Lowdown from Ethical Expo!

Well we are just in from the Ethical Expo in Bristol and we had a great time and met some wonderful people.

Greenknickers had some wonderfully quirky pants, made from organic cotton, bamboo and recycled materials. They even had some pants made from Mr Men fabric, as well as a pair of padded pants for comfortable cycling! Look at these beautiful hemp and silk knickers with ribbons! Mmmmm...

There were gorgeous kimonos from Just Trade for only £35! And they are reversible :) Check out their website for jewellery, purses and some great bags, including these cool laptop cases made from rice sacks!

Green shoes were selling their ethical and hand-made footwear. They can create shoes and boots especially for you from their range of designs. All you have to do is draw around your feet and post it to them! I couldn't resist their very cool accessories in gorgeous metallic leather. Check out their fringed wrist cuff, slashed cuff and necklace. They also do corset belts, but unfortunately I had to restrain myself.

I met the lovely Tamsin Blanchard, style director for the Telegraph Magazine and author of Green is the New Black, which I can't wait to read. Check out her blog here for up to the minute eco fashion news! She was giving us the low-down on eco-chic and talking about the new Oxfam Fashion Boutique in Westbourne Grove which I am SO going to have to check out! It sells reworked pieces from the UK's top designers.

Oxfam and Urban Threads held a recycling challenge while we were at the Expo. Urban Threads work with schools and community groups around Bristol, teaching about sustainability and recycling clothing. A team led by Jacqui Reeves, made fabulous creations for the fashion show, corsets from old ties, puff dresses from scarves, bustle skirts from shirts and created them all in the two days we were there. It was a hive of industry as they got busy with their sewing machines just across the way. It reminded me of the Trash Fashion Project that I ran for New Belfast Community Arts Initiative :)

The event was wrapped up with a fashion show organised by Flock Fashion, featuring reworked pieces made by the Urban Threads team, fashion students from Filton College, and clothes from Adili, Chandni Chowk, Bishopston Trading Company, People Tree, Green Knickers, Just Trade, Green Shoes, and of course, fab T-shirts from Curious Tales! I will have to see if any of the photos I took came out. Look out for them here...

The Fire Gathering Festival

Next we stop off at The Fire Gathering Festival from 16th-18th May to relax in the sunshine :) Situated on an idyllic farm midway between Brighton and London, this not-for-profit festival is packed with eclectic entertainment; live music, workshops, cabaret, DJ's, circus and comedy.

The site is studded with site-wide art installations and nature trails. Organisers ensure there’s minimum impact on the stunning surrounding countryside – other than the footprints of nature-loving festival-goers.

They're be plenty of live bands on offer, check out their wares here! Ska, punk, dub, acoustic, the choice is endless. Revel in the cornucopia of lush soundscapes and layered harmonies provided by Jim Noir, and his Gnome. Battle with the melodic Little Fish, or get entranced by the psychedelic lounge rock of 12 Stone Toddler.

Acts already confirmed include cult ska collective Los Albertos, regular performers Turning Green, Digitonal, Duologue, Octavcat, John Callaghan, Timothy Victor’s Folk Orchestra, John Crampton, Opaque, Jude Cowan and Mr Finn.

There'll be oddity and illusion with Third Heaven Cabaret and Jonathan Kay and his Nomadic Academy of Fools. And if you fancy having a go yourself check out the workshops in poi, belly-dancing, juggling, hula hoops and latin dance. And of course, you'll be able to buy some fabulous, eco-friendly Curious Tales T-shirts!

Tickets are £65 for three days. For more information and directions on how to get there click here.

Ethical Expo 2008!

Curious Tales heads across the water this month on our first adventure! Hooray! We will be exploring ethical festivals in the South of England!

The first port of call is Bristol, where we will be exhibiting at the first ever Ethical Expo, on the 9th and 10th May 2008. It should be a fantastic event, supported by Oxfam, The Fair Trade Foundation and Christian Aid, and designed to coincide with World Fair Trade Day.

Head along to Castle Park to sample the delights of over 60 major exhibitors. Get lost in the Eat, Live and Wear Zones, look out for our T-shirts in the ethical fashion show, and take notes at seminars and workshops throughout the day, all while slurping ice-cream in the glorious sunshine (here's hoping!)

Its free in, and on from 10am-6pm each day. Please register at their website to ensure entry and to be kept up to date with ethical info.

Hope to see you there! For directions click here.

And that's not at, then we're heading to...?

Chindogu - The Japanese Art of Unuseless Inventions

Ever hankered after a butterstick or a car-bourne clothes drier? Maybe you secretly covet a pair of onion cutting specs with tiny fans, so you won't be caught out crying when you're cooking?

Do you think your baby could be put to better use, instead of crawling around the floor aimlessly? If so, then the baby duster romper suit is for you!
All these and many more can be found in Kenji Kawakami's book, 101 Unuseless Japanese Inventions: The Art of Chindōgu.

Kawakami, a Japanese inventor and writer first made the idea prominent in the mid-nineties, founding the International Chindogu Society.
He has called them "unuseless" objects because although they do solve a problem, they solve it in such an impractical or embarrassing way, that no one would ever use them in real life. Not strictly useless, but not particularly useful, they blaze a trail of anarchic absurdity. What self respecting woman would be without her dustpan and brush slippers?

Kawakami has outlined the Ten Tenents of Chindogu that distinguish useless inventions from unuseless ones. The item must exist. It must solve an actual problem and not be made simply to make people laugh. And it can never be patented or sold.

Each piece should embody a spirit of anarchy. As Tenent number three states, "Chindogu are man-made objects that have broken free from the chains of usefulness. They represent freedom of thought and action: the freedom to challenge the suffocating historical dominance of conservative utility; the freedom to be (almost) useless."

Go eco-friendly and light your cigarettes with this solar powered lighter!

This portable office tie promises a life free from the worry of forgetting paper-clips or scissors! Or how about these umbrella shoes for keeping your feet dry?

All would-be inventors are encouraged to post their ideas on the International Chindogu Society's website. Why not have a go? You might even end up in Kawakami's next book! ;)

For more unuseless inventions check out the video below!

The Burning Man Festival

If you fancy painting yourself purple, and sunbathing nude in the desert for a week, alongside giant venus fly traps, dinosaurs, pyrotechnic motorbikes and glow in the dark insects on wheels, then head along to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada for The Burning Man Festival from 25th August-1st September this year.

Make sure to bring your shaman outfit, multi-coloured sunscreen and a selection of luminous wigs!

Join avant-garde artists, wild eyed hippies, alternative musicians and performers as they gather on the white sands to take part in this radical experiment in community, self expression and self reliance, which disappears every year without a trace. Anti-commercialism is part of the philosophy and a system of bartering has evolved where people exchange gifts or favours in place of money.

There's so much to do! Why not camp under the rainbows, make a suit out of light sticks, watch fire-eaters on psychedelic stilts, play a flaming tuba or get your palm read by a green genie? Then check out the art cars, watch Dr Mega Volt and his bevvy of Giant Conductors, experience the Ocean of Fire and watch lyrca clad acrobats tumble through the air on silk ropes...


Then as the sun makes its way below the horizon, woop at the sky and dance alongside thousands of your psychedelic compatriots as a giant wooden effigy disintegrates into flames...

Are there any takers? :)

The Wierd and Wonderful World of Art Cars

Have you ever heard of an art car? Take one old jalopy. Come up with your very own vehicular vision. Collect anything and everything. Then paint, staple, glue, weld and sculpt your own rolling masterpiece! Watch all your favourite stations at once with this bank of flashing televisual wonders created by Dan Lohaus from New York!

Or how about this finely crafted motorcycle stiletto, created by David Crow from Wisconsin?

With names like Our Lady of Eternal Combustion, The Button Hearse, Plaidmobile and Vehicle of Enlightenment, these cars come in all shapes and sizes.

Harrod Blank, creator of the fabulous Cameravan, even has his own agency, set up to promote these wacky wonders. The Art Car Agency boasts a range of bizarre vehicle categories Harrod has invented, with names like Hodgepodge Mosaic, Dada Symbolistic Mix or Conceptual Sculptural, and hires out these showpieces for personal appearances and photoshoots.

Cars are covered in dolls, painted in psychedelic palm trees, glued with mirrors, spoons or circuit boards, decorated with electric guitars or painted with gods, there's something for everyone! Why not check out the Carthedral, marvel at the Banana Bike, or thrill at the Hi-Tek Hoop Car?

What self-respecting gallery owner could do without the Mondrian Mobile at the opening of their new exhibition?

To see them in the flesh, why not head along to Douglas, Arizona to Art Car World, a museum dedicated entirely to the celebration and preservation of this particularly unique mobile art form, or catch the annual Art Car Fest Parade in San Franscisco from 25th-28th September.

Kyron and the Strangels, puppets and clones...

Check out the brilliant new video for Kyron and The Strangels! The song is You, you, you. Kyron battles with hundreds of smiling and slightly worried versions of himself, who are dancing, playing music and gradually surrounding him on every side. Will he drown in a sea of clones? With a puppet on accordion who is making him dance, he's gonna get a rope, and tie it to a tree, on this moonlit night...

If you missed their hilarious video for Walking the Dog check it out below. Featuring a eco friendly set, made completely from cardboard, Kyron paces the streets with his cardboard dog catching glimpses of the characters who live within the houses. Marvel at the bands dexterity as they play their cardboard instruments, admire Kryon's pink plaid suit and thrill at the buxom troupe of can-can dancers... ;)



The live show is fantastic! Catch them on 19th April at The Rotterdam, or 1st May at The Empire, Belfast. Expect tonnes of energy, along with top hats, megaphones, sequins, golden clouds and some more great visuals courtesy of Stephen Mullan.

Listen to the tunes, or keep up to date with where they're playing here!