THE STUDENT PAPER
um ekki áður, fengum við bara ekki nóg af því að spila og vildum halda því áfram, líkt og börn. Við gengum út úr Spilavinum með fimm ný spil í farteskinu. Ef þetta sannfærir þig ekki um töfrakraft Spilavina þá máttu vita að heimsókn í þetta musteri skemmtunar er líka vistvæn. Þú spyrð kannski hvers vegna? Og það er vegna þess að þú þarft ekki að kaupa spilin sem þú spilar í heimsókninni og þarft þar að leiðandi ekki að eiga hrúgu af spilum sem enda svo kannski í ruslinu. Það eina sem þú þarft í Spilavinum er forvitni og opinn hugur en með því gefa þig á vald töfranna leggurðu einnig þitt á vogarskálarnar við að vernda plánetuna. Ég get ekki fullyrt að þú komir til með að deila reynslu minni af Spilavinum. Stundum virka töfrar þessa heims á undarlegan, óútskýranlegan hátt. En trúðu því að töfrarnir séu til staðar. Að þeir svífi yfir vötnum og bíði eftir því að þú finnir þá. Trúðu því líka að að heimurinn sé ekki eintómar plágur, frostavetrar og kreppur. Trúðu því að það séu enn eftir smá töfrar til þess að leika með, og að það sem virkar eins og hversdagslegt, látlaust kaffihús geti í raun verið undraland leikja, kaffis og góðra stunda.
Vill gera peysurnar verðmætari Making Used Sweaters More Valuable GREIN ARTICLE Katla Ársælsdóttir ÞÝÐING TRANSLATION Stefán Ingvar Vigfússon
environmentally friendly. How so, you might ask. Well, you don’t have to buy the games you play during your stay, and as such you don’t need to own piles of board games that you may end up throwing away. All you need at Spilavinir is a curious, inquisitive mind, and by giving yourself over to playful magic, you are also contributing to the preservation of the environment. I cannot say for certain whether you will share my experience of Spilavinir. There are times when the magic in this world seems to work in mysterious, incomprehensible ways. But believe the magic is there. Lurking somewhere in the world, just waiting for you to find it. Believe that not everything is plagues and harsh weather and economic hardship. Believe that there is still a bit of magic left to play with, and what may seem like a commonplace, modest coffee shop might actually be a wonderland of games, coffee, and good times.
Ýr Jóhannssdóttir is a textile designer better known as Ýrúrarí. Knitting was Ýr’s favorite hobby for a long time, but since it has become her profession, she says her hobbies are pretty normal. She developed an interest in clothing design at an early age and says that she’s always found strange clothing interesting. “I attended [the high school] MH as a teenager, but before I started there I often went there with my mom, who worked at the school, and I remember watching the people there wearing all sorts of clothes,” says Ýr. MAKING SOMETHING STRANGE OUT OF SOMETHING NORMAL
Asked what inspires her designs, Ýr says she makes something normal into something strange, but the process varies. “Lately I’ve been getting sweaters from the Red Cross, and what I like to do is to hang up a sweater I’d like to work with and just consider it. Sometimes nothing comes to me, sometimes something does. But most of the time, the inspiration comes from the sweaters themselves. If there’s a hole in the sweater or a stain that won’t come out, I have to work around that. That also drives the process. Now I’m working on an experiment for Design March, which will actually take place in May this year. I got a writer friend of mine to write a short story about a sweater, for instance. Then I’m going to create the sweater based on the story. I’m very excited to see how that turns out. It could be an interesting approach to fixing these sweaters, imagining stories,” says Ýr, adding that it could also give them added value.
MYNDIR PHOTOS Gunnlöð Jóna Rúnarsdóttir
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