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Blue leads 2.5 m euro investment round in world’s first premium sunglasses made from 100-percent recycled materials
Spring is coming. We are all waiting for the time when the weather gets warm. Yes, March is almost here, sun comes out more and more. We love spending time in parks and beaches when it’s warm and sunny. But one thing we never can ignore. We need a great sunglass for the protection of our eyes.
Blue, a Stockholm-based investment company that serves as a catalyst for sustainability-driven innovation, has invested 1.25m euro in sustainability-driven Chilean eyewear maker Karün, which turns reclaimed materials such as fishing nets into premium, high-quality sunglasses. Karün sunglasses have already caught the attention of world top sporting celebrities such as top Chilean surfer Ramón Navarro as well as organizations like the Volvo Ocean Race.
The Blue investment, which is part of the total 2.5m investment round including investors such as Luna, an investment organization founded by Lucy Ana Walton, is designed to significantly strengthen Karün’s fast-track global brand building and development of a number of new product lines, marketing and organization in new markets around the world.
“Karün shows how entrepreneurs can embed environmental concerns into their business vision as it trailblazes the integration of green practices into its material sourcing and manufacturing that reflect the humanity of its founders and management team,” said Blue co-founder and CEO, Anders Jacobson.
He notes that lost or abandoned plastic fishing gear comprises 10 percent of all the plastic waste in the sea, ensnaring marine wildlife and ultimately destined to break down into micro plastic particles that will enter the human food and water chain to threaten the future health and wellbeing of every inhabitant on the planet.
“Karün sunglasses are symbols of the change we want to see happening in the world by making a positive impact on the environment and local communities,” said Thomas Kimber, founder and CEO.
Mr. Kimber said his company’s eyewear are beautiful products designed and sourced in Patagonia and made in Italy with the aim to directly contribute to protecting the environment by turning reclaimed noble and natural materials into positive products and by creating a source of income for micro-entrepreneurs in Patagonia.
“We are enabling small-scale business people to scale their sustainable businesses and create economic opportunities empowering their own communities,” said Thomas Kimber.
“Instead of a linear and extractive production process – which is used by most companies in the world – Karün is building our entire value chain under a circular and regenerative model designed to help restore natural ecosystems and local economies, he added.”
Anders Jacobson said Karün sets an exemplary example of circular economy thinking by up-cycling discarded materials backback into highly desirable new high value products.
Karün’s approach helped the company become the official sunglass supplier to the recently concluded Volvo Ocean Race. Its frames became the top choice for many of the sailors who raced around the world, such as Martin Strömberg, Mark Towill and Charlie Enright.
Blue today owns companies such as Bluewater, a world leader in drinking water technologies and solutions, and is investing in a growing portfolio of game-changing companies, including Climeon, Baseload Capital, Save by Solar and Visiba Care.
“Karün are change-makers who are demonstrating it is possible to solve the problems facing theplanet and humanity in sustainable ways,” Mr Jacobson said.
Karün can be a great gift choice for anyone. I chose a Polarised Grey Blue Sky Mirror from Pacific Collection for my husband Ryan as a Valentine’s Day gift. He immediately fell in love with it when he saw it. And now he wears it everyday. I will say Karün can be also a good Birthday gift, no matter for your love, your friends, or your dad. Especially for someone who cares about the earth, this is definitely a perfect gift choice.
About Karün
Based in Puerto Varas, Patagonia, Chile, Karün is a Chilean B corp that makes sunglasses as a tool to inspire people into looking at the world from a different point of view; one in which we are all nature. They create high quality eyewear, made under a very different way; using reclaimed, natural and noble materials while working alongside local communities in Patagonia. www.karunworld.com
About Blue
Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Blue is an investment company that serves as a catalyst for innovations that can solve some of the major challenges facing our planet and all living on it. Blue’s mission is to find, engage with, invest in and support entrepreneurs, innovators and businesses driven by the desire to deliver tangible, sustainable solutions that can benefit human wellbeing and planetary health.www.blueab.se
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Entertaining and Celebrating: An Elegant Feast For Every Season By Kristal Damron
Make any meal a celebration with a new guide which brings together everything a host or hostess needs to create lasting memories around food and family. Seasonally organized recipes, menus, tablescapes and décor ideas, and wine pairings come together in one comprehensive resource. Entertaining and Celebrating: An Elegant Feast for Every Season [May 2019] brings together Chef Kristal Damron’s experience as a working mom, enthusiastic hostess, caterer and professional chef to show you how to elevate your dining experience.
A visual extravaganza, this coffee table treasure takes you through a year featuring monthly themes highlighting each season’s bounty. The themes are designed to spark your own creativity, with stylish table settings, four-course menus with cocktail and wine pairings, and suggested ways to serve that will wow your guests. Cultivating a warm and casual mood while dishing up flawless execution and service is what Entertaining and Celebrating is all about.
“In the fast-paced complexity of the modern world, many of us have
lost the art of slowing down to appreciate the simple pleasures in life,” Chef Damron says. “Preparing to entertain is an example: setting the table, creating an ambience, planning the menu and wine, paying attention to the details and beauty of things.”
It’s easy for a home cook to become overwhelmed at the thought of pulling off an elegant meal when shuttling the kids to soccer practice or working in that evening conference call. But Chef Damron makes a special dining experience accessible to everyone.
“Many of us have forgotten how to make dining meaningful and the rush to do other activities has become a priority,” Chef Damron adds. “As a result, we look for quick, easy fixes and convenience. Or we are unable to visualize how the event should look, and then, we talk ourselves out of planning it.”
This one-stop guide takes the stress and guesswork out of creating a memorable meal. Whether it is for weekday family dinners or more extravagant occasions, you’ll find yourself reaching for Entertaining and Celebrating again and again.
Working for more than 20 years in corporate finance, Chef Damron wanted to redesign her life to bring her family and community to the center. She switched gears, completed culinary school and started Reward Your Appetite Catering in Phoenix, AZ. She brings her culinary and catering expertise together with her passion for creating attainable elegance to everything from weekday dinners to special celebrations.
“To be able to sit together around a stylishly laid table, have a glass of wine, and appreciate each other’s company creates lasting memories. To listen to a person’s story and have them listen to yours, rejoicing, laughing, and reducing the stress of your life develops true community,” says Chef Damron.
In an inspiring and informative interview, Chef Damron can offer insights into the following:
- How to cook and entertain for the seasons
- Ideas for full menus, décor and drinks for every month of the year
- How to work from an established menu and entertaining guide and pull it off flawlessly
- How to pick and choose the recipes and ideas that work for your guests to put together a more unique gathering
- Doing it all while maintaining an active family and work life
“It can be challenging to come up with ideas for how to create this kind of dining experience,” adds Chef Damron. “Searching for ideas on the internet can be overwhelming. I want to make it easy and provide ideas and inspiration that you can implement together or pick and choose what works for your entertaining style and your guests.”
ABOUT KRISTAL DAMRON:
Chef Kristal Damron is the owner of Reward Your Appetite Catering, a fine dining catering company committed to providing exquisite culinary dishes with exemplary service.
Chef Damron spent more than 20 years in corporate finance before redesigning her life around her family and her passion – entertaining. Chef Damron has a Bachelor of Liberal Arts and Masters of Business Administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She graduated, with honors, from the Arizona Culinary Institute in Scottsdale, Arizona. She lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with her husband, Jared, and their two daughters, Arianna Victoria and Alexandria Isabella. She and her family enjoy traveling, visiting parks and museums, and spending time with family and friends.
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Skin Care Predictions to Keep You on Track
Often the start of a new year, predictions in varying market categories are made. From top diets for the New Year, to new workout trends, to bucket list travel destinations. Let’s not forget the beauty marketplace. With the start of 2019, BREVENA Laboratories’ Skin Expert and Advanced Practice Esthetician Susannah Courteau is already seeing a few skin care trends that can help you ensure your healthiest skin ever.
Top 3 2019 Skin Care Trends:
- Replenishing Oils: The use of replenishing oils in skin care has grown significantly in the past year. I see this trend not only continuing but growing significantly in 2019. We grew up hearing “fat free” food was the gold standard and up till recently, the same thing has been propagated in skincare. Thankfully we’ve learned that fat doesn’t actually make you fat (thank you avocados), and in skincare the right oils aren’t greasy and can actually help breakouts. There are a multitude of emollients and fat-based ingredients for the skin that are absolutely phenomenal. They provide not only the right amount of hydration but anti-inflammatory effects as well that support the skins barrier function. Thank you to science, for putting the spotlight on the proper way to hydrate!
- Blue Light Awareness: Technology is now part of our day to day existence and while we love our apps, they can have a negative effect on our skin. Thankfully, awareness is growing about the many harmful effects that blue light can have on our bodies including the long-term damaging effects it can have on our skin. I predict that the role of antioxidants and reparative ingredients in skin care will take on an elevated position in 2019.
- Sheet Masks: This is a current trend that I see increasing in the coming year. I like to think that this trend is a reflection of the changing mindset in our society around self-care. Multitasking has its limits and its hazards. Thankfully, we are beginning to realize the importance of self-care by slowing down and taking time for ourselves to relax and rebalance. Treating your skin with something special like a mask or scrub is the perfect, healthy way to accomplish this, and it feels amazing! Trade that last email for a hydrating mask instead. I promise, you won’t regret it✔️.
“As you continue to evolve your own wellness regimen, consider these predictions and consider adding even just one of these into your routine to help you jump start a healthier you,” Susannah advises.
About Susannah Courteau: Skin Expert and Advanced Practice Esthetician Susannah Courteau is a member of BREVENA Laboratories’, LLC leadership and advisory team. BREVENA is a luxury skin care cosmetics company based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. A Minnesota native who graduated from St. Paul College as a licensed Esthetician in 2004, Susannah specializes in the medical side of esthetics, performing advanced skin treatments for complex conditions including acne, sensitized and irritated skin. Susannah’s extensive training and expertise lead her to become an Advanced Practice Esthetician and Spa Director at Sunbear Salon and Med Spa in White Bear Lake, MN. Susannah has partnered with BREVENA Laboratories as a Skin Health Consultant to further develop the brand’s line of clinical grade skin care products, ensuring the needs of the most sensitive skin types are met. Visit: www.Brevena.com
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Dive into the world of bookbinding with BOOKFORMS
Immerse yourself in a new book, one you create from start to finish!
With Bookforms: A complete guide to designing and crafting hand-bound books, from the Center for Book Arts, you’ll learn to create beautiful and unique handbound books in a variety of styles and formats.
Bookforms introduces you to the art and craft of both Western and Asian bookbinding. You’ll not only learn its history, but also how you can handcraft your own books. Projects include:
- Accordion Books
- Soft Leather Covers
- Coptic Bindings
- Pamphlets
- And more!
BOOKFORMS A COMPLETE GUIDE TO DESIGNING AND CRAFTING HAND
BOUND BOOKS, FROM THE CENTER FOR BOOK ARTS
Brought to you by the instructors at the Center for Book Arts in New York, Bookforms (Rockport Publishers / January 22, 2019 / $30.00 US) is a comprehensive guide for making books by hand with a focus on functionality in design.
Bookforms presents all the instruction you need to craft by hand a comprehensive array of historic bookbinding styles from all over the world. It traces the functional roots of each structure, explains their appropriateness for various uses, and provides projects for making an essential structure for each style of binding.
Topics covered include:
- Why books work: General bookbinding principles for functionality and what we can learn from the past.
- What you need to know for planning a special book or embarking on an edition.
- How materials affect function.
Bookforms tackles a wide range of projects for all levels of bookbinders. You’ll see everything from sewn and ticketed blank books and traditional western codex book forms, to scrapbooks and albums, Asian stab-sewn bindings, unusual structures, and aesthetics/embellishments. What better time to dive into this venerable and unique hobby than now?
The Center for Book Arts is one of the few contemporary arts organizations dedicated to the art of the book. Founded in 1974 in Manhattan, it was the first not-for-profit organization of its kind in the nation, and has since become a model for others around the world. The Center promotes active explorations of both contemporary and traditional artistic practices related to the book as an art object. It facilitates communication between the book arts community and the larger spheres of contemporary visual and literary arts. They achieve their mission through exhibitions, classes, public programming, literary presentations, opportunities for artists and writers, publications, and collecting.
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Curl up and embroider the winter away with two great needlework books!
Essential Know-How for Hand Stitching
By Lynn Krawczyk
Hand Sewing Magic is an essential reference to all things stitching, featuring how-tos for dozens of stitches, from the basics for sewing and mending to stunning embroidered embellishment.
Hand Sewing Magic is a modern, all-in-one guide for hand stitchers of all levels of skill and experience, and for all applications. In this unique guide book you will:
- Get an in-depth overview of essential tools and materials, including thread, needles, fabric, and other key supplies.
- Explore a comprehensive visual dictionary of 35 stitches plus dozens of variations, from basic mending to stylish decorative embellishment to unique art stitching.
- Discover key techniques, from starting and ending threads to the right way to use an embroidery hoop, from stitching curved shapes to color shading, and more.
- Learn essential tips and tricks from influential and innovative stitchers, including Joanne Sharpe, Allison Aller, and Catherine Redford.
- 10 simple and stunning projects show unique ways to use stitches and techniques.
With Hand Sewing Magic, you’ll make the most of your hand stitching and give all your projects a beautiful handmade look.
Paperback | 144 pages | ISBN: 9781589239685 | $24.99 US, $32.99 CAN | Published December 4, 2018
About the author:
Lynn Krawczyk is a mixed-media surface design artist who focuses on pattern and color. Her work features painting, drawing, and hand stitching on both fabric and paper. Lynn has written nearly 50 magazine articles for such publications as Quilting Arts Magazine, Cloth Paper Scissors, Uppercase, Fiber Art Now, and Sew Somerset, and is the author of The Hand-Stitched Surface (CPi, 2017) and Intentional Printing: Simple Techniques for Inspired Fabric Art (Interweave, 2014).She also has a collection of floss with thread manufacturer Aurifil, Inked by Lynn Krawczyk, as well as three instructional DVD workshops with Quilting Arts/F&W Media: Print, Design, Compose; Color Theory Made Easy; andThermofax Screen Printing Essentials. Lynn teaches surface design workshops at various venues throughout the United States. She lives in Plymouth, Michigan.
380 Stitch Motifs for Dog Moms and Dads
By MakikoArt
I Love My Dog Embroidery is a collection of 380 adorable dog-themed stitch motifs for pooch parents and their beloved fur babies, with project ideas, how-tos, and templates.
Created by embroidery artist MakikoArt and six other amazing embroidery artists, this “dog fanciful” collection of stitch motifs celebrates all things canine. With this lovely embroidery guide, you can create all manner of pups, including:
- The sweet Labrador retriever, fluffy poodle, noble German shepherd, and many others
- Dogs doing what they do best—classic poses, postures, and tricks—like “roll over,” “give me your paw,” and the ever-popular “rub my tummy”
- Pooches disguised as people—the farmer, the artist, the businessman—and who can resist the sneaky but lovable mailman?
- Mutts in different styles and shapes, including borders, frames, and alphabets
You’ll also find guidance on how to customize a motif to fit your favorite Fido, plus a gallery of project ideas for showcasing your stitches. So grab a needle and floss and take everything in your home and wardrobe from drab to double-dog fabulous!
Paperback | 120 Pages | ISBN: 9781631596131 | $19.99 US, $25.99 CAN | Published: December 11, 2018
About the author:
Oksana Kokovkina — better known to her fans as MakikoArt—is a textile artist and jewelry designer noted for her naive and whimsical animal embroidery motifs, especially her hand-stitched custom pet portrait brooches. Born in St. Petersburg, she currently lives in Vienna, Austria.
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Matt Smith is MAPPLETHORPE
“MAPPLETHORPE evokes tangible time and place in its every frame. A phenomenal performance from lead Matt Smith and arresting historical deference. Mapplethorpe was a complicated person, and the film admirably leans into that complexity.”
– Lena Wilson, SLATE
“Timoner’s gutsiness is shared (and then some) by her star Matt Smith. Nothing holds Smith back from making Mapplethorpe come alive again, in every sense.”
– Dan Callahan, THE WRAP
“A superb performance by Matt Smith. A bold and brilliant performance, an act of possession, really.”
– Keith Uhlich, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
Robert Mapplethorpe is arguably one of the most important artists of the 20th century. Mapplethorpe discovered himself both sexually and artistically in New York City throughout the 70’s and 80’s.
The film depicts Mapplethorpe’s life from moments before he and Patti Smith moved into the famed Chelsea hotel, home to a world of bohemian chic. Here, he begins photographing its inhabitants and his new found circle of friends including artists and musicians, socialites, film stars, and members of the S&M underground. Mapplethorpe’s work displayed eroticism in a way that had never been examined nor displayed before to the public. Exploring the intersection of his art, his sexuality and his struggle for mainstream recognition, MAPPLETHORPE offers a nuanced portrait of an artist at the height of his craft and of the self-destructive impulses that threaten to undermine it all.
Directed by: Ondi Timoner
Written by: Ondi Timoner, Mikko Alanne
Cast: Matt Smith, Marianne Rendón, John Benjamin Hickey, Mark Moses, Carolyn McCormick, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Kerry Butler
Release Date: March 1st, 2019
Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Films
TRT: 102 min.
Producers: Eliza Dushku, Ondi Timoner, Nate Dushku, Richard J. Bosner
Executive Producer: Peter Palandjian, Sam Maydew
Composer: Marcelo Zavos
Director of Photography: Nancy Schreiber
Editors: Lee Percy, John Allen, Ondi Timoner
Samuel Goldwyn Films will release MAPPLETHORPE on March 1st, 2019
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“BACK TO YOU: A DEAR JOHN (MAYER) LETTER”
