All posts by boomersdaily

Online News, Views & Reviews magazine for Baby Boomers and Beyond (The 55+). Featuring news, finance, retirement planning, health/fitness, travel, current affairs, politics, home design, literature, & art.

Profile Video: French-English Textile Artist ‘Valerie Wartelle’

My main fascination lies within the manipulation of fibres and textiles as an expressive art form. Taking the rural environment as my inspiration,I explore long-term interests of texture, colour, layering and process to create contemplative and ethereal artworks.

   My primary technique is wet felting; a traditional craft technique using wool tops, hot water, soapsuds and friction to interlock the fibres together. The making is muscular and rhythmic as I lay, pour, roll and squeeze again and again. It seems repetition nudges me into a semi-meditative space – it invites me to trust myself, and let the haptic connections sinuously paint a new space for the viewer to contemplate.

The compositions are built in layers, hinting at what may lie beneath, and use translucency and light to create absorbing moods. These are highly textured felt pieces in which cloth is embedded, prints disguised, and threads unravelled as a painter with her brush. The analogy with painting is significant throughout, making the viewing inquisitive, and challenging people’s perception.

   Brought up in France and French Polynesia, I originally came to the UK to study textile design and am now a widely exhibited artist working and living in West Yorkshire. In 2015, I was awarded the Embroidery Magazine’s Best Emerging Textile Artist at SIT Select Showcase, as well as Best Picture in Show at theGreat North Art Show.

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Sunday Morning Podcast: World News From Zurich, London & Iceland (2020)

Monocle’s editor in chief Tyler Brûlé is joined by guests Christoph Lenz, Rob Cox and Chandra Kurt to discuss the weekend’s top stories. Plus: we check in with the newsroom of Iceland’s morgunblaðið newspaper.

Travel Videos: ‘Yosemite’ In The Autumn Of 2020

Yosemite National Park is in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. It’s famed for its giant, ancient sequoia trees, and for Tunnel View, the iconic vista of towering Bridalveil Fall and the granite cliffs of El Capitan and Half Dome. In Yosemite Village are shops, restaurants, lodging, the Yosemite Museum and the Ansel Adams Gallery, with prints of the photographer’s renowned black-and-white landscapes of the area. 

Travel & Food: Christmas Market In Berlin, Germany

Christmas is unfortunately different this year. Annual tradition of Christmas Market is officially not taking place. However, in Berlin, there are some food stands selling typical christmas street foods. It is called Christmas Market “to-go” where you can get the foods/drinks to go. Nevertheless, it gives us opportunity to taste Christmas Street Foods. And by the way, the foods are great!

Video timeline: 0:00 Overview 1:03 Hygiene Precautions 1:39 Churro 2:51 Half a meter Sausage 4:12 Warm Glühwein and Eggnog 6:07 Bulette im Brötchen 7:15 Germknödel with Cherry and Vanilla Sauce

Travel: Sequoia National Park In California (Video)

Sequoia National Park is adjacent to Kings Canyon National Park in California’s southern Sierra Nevada mountains. It’s known for its huge sequoia trees, notably the General Sherman Tree dominating the Giant Forest. The underground Crystal Cave features streams and striking rock formations. Moro Rock is a granite dome offering sweeping park views. Nearby is the Tunnel Tree, a toppled tree cut to accommodate the road.

A film by Eric Minh Swenson. EMS Legacy Films is a continuing series of short films produced by EMS on artists and exhibitions.

Art: Pablo Picasso’s ‘Girl Before A Mirror’ (Video)

This image of a young woman and her mirror reflection is riotous in color and chockablock with pattern. It is one of the last in a major series of canvases that Picasso created between 1931 and 1932. According to The Museum of Modern Art’s founding director, Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Picasso said he “preferred this painting to any of the others,” which speaks to the painting’s dazzling visual and thematic complexity. Its primary subject is the time-honored artistic theme of a woman before her mirror, reinvented in strikingly modern terms. The girl’s smoothly painted profile, in a delicately blushing pink-lavender, abuts a heavily built-up and garishly colored frontal view in yellow and red. Allusions to youth and old age, sun and moon, light and shadow are compressed into a single multivalent face.

History: ‘Charge Of The Light Brigade, 1854’ (Video)

The true story of the suicidal mission of British forces to overrun the Imperial Russian fortifications with a courageous but foolhardy mass charge.

The Charge of the Light Brigade was a failed military action involving the British light cavalry led by Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854 in the Crimean War. 

Fermentation: What To Know About ‘Yeast’ (Video)

Whether you’re making a recipe for cinnamon rolls or French bread, yeast factors into the equation. Yeast is a required ingredient for almost all bread recipes. While we typically just buy yeast at the grocery store and toss it in our mixing bowl, yeast has quite an interesting backstory.

Yeast are fungi, living organisms found all around us, floating in the air. According to producer Red Star Yeast, yeast is made up of egg-shaped cells, only visible through a microscope. They’re fungi just like the molds found on blue cheese, mushrooms, or even in antibiotics such as penicillin. However, yeast grows in a different form than other fungi, which are typically composed of tubular chains of cells called hyphae. Yeast is found in small clusters of cells, or as an individual cell. And since it’s alive, yeast can also die.

According to Red Star Yeast, their yeast is stamped with a best by date of two years from when the yeast is packaged. Keeping it in a cool, dry place such as your pantry or refrigerator will ensure it’ll live up to that date. If you’re not sure if your yeast is alive, pour it over warm water with a teaspoon of sugar. If it bubbles, it’s still kicking, The Spruce Eats advises.

Also? Yeast has been around for longer than pretty much any of us. In researching the ancient tomb of the Egyptian ruler Scorpion from around 3100 B.C., archaeologists found 700 jars of resinated wine. According to Scientific American, the resin was used to slow the wine’s natural progression into vinegar. Researchers found evidence of the same species as modern-day brewer’s yeast in the jars. While that isn’t solid evidence the ancient Egyptians knew that the addition of yeast could turn their juice into alcohol, it certainly does show that yeast has been prevalent for a very, very long time.

Timeline: It’s alive, and ancient | 0:00 Hundreds of varieties | 1:52 Commercial production | 2:38 Adult beverages | 3:24 Ooh, that smell | 4:36 The amount makes a difference | 5:30 Yeast-free bread | 6:17 Sourdough starter is DIY yeast | 7:01 2020’s yeast shortage | 7:45

Hiking Tours: ‘Ayun River Nature Reserve’ In Israel

Beautiful Nature Reserve in Israel. Ayun River is a perennial stream and a tributary of the Jordan River. The stream originates from two springs in the Marjayoun valley in southern Lebanon, runs southward for seven kilometers through various irrigation ditches, then flows into Israel near Metulla, where it continues through the Hula Valley in the Galilee Panhandle until emptying in the Hasbani River just before it reaches the Jordan River.