finish the project. After all, she has been working on the four lads for weeks. They have become so familiar to her, that she actually greets them when she arrives at her studio in the morning and says, «Hello boys! How are you today?" But there comes a point when she can’t look at the same set of faces anymore and needs to focus on a new subject. SISTER-MAG.COM
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Text: Carl Richter
l i s n e T g n i t s te the sisterMAG
guide to paper
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lat images, blurry letters and yet another paper jam – who hasn’t toyed with the thought of just throwing their printer out of the window at some point? And while taking the matter literally into your own hands may sound like a reasonable idea at the time, you should keep in mind that it’s likely not going to hit the true culprit. This ostensibly innocent malefactor that fools you with its unassuming white appearance seems impervious to any suspicion. It is, of course, the paper. Gone are the days when you could say with certainty that the paper you use was made from wood, water and glue. Manufacturers are in constant competition about who comes up with the next great new filling material, brightening agents, or technical refinement process to make their white products even whiter, the 257
tear resistant ones even more tear resistant, and their uniquely printable surfaces even more printable. There is no one »piece of paper.« Even something as mundane as photocopier paper comes in a breathtaking number of varieties and equally vast price ranges. It’s easy to assume that the best quality paper will yield the best printing result, but judging what makes a sheet the right sheet for the job is not an easy task for a lay person. So we have created this sisterMAG guide on printing paper that will let you in on the secrets of paper selection, tell you how to avoid colour running down your sheet, and how to ensure a long and healthy life for your printer. Simply changing the paper may increase your printing results noticeably; and we’ll show you how. SISTERMAG 24 | 05 / 2016
What are you printing onto what surface? The most important point to consider when choosing the right kind of paper is your printer‘s technology. The most common technologies in use both for home and office printers are inkjet and laser printing. The difference between the two is the colour application method. A laser printer uses powdered colours, i.e. toner, while inkjet technology relies on liquid colours to apply an image to the paper. This is important to know when considering the different kinds of paper surfaces. A laser printer is an undemanding and reliable labourer when it co-
mes to paper selection. Thanks to its dry colours, which still achieve high coverage, it will yield sharp results even on economy paper – what most manufacturers call their light, uncoated varieties. They are not, however, suitable for an inkjet printer. The rougher surface absorbs liquid colour like a sponge and makes images appear flat and slushy, colours lose their vibrancy, and fonts will look out of focus. This kind of printer is best used in combination with the aptly named inkjet paper. Its special coating keeps the paper from absorbing the liquid colour so every drop of it stays right where it belongs, guaranteeing a vi-
inkjet
or
Laser printer
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brantly coloured result with sharp contours in both writing and mages. When using a laser printer you should not opt for inkjet paper. Its toner is fixed on the paper at relatively high temperatures, which can alter the paper’s surface. This may result in a paper jam, or worse, the destruction of the entire device. Intentionally dense?! Area density is another important consideration when choosing printing paper. You can find this value on the packaging. It is given in a numerical quantity relating to
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grams per square meter. So dividing the stated value by 16 will give you the actual weight of an A4-sized sheet of paper. Selecting the most suitable area density is not just a matter of taste, but also one of budget. The differences, however, are immediately evident, even while printing. The lower the area density, the more translucent your sheet will be. This can be an issue when printing on both sides and negatively affect both the quality of the print and its legibility. While area densities between 70 and 90g/m2 are considered standard, most printers can actually handle a density of up to 200g/ m2 without problems. So if you need new business cards or want to print some fancy party invitations, that won’t be a problem at all. The manual will tell you how much area density exactly your printer can handle. Glossy or matte – what’s your favorite coat? The standard inkjet paper coming out of the paper mill is of the matte variety but there is actually a whole range of different options
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to be had for both printing technologies that can help you optimize your printing results. The differences are mainly due to the changed blend of colour pigments and thickeners used to make a paper’s coating. Coated papers come in matte, and glossy versions can be treated on just one or even both sides. Whenever you need your printing results to be of especially high
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quality, consider going for special coating. When printing images and photos, make sure you take a proper dip into your purse. It will yield a noticeably superior result. A threat to forests There are no two ways about it: Paper kills forests. Every fifth tree chopped down will be made into paper or cardboard. Greenpeace estimates that Germans alone go through 20 million tons of paper
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liquid colours for the inkjet technology
powdered colours for the laser printer
every year. It takes around 7.5 kilos of wood to make 500 sheets of your average 80g/m2 office printing paper, and more often than not this wood is sourced from tropical virgin and rainforests. One alternative is using recycled paper or other products which use plant fibers of certified origin. In Germany, paper made from 100% waste paper has a blue angel symbol stamped onto its packaging.
Its look and feel may not exactly scream "high quality printing result,ÂŤ but for your everyday lowbrow printing needs it is usually perfectly sufficient. Looking out for certificates is generally a good idea when shopping for paper; like that of the Forest Stewardship CouncilÂŽ. Only papers that use wood fibers grown through demonstrably sustainable forestry are allowed to sport the FSC symbol.
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Desk t o Success N째6 ROGAN BROWN
Paper Artist
W EBSITE
www.roganbrown.com REGION
South of France PICT URE S
Rogan Brown
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First, tell us something about youself. What’s your name? Where do you come from and where do you live these days? My name is Rogan Brown, I am AngloIrish, and I live in the South of France.
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When did you notice your creative vein? How did you become an artist? My creative passion emerged when I was a young teenager, 13 or 14 years old, encouraged by an inspiring and supportive art teacher who noticed my interest and nurtured it. My twin passion was literature, which I later went on to study at university and then to teach for many years. During this period I always made art, experimenting with different styles and techniques from realism to abstract expressionism, from painting to sculpture. I didn't seek to exhibit or sell this
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work because creativity is such a fragile, precious thing that I feared would break when exposed to the hardness of the commercial art market. Then the internet arrived and it became possible to show and sell my work in a completely different way, on my own terms. Your art is influenced by Chinese artwork. What does that mean exactly? Traditional Chinese art is one of the many influences on my work. I admire the immense intricacy and detail found in the landscape painting of masters such as Wang Meng and the way in which such artists sought to create stylised icons based on natural forms such as trees, rock formations, or flowing water that they then repeated in different compositions. I, too, seek to create a similarly stylised iconography based on nature.
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How do you get inspired? By looking and trying to see. It may seem an obvious thing, but there are actually lots of different ways of looking and seeing. Most of the time we look but do not see very much; we have to edit and reduce what we see, otherwise we wouldn't be able to walk more than a metre without being overwhelmed by the vast detail and beauty that surrounds us. The problem is we spend so much time editing that we eventually forget how to look and how to see. It is the artist's job to remind us and to help us see again. So I find inspiration by looking at nature, studying it, immersing myself in it, constantly seeking patterns and echoes in different contexts and at different scales – from satellite images of the earth to microscopic images of the human body, from particle physics to
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Desk t o Success astronomy. I take what I find and cut sculptures out of layers of paper, the most humble, familiar and unthreatening of materials transformed by the imagination into something that is almost alive. Is there a message you want to tell the viewer with your projects? Do these messages change or do you have one underlying motive? The message is, ÂťOpen your eyes!ÂŤ When my work is exhibited, people always react in the same way: they go up close to it and study it, straining their eyes to take in the detail. This gives me great satisfaction and makes me feel that I have fulfilled my objective, which is to get people to open their eyes, look and see. In a world where we are constantly bombarded by images on our phones, tablets, TVs, etc., and constantly exposed to ads and publicity, we stop ourselves from being overwhelmed by
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shutting down our ability to see or by looking for only a fraction of a second. Our attention span is therefore shrinking, and getting people to slow down and spend a few moments contemplating a work of art is becoming increasingly difficult. The days, where you could shock people into looking are long gone, no one is shocked anymore by what they see in a gallery. So you have to seduce them and impress them in quite a different way to get them to stop, look, see and contemplate. How do you start with a project and how do you plan it? Everything starts with drawing. In essence, my work is really a series of layered cut drawings, so pencil on paper is always the point of departure. If I'm working on a commission I'll immerse myself in the visual universe relevant to the piece I've been asked to create. Google Images is an amazing source of inspiration
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Desk t o Success and I spend a lot of time spinning through its endless, labyrinthine network of visuals. The sculptures themselves evolve organically through experimentation and trial and error. I create two distinct bodies of work: pieces that are entirely handcut, such as Cut Microbe and Outbreak, and pieces that are cut by laser and then hand mounted, like the Magic Circle series. For the handcut pieces the planning is obviously far more important as each layer takes a huge amount of time to complete. I draw and cut one layer, then use tracing paper to draw the next layer, and so on. For the laser-cut pieces the working tempo is completely different; I can go from drawing to finished cut in 10 minutes, allowing me to play with ideas much more easily and fluidly. The laser obviously increases the level of intricacy I can achieve and I try to push the possibilities to
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the limit. The large Magic Circle pieces can take up to three weeks of full-time laser cutting per sculpture, and then two weeks of hand mounting. The ultimate goal with both hand and lasercut work is to overwhelm and to delight the eye with detail in order to reflect, just a little bit, the vast, incomprehensible scale of the natural world that surrounds us. Which tools do you use most frequently? For the handcut work I use a scalpel knife and I can go through hundreds of blades on one sculpture. The other key tool is the laser cutter and I own a top quality American model (Epilog) that can run 9-12 hours per day, every day without complaint. Other than that, the only important tool is a pencil. My work may be extremely complex and intricate, but my working method is very simple and I think people like this paradox.
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Did you ever wrinkle or destroy the paper accidently during creating so that you had to start all over again? What has been the most tedious project so far? I think Cut Microbe was the toughest because it was a single piece and took five months of painstaking work to complete. I was working on a larger scale than usual and really pushing the material limits of both paper and cardboard in order to make the tentacle-like flagella of the bug stay rigid and float. It wasn't easy. To make a work like that is a long journey, both mental and spiritual. On some days you can lose faith in what you're doing and wonder whether the whole thing will work. It's tough! But each moment of that work is visible in every cut and slice of the paper, people can see the time that has gone in to it and they appreciate the self-discipline and meditation that was needed to achieve it.
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Mistakes do happen, but are mercifully rare. The cutting is very precise as everything is drawn out in detail in advance. Problems arise with the gluing stage when you have one opportunity to position the work correctly. If you get it wrong, strong language can ensue! Where are your pieces of art produced? In a studio or at your desk? I have three main work spaces: a laser cutting room, a hand cutting room, and a mounting and packing room. Because of the length of time I spend working I can suffer from various problems such as lower back strain from sitting for so long (now I prefer to work standing) and repetitive strain injury in my hand and arm when hand cutting for months at a time. I have actually developed a specialised workout routine to counter some of these issues!
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How does your workplace look like? A mess! Paper and foamboard fragments everywhere, glue bottles and used scalpel blades everywhere. I work in organized chaos. The one exception is the mounting room, where everything SISTER-MAG.COM
is clean and precisely ordered ready for the final fixing in place. This is the ÂťfloatingÂŤ room where 2D paper is transformed into 3D sculpture and the paper is made to float one layer on top of another. The chaos of creation finishes in the order of completion.
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r e aP p g n i k ma
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Instructions & Idea: Christine Pechatschek Pictures: Andrea Indrich | Table: Homefashion Pusch
DIY PAPERMAKING
A creative, homemade present is sure to delight any recipient. So how about surprising someone with handmade paper next time an opportunity presents itself? Together with Christine and Andrea, we will show you how to do it.
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TO PRODUCE HOMEMADE PAPER, YOU WILL NEED THE FOLLOWING EQUIPMENT: er p a p r ie p o c . .g (e r e p a p te s Wa
)
Bowl
ixe m ld e h d n a h r o r e d n le b Immersion ing in ra d e d a m e m o h r o t h g u o Store-b frame (lid and sieve) mat Bath towel or waterproof Rectangular plastic tub
r
Sponge 2 felt mats Rolling pin
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BUILD YOUR OWN DRAINING FRAME, YOU WILL NEED: 2 picture frames of equal size Fly screen Stapler
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PREPARATIONS
+ Shred the paper into stamp-sized pieces.
+ S oak the pieces in plenty of lukewarm water for at least half an hour, preferably overnight.
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k a m r e aP p + I n the meantime, you can build your own draining frame. It’s really easy: I bought two picture frames of identical size and stapled a fly screen to one of them.
+ F urther shred the water-paper-mixture with an immersion blender (careful: there will be splashing!) or a hand-held mixer until a homogenous (but not too smooth) paste has formed; the pulp.
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+ Place the lid onto the sieve; this prevents pulp from oozing out and determines the size of the sheet of paper.
+ Spread the bath towel out on the waterproof mat.
THE SCREENING + Fill the plastic tub with water
and by hand, or using a ladle, add the pulp until the fibres have dispersed evenly.
+ The more pulp you add, the thicker the paper will be.
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+N ow, carefully immerse the frame until it reaches the bottom of
the tub. Turn it into a horizontal position and carefully draw it back up. Hold the frame very straight and carefully move it back and forth so the fibres spread evenly inside the sieve. Now you can remove the frame from the water. Let the excess water drain and remove the lid.
+ Y ou can already see the shape of the finished sheet of paper but, of course, it’s still soaking wet.
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THE COUCHING + In order to drain the
water from the paper (this is called couching), place a felt mat onto the paper on the sieve and turn both layers onto the bath towel (the felt mat will be between the paper and the towel).
+N ow use a sponge to carefully dap at any excess liquid.
+ L ift the frame and very
carefully remove the paper from the sieve.
+ T he easiest way to fully dry
the sheet is to place it on an absorbing towel; this will take considerable time, though.
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i k a m r e aP p + A faster way is to cover the paper with a second felt mat and press
the water out using a rolling pin (wring out the upper felt mat when it gets too wet).
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When you’re done with the pin you can further dry the sheet between two dish towels. You can even iron it if you like, but personally I like the rough surface as it is what makes homemade paper special. 281
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FANCY AN UNUSUAL GIFT? Now, I’d like to show you how to use handmade paper hearts to make love grow.
INGREDIENTS Waste paper (e.g. copier paper) Bowl
eld mixer -h d n a h r/ e d n le b n io rs e m Im e m a fr g in in ra d e th m o fr ve Sie or a splash guard at m f o ro rp te a w r o l e w to th Ba e Heart-shaped cookie cutt
rs
Cress seeds
er w o fl ll a m s r o r ja g in rv e s A small pre Some potting soil Cling film
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pot
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2 3 repare extra thick pulp P (by using just a little water on a lot of paper). Place the cookie cutter on the sieve or splash guard and fill the shape with pulp, pressing as much excess water from it as possible. The heart should be about 3mm high.
Sprinkle the heart with cress seeds and then carefully remove the cutter.
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4 + F ill potting soil into the preserving jar (or flower pot) and dampen the soil slightly.
5 +N ow place the damp cress heart on top and place the lid or the jar (or cover the pot with cling film).
+ K eep the jar/pot in a bright, warm place and keep the soil nice and
damp and you will see the first delicate shoots will sprout after two days. You have made love grow!
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Nicely wrapped hearts make a sweet present for a friend or xenia for wedding guests that make a lasting memory! 285
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text and pictures: Natascha Safarik von Tintenfuchs
THE HISTORY OF
Calligraphy Where printing, crafts and art intersect: The History of Western calligraphy Hearing the word »calligraphy« invokes images of elegant lines and floating shapes; modern greeting cards and invitations on which beautiful lettering artfully intertwines. We’d like to take you on a journey to the origins of beautiful writing (from the Greek »kalós« = beautiful; »graphein« = write); what it is today and what it isn’t.
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THE TERM Nowadays the term calligraphy is often used synonymously with the words lettering and typography, but it actually describes something distinctly different. Lettering is the art of drawing letters (like a still life of letters) and typography is the setting of letters (in the past this was done at a printer’s workshop with letters made of lead; today it’s usually done on a computer); while calligraphy is the art (or craft) of writing beautifully.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF WESTERN CALLIGRAPHY I’d like to start our journey through the history of Western calligraphy, which for long stretches of time is synonymous with the development of handwriting, and the advent of Latin characters, because it relates to the creation of these. Capitalis monumentalis, also known as Roman square capitals, were developed as a form of writing around 400 A.D. Taking a walk through Rome will lead you past countless examples of these letters as they adorn just about anything. Based on intricate, strictly geometrical design principles the letters are still used by calligraphers today: Romanis Capitalis are written in broad pen non-connecting handwriting. As the name suggests, our modern Capita font
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info
WHAT IS TYPOGRAPHY?
Untiusdam nem. Ut fuga. Tinit l e t t e r s p a c i n g leading quatenim adit quist rerspe con po wordspacing dundignimin etus et qu.
Typography concerns the art and technique of font design. This includes the arrangement of letters, their distances from one another, and the spaces between words; it’s about orthotypographically correct punctuation. The right typography allows works to be optimized in their legibility.
developed from this system. The Romans also created Uncial, which thanks to its newly added smaller case letters was much easier to write. This was a noticeable relief for the Romans as they no longer needed a chisel to write, a cut piece of wood would do.
CHARLEMAGNE IS STILL TEACHING US TODAY When the Roman Empire fell its characteristic style of writing dwindled, too, as the many newly formed realms developed their own specific and individual ways of writing. So many new sets of letters were developed
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that very soon no single person was able to read all of them any longer. So Charlemagne decided that his scribe should develop a standardized, uniform set of letters which every single one of his subjects was obliged to learn: Carolingian minuscule. All this despite the fact that Charlemagne himself (according to common belief) couldn’t even read. His new set of letters made it all the way to England where it was further refined (more upright shapes, shortened ascenders and descenders). Edward Johnston, who by many is regarded as the father of modern calligraphy, thought Charlemagne’s way of writing had some room for improvement. SISTER-MAG.COM
He developed Foundational Hand, which teachers of broad pen non-connected writing still define as the perfect point at which to start studying the subject of calligraphy. All through the Middle Ages the main application of calligraphy, by the way, was the reproduction of manuscripts.
GOTHIC AND BLACKLETTER Towards the end of the 12th century a number of fonts developed from the ones mentioned above which may sound familiar to you: Gothic scripts. (You’re allowed to think of a metal band now.) There are
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many variations of which Textura, written in broad pen and also available in modernised versions, is still commonly used. During the Italian Renaissance, Rotunda was a popular alternative and founded the basis for Humanistic Italics which survives in today’s italics, and remains popular with calligraphers and in any number of fonts. Blackletter developed from Gothic in the 16th century; until the 20th century it remained the foremost script for letterpress printing in Germany.
CALLIGRAPHY TURNS INTO AN ART With the advent of letterpress printing and higher circulation of written texts the design of the script itself became less of a focal point, and in turn led to a resurgence of calligraphy as an art form. In a sense it was a parallel development to what we are seeing today. This is also when calligraphy and handwriting developed down increasingly divergent routes. While Gutenberg’s movable type
printing spread through German speaking countries in the 16th century, England held on to calligraphy and stuck with the reproduction of beautiful books through copperplate engraving and subsequent printing. This is how we got the font which today is regarded as the basis for socalled modern or contemporary calligraphy: Copperplate. It's good legibility, appealing aesthetics and most of all the
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improved writing speed made it extremely popular. By the end of the 18th century it had spread all over Europe and even to America. This success was in no small part down to an Englishman called George Bickham, whose masterpiece »The Universal Penman« is still thought of by many calligraphy enthusiasts, as the greatest work of art using the method of engraving.
20TH CENTURY AND THE DIY SCENE
broken script is German Kurrent which was originally developed by Ludwig Sütterlin. It is written in pointed pen and has a passing resemblance to Copperplate. The invention of modern writing instruments (Fountain pens! Ballpoint pens! Gel pens!) and the rise of computers (unfortunately!) spelled out the definite parting of the ways for calligraphy and handwriting. A very simplified form of handwriting completely devoid of ornaments is taught in schools today; without the use of feathers or contrast – and most people only type now. Maybe
When the German Rudolf Koch breathed new life into Blackletter, which had developed from Gothic, he started a veritable renaissance of calligraphy in Germany. Because it was only used in German speaking countries it is also known as »deutsche Schrift« (German font). It is what is referred to as a broken script (because its arches are visibly broken when the stroke changes direction) and also extremely versatile. Another example of a
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WHAT IS LETTERING?
Lettering concerns letters or logos that are illustrated, rather than written or typed. It’s not necessarily about decorative writing, as in calligraphy. The process involves letters being designed through sketches on a grid in order to craft one exact letter for a single, specific use.
that’s exactly why calligraphy is experiencing its resurrection as an independent art form in a dedicated DIY scene. Many of the people involved are fed up with staring at Helvetica or Arial on a computer screen all day and opt for, quite literally, a hands-on approach. And those who aren’t tired of working on the computer yet can focus on digitalized calligraphy and print their art on shirts, bags, stamps etc. Logo design has 293
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Foto: Waldkind Photographyi incorporated logos based on script, so-called logotypes, which have now become an integral part of the art. Increasingly, professional calligraphers are consulted whose lettering is then used. Calligraphy has also become essential in the wedding business. In the United States it is so common to have all one’s wedding invitations written and addressed by a calligrapher that a fair amount of people make their SISTER-MAG.COM
living doing just that. And while this trend may not have swept Europe just yet, it is probably just a matter of time. Advertising and cover design have also jumped on the calligraphy (and lettering) band wagon: advertising boards and campaigns incorporating handwritten elements are increasingly popular. So rejoice, there is definite reason to believe that this exquisite form of art will continue to gain recognition.
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text and pictures: Marion Sendker
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Show me
ing your w w rriitting
f
and I’ll tell you
who you are o wh
Graphology is the theory of handwriting. It analyses letters and words in regard to different characteristics. The result is nothing less than a tangible personality analysis. A man is in prison. He’s a convicted murderer and serves his sentence. But somehow he gets to know a woman and falls in love with her. He writes letters to her since she is free and he is behind bars. In these letters, he fulfills her every wish and makes wonderful promises. When he is about to get released, the woman asks herself if she can trust him and if he really has changed. She takes his letters and goes to see Hannelore Holsträter. »Is he serious with me? Will he keep his promises?», she asks and gives a stack of paper to the woman. SISTER-MAG.COM
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Hannelore Holsträter is a certified graphologist, which means that she studied the theory of handwriting for several years. A large part of her training was of a psychological nature, especially psychoanalytical theories and works were discussed. This is
important since almost the full range of our personality can be found in our handwriting. »There are a few aspects that you can capture quite well: the cognitive skills for example, whether a person has a practical orientation or is intellectually skilled, how much phantasy they have, willpower, vital energy, the willingness to establish contact with other people – that’s all in the handwriting«, Hannelore Holsträter explains. »One can appear to be so eloquent and, at the same time, have so little empathy.«
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T h e s ig n a t u r e is w o r t h a thousand words A person's signature is enough to give the expert an impression of the particular person. »It’s always a negative sign if someone has an illegible autograph.« Even big CEOs and company directors can’t fool the petite woman. Because only those who sign like they normally write are ready and brave enough to appear like they really are. »If someone writes their name in a big and wild and preferably illegible way, they want to hide something behind it. They want to present someone
different than who they are to the outside world.« It's not a nice characteristic and can also turn out to be decisive when it comes to job applications: Quite often, companies give handwriting samples of potential employees
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to Hannelore Holsträter who writes psychological reports on the applicants. Normally, she doesn’t know more than the age, the gender and the professional career of the person. Knowing the resume is important in order to classify the person correctly: In which country and which language did they learn how to write? Has the Latin script been their first script? Does the person have to write much by hand, or do they only write digitally? Factors like these can be deduced from the resume and are important for the analysis. If a piece of writing looks less skillful the writer is either not very intellectual, or they simply lack motoric practice. In other words: They rarely write. »Especially in certain jobs, there are specific types of writing. For
example, a primary school teacher who uses the Latin standard script every day generally has SISTER-MAG.COM
orderly and scholastic writing.« This form of writing, if used in different occupations, is classified differently. For example when it is used by a manager, but it doesn’t necessarily make them less intelligent.
N ic e w r it in g d o es n ’t m a k e a n ic e c h a r a c t er Hannelore Holsträter actually thought that her training in graphology would make her own writing better and more beautiful. But like many psychology students who hope that they can treat themselves through studying, she came to learn that her studies couldn’t help her handwriting. »I always had the ideal image of beautiful writing in mind. But I won’t get there.« The graphologist says that you can’t arbitrarily change your handwriting, especially not continuously. The personality determines the writing, not the other way round. That’s why she asks for pieces of writing from different time periods when she
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prepares a report. This way, she can see from the development of the writing if and how the character has changed.
»French people demand a certain discipline from the children. That partly reflects in the writing and in the personality.«
The foundation for a person's writing style is primarily laid by the personality. The standard writing, the first writing you learn, is formative for the future writing. »Even children in the first year of school write differently.« A graphologist has to take into account how and where a person has learned how to write. If they only learned block letters, their writing will be more disconnected later. The nationality can play a role as well: For example, Germans don’t learn how to write like the
Beautiful writing is more about calligraphy than about a beautiful character, Hannelore Holsträter says. »The most important thing is that it’s individual and not too close to the standard writing from school.« It doesn’t have to be beautiful.
French do. They sometimes form letters differently and are even more authoritarian in the matter of technique than the Germans. SISTER-MAG.COM
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Every person's writing consists of individual features that have to be examined step by step. Hannelore Holsträter processes particular characteristics using a chart: Does the writing appear to be big or small, wide or narrow, round or angular, legible or illegible? For example, a simple and plain writing style represents the ability to think abstractly and theoretically. In this case, the letters are sometimes uncaredfor and rather small. On the other hand, squiggles normally indicate a good imaginative power. Those who write energetically think
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emotionally rather than rationally and may sometimes judge subjectively. Those who have a writing that falls to the left don’t have a complicated personality – contrary to the wellknown idea of non-professionals. »It represents a turn backwards as the person is rather based in the past, partially traditionconscious, conservative or out for retreat. Maybe they are not able to express themselves extrovertly.« But beware: You always have to look at writing as a whole. »You can’t imply certain personality traits just by looking at individual features«, the expert warns. She needs at least five hours for a report. The importance of an alignment to the left depends on the complexity of the feature in the context of the whole writing. »Features and tensions can be seen in the writing«, Hannelore Holsträter says. However, it’s a question of psychology where they come from and what they represent. »You learn that in the course of study.«
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According to studies, well-trained graphologists have success rates of 90 to 95 percent.
s u s r e v g n i t i r w d n Ha , n a m o R w e N s e m Ti . o C & k c a l B l a i Ar Considering the scale of digitalisation, the whole discussion about »beautiful writing« could be obsolete – as well as Hannelore Holsträter’s job. Who needs a handwriting analysis if in today’s life, everything only happens digitally and online?
»Graphologist organizations have already dealt with this question for a long time«, she admits. In America and some parts of Europe, it’s even discussed whether children should learn
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Nice writing doesn’t make a nice character
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how to write at all. As »digital natives«, they get a variety of beautiful, legible and artful fonts via the click of a mouse. The reason for the existence of writing is at stake. How important is handwriting today? Meanwhile, neurology enters the discussion with a survey and makes the graphologists heave a sigh of relief. Researchers found out that handwriting inevitably contributes to learning success. When you write down by hand what you hear and see, you keep your mind fit. When the human brain takes up a piece of information that simultaneously is captured in writing, synapses in the brain are formed that ensure a better memory. But if you type the information into a computer, you don’t get these links in the brain.
s e v i t c e t e d g n i t i r Handw Another man is in prison. He also committed a murder – that’s for sure since he already confessed. Some day, he gets a letter. His minor daughter lets him know that she doesn’t want anything to do with him anymore. »Such nonsense!«, the murderer says. »My daughter SISTER-MAG.COM
clings to me, she wouldn’t write something like this!« He commissions a handwriting expert who scrutinizes the handwritten letter. Borwin Holsträter studied graphology – just like his wife Hannelore – and specialized in comparing writing. He often works for the courts and for a detective agency. He usually checks signatures
for authenticity. As opposed to graphology, Borwin Holsträter compares writing. In the case of the murderer he had to find out if the letter from the daughter was forged. He requested handwriting samples, checked every letter, every squiggle and every dot over an i under a special microscope. The signature made him very skeptical: »Writing is more than shaping letters. It’s often a question of the pressure we apply to pen and paper. You can’t fake that easily.« Some days later, the
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murderer can sigh with relief: With almost absolute certainty, the letter was forged; his daughter sticks by him.
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things they know better. »I try to emphasize the positive aspects.
h t r o w s i e r u t a n g The si s d r o w d n a s u o h t a Hannelore Holsträter can’t provide results like this, and she doesn’t have to. In her job, it’s not about whether something is true or false but about the question if people fit – like the applicant and the employer or one partner and the other. »Almost everybody could go well with anybody else«, she says. »But when it’s about personal characteristics, like the issue that one needs more freedom than the other, the relationship becomes unnecessarily complicated if you don’t know about these things.« The partnership reports she prepares can help. Because the other person can accept the
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I also point out problems but I would never say that two people don’t fit together. That would be presumptuous«,she says. In the case of the murderer with the love letters, she didn’t express a direct recommendation for action as well. She even came to the conclusion that he’s serious about his girlfriend and that he believes what he promises. »But his will power wasn’t sufficient. He wouldn’t keep up, even if he would really like to.«
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THE PRACTICAL TEST WITH TWO HANDWRITING SAMPLES The author brought two handwriting samples to the interview with the graphologist. Within a few minutes, Hannelore Holsträter gets a rough overview, an »impression«. »I would have to verify that afterwards, and there are signatures missing as well«, she points out. Nevertheless, she can tell a lot from the two written sentences:
sample 1
Sample 2
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Sample 1 Woman, 25 years old, elementary school, secondary school, 1 year of internships, law studies »» For a woman, she has very simple writing. »» Generally, the writing is a little restless. »» This writing is very small, the meridian looks relatively continuous which means that it’s rather small. »» She makes some very good connections. Here, she combines the dots over the Ü with the R – we call that facing combinations. »» T hat’s a more skillful writing, rather uncombined with some interesting combinations: Basically, the letters are individually placed but also combined. »» The writing has a steep slope. She writes neither to the right nor to the left.
Sample 2 Woman, 23 years old, elementary school, secondary school, medical studies »» T he first thing I recognize in this writing is that it is very round, very full – we call this style full writing. The median is relatively big, compared to the ascenders; the writing is generally big. Also, the ascenders and descenders are not very distinct. The dominant feature is the meridian. »» Her writing has a few slopes to the left which you can see from the way she combines the letters. She uses curls and loops to the preceding letters. »» She has insecurities in her writing, some of her letters are not formed confidently; for example, the word »Du« looks a little wretched. »» Also, there are unclear elements; she brings the R in here. The Word »Brief« is significantly unclear as well. The reason could be that it’s close to the edge and she wanted to continue writing instead of crossing out the word and rewriting it. It’s a question of how far she can go with that. »» The writing is generally not very skillful and rather static. »» The word endings are noticeable: The letters face inwards, and I see many arcades – that’s how we call letters that are closed upwards. »» The writing has a steep slope. She writes neither to the right nor to the left. 307
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The meaning This woman seems to be able to connect thoughts well. She has very intellectual connections. She’s also a woman that acts rather rational than emotional.she seems to have clear emotions. I also assume that she’s a woman that is still searching. Or maybe she’s skilled in a versatile way,
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in terms of not thinking in one direction and being open to many things, thanks to her curiosity. She’s curious about her law studies, but sees this and that and integrates it into her thoughts. Maybe she’s not that determined all the time.
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In my opinion, this woman is rather emotional than rational. She thinks more in a practical and logical than in a theoretical and abstract way. The reason for the low writing skills could be that she doesn’t write as much by hand. Her age suggests that. Since she graduated secondary school and made it into medical studies right after, I think that her writing is just not that well trained. I assume that she‘s rather reserved in terms of contact. It could be that she communictes well with other people because she is skillful or she learned how to do that. But
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she doesn’t show much of her personality, doesn’t like to show
emotions and doesn’t let anybody get too close to her. Nevertheless,
she could be very sociable but doesn’t like letting people see inside her. I assume that this woman has a clear path. It always was her wish to do something in medicine, it always will be, and she will be a good doctor. I also think that she’s a person that is neither introvert nor extrovert, she is rather straightforward, especially in her opinions and as a human being.
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Sweet & smart
Text: Sarah Nitschke
THE HISTORY OF MONEY: A FUTURE WITHOUT CASH? The article was first published on the blog of HypoVereinsbank
Bills and coins have been our constant companions for centuries but they are increasingly substituted by cashless alternatives. Yet we find it hard to imagine a truly cashless future.
Money in its paper bill form is widely accepted today despite the fact that it is really only a symbol which we have afforded the meaning and function of money. In Europe, this agreement has been accepted since the 17th century. But why do we continue to pass paper bills across checkout counters when bits and bytes can do the job in an equally convenient and secure manner? Couldn’t we trade the »paper« symbol for a different, more contemporary one? To the advocates of a cashless society paper-based money is nothing but an anachronism. Even back in 1990 only 5% of all monetary transactions in Germany were done in cash. But in their daily lives, i.e. at the supermarket or a restaurant, SISTER-MAG.COM
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1990 only
5%
Germans still rely on cash. According to a study published by the Deutsche Bundesbank (the German Federal of all Bank) 79% of all retail transactions monetary in 2014 were conducted in cash. But transactions physical money is still in retreat. in Germany Our own behaviour as consumers were done who do more and more of their in cash. shopping online is a catalyst for this development. Sufficient grounds for a closer look at the future vision of a cashless society: Reservations towards a new payment method have a strong tradition in Germany — German banks issued paper money way later than their European counterparts. In 1885, cheques had become a common payment method in the United States and Great Britain but the German Association of Savings Banks still refused to accept them. Today’s new electronic ways to pay didn’t receive an allthat-different welcome; even though there are clear disadvantages to the use of cash: Its production, transport and storage are all both complex and expensive. Without cash, governments would have a much easier time controlling the financial system in times of crisis. Nobody could store vast amounts of money outside a bank and macro-economic measures like negative interest could be used much more effectively. Black market labour, tax evasion and heists could be curbed, because criminal cash flow — which requires a certain amount of anonymity — depends on physical cash. But it is exactly this transparency which invites critics too: Every person’s behaviour as a consumer would be trackable 313
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In cooperation with
and much more easily monitored by government bodies and the secret service. The prerequisite for a cashless society therefore are working, democratic structures.
November 2015. Thanks to their PAYPAL image and global The online structures, large payment pioneer corporations may processed be able to affect transactions lasting change in consumer Credit and debit cards aren’t behaviour and the only ways to pay for goods and services without cash. Internet retire credit and debit cards to companies like Google, Apple, the history books. Any monetary Twitter, Amazon and Facebook want transaction — be it online or at a to secure their piece of the cake and newsagent’s — could then be made launch their own payment methods. via smartphone, smartwatch or even Banks and credit institutions aren’t finger print. The race to dominance their main angle to secure a market over cash desks around the globe share though, it’s Paypal. The is already well on its way. Time will online payment pioneer processed tell which technology will prevail; transactions amounting to a volume and to a large part that is up to the just shy of 228 billion Dollars in 2014, consumers. making it the uncontested top of the list.
HOW MUCH LIKE A BANK ARE GOOGLE, APPLE, FACEBOOK & CO.? One alternative, however, is paydirekt which combines the advantages of a variety of methods and also adheres to German security and data protection standards. This online payment method is operated by German banks and saving societies who first offered its services to customers in SISTER-MAG.COM
The development has made digitalization the crucial issue banks and insurances face in the 21st century. »We need to change the way we think and the speed at which we do it. The new players in the market have a completely different way of approaching ›timeto-market‹ considerations and we will be held to their standards«, says Peter Buschbeck, the board member responsible for Private Customer Business at HypoVereinsbank in an interview with der-bank-blog.de.
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CASHLESS REALITY: »SWISH« IN SWEDEN Despite the breakneck pace at which methods are developing now, a cashless society in Germany is still a utopia as Sebastian Kirsch demonstrates in a self-experiment published in German business news magazine Wirtschaftswoche. »Other countries like Sweden and Demark already offer real-time payment methods with immediate transactions on your personal account via smartphone and app. But these systems are limited to the national level«, explains Corinna Lauer, a Product Development Expert for Payments at HypoVereinsbank. As they did in paper money, Sweden is once more leading the way where innovative payments methods are concerned. To some extent, the cashless society has already become a reality in Sweden. From a bun at the baker’s to a beer at your pub, a bicycle at the flea market and the use of a public bathroom — cashless transactions are an integral part of everyday life in Sweden. This is down to the wide acceptance of credit and debit cards and an app called »Swish« which — much like Paypal and paydirekt — can transfer money from one user to the next. You can even »swish« a Stockholm street paper. In Sweden, there is a general consensus that the future will be cashless. Niklas Arvidson, a lecturer at KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and author of the book ›The Cashless Society‹ in an interview with brand eins (a German business monthly) estimated that physical money will be obsolete by 2030. So how does Europe face the future? 315
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The goal is to develop a cashless payment option that covers all of Europe and makes transactions as easy as they are in Sweden. »The European Central Bank has started an initiative for a standardised, European real-time payment system. The European Payment Council has picked up the requirements and will develop a bank transfer-based pan-European system. The new system (SCTinst) is scheduled to launch in November 2017. There are many details still left to be addressed, like how to guarantee a payment after it has been initiated via the app. Existing solutions predominantly rely on the (advance) submission of credit card »SWISHT« details; whereas the new system aims in Sweden to facilitate immediate inter-account transfer«, expands Corinna Lauer. Contactless cash using an NFC technology enabled credit card is already accepted at 45,000 locations in Germany. The technology is supported by Mastercard and Visa who are continuing to promote it. From NFC to paydirekt and biometrics — there is little doubt the future will be dominated by cashless payment methods. But whether a world completely devoid of bills and coins can be made a reality in the foreseeable future remains to be seen.
THE EUROPEAN WAY: A SOCIETY WITHOUT CASH? Find out more on the blog of HypoVereinsbank
More about digitization of the financial sector in the Corporate Blog HypoVereinsbank
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S TA R T UP SP OT L IGH T ORDERBIRD
BRANCH
HEAD QUARTERS
FOUNDER
Software Development Berlin Patrick Brienen Jakob Schreyer Bastian Schmidtke
LOGO
www.orderbird.com
WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU DO?
Hi, I’m Jakob from orderbird. We offer a professional and simple-touse cash register system for the gastronomy sector. It’s a flexible, iPad-based alternative to the old and rather expensive till system. We set out to offer current, intuitive software solutions that help make businesses industry embracing
in
more
the
gastronomy
successful
digitalization.
by Our
central hub cash register system comes with numerous additional services that enable even small
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SWEET
AND
SMART
Thomas Köhl, Patrick Brienen, Jakob Schreyer, Bastian Schmidtke, Artur Hasselbach
cafés, restaurants, and bars to use
year, Apple launched the iPad and
the same tools as the big players.
Bastian’s idea took shape. He got Artur, Patrick and me on board,
HOW DID THE IDEA TO FOUND ORDERBIRD COME ABOUT?
and while we were still developing
Bastian used to work as a cash
our business idea, I happened to meet the Managing Director of P1,
register salesman and marvel at
the famous Munich discotheque,
the old, clumsy machines hardly
in New York. Radoslav Pavlov was
anyone knew how to work properly
immediately hooked. From there
– and which still cost a fortune. In
everything happened really quickly.
2009 he happened to read an article
P1’s grand re-opening in 2010 was
about how the U.S. military uses
our first big commission – a proper
iPods to detonate bombs remotely.
baptism by fire.
Being the Apple power user he is, he couldn’t help but ask himself, »If they can be utilized for the military, why not for gastronomy?« The next
WHAT SETS YOUR SYSTEM APART FROM THE COMPETITION?
orderbird is perfectly tailored to
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the needs of the gastronomy sector and helps restaurateurs work more efficiently and effectively. Waiters can take customer orders, simply put them into an iPod Touch, and send them to the production printer in the kitchen or to the bar. orderbird facilitates cashless payments, enables restaurateurs to offer their guest a WiFi connection, FACEBOOK
TWITTER YOUTUBE
Orderbird. deutschland @orderbird Orderbird
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and simplifies the restaurant's resource management through a real-time dashboard. Reports can also be downloaded and any other information exported in real-time. Neither a report that complies with 320
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auditor guidelines nor the export of
affectionately call the group of
relevant data for your tax accountant
people who are on kitchen duty any
is ever more than one click away.
given week –visit one of our clients. Once a year everybody goes to work
HOW MANY PEOPLE WORK AT YOUR COMPANY?
at one of our clients. It’s another
Our team is made up of more than 110 people from 15 countries. We are currently looking to hire even more team members who are eager to join us in revolutionizing the world of gastronomy. Free spirits, creative minds, and gastronomy
unique thing about the way we work, and the expertise gained helps us improve our product – from the development stage through sales, communications and support, to ideas that find their way into our HR department.
known!
WHO ARE YOUR KEY CUSTOM ERS? WHERE ARE THEY FROM AND DO THEY RECEIVE A SPE CIAL SERVICE?
WHAT DOES A WORKING DAY AT YOUR COMPANY LOOK LIKE? ARE THERE ANY SPE CIAL CUSTOMS OR RITUALS?
orderbird
professionals:
make
yourselves
offers
services
for
the entire range of gastronomic
Many of us start or day together at our showroom café either with a bowl of home-made cereal or a treat whipped up by our cook Sebastian. After all, we’re all about gastronomy and food. We always have breakfast together on Wednesdays and catch up on the latest from all the different projects and current topics. We celebrate one of the company values we have defined for ourselves; that’s our special ritual. And our »kitchen birds« – that’s what we
enterprises,
from
to
restaurant,
cafés,
small
bars clubs,
discotheques, large beer gardens, and food trucks. 6.000 customers to
date
in
Switzerland,
Germany, Great
Austria,
Britain
and
Ireland have made orderbird one of the most popular cash register systems in the gastronomy industry. Our all-around care-free service includes
consultation,
programming,
menu
implementation
of your logo on the receipt, and pre-configured hardware so each
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restaurateur receives a tailored cash register system ready to go – just plug & pay. The gastronomy industry never sleeps and neither does our customer service - they are available 24/7/365. WHAT ABOUT YOUR HARD- AND SOF T WARE COMPATIBILIT Y?
Our cash register software is iOSbased. orderbird works on Apple devices like iPad, iPod Touch and the iPhone. WE A RE PA RTICUL A RLY IN TERESTED IN CA SHLESS PAY MENTS. HOW DO THEY WORK WITH ORDERBIRD?
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SWEET
The
orderbird
cash
AND
SMART
register
time, encrypted and password-
facilitates cashless payments with
protected on secure servers in
the seamless integration of a mobile
Germany. Everything is also done in
reader. Guests can pay easily and
compliance with statutory storage
securely with their debit or credit
and archiving requirements.
card or use their smartphone for contactless payment via NFC.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOAL S FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS?
HOW DO YOU PROTECT YOUR CUSTOMERS’ DATA?
Alright, let’s think big: In five years
Our clients’ payment-related data
platform
is transmitted online using an
industry. We offer new technologies
SSL certificate. The same kind of
and services with unique added
encryption is also used for banking
value that can be harnessed even by
transactions. Data is protected
small gastronomic businesses.
we’ll be the globally-leading software for
the
gastronomy
from unauthorized access in realWEBSITE
www.orderbird.com 323
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Desk t o Success N°#
SISSEL HANSEN
Founder of »Startup Guide« W EBSITE
www.startupguide.world CIT Y
Berlin/Copenhagen PICT URE S
Cristopher Santos
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1. What is Startup Guide? Startup Guide wants to empower people all over the world to become entrepreneurs, while supporting local startup ecosystems. It is a book series filled with advice, how tos, case stories, inspiration and a fresh + real perspective of how to start a business in a city. 325
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Desk t o Success
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Desk t o Success
It is based on the idea of a traditional guidebook, a book you carry along with you when you’re travelling to a new place to startup a project or business. Why do you need it? To find secret spots, to know where to go, who to talk to and what not to miss — all recommended by the people who know the city the best: THE LOCALS!
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2. Why did you decide to publish the Startup Guide in a print version and not digital? Well, I was always advised to make it digital actually. Especially in the beginning of it all, when there's no revenue and printing 3,000 copies is an extremely expensive investment, for a project you have no idea people will pay attention or not. But it was
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my dream project, and I couldn't love books more and the experience around them. That said, it was simply impossible for me to keep it digital, and I couldn't be happier about my decision.
3. How many hours a day do you spend at your desk? My weeks are insanely dissimilar. One week I can be at my desk nonstop for 12 hours, other weeks I'm running everywhere meeting people and solving all sorts of things, and sometimes I can enjoy a slow morning and work from home.
4. And how early in the morning can you be found there?
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From 8am on I'm online and working.
5. Can you describe your work day in a few words? Wake up early, go for a quick run, have a nice cup of coffee, sit by my desk, answer infinite emails, Skype meetings, more emails, come home and relax.
6. Which word best describes your desk? Organized chaos. 7. What about your work environment or workplace is most important to you? The people! I really appreciate working around and with good
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Desk t o Success
and funny people so there is a loose and loving environment. Then I’m always looking forward to getting to work, even if there is some shitty task to do.
9. Where is your desk located and why?
space run by two of my really good friends here in Berlin! It’s located in the heart of Kreuzberg just between busy Oranienstraße and quiet Mariannenplatz so there is the best of both! But one thing I like about this digital era is the versatility of my workplace. So I don't only have one spot where my desk can be found, I'm jumping a lot from Berlin to Copenhagen or when I’m travelling a nice little cafe!
I’m working at Lower East Lab (Link: http://lowereast.dk/lower-east-lab/) when I’m in Berlin! It’s a beautiful
10. What’s the one thing without which a desk is definitely not complete?
8. Are there heaps of paper on your desk or does the digital equipment dominate? Paper, lots and lots of paper!
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A nice cup of coffee.
11. Does your desk reflect your character? I hope not :-)
12. Do you consider yourself a »businesswoman«? I'm a woman and I do business, so I guess that's a neat description.
13. How does the communication in your company work? Does your team frequently use certain programs, and if so, which ones? Slack, we have used it for a year and so far it is the best communication tool we've ever used.
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14. How long can you get along without your smartphone? Are there »time-outs« for it? Well, it doesn't come naturally, I must say. My partner always tricks me into no phone hours throughout the week (which I secretly like).
15. Which wallpaper is on the desktop of your computer? It’s actually a picture of me and my nine best friends from Copenhagen from our release party of Startup Guide Copenhagen. These are the guys I miss the most when I’m in Berlin, so they are always with me.
16. Everybody evolves a system
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Desk t o Success
over time. How would you describe your »desk system«? Always changing! When it’s not, then I’m not working ;-)
17. Is there a digital gadget you can’t live without? My speakers.
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Show me your
glasses sisterMAG presents four online optical shops which have different business models.
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Text: Julia Zwiener
| Photos: VIU
Interview with
VIU Please introduce your company in a few words. VIU is a young label from Switzerland. It was founded three years ago and has also been available in Germany since May 2015. The label stands for high quality design for both prescription and sunglasses. Our collections are created by Fabrice Aeberhard, VIU‘s creative director, in Zurich and manufactured at a small Italian factory through a process that comprises of 80 individual steps. The VIU collections are available at VIU’s flagship stores in Germany and Switzerland, online (www.shopviu.com ), and at selected partner stores. Our classic collection comprises around 35 frames (each available in five to six different colours) but we also cooperate with partners from the fashion and lifestyle industries. For example, we teamed up with Berlin-based womenswear label Malaikaraiss and created a special range of seven models. We‘re now extending this partnership with another four new models available from the beginning of February 2016. 335
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Where did the name VIU come from and what does it mean? VIU comes from the Portuguese word for »see,« which is »ver«. Viu means he/she/it saw; it gave us an immediate connection to our product, both prescription and sunglasses. On a more general level, it also incorporates the term »viewpoint.» VIU set out to change people‘s view of spectacle manufacturing in general: our label combines the highest expectations of design, absolute transparency in the production process and fair prices.
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VIU does not try to imitate big established labels, we create an emotional product which offers its customers a sustainable added value What inspired this business idea? Spectacle manufacturing had been in an idle deadlock for quite some time. Glasses tend to be quite expensive, but of only mediocre quality and usually produced in East Asia – that’s what we set out to change. VIU does not try to imitate established labels; we create an emotional product that offers its customers sustainable added value and is presented in a design-conscious environment. What did you do before this? The five-strong team of founders has roots in both design and management and one person comes from the optical industry. We now have close to 50 employees in Switzerland and Germany and
»
hence added to and expanded the expertise already present in the founding team. What makes special?
your
product
VIU is dedicated to offering the best glasses in the market – to us this includes design as well as production. We’ve been working with a second generation Italian family business from the start. All our glasses are manufactured in a process comprising 80 individual steps. That’s what makes VIU so special. But it’s not only the designs that stand out; our stores do, too. Their minimal structure is always the same (a monochrome room with a system feature wall for presentation, and a table with stools for consultations) but each flagship store also moulds itself to its surroundings. The system wall at our Berlin store, for example, is
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made of four tons of green marble that we sourced from a Greek stonemason. Who are your customers? Our customers put a premium on design and want to know where their products come from. Our core client group is between the ages of 25 and 35, but there are no age limits either way. How are you funded?
Munich. Which is the most popular VIU model? 'The Lolita' is very popular, especially in hornbraun, a shade of brown. Other particularly popular models include 'The Vida' and 'The Considerate'. Is there a model which suits any shape of face?
Originally we were funded by our friends and families, but this has shifted to sales profits as a result of increased growth.
That would be too sweeping a
Where are you based?
in designing our collection we have
We have had our headquarters in Zurich since our foundation three years ago. In April 2015 we expanded to Germany; our headquarters here are based in
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statement. The shape of your face does indeed determine which model will suit you and which won’t, but made sure to take every shape into account.
What was your biggest success so far? We were proud to get such
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The VIU-Store in Berlin, Potsdamer Straße
trend in spectacle design for 2016? positive feedback in Switzerland; it allowed for fast growth. This was a big factor in our decision to expand to Germany. We’re excited to see how things will continue to develop from here. Where do you see yourselves in five years? An inherent part of the spectacle manufacturing industry in Germany, Switzerland and Austria – maybe even with stores elsewhere in Europe.
What do you see as the defining
VIU is not first and foremost about trends and adhering to a current stream. We strive for timelessness and the highest quality in our designs, especially with our regular collection. A cooperation like the one with Malaikaraiss gives us an opportunity to experiment and a chance to see where and how we can be a part of the advances in design and fashion, and to help shape new trends and make our own marks through suitable development.
Please complete this sentence: When my/our vision is obstructed... We put on our VIU glasses.
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Text: Steffen Sundelius
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| Fotos: Vasuma
VASUMA Inc
Please introduce your company in a few words. Vasuma is a Swedish eyewear brand founded in 2005. Vasuma Eyewear is a full eyewear collection with both sunglasses and ophthalmic frames. Where did the name VASUMA come from and what does it mean? Vasuma is an anagram from the first two letters of the three owners' last names: Jan VAna, Steffen SUndelius, Lars MAlmsten. What inspired this business idea? It was actually doing something together, because we were all friends from before that inspired us. Eyewear was something totally new for us, and we really took on and got inspired by that challenge.
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What did you do before this? We all worked in other types of design-driven companies. Everything from furniture and interior design to graphical arts. What makes your eyewear special? I think it’s our Scandinavian heritage that makes our eyewear special. There is something about the Scandinavian sophisticated silhouette that I think is visible in our eyewear.
Who are customers?
your
We have a very broad customer base but I think it might be a little bit more popular among females. In terms of age, my guess is that it’s between maybe 25 and 45 years old.
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Which is the most popular VASUMA model? The by far most popular Vasuma model is 'The Eggeater'. It’s a thin metal frame that suits pretty much every face. It’s trendy, retro, and super classic.
What was your biggest success so far? We were awarded with brand of the year here in Scandinavia a couple of years ago – that was pretty big!
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Where do you see yourselves in five years? In five years we have an office up and running in Berlin and New York to cover all the markets we’re working on. What do you see as the defining trend in spectacle design for 2016? The trend for 2016 is thin metal frames inspired by the 40 and 50s. There was a trend a couple of years ago with thick acetate, but that has changed completely now I would say. Please complete this sentence: When my/our vision is obstructed... I work harder 'til I succeed.
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specs berlin
Text: Claas Witzel
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| Photos: specs berlin
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There will always be people who don't like to shopping online and that's why we had to include the »optician on the high street« to this special. We asked Claas Witzel from specs berlin . to answer some question. A long time ago he already modelled for us in sisterMAG N°3, when him and his team wore their coolest frames for our fashion feature (see here ). Please introduce your company in a few words. I founded specs berlin in 2010, setting out to create a great place to work; one you would look forward to coming and where you feel at ease. And it had to be filled with fabulous pairs of glasses focusing on the essentials. Thanks to the input of unit-berlin, I really think we managed to do that. In 2013 we added a store in Kastanienallee and thereby doubled our team in number. What inspired you to open a spectacle store? My great-grandfather, Max Witzel, founded Witzel Optik, in Szczecin, Poland in 1899. And from when I started my training as an optician in my father’s store in 1990, I have wanted to run my own business. So I took my entrepreneurial spirit, added more training to the mix, and gained experience and grew my passion. After a long time of looking for a suitable location I finally found this beautiful store on Alte Schönhauser Straße in the central Berlin borough of Mitte and was able to make my dream come true. What is your company’s philosophy?
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A passion for beautiful spectacles, first and foremost. Consulting someone on the right pair of glasses is a very personal thing. At our stores we will always be honest in voicing our opinion. We won’t tell you what you want to hear and if you can‘t make up your mind we’ll tell you what to wear ;) How do you choose the models you add to your range of glasses? We work exclusively with certain designer brands, so-called independent brands. These are labels that are defined by their quality instead of the name that happens to be printed on their models. When adding a new label it’s important to ensure it adds to the range in a meaningful way instead of creating competition or even SISTER-MAG.COM
cannibalizing the brands already featured. Every brand we feature tells its own story. The companies’ sizes allow for a personal relationship with the people behind the brand. It is a real asset in our daily work routine, and it makes for friendly and pleasant professional relationships all around. Who are your customers? For the main part they are Berlin citizens, but thanks to your location we also get a fair number of German and foreign tourists. Where are your shops located? One is in the central borough of Mitte on Alte Schönhauser Straße and another one is located on Kastanienallee in the Prenzlauer Berg district.
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Are you planning to add an online store in the future?
Is there a model that will suit
Yes, we are. It is actually scheduled to open quite soon.
Absolutely not. And styles vary over
Which is the most popular model in your stores?
What is your trend forecast for
There isn’t a runaway favourite. We feature all labels for their
Hopefully more 70s, more hippies,
unique DNA and aim for a varied collection. Now, that doesn’t mean we’re able to stock the perfect model for absolutely everybody. And we don’t claim to! But we usually manage to win over those who walk into our stores with a truly beautiful pair of specs.
Please complete this sentence: When my/our vision is obstructed...
any shape of face? time, too; they come and go. 2016? more fun!
...I withdraw from the world and listen to cool music.
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sisterMAG visits and tests the manufacturing hub in Berlin. SISTER-MAG.COM
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Text: Thea Neubauer & Nina Fรถrster Fotos: Cris Santos
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Innovative production with elegant design
I have been immersed in a true eyewear marathon over the past few weeks. New custom glasses shops and flagship specs stores are opening up in all neighbourhoods and corners of Berlin. It’s as though the city is gripped by spectacle fever. So I was not surprised, and certainly excited, when I discovered a new shop by the name of YUN on Rosenthaler Straße in Berlin-Mitte. Especially striking was the high-tech machine with a spiral conveyor belt to be seen in the storefront window. Through this window it becomes clear what makes YUN so special: customized glasses with prescription in just 20 minutes. We met up with YUN’s Moritz Kelm to learn about the new company from Korea and have a stylish pair of specs produced for Thea during our visit – including eye test and lens edging. Check it out for yourself!
Why are you here, where does the company come from, what is the idea behind it? We cooperate with a glass manufacturer from Korea. The trick is that everything is vertically integrated. That means we are both responsible for the production of lenses and frames and we work with in-house designers, thanks to whom we can respond quickly to trends. We work without intermediaries and purchase everything through our own supply chain. 349
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THE PROCESS
1
Selecting a suitable frame Filling out a survey about my specifications on an iPad
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The model 'Moritz' from extremely flexible Ultem material (high temperature-resistant plastic)
On-the-spot vision test from an optician
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Preparation of glass for edging
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Conveyor belt of the edger
6 7
The finished glass; still wet and covered in protective foil
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Ultem is a very light material, an extremely flexible plastic.
Since when does YUN exist? We exist since the end of October 2015. The release party was on October 28. Are there any more shops like this in Germany, considering that the manufacturer comes from Korea? This is the only store so far. However, we will open a shop in Hamburg and in Munich soon. In the long term, we intend to open more shops. Is YUN a German or a Korean company? The name is Korean and corresponds to the name of our founder. The company itself is Korean, too, but we worked in Germany first. How did you or the founder come up with the idea of YUN? SISTER-MAG.COM
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The market is constantly changing and we have responded to it with our cool and unique concept. Where do the designers work? Our designers sit in Korea. You react quickly to trends: Where do you find inspiration? Do you have an insight into your designers’ work or is their working process kept separately from the store in Berlin?
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Our store in Berlin and the designers in Korea work quite separately. However, since trends are foreseeable and do not simply occur overnight, we are still able to react quickly and well. What does the trend for 2016/17 look like? What do you focus on? The trends include, for example, the acetate models. Mostly, we focus on the brand new Ultem models because we are among a
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few companies to offer them. As far as I know, we are even the only supplier of Ultem glasses. What exactly is that (Ultem)? Ultem is a very light material, an extremely flexible plastic. After bending, the material immediately returns to its original position. You could even sit on it. Do you have more walk-in customers or do people come into the store who already know the concept? We have both; I cannot say exactly. Many customers come after having heard of us from their friends. We have not even displayed any advertising so far. What was important in setting up the store? Regarding the eyewear models, we have a SISTER-MAG.COM
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minimal pricing system, as we only sell two models of glasses: one costs 99 Euros, the other 149 Euros. Transparency and minimalism echo in our interior furnishings.
Right now, glasses cannot be purchased from our website. An online shop is to come, though.
How can glasses be produced that cheap?
Sunglasses without amplification take just as long. Manufacturing sunglasses with strength is more complicated, however, because we need to have cylinders, colours, silvering, etc. available in various versions. This is beyond the scope.
It would not be possible without our business concept of vertical integration, due to which we do not have to pay any intermediaries and receive the goods directly from Korea. Are there models that run particularly well? The model 'Moritz' is already sold out and the model 'Paul' is going very well, too. The trend is towards round eyeglasses. Are your glasses sold online as well?
Do the 20 minutes apply for all glasses? For example, sunglasses as well?
The machine that one can see – part of the work or effect? The machine is essential for the manufacturing process. Some data entries are made by hand, the rest is done by the machine. Why did you chose Berlin as the location for the store? Berlin is crucial for trends. Why are eyeglasses so hip? This is probably due to the retro trend.
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KISS AND TELL QUAY KISS AND TELL OCTAGON MIRROR (via ASOS)
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CHLOE-CE-693S (via MISTER SPEX)
Out photo shooting following our glasses info special by Tabea Mathern (Photography & Conception)
SUNNY FRAMES
in Pastel Colours
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GLCO FRAME IN WHITE WITH BLUE GLASSES (SPECS BERLIN)
LE SPECS (NEO NOIR PASTEL MIRROR): ASOS
GARRET LEIGHT PALOMA 50 MATTE WHITE – SILVER / LAGOON GRADIENT MIRROR
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LE SPECS (NEO NOIR PASTEL MIRROR) (VIA ASOS) THIERRY LASSRY (SPECS BERLIN) GLCO FRAME IN WHITE WITH BLUE GLASSES (SPECS BERLIN)
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MARC JACOBS 28/S TWE I5 IN BLUE SILVER (VIA MISTER SPEX) ASOS FULL METAL CAT EYE WITH CUT AWAY
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BOSS 0675/S ASOS AJ MISTER 3 SPEX COL4 35R5M IN MORGAN GREEN AQUA ROUND SUNLECTION (VIA MISTER GLASSES WOODY 2024 SPEX) WITH BROW 003 IN BAR IN GOLD WHITE SISTERMAG 24 | 05 / 2016 365
S TA R T UP SP OT L IGH T POST COLLECTIVE BRANCH
HEADQUAR TERS FOUNDERS
prints / online gallery Berlin Ferdinand Prinz & Albrecht Krockow
LOGO
INTRODUCION
My name is Ferdi, I’m 26 years old, and am originally from Cologne. I am the co-founder of Post Collective, the world’s first platform that sells high-quality prints from Europe’s most beloved Instagrammers. INSPIR ATION
As a student in London I was constantly on the search for cool photography prints under 100€ but couldn’t find much beyond a few Marilyn Monroe or museum posters. Although we are bombarded
with
fantastic
photos
every day on the Internet and thSISTER-MAG.COM
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rough social media, it’s very rare
spired by the Instagram »post,«
that you can buy them because of
which is also the Latin translati-
the associated costs and risks for
on for the word »after.« We give
the artists. As a freelance photo-
longevity to otherwise transient
grapher you have to establish an
Instagram posts and showcase
online store that’s supported by
what’s new and innovative. And
enough visitors to the site, find a
since the community plays an
trusted print partner, buy packa-
equally important role in our con-
ging, and take care of shipping
cept, we call ourselves »Collecti-
and returns. Post Collective sim-
ve«.
plifies the entire process and makes it possible for Instagrammers to sell high-quality prints without risk or start-up capital.
WHAT WERE YOU DOING BEFORE LAUNCHING POST COLLECTIVE?
Many among our team have known each other for a long time, though
HOW DID YOU DECIDE ON THE NAME?
we all have very different backg-
The first part of our name is in-
rounds – from web developers, to photographers, to classic business
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types, we’re a diverse group. I myself have have done a lot of previous work with Instagrammers and have founded other creative projects. WHAT MAKES YOUR PRODUCT SPECI A L?
For one, we offer prints (on paper or aluminum, with or without frame) in gallery quality starting at just 25€ – you can’t find that elsewhere in Europe. Another thing that sets us apart is our roster of outstanding artists who inspire millions of Instagram users daily through their photos. There are very few who have a grip on this new generation of photography. Finally, we regularly invite artists and fans to attend interactive exhibits to create a community of young people interested in photography. Ferdinand Prinz and Albrecht Krockow FACEBOOK INSTAGR AM
postcollective postcollective
TARGET AUDIENCE
We started with a focus on Berlin, and the rest of Germany, so there’s definitely plenty of market potential left to explore. In the future we want to showcase even more styles and photographers in more coun-
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tries. Our demographic is defined by anyone who’s bored with bare walls and is looking for something superior to just a regular poster.
ART OR DESIGN?
I would very clearly define it as art. World-renowned artists like Ai Weiwei and Richard Prince have been
WHO AND WHAT IS THE NE W EST AMONG YOUR COLLEC TIVE?
using Instagram as a medium to broadcast their message to hund-
Our newest artist is 25-year-old fashion photographer Sanja Marusic sanjamarusic
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from Amsterdam.
reds of of thousands of people for a while. A particularly special aspect of Instagram art lies in collaboration. One doesn’t just receive direct
Through her photos she invites us
feedback from followers, but you’re
into a spacey world with bright co-
also able to photograph and expe-
lours and models in unusual en-
riment together – so everyone le-
vironments. We’re also bringing
ans from one another and develops
our premium acrylic material on
their skills further.
the market soon, which gives photos even more shine and elegance. COLL ABOR ATION
The first employees on our team helped us with marketing and PR
Last December we organized a large exhibit with the Berlin culture blog »I Heart Berlin,« which was especially notable. We got along with the team incredibly well and were able to attract almost 8,000 visitors in just a few days.
FIRST EMPLOYEE?
for an exhibit. We’re now a team of five and work mostly in web development, artist management, design, and marketing. WHERE DO YOU SEE THE COM PANY IN FIVE YEARS?
In a world where you don’t need to spend a fortune to buy great art for your home. WEBSITE
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#25 PREVIEW
Unbelievable: This is the 24th issue of sisterMAG, which you have leafed through and read. We do hope that you liked it. We always like feedback on all of our Social Media channels: eMail, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter! We look forward to it and will try to put any constructive criticism into action right away. #sisterMAG25
IS PUBLISHED IN JUNE 2016
The next issue will be about another element that is so important for the earth and us: WATER. We look to see some beautiful houses AT the water. Furthermore we want to show you sparkling wines made FROM water, but also talk about gin and its newest trends. Continuing ON the water we will go to several islands and talk to some boat builders, while we will also illustrate the issue WITH water colours!
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Section
IMPRINT SISTERMAG – JOURNAL FOR THE DIGITAL LADY w w w. s i st e r - m a g . co m Chief Editor Operations
Theresa Neubauer Nadine Steinmetz (Operations Dir.), Laura Glabbatz
Fashion Design
Eva-Maria Neubauer Theresa Neubauer (Art Dir.), Marie Darme, Mathilde Schliebe, Dana Lungmuss
Contributing Editor (Text) Nina Förster, Birgit Franz, Laura Glabbatz, Thomas Gorski, Elisa von Hof, Alexander kords, Katharina Kraatz, Angie Li, Thea Neubauer, Sarah Nitschke, Christine Pechatschek, Carl Richter, Natascha Safarik, Sophia Schillik, Maureen Schneider, Marion Sendker, Jette Virdi Contributing Editor (Food) Nadine Burck, Deniz Fiçicioglu, Sara Heinen, Kirsten Kaminsky, Sarah Timplan Contributing Editor (Photo) Saskia Bauermeister, Rogan Brown, Elisa von Hof, Christiane Hübner, Andrea Indrich, Karin Klammer, Angie Li, Tabea Mathern, Helena Melikov, Zoe Noble, Cristopher Santos, Jette Virdi Styling Rosa Biazzo, Hürriyet Bulan, Ruth Fredershausen, Saskia Hilgenberg, Evi Neubauer, Nina Thielen Illustration Thea Neubauer, Dana Lungmuss, Maëlle Rajoelisolo, Mathilde Schliebe, Mathilde Schliebe Translation Tanja Timmer, Theresa Neubauer, Ira Häussler Alex Kords, Zoe Blechschmitt, Christian Naethler Proof Stefanie Kießling , Alexander Kords, Amie McCracken, Christian Naethler, Ira Häussler Published bi-monthly by Carry-On Publishing GmbH, Gustav-Meyer-Allee 24, 13355 Berlin, Germany. Re-use of content is only allowed with written permission of the publisher. There is no liability for unsolicited manuscripts and photographs. The Carry-On Publishing GmbH assumes no liability or guarantee for the accuracy, currency and completeness of the information provided. All information is provided without warranty. Contact: mail@sister-mag.com Management Sales Marketing
Antonia Sutter, Theresa Neubauer, Alex Sutter Alex Sutter (Sales Dir.) Antonia Sutter (Marketing Dir.), Luisa Sancelean, Zoe Blechschmitt
Issue 22 | December 2015
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ILLUSTRATION: MOUNI FEDDAG
