Amfiteatr

The Ampfiteatr, a concrete concert shell in Tarnów, a town 80 km from Cracow, was built in 1967. It was then and still is a brilliant example of modernistic cultural architecture. Until 2006, the place was busy showing cabaret, festivals and concerts for citizens and visitors of the beautiful Oldtown of Tarnow.

Since 2006, this place is closed, empty and slowly decays. The town lost its pulsating heart of social life.

We were asked to develop a vision and visualisation for the Amfiteatr.
Instead of developing a new project and tearing down the old substance, the idea was to keep this architectural pearl in the hands of the citizens. Examples of other, bigger cities show the acceptance of the inhabitants when it comes to reactivation of iconic city places, as the Hotel Forum in Cracow, the Warszawa Powiśle in Warsaw or the old airport Tempelhof in Berlin.
The place being the visitcard of this historical town, shall combine cultural life and life-quality of families. A day playground as well as an evening bar, the meeting point for people visiting concerts  and the center for cultural activities like workshops - all that in the heart of the city.

In the end of last week, this project was accepted by citizens and the town council and granted with 300.000 zl for realization. So great!

Autumn Interior with Alex&Axel

Alex&Axel cherry are exploring new interiors. Mexican Designer Ana sent us beautiful photos ofthe Drache&Bär candleholders in their new home surrounding in Berlin Charlottenburg.
Very inspiring - thank you!

Summertime bookbinding

Another good way to spend summer days: the first weekend course in bookbinding took place at Drache&Bär.
Drilling, sewing, binding - after Grzegorz's lessons teaching japanese technique of bookbinding, the four students Ana, Francisco, Martina and Berit did their jobs so well and we all had a perfect day.
Of course everybody was proudly going home with their own handmade notebook.
This week, Drache&Bär starts the production of new notebooks for the collection.

Hänsel & Gretel - Making of

The cold and dark months february and march we spent coin model making. Lena had designed two drawing concepts after which we developed eagle, type and identity of the coins.
Since Lena's last made coin model was quite a few years ago,  she had to fresh up technique and carving, getting familiar again with the hard dental gips which the models must be made of.
After many casts, positive and negative forms, the coins Lena developed turned out beautiful.
The topic of Grimms dark and dangerous though happy ending storytelling Hänsel & Gretel, was very tempting and took over: the whole family was involved and excited to take part in Grimms fairytale and we have been living with the witch ever after.

Hänsel & Gretel

In the beginning of this year, Lena was invited for a contest to design a coin-model for the German Federal Ministry of Finance.
The topic was Brother Grimm's fairytale Hänsel und Gretel. After the anniversary of Grimm's collection in 2012, the Ministry of Finance is now releasing six motives of popular Grimm stories, every year one.

After Lenas graphic projects, we did a lot of craftsmen work in dental gips, proposing two projects, each with a motive and a currency side with the german eagle.
The hight range of the carved surface of the models is within 1 mm, so we spent many long winter evenings carving obsessively next to the heater.
One of our proposed models passed the third step of selection, but anyway there was chosen another project for realisation as official coin.

Nevertheless it was great to work on this generous contest and we are very familiar with Hänsel and Gretel now.

Summertime beauty

Another new item in the Drache&Bär collection are Alex and Axel turned out of natural, oiled cherry wood.

They are manufactured by hand in the workshop of Jan Bik near Cracow, where also the wood comes from.

Alex: 33 cm x 9 cm

Axel: 35 cm x 9 cm

They come with a little red seal heart at the bottom.

For sale now, order under info@dracheundbaer.com,

55 Euro plus transport for each candleholder.

Advice Dice

The game of bears and kings.

Set your mood, set yourself, risk or wait.

Our little series Advice Dice consists of:

Dice I: Poet - Monk - King - Hero

Dice II: Risk - Wait - Test - Quit
Dice III: Bird - Bear - Lamb - Worm

They are made out of lasered beech wood, 4 cm x 4 cm, manufactured in the workshop of Szymon Szymański near Cracow.

If you wish to possess one, or all, write an email to info@dracheundbaer.com.

Costs for each 10 Euro, 27 Euro for all three (plus transport)

Beerenlese Party

Some snapshots of our friend Francisco Velazquez Escobar from saturday's summerparty and exhibition Beerenlese at the Drache&Bär Studio in Charlottenburg. Chocolate strawberries, the little dressed up birch tree, our animation film on the wall and the sofa in front of the studio - everything was prepared in time. When the first guests arrived, Saam Schlammingers composition on Nocturne whispered in the air. A warm evening that we will remember for a long time.

Beerenlese Story

Beerenlese was the topic of this years Drache&Bär summer party and exhibition. The reason for our little event was the presentation of some new items, the advice dice and candleholders our of cherry wood. Above we show some pictures of the preparations and invitation cards.

Great thanks to the girls from Switzerland, Martina & Martina, especially for preparing beautiful strawberries in white chocolate.