sandinista

Congratulations to our good friends Kevin and Zeynep, who got married on May 15th in Istanbul – we were able to make it there for the celebrations and decided to make it a long-awaited vacation. One week in Istanbul and one week in Cappadocia, here are a couple of visuals…by the way, a trip to Turkey is highly recommended. Although not as cheap as it used to be for travellers, you can still do it on a budget, especially if you stay off the tourist path and try the local spots like we do.

Istanbul at dusk:

Locals only food:

Our hotel in Cappadocia – real cave dwellings and the attached centuries-old Greek house:

Bad idea free climbing in Cappadocia – not recommended:

Goreme open air museum – this is the central hub of the Cappadocian experience:

Cappadocia is also the place to get a real, handmade carpet. The real ones are made by the nomadic tribeswomen and are woven from handspun wool. Other traditional textile art includes killims and chofras which are usually a combination of both wool and cotton and have alot of embroidery work. Only the real carpets use the Turkish knot made on the loom. Our man Faruk used to be a carpet man and he set us up with a beauty from his personal collection.

Without a doubt, apart from the carpets, if you ever travel to Turkey you will hear about chai (tea), hammam (Turkish bath), and coffee. The absolute best Turkish coffee to be had is a tiny spot on the Asian side of Istanbul in continous operation since the 1920s called Fazil  Bey, and it was well worth the 1.75 Lira fare for the ferry across the Bosphorous.

Thank you to all our friends new and old who made the trip to Turkey so memorable!

Just in case you may not have noticed on your way in, the website has been updated so you guys can check out the lineup for Spring and Summer – it’s a good looking kit! There are 3 ways to view the collection now because we added a “Product” page which allows you to view only the items. Big Thank You to Eug at Public Release for allowing use of one of tracks off the new EP – check it now go buy it and play it loud please!

15 years living basically next to some of the best fishing watersheds on the continent and finally dipping into it. Too many new inspiring sights and sites to list here, but some nice pics courtesy of DF and KT, thanks fellas!

Of course you have to gear up with the best you can afford. This might have been pushing the budget abit, but made by hand, right here in British Columbia, no choice!

A long project is finally finished and the “official” opening is tomorrow, December 9th at 8 Water Street.  You may have already seen these photos posted up by the lads at Roden Gray. Despite all the headaches of working on a site in one of Vancouver’s oldest buildings, the final product came together quite nicely in the end.  The content is also quite good, and expect some really good product lines in the upcoming season including our friends at nonnative.  Eug is coming up to DJ along with myself and Sipreano spinning the good ‘ol rocksteady and ska 45s.

Many thanks to Chris Allen for taking the excellent photos.

This has got to be the slowest blog going, but I’m trying here folks. There’s been alot of work going on – and I’m realizing that it’s pretty fun to actually live the Free & Easy lifestyle. Working in the woodshop during the day, and finally taking advantage of the amazing wildlife activities in Supernatural British Columbia. I got invited to an amazing old school trout fishing lodge and finally got to try the magic of fly fishing. Frustrating yes, but also super rewarding. These little guys got some smoking treatment after soaking in some brine:

The home-made smoker at Sisley’s place – windfall Cherry wood makes for some tasty treats!

In the previous post I made a bench for the Vancouver Haven crew – they liked it so much I ended up making one for Daniel for their Edmonton Shop.  The interior there is more “modern” so I opted to work with walnut, it was the best I could find, not quartersawn (impossible to find now), and I sorted through the entire lift just to find the right pieces, I think it came out alright:

The last couple of months have been hectic though, the main focus being the build-out for the new Roden Gray shop in Gastown, Vancouver. We’ve run into some problems, but it’s been really good working with Rob and Ken on this project, and they have been super helpful in making the design happen.  I’ve been off-site and in the shop making the fixtures, here is a sneak peek, my good pal Eug has beaten me to the blogging of it so you can check out a couple more photos on his blog (always worth a visit, anyways, PLUS, he is doing an AMAZING music project called Private Release…just try and get your grubby paws on these visionary pieces of 12″ vinyl).