5 days Slovakia

Yesterday evening I came home after a great 5 day trip to Slovakia. We -my colleague Annemiek and six 1st year students from Fashion Management- went on Tuesday with a flight to Vienna and there we were picked up by a minibus who took us to Púchov. The main goal for the trip was to work on the International Textile-project "Red Thread" together with Cardonald College from Glasgow and the hosting school in Puchov. We, as colleagues have known each other for many years already from previous projects and in the meantime we also have become friends. It is always great to meet up and this project hopefully will be exited as were the 2 days we have worked on it last week. The idea is to set up a Textile Brand designed and managed by students from the schools involved and coached by the involved teachers. We want to go as far as we can get and hopefully this Brand will be reality in the future. It is for me a great challenge to coordinate this project. I have been in Púchov many times before and although the city has not much to offer historically I feel very at home. The reason for that is that the colleagues living there are really into my heart which is very special and dear to me. My conclusion is that People are always more important to me than the place they are living, and that the place you are born can make all the difference for the rest of your life. Red Thread....I have found a wonderful sentence with whom I did start the project:

There is an ancient Chinese belief which states that there is an invisible Red Thread that connects each of us to all of the individuals who have been, currently are, and will in the future be important to us in our lives. This Red Thread can stretch, twist and bend...but will never break.

After that all students and teachers got a Red Thread tied around their wrist and we all kept it there till the last day. Normally I do not teach Management but because my colleague who is teaching Management couldn't come with us I had the task to do it. The theme was Guerilla Marketing and the task for all groups was to make as much positive attention on the project in Púchov, so everybody living there would know. It was great to see were everyone came up to and they all went for it 100%. Texts as: "Coming soon: Red Thread" were sprayed with red paint on snow, red balloons with the text were hanged everywhere, a meeting with the Major was organized etc. etc. and all very exiting for the students and colleagues to do. So it was 2 days of hard work and on Friday we did a big trip (almost 3hrs by bus) to the High Tatra's were it was sunny in the beginning and loads of people were skiing or snowboarding. After lunch with warm alcoholic tea ;-) we went up to 1640 Mtr. by a ski cable car and had hot chocolate in a restaurant.

So a big thanks you all colleagues from Púchov who organized an amazing program!!! and to all colleagues and students involved in the project.

On Saturday morning we took the bus back to Vienna and we had 3 hrs. to spend in Vienna. The city doesn't do much to me. It feels stiff and cold and very conservative.There is Jugendstill, the Stephan's Dom, All very beautiful....but..... I can understand the perhaps for that time provocative nude girls paintings from Egon Schiele. Since seen his work for the first time at Art school I have always admired it. So Annemiek and myself went first to a Dirndl and Lederhosen shop called: Loden- Plankl with an amazing range of traditional garments. Being in such a shop always gives me a "Heidi und Peter" feeling, so I had to buy an Edelweiss- pin. They had amazing knitted stockings over there and I almost bought a velvet vest embroided with little flowers. We really were up for coffee than so we went to Demel were the interior and the cakes were AMAZING!! I personally liked it much more than Sacher and in the window scenes were great to look at and it was also nice to have a sneak view in the bakery were all the "Heavenly Cakes" were made. Didn't knit anything during the week and so compensate that I bought 2 knitting books with patterns from traditional Austrian knitwear. I always have a double feeling about it. I love tradition but tradition also can mean conservatism which I don't like. It can give security but in my opinion it also stops progress. So it is more inspiration to me than the feeling that I really would like to wear such outfits as a "Lederhose" (although I must admit Rufus Wainwright looked great in it....) It was nice to be away for a few days despite Bram's very weak health (he was taken good care of, so don't worry...) and it has given me much energy back. The coming week is holiday so time to unwind even more with cleaning my workroom here at home, visiting some friends, reading, knitting etc. etc....