@hundred wunders
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • BLOG
  • SHOP
  • IMAGES
  • CONTACT

Retro Colorado

4/30/2018

0 Comments

 
In Manitou Springs, a place perched on the edge of a mountain and history, you’ll discover an enchanting, colorful rendition of the 19th century. The extra flair is for the tourists’ benefit. There are boutiques and museums that showcase local designers and artists, pottery shops featuring Native American craftsmanship, and fun places for kids. All of this is brushed with a sugary mix of hemp, hippies, and mysticism. Whether in for the day to ride the Cog Railway up Pike’s Peak or passing through Colorado Springs, there are hours of enjoyment to be had in this little town.
Picture
Picture
Picture
​In 1887, J.G. Hiestand built what is known today as the Iron Springs Chateau Melodrama Dinner Theater. From its origins as a candy and cigar store in 1880, the operation changed owners a number of times before the Iron Springs Company purchased it and began to use the venue to sell mineral water commercially. 
Nowadays, nostalgic fun starts in the evening with a three-course meal, leads into theatrics, and ends with a vaudeville sing-along.
​
​Audience participation is encouraged!
Picture
Satisfy your taste for old-school (cash only) at Mo's Diner & Lounge with its eclectic 1940s decor and friendly staff. Serving good traditional food, they specialize in generous, classic breakfasts, burgers, meatloaf, biscuits and gravy, and some Mexican dishes, like burritos and green chili. Nothing fancy and prices to match. A warm family atmosphere with lots of locals.

For some more adult refreshment, the Ancient Mariner Tavern, built like a ship’s galley, features some rocking local entertainment, often without a cover charge. It boasts a full bar featuring Colorado draught microbrews. It’s a rowdy place and the music is loud – perfect for quenching your thirst after hiking up and down the hilly streets.
​
Older than the state of Colorado itself, the walls of the Cliff House have seen history transpire. Once a stagecoach stop and gold rush boarding house, the inn was converted in 1886 to a sophisticated resort hotel capitalizing on the mineral springs in the region. The list of famous guests includes Theodore Roosevelt, P.T. Barnum, and Clark Gable. Food and service are impeccable at this reasonably priced vintage hotel.
The downtown Manitou Outpost has stood on the same spot since its beginnings as a livery stable in the 1800s. By 1913, a cafeteria pavilion showcasing an erupting geyser had replaced the stable. Later, a garage offering both mechanical work and tours of Pikes Peak was built at the site. Souvenirs, homemade fudge, and ice cream are the main attractions these days, along with the Navajo geyser well that is still preserved inside - but has ceased to spout.

Subscribe to get this walk
(and thousands more) on a
GPS-guided app from
Picture

ROCKEY’S STORYBOOK ART STUDIO 

Born in 1932, C. H. Rockey came to Colorado as a young child. First a Marine and then a teacher, Rockey paid his dues before earning a chance to do what he truly loved – paint. He is one of the Pikes Peak region’s finest and least commercial artists. His whimsical images of a Tolkienesque ‘Manidoon’ will charm fantasy lovers the world over.
Picture
PATSY’S CANDY The product of an Irish popcorn vendor’s vivid imagination, this family-run business has been churning out delectable confections for decades. Tour the factory in Colorado Springs, where chocolate, taffy, and butterscotch popcorn are still produced using specialized machinery dating to the 1940s or give your kids a taste of the past at their original 930 Manitou Avenue location.  

Right next door, an old-fashioned penny arcade houses an impressive antique and retro collection that includes pinball, coin-operated rides, 1964 skee ball, and the latest video games. Competing in 12-player mechanical horse-racing, you could win a fistful of tickets to exchange for prizes. A sweet treat for all generations, this whimsical spot will tickle your senses and put a smile on your face.
Picture
COLORADO, USA
Picture
0 Comments

Toronto Unlocked

4/6/2018

0 Comments

 
Entering Toronto, you’ll find yourself surrounded by inordinate construction, either towering above you as half-finished condominiums or lurking all around you in various public works convolutions. A decade-long building boom shows no signs of slowing— testament to the city’s will to keep up to its own growth and breathe life into its downtown core. Many designs seek to restore as they renew— architectural innovation meets heritage preservation, making for an exciting future. Nevertheless, it can all be just a bit overwhelming, so if you’re looking to bring things down to street-level (and human scale), here are some reference points for the labyrinth. On your walk, you’ll get a good sense of some of the Old Town’s most historic buildings, neighborhoods, parks, and landmarks.
Picture
DOWNLOAD THE APP
for GPS-assisted travel directions
to the attractions featured in this article (and thousands more)
​The Vault – One King West Hotel & Residence
Savings Department Safety Deposit Vaults
From the street, you may question your decision to stay at this historic hotel, but the gorgeous lobby and classy rooms will quickly win you over. It’s got a friendly little reception bar for a nightcap, and a beautifully restored hall at the top of a winding staircase for major events. The underground vault, built into bedrock in 1913, features a four-foot-thick steel door that weighs 40 tons, but can be moved with your little finger. Best of all, it’s as central as central gets.

Just up the road, you can get breakfast at a place that's been serving simple, classic and delicious fare for over 90 years: 

Picture
​Built as a 19th-century home, the Senator is Toronto’s oldest restaurant. By 1929, prior to the Great Depression, the city had become a leading international cultural center, and the restaurant was at the heart of the theatre district. George Nicolau renovated the building in 1948, equipping it with the style and fixtures that remain today. Much of what's on the restaurant's menu is created in-house, including the organic honey produced on a Caledon farm.
Picture
ONTARIO, CANADA
Shopping
​
Located in the core of the trendy Queen Street West shopping district, Fashionably Yours specializes in buying and selling pre-owned, authentic designer clothing, bags, shoes, sunglasses, and other accessories by names like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Hermes, and Gucci. Priding itself on its exceptional customer service, the store has been the recipient of numerous well-deserved accolades. A lifetime 100% authenticity guarantee is provided for all purchases.
Self-described as “your source for curated vintage,” Black Market, an alternative clothing store at Queen and John offers all its wares for $10 or less. T-shirts feature unique designs, and there is a fantastic selection of seasonal articles, like their famous holiday sweaters. The store also offers sweet vinyl finds from Shortstack Records and a professional silk-screening service with very reasonable rates.

​Speaking of vinyl, Toronto’s oldest Indie record store, Kops Records, has been around since 1976 and boasts the city’s largest stock of near-mint used records and value bins. 

​The staff is friendly, knowledgeable, and happy to talk music whether or not you’re making a purchase. And, as a family business with 40 years of buying experience, they’ll treat you fair if you’re looking to sell a precious collection. Kops has a few locations in and around downtown Toronto.
Picture
featured: no glove no love leggings by hundred wunders
Picture
Chinatown

​Toronto’s Old Town is one of the most concentrated areas of 19th century buildings in Ontario, including the site of the first Parliament in Upper Canada. The St. Lawrence neighborhood grew up around the still-standing market of the same name. 

Part of a restored historic corner of commercial buildings (est. 1840) at Front and Jarvis Streets, the Corner Place Restaurant and Lounge is a friendly neighborhood hangout right across from the St. Lawrence Market. Delicious burgers or eight-hour, slow-cooked brisket are perfectly paired with local beer and wine. Soak up some sun on their great people-watching patio; once you're fed and watered, you’ll be ready to continue your walk. ​
​
You can wander the Victorian lanes of Corktown and enjoy the architecture of the Gooderham (Flatiron) Building—now a Firkin Pub—the Distillery Historic District, and St. James Cathedral, or take a leisurely stroll through one of the area’s heritage parks. ​

Operated by the Town of York Historical Society, Toronto’s First Post Office (est. 1833) is a historic site, museum and authorized full-service Canada Post dealer, offering special philatelic services. A team of experts, including architects, historians and curators volunteered during the restoration project. Today, the museum hosts fascinating exhibitions, workshops and educational programs. 

Likely the city’s oldest watering hole, drinks and hospitality were first served at the Black Bull Tavern between 1833-1838, just after York became Toronto. For much of the 20th century, it was operated as the Clifton House, a pretty “rough” joint. In the early 1980s the bar was owned by retired football players Taylor and Hughes. Today it continues to be popular with locals, tourists and trends'ters.

​What is a travel app?
​
A GPS-guided travel app embeds GPS coordinates of locations mentioned in your favorite articles, along with a map guiding you from place to place. You can upload the articles to read at your leisure without wi-fi and use them to guide you in walks around the next beguiling city you visit.
Picture

Contest

Enter your email to win a free one-year iTunes subscription ($18.99 value) to our travel article app courtesy of GPSmyCity and hundred wunders! You'll get instant access to over 6,500 walks in 1,000+ cities around the world. ​

I want one!
0 Comments

On Truth - Editorial

3/6/2017

0 Comments

 
​Truth. It’s in the news – including the ‘fake news,’ which begs the question of what the fake news is reporting truthfully – about the truth. No one even really agrees on the definition of ‘fake news.’ Its etymology is missing from mainstream sources, which is somewhat ironic given that the most vocal critics blame the mainstream for its existence. In referencing one such standard source, I found no accepted etymology of the term. According to this dictionary, it doesn’t exist yet.

​Separate definitions of the words ‘fake’ and ‘news' do exist, of course:
Fake: of unknown origin; attested in London criminal slang as adjective (1775, “counterfeit”), verb (1812, “to rob”), and noun (1851, “a swindle;” of persons 1888, “a swindler”), but probably older. A likely source is feague “to spruce up by artificial means,” from German fegen “polish, sweep,” also “to clear out, plunder” in colloquial use.
​The term ‘fake news’ entered the public lexicon late in 2016, but it has actually been around much longer, except for those who think ‘history’ is just the list of bookmarked sites in their browser. In the first half of the 20th century, the term was used to describe some components of wartime propaganda, specifically the “impact that false information could have on societies.” (Leetaru, Forbes)

​The relative importance of the term over the past 100 years is illustrated in the following graph. 
Picture
References to the term 'fake news' in media from 1800-2017
The original definition of fake news was briefly replaced by one more useful to the digital age and probably coined by Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. It was intended to refer to malicious and “willfully false clickbait.” (Leetaru, Forbes) ​
​But in the light-speed virtual world, even etymology is forced to evolve at a pace only a superhuman network of computers can keep up with. Interestingly, it was the US President-elect who sent it spiraling into the future with its past definition intact – the one it had earned as WWI and II propaganda. The less mainstream and more nimble Urban Dictionary (Vantius, December 2016) has since proposed a dual definition: 
  1. False or otherwise extremely exaggerated news stories used to generate money from ad revenue by using clickbait titles or… to sell tabloids in the grocery check-out line.
  2. A term for a news article that doesn't validate one's political opinion.
WARNING: FAKE NEWS
This is an editorial, an opinion piece, a personal perspective. This is what I have chosen to communicate about my very subjective perception of recent events, after having given the topic much thought.
Back to Truth. Contrary to popular opinion (pun intended), there is no consensus as to what constitutes Truth. Yes, the definition of this word is brief and readily available, and we would probably all agree that truth does exist, and that there is a difference between the truth and a lie. Truth is real. Lies are false/fake.
​
Humanity has given a lot of thought to what truth really is. The concept of truth has been discussed and debated by thousands of thinkers in diverse contexts across millennia (fact-check THAT). The notion should give one pause, though: 

​
What IS Truth, when truth itself has been questioned for so long, and by so many?
​
​On the other hand, even Wikipedia easily excludes certain spheres from modern debate: “Many human activities depend upon the concept, where its nature as a concept is assumed rather than being a subject of discussion; these include most (but not all) of the sciences, law, journalism, and everyday life” (my emphasis). Examples of the latter include the environment, judges, reporters, and the rest of us.
Picture
Picture

In the Western intellectual tradition, there are numerous theories proposed by philosophers, but perhaps one of the most succinct and practical definitions for our age can be found in Avicenna's Islamic proposition restated by Aquinas:
Veritas est adæquatio intellectus et rei.
(Truth is the conformity of intellect and thing.) ​–

​​In other words, a generalized correspondence theory wherein truth in thought/communication is equated with our observation of the actual state of things around us.
And that’s where it all falls apart, because in-between ‘thoughts’ and ‘things’ is a process referred to as perception. Perception is not opinion, which is opposed to fact, and passes through thought before being born into the world. Perception is base, it’s visceral, it’s knee-jerk, it’s utterly subjective. Perception, without the filter of thought and the humility of opinion, allows us to let ourselves off the hook individually and as a species as to what constitutes reality. ​

​And then there is paradox, the idea that two (or more) conflicting truths can and will co-exist. For instance, we know (knowledge being somewhat different from truth, but close nonetheless) that throughout time humans have been both predators and prey, simultaneously. Naturally, this has had far-reaching consequences for perception. Our evolutionary history (perceiving and knowing that the world contains actual dangers) makes it understandably difficult to strike the balance between our nature as prey and our nature as predator. This unfortunate paradox is most visible in our notions of the Other, beginning with our conflated love and fear of animals or the natural world as a whole, leading into misconceptions of human individuals and different ​cultures. We control none of these; indeed, we are sometimes unable to exert much control over our own selves. Moreover, we are also taught from infancy to fear invisible forces – gravity, electricity, heat, cold, lack of oxygen. It does seem that the very planet that keeps us alive is also out to get us – the ultimate paradox.

Picture
​As Nietzsche might explain, the search for truth is really about the ‘will to power’ or the necessity of making “life-advancing, life-preserving, species-preserving,” often false judgments, in order to construct a view of reality that in essence allows us to survive it. 

Perception is both our greatest strength and our worst weakness. It is a dangerous and limitless power. In youth, it may lack objectivity and wisdom; in old age, it may fall short of full cognition – and there are many states in between.

​People acting according to their perceptions, without reflection or consideration of another's perspective, can have a devastating impact on those they love and society: broken relationships, divided families, ruined livelihoods, impoverished communities, wars, loss of life. None of us has the right to act on perception alone. It is immature, inadequate and irresponsible.

Thankfully, we are in possession of an exquisitely developed tool to solve this problem – a network of conscious, thinking, feeling, communicating, ever-learning 
minds.  It is possible to create a reality in which ALL can thrive.
​
Picture
SILENCE = DEATH

I am breaking my silence.

​In many languages, there is no verb for truth as there is for ‘lie.’ There are only approximations which, depending on the context, are open to interpretation: tell the truth, be truthful, be true, be real. Truth is a state of being, and the truth is, we can be in it. It’s time to embrace the paradox and wield its awesome power for good. 

Be true. Not just to yourself. For real.
​

There, but for the grace of... 
... go I.
This piece is dedicated to the children of the world, who have every reason to be truly outraged.
​May we find a way.
0 Comments

Google Search by Image

3/5/2017

0 Comments

 
Louis Caron (1848-1917) founded an architectural dynasty that contributed more than 150 residences and ecclesiastical buildings to the Bois-Francs region of Québec, designed primarily in the Neo-Gothic style. Gothic Revival architecture in Canada was imported from Britain and endured until the 1930s. Victorian eclecticism, with its mansard roofs and fancy embellishments, also influenced the appearance of many towns, and can still be seen today. 
Picture
Picture
Picture
In an attempt to identify one such building, which I photographed in 2009, I discovered both Louis Caron and what I still believe to be a little known online tool with lots of potential.
   Google Search by Image provides an alternative to scouring the Internet for information via key words and text. You can start with a file of your own or choose one on the Web, then drag and drop, upload, right-click or paste a URL, depending on your needs.
Picture
Once you’ve added your file, Google will generate a series of results according to various parameters, which you can guess at by examining the selections returned below. Foremost will be the colour palette, so our mysterious Victoriaville photo, which was desaturated and modified using an antique filter, generated images in the same range. ​
Picture
Most of the images treat a similar subject, in this case, a building; if you plug in a picture of a red car, you’ll get mostly red cars parked in the same position. But then it gets more interesting. Looking at the examples, you’ll see that composition and geometry play a significant part, and that each picture has several such elements in common with others. Artists will connect with this immediately: strong perspective views, lighter fields of ‘sky’ or ‘ceiling’, squares, triangles, arches, and blocks of dark that contrast with the pallor of the overall image. ​

Finally, all of these images comes with a story: the Vietnamese village of 30 old French villas, a fleet of floating hotels on the Providence River, some Sci-fi guy who is building a model of a frontier power generator at a plasma plantation, a shop-front in the tiny Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye, where the ratio of bookstores to residents is approximately 1:60… The possibilities for artists, authors and historians are literally endless.
Picture
Photo credit: Pierre Girouard
You may wonder at the usefulness of the resource, as it is fundamentally random, which is perhaps why Google hasn’t promoted it much. What would one use this for, exactly? Google suggests: “… if you search using a picture of your favorite band, you can find similar images, websites about the band, and even sites that include the same picture. Search by image works best when the image is likely to show up in other places on the web. So you’ll get more results for famous landmarks than you will for personal images like your latest family photo.” 

​But that’s not the reason I like it so much. It is playful and silly and rather purposeless - but not entirely. In my case, the tool saved me from having to sift 
randomly ​through archival photographs and historical sources online in the hopes of falling accidentally on a picture of a building for which I had no name, address or architect. And let's face it: Victoriaville, Québec, is not a major tourist destination - despite its many well-deserved (but lesser-known) claims to fame.
Picture
Search by Image does return a list of the instances of a specific image online, much like Reverse Image Search by TinEye, which can assist the user in tracing rights owners or infringements. But it also scans the content of the image using some kind of magical algorithm. And this produces results that will be pleasing to all types of users with infinitely diverse missions. At the very least, it is likely to quench one's curiosity about all those snapshots of unanswered questions that tend to rattle about in an avid traveller's luggage. 

​For me, its value is best described by the old adage: a picture is worth a thousand words... and it's why I now know my anonymous, iconic building to be the Grand Union Hotel, Victoriaville est. 1875, designed by the famed 19th century architect, Louis Caron. Set right beside a now defunct railroad, I can only imagine the action this place saw back in the day, when it must have been the swankiest inn in town.
QUÉBEC, CANADA
0 Comments

March Break

3/4/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
pirate with pipe
Photo credit: C.W. McCain
​
​Newcomers to Tampa Bay may be unaware 'tis a pirate's haven, but what could be more beguiling to kids than a town that revolves around these legendary time travellers? From January through May, the city is invaded by buccaneers during the Pirate Fest Stage Street Festival, the Gasparilla Parade (tons of elaborate floats and marching bands), the Outbound Voyage with Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla, and Searle’s Sack of St. Augustine, a thrilling reenactment of Robert Searle’s deadly raid in 1668 (complete with an authentic battle). Join the assault, and snatch up some sparkling beads and doubloons while yer at it!     
Picture
Ella's Americana Folk Art Cafe is a whimsical eatery that offers eclectic cuisine, supports local artists, and features live entertainment on Friday and Soul Food Sunday nights. The creative menu reflects the personality of its chef, and is best washed down with one (or more) of the cafe’s beers, ciders, wines or specialty drinks. The quirky art collection will amuse and charm even young children. Not to mention the ‘world famous two-headed alligator of Seminole Heights’ (or a reasonable facsimile), captured by local trappers, and on display here.       
Picture
​Want to get right out of town to the ocean and fresh air? Drive for 25 minutes down the coast to see manatees in their natural habitat near the Big Bend Power Station at Apollo Beach. The station's discharge canal sends clean, warm saltwater back to the Bay where these gentle mammals seek sanctuary when the surrounding ocean reaches less than 68 degrees.

​The site also features educational tours of the power plant, solar energy, a boardwalk, a wildlife observation tower, and an award-winning butterfly garden.     


​In Tampa, when it rains, it floods. And lightning strikes. It's no accident that's the name of their hockey team. So you'll want to have great accommodations, especially if travelling with little ones. For a taste of southern hospitality in a quiet location, you can't go wrong with a two-room suite priced at $149 offered by Palmer House Bed and Breakfast. You’ll be treated like royalty in this remarkable blend of the comforts of home and style of an upscale resort. The hosts could not be kinder, nor could there be greater attention to detail in the services. And it’s conveniently located just out of the city and close to parks and activities, such as canoeing, horseback riding and biking.
It's the most wonderful time of the year, especially for kids in the Northern Hemisphere. If they're really, really lucky, they may get the chance (and you, too!) to escape winter's last gasps by running away to a sunnier place. And how better to celebrate than with a Tampa Extravaganza! Here, we lay out a few of the lesser-known best times in this city on Florida's Gulf Coast - a blast for both the young and the young at heart.
Picture
Subscribe to GPS-guided travel article apps by hundred wunders and many more at:
Picture
​Heat is where it’s at in this city – in the weather, in the food, in the people. Sometimes the heat will make you want to hide inside. Instead, get lost in the crowd, melt in the melting pot, prowl with the pirates. There’s plenty to see and do, in or out of the water. It’s a theme park, a garden, a zoo – all rolled up into one big Cuban sandwich. So head down to the beach or out on the streets, and take a bite!
Picture
Ybor City
Photo credit: George
​
​Ybor City is a historic neighborhood near downtown Tampa, founded in the 1880s by cigar manufacturers and populated mostly by tabaqueros from Italy, Spain, and Cuba. Known as the “Cigar Capital of the World,” the factories rolled millions of cigars annually for 50 years – about 700 million at the industry's peak. Ybor City was unique in the American South as a successful town nearly completely owned and operated by immigrants - not a bad place to start a good discussion with your kids, if you're up for it.
Picture
Image courtesy of ​Ceviche Tapas Bar

​The delightful Ceviche tapas restaurant is intimate and romantic. Sparkling fresh sangria and spicy tapas make a great combination, either hot or cold: ceviche de la casa (chilled and marinated lime shrimp, seabass, and squid); tabla fixta (Spanish cheeses and sausages); calientes (stuffed artichokes in sherry sauce), gazpacho, paella… on and on into gourmet heaven. An authentic slice of Tampa that will make a great first impression.    
​
Picture
Photo credit: Matthew Paulson
Picture
FLORIDA, USA
0 Comments

Spring giveaway: fashion & travel apps on the cheap

3/2/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture

FROM MAY 7 to 14,
get a travel app with
free GPS
upgrade
​from hundred wunders & GPSMyCity

​
​What is a travel app?

​A GPS-guided travel app embeds GPS coordinates of locations mentioned in your favorite articles, along with a map guiding you from place to place. There are thousands of articles available from more than 750 cities at GPSmyCity that you can upload free of charge, to read at your leisure without wi-fi.

There is usually a small fee to upgrade ($1.99) to access the GPS-guided article you would like to select for your trip. For just a few dollars, you can plan your entire itinerary within minutes, according to your interests, without having to search any further than a few key words.
Picture
​May and June are part of the shoulder season in Florida when the weather is still fantastic. Cheaper hotel rates can be found from June onwards, and then it starts to get hot and humid. Prices are 40% lower than peak season highs when the temperature reaches 90°F from July-September.
​
Get the Tampa Extravaganza 
iOS ​
travel app free here
Picture
Economical, next to nothing, cheap - everyone likes to find a bargain. Spring is the season for new styles, as well as holiday deals, and hundred wunders has a bunch of exclusive tips and treats for you. 
Picture
​San Francisco’s climate is mild throughout the year, so it’s fun to visit at any time. But if you’re into cheap, with good weather and great city events, May must be the best month. It's famous for the most monthly celebrations, including Cinco de Mayo, How Weird Street Faire, Bay to Breakers, and Carnaval at the end of the month.
Picture
For one week only (May 7-14),
you can get two of hundred wunders' travel apps with full GPS functionality as a free upgrade.

Get The Quirky Charm of San Francisco 
iOS ​travel app free here
Picture
...and for a limited time only, get $10 off
​
hundred wunders'

spring 2017 'scrapbook' collection...
at storenvy.com
Picture

leggings and crop tops

...celebrating the dynamic energy and renewal of life in springtime. Compression fit, opaque, performance fabric is made to last, and the vibrant print will not fade.
Picture
0 Comments

hundred wunders launches new store 16/11/16

11/16/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
hundred wunders started out as a scrapbook for storing my good memories and doing something useful with the many albums of pictures I've taken over the years. Nothing intense, and much of the time it has simply been a nice place to visit. 

But with patience and dedication, hundred wunders has begun, slowly but surely, to live up to its name. I've been invited to write for travel websites, such as trip.com and GPSmyCity, spent a lot of hours wondering, but best of all, met a whole bunch of incredible people. This fascinating adventure recently inspired me to launch the hundred wunders brand and multiply the iterations of what can be done conceptually with archival photographs taken over the years and all over the world.
Picture

hundred wunders' leggings, dresses, scarves, gender-friendly baby clothing, and handmade soaps are all produced locally in Montreal, Canada, which helps to limit our carbon footprint. Our fashionable, eco-friendly leather bags are handmade by small, genuine leather crafters around the world. These manufacturers use vegetable tanning, a traditional process employed to tan leather without chemicals. Each satchel, duffel and backpack is unique, exhibiting its own grain, nuances and scars. The bags will be among the most reasonably priced and beautiful pieces of leather you will ever purchase.

Picture
'the Weekend' leather backpack
​Who knows what else you'll find, off the beaten track? Welcome, and enjoy! And please, shop! In so doing, you'll be supporting some of the finest lesser-known artists and artisans of the world.

Picture
The creations in the hundred wunders collection are inspired by photographs of urban environments, representing otherwise random moments in city time. Each piece is completely original - you will not find either the concept or the designs anywhere else. A far cry from the standard framed print, although I love those too, they capture something precious about each of the strange cities I've travelled, mainly on foot. They are the canvas on which these pieces will live from now on.
Picture
urban meadow big silk scarf
​The 'architecture' series is the heart of the project, and it plays upon the notion of where the environment stops and the people start. The process involves transforming a single view of a place at a given moment, with all its qualities and limitations, to create a completely unique article of clothing that is true to that view: a snapshot of the city has been laid across cloth so that it can wrap around your body, making you one with the urban environment.
 
cambridge cycle leggings
Picture
from a photograph of a bike rack on Harvard University campus
Picture
0 Comments
<<Previous
    Picture

    Author

    The author is an artist, writer, and instructional designer with an overactive imagination and too little time. Ceci en est un exemple...
    ​

    RSS Feed


    Pssst... want to advertise your travel guide or products on hundred wunders? Contact us!

    Picture
    Follow

    Categories

    All
    Amusement
    Architecture
    Art
    Audio
    Britain
    Canada
    Desert
    Forest
    History
    Island
    Mountain
    Ocean
    Opinion
    Park
    Photography
    River
    Shopping
    Town
    Transportation
    United States

    Picture

    Picture

    Recommended

    Environnement-voyages
    en français
    GPSmyCity.com
    Trip.com
    Ask Wonder
    ​
    The Blind Blogger
    ​
    Women & Wanderlust
    ​Streetfilms
    Grist
    Junkculture
    Rough Guides
    Off the Beaten Path
    Tom Hussey
    Griffintown Tour
    ​


    ​
    Google
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
ⓙⓤⓝⓘⓞⓡⓐⓝⓖⓔ