2015-01-06

This Blog is in Hibernation

Hi to everyone who follows me by email! 
If you still want to know about Substantielles Minimums latest activities, please check the facebook page for news from now on.


2014-01-22

The Beginning of a New Age

Hello friends of brass music!

Substantielles Minimum is currently looking for a tiny store to try out if the beginning of a new age has arrived yet. 


If anyone knows of a free one in Berlin, preferably Kreuzberg or nearby, then let me know please.
It can't be too expensive and ideally it would be sublet for a few months only. Rooms in need of renovation are welcome too.

2014-01-18

#14 JADJEMBA Djembe Drum Backpack Made from Raincoat


To make the JADEJEMBA I turned a fairly wide raincoat upside down and was surprised that its shape pretty much resembled the shape of a Djembe drum already. All I had to do were some adjustments.
I closed the hole where the face of the raincoat-wearer used to be. For that I used a piece of strong and waterproof truck tarpaulin. Then I narrowed down and extended the former sleeves and turned them into soft and thick shoulder straps. The drawstring of the former hemline is now used to close the JADJEMBA. The pockets of the raincoat can still be used and come in handy.

Here's the result, it's waterproof and padded to protect the Djembe drum in wind and rain. 






And here's the raincoat before, no longer with us that way.

2014-01-14

...It’s an UPCYCLING adventure!

I just updated my about page on my website. Let me know what you think.

Substantielles Minimum is a way of life, and an UPCYCLING adventure.
The medium is fashion, the message universal: You can decide which guidelines you want to base your life on.
Substantielles Minimum is dreaming of a world of round colorful houses, of people riding bicycles wearing handmade clothing, men in dresses, women with shaved heads, crooked and awry cucumbers, small and dented potatoes, two-headed sheep, where no one gives a damn, and all is natural and fine the way it is. In Substantielles Minimum, everyone is defining their own standards of beauty and ways of life. People grow their own food or borrow it from their neighbors. Work doesn't mean pressure, stress, and boredom. Clocks and schedules and timelines and smartphones don't exist. You knock at your friend's door and come in and share a piece of cake or a bottle of liquor.
In Substantielles Minimum TO COOPERATE beats TO COMPETE, TO SHARE knocks out TO ACCUMULATE and TO BE is more important than TO HAVE.



2014-01-10

Two More PURUs



The first PURU is made from an olive green turtleneck sweater that was tighter fitting than the grey sweater I used first. This gives it a slimmer shape.

This PURU is also closed with a drawstring and it features 
a convenient small green inside pocket.

On the back, the former turtleneck has been turned into a hidden pocket 
for love letters or secret maps.

 The other new PURU is made from a lovely brown sweater from a friend of mine. I was thinking about keeping it as a sweater, but it was so freaking itchy. I'm glad I came up with a use that keeps it intact, it would have been too heartbreaking to cut it apart.

 The inside pocket has been a neck pouch before. Whenever I wore that during a trip 
I felt like a complete idiot that has "tourist" written on the forehead. 
Now it has a new underground life.



2014-01-07

#13 PURU Backback made from Old Sweater

Don't ask me how and why I had the idea to turn a sweater into a backpack, I don't remember myself. Sometimes ideas come out of nowhere like a flash of lightning and then they materialize and stay.
The funny thing is that the sweater-backpack seems to work. I always try out my new creations for comfort and practicality, so I took the backpack to the supermarket and man, so many things fit in, kilos of potatoes and oranges, no problem. The material is pretty strong too, and I secured the sleeves/straps with so many seams that it's almost impossible to come undone.
One just has to get used to wearing an upside-down sweater with food inside on the back, that's all.

before
after
The wide straps/former sleeves make it comfortable to wear and it resembles a vest from the front.

It features an inside pocket for organizing your stuff. In this case it's a little purse that used to be worn by a friend of mine, hopefully in her teenage years.. 

2013-12-22

New SCONCHO Ponchos


This one is featuring a dog leash as a belt.

This pink-rose-salmon-dream is made from very soft scarfs and has a hood.