BERLIN HABERDASHERY STORES

I'm sure a while back I may have mentioned my little trip to Berlin. Whenever I go away somewhere I'm always excited to have half a day or so to myself searching for shops that sell fabric and wool. Berlin was a bit disappointing in that respect and I only really managed to find 2 shops (Maybe I didn't try hard enough!). On my next visit I think I'll be spending a little more time online searching for shops as there do seem to be more places scattered around.

The first shop I found was Fadeninsel and it sold mostly wool. I only managed to snap an image of some of the wool inside but after doing some research I have found the shop has a lovely sign on the front and so have borrowed an image from here for you to see. Fadeninsel can be found at Oranienstrasse 23, they have a website here, it doesn't show anything really but has the contact information. I did make a purchase here for my Mum's birthday, I'm not sure she'll ever use it though, it's a yarn divider for when you're using more than one colour on a knitting project and you pop it onto your finger! I'll get her to take some pics soon.

The second shop (which I found online!) was a fabric store in Charlottenburg. It's called Kumasch and although small, it did host a wide variety of fabrics. I didn't buy any in the end as I thought most of the stuff they had there I could probably buy back at home and a tad cheaper too.

We were a bit more successful on finding lots of other interesting things in Berlin though, some of which I haven't blogged about yet. Others I have and they include Polish poster design, an independent artist run space with some fab pieces of graphics inside. The colourful beer, mmmmhhh! A double decker bus cafe, the worlds largest open air gallery, lots of inspiring graffiti, and much more to come! So as you can see we were hardly disappointed really!

BREAD HEAD BUTTONS!

After posting about the Barca buttons I thought I have of course got buttons from Nippori too! I can't remember the exact shop I bought these ones above from but there's always loads of choice in every store as with everything in Tokyo! I had to get in amongst the kids for a few though! One of my favourite characters from Japan is Shokupanman. He has a head made from sliced white bread! It always makes me giggle when I see him! Here's his theme tune translated. He is one of the characters from the Anpanman anime cartoon series in Japan which in 2009 was verified to hold the Guinness World Record for the highest number of characters in an animated franchise. I have purchased a fair few badges from Nippori with the lovely Mr Shokupanman on and last time I was there was lucky enough to get a few buttons of some of the main characters. Also after looking through my sketchbook from Tokyo the other day I saw I had a photo from another button store which always seems to amaze me every time I look at it. I don't remember buying anything from here (pictured above) as I think we were in a bit of a rush but for future reference it's in Shinjuku, I can't remember exactly where but there's a picture of the shop front here and it's just across the way from the train station exit (Sorry, again not sure which one, maybe the west exit). GO SHOKUPANMAN!