Monday, April 25, 2016

The Shortest Paths to Happiness - Literally!

Most business trips are clocked right through to the last minute. Exhausted at check-in, tired and hasty at check-out. Waiting for a cab.Heay rain. Cold wind. The e-mailbox is flodded. But listen: the flight has been delayed... an unexpected gift of an hour, sixty minutes, a huge gift or isn't it? If you are in any of the cities mentioned on this website of IDEAS.TED .COM - count yourself blessed, especially if you are a book lover. Getting from A to B might never have been that much fun! 
Silk Tassel and Silk Soutache Christening Bonnet on Wedding Pocket
Silk Lining of Christening Bonnet on Soutache Wedding Pocket
As a long-time traveler I always look for something interesting in places through which I pass on route from A to B. Travelling von Paris to Lyon, from Toulouse to Barcelone, from London to Manchester, from Chicago to St. Louis, and for the insiders of my blog followers: from Kleinheppach to Nogaret. These routes just packed with places in-between that I never visited or even knew of before I worked out detours in the un/likely event of an unexpected delay or change of means of transportation. Unlikely events? Strikes of tollbooth staff, flooding, cancelled flights due to vulcano eruptions, cancelled train connections because the tracks froze, gasoline shortage (remember those?), demonstrations, forest fires...
Silk Soutache ending in to a Bonnet Adornment at the Nape of the Neck
Soutache Lace Silk Christening Bonnet, with Embroidery and Silk Lining
Soutache adorned Wedding Pocket, lined with Orange Lace
Silk Tassel from Declercq, Paris (France)
Of course in my case I finecomb the routes for bookstores and any place connected to textile crafts, shops, museums or craft shows even. My next trip to Paris will include visits to tassel places. A gift from my god-daughter rekindled my desire to see these fluttering, silky, bejewelled works of art in some of those splendid tassel stores listed below. Above you can see beautiful examples of German Soutache (engl. also Soutache or Galloon), a soutachee being a woven flat rope, sometimes combined with a gold bullion thread or silk, and embroidered on costumes and uniforms in Napoleonic times. A Soutache is made of wool, silk, or cotton. There are tutorials on how to work with a Soutache braid on YouTube.

Les Passementeries de l'Ile-de-France/ - the very picture makes your heart beat faster.

Declercq Passementiers (© Declercq Passementiers, 15 rue Etienne Marcel, 75001 Paris). They even give a demonstration and lecture (in French) in the art of making tassels. If you leave this store with no purchase you will probably regret it for years to come!

Houlès Click on "Trimmings" and submerge yourself in colors, sheeny satin and silky glitter.

Verrier Père et fils They make simply out-of-this world tassels!

And if you wish to have your very own personalized custom-made tassel, turn to this company:
Jende Posamenten Manufaktur or just go for a walk through their site and enjoy looking at their amazing treasures.

Closing this post with an observation:

A child is toddling along the the sandy beach, stopping now and then, seemingly for no particular reason, and then just as spontaneously picking up speed for a short dash to the next invisible attraction. Apparently accompanying the child, an elderly woman is following smilingly, no hurry at all in her steps, her arms a bit stretched out, hands open as if ready to catch the child if need be, maybe the Grandmother. The child turns around to share his joy of having seen something new and the grandmother responds in kind with an understanding and reassuring smile. Treasured moments for both of them. And the onlooker. 

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