#and textile people developing better textiles going forward

[tetralea]

So this piece was inspired by @tomsrebeleyebrow and this image. It’s also escort!Tom leaning to the sub side. What can I say? 🤷‍♀️ thank you GQ I guess.

It wasn’t the first time and if you wanted to be honest you didn’t want to count the occasions you took Tom to any event you had to attend. At this point your family started to believe that he was actually your boyfriend and maybe it was wrong, but you never said anything about it. No denying, no confirming.

The truth was you developed quite a liking towards the boy which you buried deep, but still who could blame you? He was amazing, sweet, gorgeous and there every time you needed him. He was a great company on his own, but he was also great with people, taking all the weird conversations with ease, letting you shine in the spotlight if you needed to or helping you escape a difficult situation from time to time.

And the sex? It was mind blowing. By now it was a thing, the two of you disappearing in the middle of an event because neither of you could wait long enough. There were several quickies in the car, in public and not so public bathrooms, in dark corners of the venue you were at before you could get home and take him into bed, if the two of you made it until the bed.

It was a time like this, not even two hours in the event organised by the firm you worked for, you already found a private room at the back. You couldn’t help it. His hands were traveling up and down your body, his lips lingering on your cheeks just a bit longer every time he gave you a kiss, you could hear him sigh and shudder slightly, getting more and more needy in every second.

He was so tangled into this just as you were, he never could call you, but he was always waiting for it and he was always eager to find the time that you requested. Extras agreed. It was only natural now, but he always asked with a playful, cheeky tone, hinting you that he was looking forward to it just as much as you were.

So now, he was sitting on a burgundy couch, taking you in with a hungry look, which he didn’t have to hide now. He let a bit loose, his legs were open as an invitation for you to climb into his lap, his hair was still perfect but not for long and the sultry look in his eyes only fuelled the fire in your belly.

His position could have come out as pretty dominant but you knew better, and he was also in slight trouble for grinding his erection to you ever so subtly before. You felt yourself getting wet already, just by looking at him. He was wearing tight, soft Gucci pants, a slim, baby blue shirt, a slim chain and a few rings. He was a sight, but you already wasted too much time by only staring at each other.

You walked to him and climbed into his lap, straddling his thick thighs, a small smile forming on your lips as his hands instantly found home on your hips and he looked up to you waiting and with such adoration.

‘Keep your hands there, baby boy.’ You warned him, giving him just a hint of what’s to come.

‘Am I in trouble?’ He asked with the most innocent voice, but his eyes told a different story. Those pretty brown eyes were already filled with lust and need, so eager to please every time, but now he knew as well. He overstepped that fine line.

‘I’m sure you know the answer if you are asking like this.’ Your hands did a quick work on his shirt, revealing his smooth chest. Did he get even more muscular since the last time you saw him? You couldn’t resist; you had to run your fingers over his pecks teasingly. He was gonna be the death of you.

‘I’m sorry.’ His voice was small as he looked away, softening your heart a little already.

‘It’s okay, baby.’ He looked back at you immediately. ‘You are not in too much trouble. I’d say you just like exhibitionism a bit too much, a bit too early before people get so drunk, they don’t notice.’ You shrugged leaning close to him. He relaxed a bit, wetting his lips for you. ‘It doesn’t mean you are not in for a bit of a punishment.’

The surprised sound he made was muffled by your lips as you finally kissed him. His mouth eagerly welcoming yours, sucking your bottom lip, opening up for you so you could slip your tongue into his mouth. He whimpered into it. It wasn’t new anymore, but it started to make you feel a certain way.

His pants were tight and you decided to use it to your advantage. Not letting go of his lips you were grinding down on him slowly. He wanted to part but you didn’t let him, your lips swallowing all of his desperate, breathless sounds.

He was already hard, it was obvious from before, but with so little textile between the two of you, both the boxers and his pants sticking to his cock tightly he was just oh so sensitive. You speeded up, now dry humping him shamelessly. His hands were gripping your hips, not moving an inch, but getting tighter and tighter by every minute.

Tom couldn’t really resist, he bucked up his hips, meeting with your movements halfway, even if he just dug his own grave with it, he couldn’t resist, he had to feel more. It wasn’t long until his moans and groans, becoming whimpers again your lips now let him go, just so you could feast on the view of him falling apart so easily for you.

‘Darling, I’m gonna, oh shit-,’ He let his head fall back as his eyes rolled back and his body shuddered for a second. He bit his swollen, red lips, breathing heavily, feeling grateful that you stopped.

‘Did you cum, lovie?’ You asked with a low, curious voice, raising a brow.

‘No, I-,’ he started shuttering and blushing heavily. ‘maybe. A little.’ He looked at you hoping he could get away with it. He didn’t really cum, not fully at least. ‘It was maybe a drop. I’m sorry it’s been so long since we-,’ Tom trailed off, his eyes opening wide like he just said something he really shouldn’t have.

‘You haven’t cum since we last met?’ You finished the sentence for him carefully, your eyes never leaving his features, searching for any clue he might gave you.

‘Well, no, not like this, not with someone else.’ His answer was gentle, vulnerable, and you felt his touch softening on your hips.

‘I thought you were working.’

‘Yes, I went out, dinners, weddings, stuff like that but that’s all, I’m an escort not a hooker, darling.’ He smiled at you, bringing up his palm to slide it on your cheeks.

You were speechless. There were way too many possibilities in your head and the one which started to push out the other made your heart flutter and you didn’t like that.

‘Alright, we have to talk about this later, but now let me see you.’ You whispered, choosing your words carefully, leaning to him to kiss his lips until you undid his pants, and pulled his cock from his briefs.

He was still hard and a bit messy, his precum now mixing with the few drops of cum he couldn’t hold. ‘I guess you are lucky this time, baby boy.’ You smiled at him and you heard him letting out a big breath.

‘I told you I didn’t cum.’ He laughed a bit until you pulled down his pants till his ankles and freed yourself from your clothes as well.

‘True, but I am not done with you yet.’ You bit your lip straddling only one of his thighs this time. ‘I’d love to make a mess on your pants, but it’s still too early, so I’m just gonna use your thigh to get off, and you are going to watch, without cuming.’ You passed the sentence, earning a weak whimper from Tom. He wasn’t sure how he would manage. You were so wet, he felt it as you lowered yourself, so wet and soft and he tried not to think about how it would feel to have your pussy wrapped around his cock but it was difficult.

You started to move, just like before humping his thigh, wetting his skin, closing your eyes as you finally felt the pleasure you were craving for hours now. Tom grabbed your hips and helped you, sometimes flexing his thigh to give you more friction, feasting on the look he was offered. His cock was twitching and leaking a generous amount to his stomach, and fuck he wanted to touch himself, just give himself a few strokes, but he was sure he wouldn’t have lasted.

Instead, he was focusing on you, the way your brows were knitted, as you bit your lips or opened them to let out a soft moan, as your body was moving so beautifully to get you closer and closer to your release. He was mesmerised. His hands only encouraged you and as he flexed you felt yourself slowly reaching the edge.

‘Are you close, love? Are you gonna come?’ He asked breathless, the unsatisfied need slowly overwhelming him. You could only nod as your nails dragged across his pretty chest. ‘Please, let me see you come, let me see it. Come, love, that’s it, let it go. I’m here.’ His encouraging words mixing with his pants and groans got you. You come, his name falling from your lips like a prayer as your body seized up and your orgasm crashed down on you, making your body shake, you rode out your high, completely soaking Tom’s thighs with your arousal. He kept you steady, helped you through it, guided your movements when you became sloppy and it just made everything so much more intense.

You come down slowly, still rocking your hips a bit, softly humming when you felt a warm hand on your cheeks and soon warm lips followed on your own. ‘You are not supposed to enjoy your punishment, you know that right?’ A small laugh mixed with your still heavy breathing and his giggles as you spoke.

‘It’s hard not to enjoy anything with you-,’ he started, ‘ but I’d lie if I’d say I’m not painfully hard right now.’ You hummed and opened your eyes, just to look at those soft brown ones.

‘So, do you think you can hold it until I put a condom on?’ The question wasn’t serious, but you just wanted to tease him a bit. Tom nodded and let out a big breath as you rolled down the rubber on his shaft. ‘Good boy.’ You purred and sifted a little to straddle him again and line his leaking, red tip at your entrance.

Letting yourself sinking down on his cock so soon after your orgasm was another thing. He stretched you out even more, made you feel him more intense and you were so tight around him, the both of you hissed when you started to move.

‘I’m not gonna last.’ Tom warned you with a broken whimper, helping you move again.

‘You don’t have to let me feel you.’ You encouraged him, leaning forward, clinging desperately to his warm body and the two of you moved in union.

He knew by now that like this you could get enough friction on your clit, as your were grinding down on his pubic area, that you could come, mostly so soon after one orgasm. You were sensitive and all he had to do is amplify it a bit, so he sucked and bit down on your neck, feeling your skin breaking out in goosebumps as he did so. He was just a bit louder as usual, knowing him being vocal drove you mad. And his hands wandering on your body made a delicious mix you couldn’t resist.

‘Com with me, Tom.’ Your voice was urging, your moans became high pitched and came on his cock, pulsing, and tightening around him, whispering his name again, like it was the only thing he left in your mind. He came right after you, biting and sucking just a little too hard to muffle the sounds of his pleasure. His mantra was ‘thank you’ just was always when the two of you indulged in this kind of sex. You never asked for it, but he was so eager, so easy for you all the time, desperately wanting to let you know how good you made him feel.

The room was filled with both of you panting in each other’s arms. Whispering sweet nothings, your hand finding a stray of hair falling stubbornly on his forehead as you tried to smooth it back. Tom’s hot lips never leaving your skin peppering the sweetest kisses on your neck and shoulders.

‘Let’s go back, shall we?’ You asked hesitantly. Tom nodded and helped you out of his lap, taking in the damage the two of you made. It got messy all the time, even with a condom.

‘I’ll be good.’ He added sheepishly while getting dressed again, tossing the used condom to the bin.

‘You better, because I really don’t want to stay long and I want you inside of me again the minute we are in my apartment.’

Tags: @we--are---not--afraid @tomsrebeleyebrow @tomhollandsmut @greenorangevioletgrass @terrifictomholland @tommysparker @duskholland @pensivepeter @tomhollandd @farfromparker @thurstyforholland @augustholland

#tom holland #smut #tom holland smut #tom holland reader insert #tom holland x reader #sub!tom holland #escort!tom Holland

[phoebehalliwell]

hunger games fusion: demons rule and make witch and human kids fight for their amusement. Patty was a victor at 17, mentored by Sam, her district's only other winner (and a whitelighter who died in the arena but was resurrected before anyone could notice), and they got close, but after she was so traumatized that she broke all contact with him except for the yearly games, married Victor Bennett a regular human, and had three daughters. But Victor couldn't handle the magic and left and Patty 1/?

turned to Sam. they had Paige but gave her up in another district before demons found out about a half-whitelighter baby. then Patty died shortly after, leaving her family homeless (bc you can't live a victor's life if there is no victor) and Sam a drunken mess. Cut to years later, and 13-year-old Phoebe just got Reaped for the Games. Piper volunteers in her place. Leo is her district partner. Sam is their mentor. And in the arena she meets Paige, 11 and Reaped from a neighboring district.

okay i’m picking districts. patty comes from the warren line who are known to be very powerful witches so i’m saying she’s a career. u kno what i’m gonna saying district 4 fishing as a parallel to san francisco bc like. they got fishing there. and then we’ll also say for aging purposes whitelighter don’t have immortality (or they do but they age regardless) and we’ll also say instead of being her mentor bc since i’m saying she’s a career they definitely have a plethora of winners to choose from we’ll say sam was also a tribute from district 8 textiles in patty’s hunger games they formed an alliance and she developed feelings for him despite already being in a relationship with victor back home when he died patty used her power to freeze him giving the elders just enough time to do what they needed to do. technically he “died” but he lived on as a whitelighter aiding the side of the revolution. patty wins the hunger games and brings pride to her family but feels v disillusioned w it all bc well killing other kids was not fun and losing sam was the worst and now she’s toted around like some prize jewel and she doesn’t know if victor can’t tell or if he doesn’t care that at every single gala they have to attend she feeling like breaking down into tears or feral screams. but she can’t. so she spends the next couple decades being the perfect, delightful hunger games winner, she has three kids and totes them everywhere with smiles but god she just hates it all she hates it all so much she so much. and the hunger games are on every year and her kids are glued to the screen bc that’s how they were raised but patty can’t even stand to be in the room when the games are on tv and one night she meets sam again she didn’t even know he was alive after all of these years but like meeting him makes her feel just slightly more sane bc this was something the games couldn’t take away from her they tried but they couldn’t here he was and patty almost felt like she could breathe again sam had aged normally so he didn’t look like the kid who was killed in the hunger games so he went back to district eight to watch out for his family and his community blah blah blah they rekindle the relationship patty gets pregnant but uses and illusion spell to pretend she’s not whoever can sense the magic just assume she’s using it for vanity to appear younger bc patty decided she’s not gonna raise this child she’s seen the way her kids were raised surrounded by the games and capitol touting its glories and she just would want her daughter to go through that if she has the opportunity not to so when she gave birth to paige she gave her to sam and asked him to keep her safe, so sam took her and brought her to a close pair of family friends in district eight who he knew would keep her safe and love her as their own.

and blah blah blah patty and sam continue to fight for the revolution but one day they’re found out patty is killed by the water demon and things are still kept very hush hush but like. she was a victor and she was killed by a demon. that doesn’t just happen. people talk. so when prue is reaped she’s hyped but more importantly she’s determined she’s gonna save her family and bring back their good name and she’s good she’s really good and paige is watching from district eight and she hates watching the games but she can’t help but root for the girl from district 4 who looks like her and hope that she makes it through. but the issue with prue is she has this insane protective instinct. she had it for andy, her partner in the games, and it almost got her killed. prue could be ruthless, but she undeniably had a soft spot. she ended up sacrificing herself in the games so a boy from district eight could win. leo wasn’t sure how he’d ever be able to repay her. flash forward a couple years and piper’s still grieving for her sister and her mother and she’s become ruthless. phoebe’s fallen for a demon. paige is still minding her business in district 8. when it comes time for the reaping & piper’s drawn, phoebe tries volunteering as tribute but piper shuts her down. it’s clear from the look in her eyes that she is determined to do this. she is going to kill every single person in that arena. phoebe’s begging cole to do something about it, he’s a demon, he has to have some sway. she’s already lost patty, she’s already lost prue, she can’t she can’t lose piper too.

over in district 8, paige is reaped. paige is not a fighter, this much she knows. leo, her mentor, isn’t much of one either. but leo knows strategy. he knows the others powers, strengths, weaknesses, and he knows healing pretty well. paige is mortal, putting her at a distinct disadvantage, but if she can lay low, keep from dying for long enough, she might have a shot. and another note: avoid piper halliwell. her sister died sacrificing herself for leo, piper might be looking for revenge against district 8. so just. keep your head low. and paige does, bc like. she doesn’t wanna get murdered before the games even start. but leo doesn’t. well, okay, he didn’t intentionally get in an elevator with piper, but he was the one who struck up conversation. she glared at him like she wanted to rip his guts out, but all leo saw was the immense sadness behind her eyes. he wished he could heal her. she seemed like she needed it.

meanwhile cole really needs to decide is he’s gonna risk it all for phoebe. they say demon’s can’t love, but what he feels is pretty damn close. but is it worth the risk to go against the capitol to try to save phoebe’s sister. it’s dangerous. it’s beyond dangerous; it’s a suicide mission. he could sit back. go through the motions. pretend to save piper, but he can’t, he’s so sorry, he tried, he’ll be there as a shoulder for phoebe to cry on. that’s an option. a compelling one. a really compelling one. and he better pick fast bc the games are starting.

the games are mountain themed this year, featuring very little natural resources jagged cliff edges winding caverns with a disturbing array of creatures hidden within and very thin air, especially to those coming from sea level. paige already knows this is going to be brutal. there’s not really a space to lay low, like leo suggested, and she can see from across the dias piper is giving her murder eyes. and she knows she knows she knows leo said don’t go for the cornucopia she’s mortal running into a pack of bloodthirsty witches but there’s no way she’s gonna survive without resources so like !! the clock counts down and she’s like gotta make a decision bc right now they’re all basically on a sawed off mountain top getting off of here safe is gonna be a bitch it’s something she’s gonna have to take slow if she leaves when everyone’s going for the cornucopia she has a chances of making it out alive but the odds of her making it down the ridge with supplies and killer witches on her tail. no. leo’s right. she should just run for it. mmmm but there’s some canned food about 5 yards in she could just go for that and leave. enough time to escape, small enough to carry. the gong sounds. time to commit to the bit. 

she sprints over and grabs the food, doing a quick 180 and darting back towards the cliff’s edge. she can hear brutal screams and the sound of teenagers choking on their own blood, but that’s not what gets her. it’s the fact that the kid next to her is frozen where he stands. she can’t think about it too much, that’s a luxury she doesn’t have, but she does spare a quick glance over her shoulder. the witches are fighting, sure, but every other mortal in the arena is frozen. it’s piper, it has to be piper, making sure she’s awake for the kill. paige doesn’t have time to worry about it. she begins climbing down the wall.

piper can’t figure out why the district 8 girl isn’t freezing. she tried multiple times. a telekinetic from district five knocks her to the ground but she’s blown off his hand before he can make another move. the next hit goes for the head. the district 8 boy has the power of invisibility, he’s a lost cause for now, but she can still get her revenge on the girl. piper runs over to the cliffside paige disappeared down. she can still see the raven haired girl scampering down a narrow ledge. she’s pretty far down, but piper’s been working on her aim. just in time, paige looks up, eyes wide with fear as piper throws out her hands at her. the cliffside explodes, but paige doesn’t go with it. no. she orbs. and rematerializes right back where she was, tucked in the jagged groove piper just created. piper doesn’t have time to go for another kill, she’s already had her back to the cornucopia too long. but if she could spare the time, she would climb down there herself and demand to know exactly what was going on. since when can mortal orb?

paige was Not favorable ranked to win the games. mortals never are. but after that orbing stunt, sponsors were all over her. no one had even seen a whitelighter in the games. rumor had it they were extinct. but to have one there?? well, they already died once, they could probably avoid it the second time. paige’s new orbing power didn’t give her half of the confidence the sponsors had, though. her plan was still to wait it out until the majority of the fighting was done. but there really were no resources. she would sometimes get food from the her sponsors, but the gamemakers seemed to be curbing her supply. she’d have to return to the cornucopia.

the careers had set up camp there. mainly, they’d just wait for the other kids to show up, starving and desperate for food, and pick them off one by one, but if the days were particularly dull they’d sent two off at a time to go hunting. piper always went. she almost always killed. one day, her and her hunting partner from district one (a blonde witch named billie) came back to find the other careers slaughtered and a good amount of supplies taken. double edged sword. bad, because they lost supplies. good, because that lowered the amount of tributes left. bad, because that meant billie and piper were inching closer and closer to killing each other. they didn’t go out hunting together anymore. they didn’t trust the other to have their back. they’d alternate, one witch standing guard at the mountain top while the other travelled down to hunt. paige didn’t know this. if she had, she probably would have time it out to the day piper was gone. but she didn’t.

it was hard to get a read on the situation, paige would only dare to venture a peak above her ledge every couple minutes as piper circled with a watchful eye. but the gamemakers new paige was coming. new supplies had been dropped that morning, with fresh loaves of bread, containers of soup, and canned peaches (paige’s favorite!). she just didn’t know how to get there without getting killed. she tried to talk herself through it, name every step as a method of calming down. she feared her voice would carry, though, and only risked it when the wind howled through the mountains. even still, her voice barely sat above a whisper. okay. i’ll go when piper’s the at the opposite end of her round. that’ll give me the most time. and if she tried to hit me, i’ll orb?? and once i get the supplies... then what. scaling this cliff would be a bitch. she hadn’t tried moving when she orbed, but that might end up being a learning while doing situation. okay. i’ll grab stuff, and i’ll jump. and i’ll orb safely down to the bottom. yeah. i can do that! i can do that. okay. paige took another look from her hiding place. piper was about to hit the further point of her guard. paige smiled. she almost felt like this plan could work. i’m gonna get some freakin canned peaches!! orbs swirled around the canned peaches, whisking them away. of course piper noticed. of course she noticed right where they orbed to. a tiny paige face peeking over the cliffside. oh, she was gonna kill her.

this was a horrible plan. this plan was gonna go horribly. there was no way this plan could work. but here they were, witch and demon, flying out to the arena. cole was gonna fry the area with an energy ball, hopefully disabling it long enough for phoebe to dive in and steal piper. and then they’d run. it was a horrible plan. there were a thousand ways it could go wrong. a hundred thousand. ten million. infinite possibility, infinite opportunities to fuck this up. but here they were, witch and demon, flying out to the arena.

paige grabbed her canned peaches and and thought fuck it guess this’ll have to do bc there was no was she could go toe to toe with piper’s wrath. better hope her obing power was under control. she leaped off the side of the cliff. and landed right on top of piper, knocking her to the ground. yikes! then a loud pop, like a transformer blowing, and the sky went dark. not like nighttime. like someone had turned the lights out. piper couldn’t see shit, but that wasn’t going to stop her, she reached out, clawing for anything, and found her hands around paige’s neck, gripping in pitch black. and then a voice, calling her name. piper! not prue, phoebe. piper swivelled around, but couldn’t see a thing. phoebe? paige tried to worm from piper’s grip, but piper slammed her to the ground. she could hear a pair of footsteps running closer. piper! piper, we’re getting you out of here. phoebe laid a hand on her sister’s should, and there was light. it wasn’t the arena, the power still hadn’t come back, but there was light. the shock of it loosened piper’s grip as she stared up, blue lights and witch’s orbs swirling in the air around the three girls. around the three sisters. paige stirred, barely conscious. piper, we’re getting you out of here. come on. piper paused. the girl did look a lot like prue. piper! power’s gonna come back any minute. -not without her. -what? -i mean it, phoebe! not without her. phoebe shrugged at cole. this wasn’t part of the plan, but quite frankly it was amazing they had made it this far. fuck it. why not. cole grabbed the sisters, ready to shimmer out. where to? piper looked at paige. a sister on the brink of death. she knew where she had to take her. leo.

#used all of my hunger games knowledge from 2012 for this bad boy 😝 #also this au is phole heavy but like i need a deus ex machina #so imma pretend cole is a lot more soft hearted and a lil more stupid than he is in canon #tho i guess technically he's a teen in this fic #so like #there's room for a lot more simp energy #charmed #the hunger games #no i will not write more of this #but feel free to use as inspo if u feel so inclined #just like pls add credit♥ #💌 #margaretsminiessays

[deberiaestarescribiendo]

Summary: Javi hasn't called...again, Isa tries to distract herself making a new friend, but she doesn't know that her intentions are far from innocent and are tied to Javi crossing paths again with someone from his past.

Warning: cursing, mention of violence, threats, anxiety, kidnapping. Very hateful characters from the show 👀

A/N: I'M SO SORRY THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN POSTED ALMOST A MONTH AGO. I will try to finish this before this month ends. I think I could wrap this in one chapter more and an epilogue probably.

Just a small warning. This is a work of fiction and the intention is merely to develop a little bit more of a character I adore, Javi Peña. There's mention of the drug cartel, the violence they inflected in Latinoamérica (and as a Latina it hurts me very deeply, believe me) and the political involvement of different governments and agencies but this is not a political statement or trying to do other thing than entertain.

Chapter VII: Smart Choices

Isabel had never been a very popular girl, always the shy one in high school and she made a very small group of friends in college. But as everything in her life, there was a before and after since her life changed and she had Elvira.

She could not go to the club with her friends, their conversations about their new graduate’s struggles hurt her since she had to drop out, their heartbreaks and adventures had nothing to do with her life surrounded by diapers, feeding bottles and sleepless nights and so one day the phone stopped ringing, their friendship was limited to birthday parties and Christmas postcards while she became a mum and a wife. And thus making her world a very small universe with her child at the center and Javi and her turning around her.

So when that lady at the supermarket, Judy, called her she didn’t think anything weird out of it. Instead she was happy, excited to have another struggling mum that needed some comforting from somebody that understands her as much as she did.

“I’m sorry I took the liberty to ask for your phone number, I have a friend that goes to your mum’s salon and I ask her for it” she had said the first time she called.

Judy is a funny and very quick and intelligent woman. When they got their first coffee together, Isa barely asks any question, Judy fills the conversations so Isabel never has the chance to ask when she is meeting her kid or who gave her her phone number since she knows every client of her mother’s salon by heart and nobody mentioned her ever. But Judy keeps the conversation flowing, sharing her tragic story about leaving Colombia out of a very tough situation with a guy and creating a new life for her and her kid in the USA.

“It must have been so tough” Isa pounders

“Colombia back then was a bloodbath, you had to navigate the streets in survival mode, always looking behind your back and praying to come back home safe” Judy explains

“My husband worked in Colombia for a few years”

“Oh really? When?”

“80’s early 90’s"

“Well, he must have known. So sad! it is a very beautiful country...”Judy’s gaze is fixed far away as if she’s remembering something

“I guess it’s difficult to talk about it, my husband never shares much”

“Mm” she hums, she opens a golden lighter and gets the flame close to the cigarette on her red lips “What did he do there?”

“He worked at the Embassy” she’s not lying but she prefers not to specify, and now that’s past, the details are not really important

“Oh! and that’s what he’s doing in Mexico now?” she asks exhaling a white cloud of smoke making a perfect o with her lips

“Not exactly”

“He must be careful; I heard things are following the same path we suffered back in Colombia”

“Yes...he’s...smart, I’m sure he will be fine” Isa answers more to convince herself than her new friend

“I saw in the news the other day how a few civilians died during a clash between two fronting cartels and then the police. Very, very horrible images" she smacks her lips

"I haven't watched the news…" the knot in Isa's stomach grows tighter, Javi haven't called back even if he promised he would

"They kill anyone that is on their way, civilians, gringos too, DEA agents…" the Colombian woman casually brings the coffee cup to her lips when Isa frowns at her

"What did you say?" She asks

"They kill civilians?" Judy smiles uncomfortably the corner of her lips stretching up

"No, the last part"

"Gringos...DEA agents" she repeats

"Why did you say that?" The knot gets tighter restringing her throat and her question is just a whisper

"I… assume Javier must be…"

"I haven't told you what he does"

Judy gasps and bats her long black lashes a few times before changing her face to a complete cold expression, her glossy lips now a tight red line

"Look, Isabel, I think you are a very smart woman…" she starts

"I'm leaving"

Isabel pushes her chair back to go but the other woman's hand holds her to the table, her perfect manicure claws making her stay

"Sit, don't do anything stupid" Judy spats, the brief confrontation has alerted the waiters and they look at them intently until Judy gives them a very warm apologetic smile

"Who are you? What do you want?" Isabel tries to hold herself but her instincts is crying for her tu run, to get her baby back and look for Javier

But Javi could be anywhere

"You know your husband and I met, many years ago" she continues smoking "we worked closely in the hunt of Escobar" she smirks "I admit I was surprised to find him married and with a kid. He used to be involved with a very different type of woman"

"What do you want from Javi? If you hurt him I swear…" Isa mutters

"You must have been really special. A magical pussy" she laughs "or are you that dumb and naive that he lied to you and believed it" she crosses her arms over her chest, looking with a smug face from the white cloud of smoke "do you know what he did in Colombia? Do you know what he's capable of?"

"Where is he? If you touch him I swear to God I kill you" Isa tries to contain the tears, to seem strong but fails which makes Judy smile wider

"Oh! So you are an idiot little girl. Better keep up, cielo, if you want your husband alive"

México

A constant, something that keeps on proving itself to be right: shit does follow him. He tries the breathing techniques that the doctor showed him but the bag on his head stinks like rotten meat and the heat inside the van is unbearable. He finds a little solace feeling Steve's tigh pressed against his. Both of them rocking back and forth with each bump on the road

"Connie is going to kill me" his friend says

" If they don't kill us first"

"Callense cabrones" one shouts and Javi hears the muttering insult Steve pronounces before receiving one hit himself

He feels the vomit running up his throat, the smell, the heat and the fear have mixed themselves on his stomach and he can no longer calm himself down. He’s about to die, he knows it. About time, my friend, I elude death for so long in Colombia, so many close calls and now I’m about to die in some unknown part of Mexico because of a fucking middle age crisis I couldn’t handle.

He tries so hard to close his lips and swallow, breath, Peña, breath. The only cold thing in this van is the thin silver chain and medallion he wears around his neck.

This would be a marvellous moment to do some magic, old man Javi says to himself and that old saint around his neck. What did Isa call the old man engraved in it? Saint Jude. Okay, Jude, show yourself, please. This is actually a lost cause, it’s your field of expertise, c’mon

“Andando” the sicario pushes him out of the van before he can even process they have stopped the vehicle. The man grabs him by the arm harshly and guides him forward, the sun pierces the black bag over his head but he can’t only perceive the light and the sound of the gravel under his boots.

Suddenly the light changes to a white light and he feels the temperature lowering: a house with air conditioner and there’s a soft murmur of water but otherwise the house is silent. Javi memorizes those tiny details, it’s the only thing that could eventually help him if they’re held hostage and not killed right away.

The sicario pushes him and for a few milliseconds Javier thinks he’s about to fall hard to the ground but ends up on a chair. Then they pull both his arms to the back without any care and handcuffs him there.

Javi jumps from his seat when he hears the loud thump of the door closing, still in the dark and without any sign of company, he calls:

“Steve…”

Nothing

“Your friend is in the other room”

He could recognize that fucking voice anywhere, is engravated in his brain, in that part of his head that is capable of the worst, that tiny espace where he keeps every hateful and the worst people he has met, Bill Stechner being the number one on that list.

“I was so happy thinking you were dead and crawling back to hell” Javi sighs before he’s hit by the clarity in the room. He blinks fast until his eyes are adjusted to it again. It’s a nice room, wide and scattered by a few pieces of furniture covered by white sheets, the dust in the air makes evident it has been closed for a long time.

“So was I thinking you were rotting old in your father’s little ranch but here we are”

His beard is greyer and the already receding hairline is back a few inches, but he looks exactly the same, tha smug stupid face is looking at him from above. That smirk of “I’m always five steps ahead from you” the same he had when he made him leave the Embassy before catching Escobar and the same he had when he tried to take down Cali. But now he’s here in Mexico, what the fuck is he doing here?

“And, do tell, please, why the fuck do are path cross again?” Javier spats

“Oh! I didn’t want to cross paths with you. I must admit I found it funny when I saw who was managing the account for our textile export, but you, being the noisy stupid man that you are “ Stechner approaches him, his smirk freezes in a tight line “had to call your friends. And you see, you’re mending on my business again”

“So you switched from the CIA to the Narcos?”

“Javier, javier…” he sighs “You are always focusing in the wrong things and not in the bigger picture”

“The bigger picture being…” Javier rolls his eyes at him

“You wouldn’t understand, I tried a few times in Colombia and you ended up fucking it all up” he shakes his head

“So what do you want from me now?”

“Well now that you are here fucking everything up again I’d prefer if the repercussions go to the right direction”

“Which is it not yours, I guess, or whomever you’re working for”

“Yeah” he laughs and points at him “you’re smart when you want”

“And wouldn’t it be better to kill us right away?”

“Oh, you see, my associetes want to do it” Stechner nods “The really don’t give a fuck. But I told them that you could be of service”

“You’re really delusional if you think…”

Stechner interrupts him “And if you weren’t willing to cooperate we could always resort to the good old ways” the man walks to a nearby table, over the white sheet there’s a manila folder. Bill opens it slowly, that stupid smirk back at again on his face, relishing on the desperation and fear in Javi’s eyes.

Please, not Isa, please not my child

“Your wife made a new friend, it’s a small world after all, isn’t it?” Stechner shows him a picture, he recognises the cafe, Isa is seated talking to another woman he hasn’t seen in years.

“Judy is very nice when she wants” he takes out another picture, this time Isa is on the backyard playing with Elvi “You have a very beautiful family”

“If you touch them, motherfucker” Javi tries to get out of the chair, he doesn’t even care if the metal from the cuff cuts his wrists. He just want to do what he has wanted to do since he started working in Colombia and crossed paths with the CIA

“They won’t, it is entirely upon you that this is just a simple anecdote. I promised I’ll try to control them...if you do what you have to do” Stechner shrugs and throws the pictures to the floor where they rest in front of Javi’s feet

“What do you want?” he murmurs, his gaze is fixed on those images trying to see something, when were they taken? how does he know if they already hurt them?

Please, please he begs and his vision is starting to blurry

“Well, my associates will appreciate it if the DEA will center its efforts on our common enemy. You see it right? it’s the same story all over again; the enemy of my enemy is my friend…”

“I’m not DEA anymore”

“Are you? I mean you’re here with your dear Steve in an ongoing investigation that mainly relies on your testimony so…”

Stechner roams around Javier’s chair “It’s not like you haven’t done it before, Javi, think about it as if you are involving yourself with the lesser evil, there will be a time to capture my associates, but not now”

“Just go back home and when the time comes you can assure the DEA that those terrible horrible people that are getting that poison in our beautiful country are involved with our common enemy. What is the difference between one Cartel and the other? It just a matter of time they both get caught” he continues

“Why are you involved in this?”

“We’ve done this many times, Peña, let it go. It’s better this way or do you want to end up like Kiki? or better yet, your beautiful wife or your kid?” Bill points to the pictures of the Peña’s family “think about it”

And he thinks about it, the hate and the fear burning in his chest. So many years protecting himself in covers of solitude, brief encounters to relieve the stress and alcohol, protecting his heart from this fear and pain of getting his family killed for his job.

You did this to them, you looked for it. Now what?

Isa (Laredo)

She drives fast, fast as she has never driven before. She has always been a very responsible person and even more when she became a mother. Elvira is seated on the back, her little hands holding the seat hard and she has called her a few times, her voice shaky and scared.

“Mami, where are we going?”

“To Grandpa’s, honey”

“You’re too fast”

“I know, but we need to get there now”

The screeching sound of the tires stopping abruptly on the road has alerted Chucho who now waits with the porch lights on when they get out of the car.

“Mija, what’s wrong?” he screams

“I think Javi is in the danger”

#Javier Peña #Javier Peña x ofc #Javier Peña fanfic #Narcos #Narcos Fanfic #Pedro Pascal #Pedro Pascal characters #Pedro Pascal fanfic #Javier Pena #Javier Pena fanfic #Javi Peña #pedro pascal fanfiction #Pedro Pascal fic

[kicksaddictny]

Nike Air Zoom Alphafly Next Nature

According to NIKE

The Nike Air Zoom Alphafly Next Nature takes Nike’s most elite performance shoe and recreates it with circular design principles. It is Nike’s most sustainably-minded performance shoe to date.

Following Nike Basketball’s Cosmic Unity, Nike Running designers were driven by a core belief within the Move to Zero initiative — Nike’s journey toward zero carbon and zero waste — that a product that makes the world better can also make an athlete better. Cosmic Unity set the bar with 25 percent total recycled content by weight; the Alphafly Next Nature advanced it by reaching at least 50 percent total recycled content by weight, making it Nike’s boldest move yet in merging sustainability and performance. Doing so with the crown jewel of racing footwear was an important symbolic choice.

“We don’t want to be about making shiny objects — we wanted to set our concept car as the intent for how we think about performance and sustainability,” says Rachel Bull, Senior Footwear Product Director for Nike Running. “Putting a sustainable focus on our fastest marathon shoe also means we need all hands on deck for it to work, from our teams in design to material sourcing to manufacturing.”

The design of the AlphaFly Next Nature arrives at new answers by considering new questions: What are creative ways to select different materials or processes for the shoe’s performance elements? Can leftover or recycled versions of those pinnacle features be made while maintaining their elite properties?

Those kinds of questions required fluid conversation between engineers, developers and manufacturers to create a shoe that performed in real life. That work translated into hitting meaningful numbers in sustainability for some of the shoe’s most important performance elements. Take the Nike ZoomX midsole, which was made with at least 70 percent recycled materials by weight. Bull attributes a big part of the magic of Nike racing shoes to the ZoomX foam, reaching back to Eliud Kipchoge’s daring quest to break the 2-hour marathon barrier. If any of it is going to waste, she says, it’s a huge loss for the people who would potentially wear those shoes on race day. One solution: Put the leftover recycled foam from the midsole back into the sock liner. Redeem a part of the shoe that symbolizes so much potential for the body.  

This use-everything strategy got the teams thinking across disciplines and considering how other parts of the shoe could utilize waste. For example, the forefoot Zoom Air pods in the Nike Running racing line naturally consist of a high percentage of recycled content. The Alphafly Next Nature leveled this concept up and used leftover waste from those Zoom Air pods in the 3D-printing process that creates the textile for the hybrid Nike Flyprint and Nike Flyknit upper.

Created inside the NEXT% system, the original Alphafly NEXT% is the summation of many components working together. The design principles guiding Move to Zero are no different; every shoe fits within a larger pursuit of progress, as the insights derived from one shoe guide the next shoe forward in reducing its impact on the planet. According to Bull, the Alphafly Next Nature offers another jumping-off point, and a unique opportunity for Nike to continue scaling its sustainability efforts across its running line.

“The exciting thing about pushing performance and sustainability forward with the Alphafly Next Nature is that we know if we can do it with our most pinnacle performance product, then so much is validated to bring that technology into the rest of the line,” says Bull.

#nike #kicksaddict

[gayathrigupthan]

Self-Made Indian Entrepreneur in Making Youth Self-Reliant

IFortis Corporate has grown into one of the leading Corporate company co-operate scenario. This company IFortis was in the business of IT Services & Marketing Services. As time went on, IFortis principles of transparency, timely communication, quality of services and competitive pricing allowed for significant expansion. As a result, IFortis is now one of India’s leading corporate. IFortis has a significant role in making the youth self-reliant. The company maintains a good relationship bond between different kinds of stakeholders like employees,customers,business partners and local communities. The company aims at become one of the most leading companies in the world. The company continue to train their employees and operate monitoring system, while the activities of the management is fair and transparent.

 IFortis Corporate has values and principles that they respect the dignity and diversity of every individual. They build a healthy relationship of co-existence and co-prosperity with their partners by competing fairly in accordance to law and business ethics. They set their top goal as customer satisfaction by continuously put efforts to improve the quality of the life of the employees in the organisation. The companies  distinct feature is eco-friendly management.

 With a vision of “To be a global firm of uniquely skilled executives who can build a better future”, the firm has become one of the growing corporate in the world.

 The Self-Made Indian Entrepreneur Mr. Rohit Naidu, CEO of IFORTIS CORPORATE had proper mission and social responsibilities to empower women and the youth across the world. I Fortis Corporate mission is to help college-age youth and women to learn how to start and grow businesses, as well as successfully compete in global markets, by providing quality training, counselling, and access to resources,” says Mr. Rohit Naidu. ”Entrepreneurship 360” is a programme launched by IFortis Corporate to encourage, activate women business leaders in India. This programme was a week-long programme, by which an online training and interactive platform for those women in India who wishes to start a new career or who wanted to become entrepreneurs. The program is being sponsored by IFortis Corporate, who takes initiative to encourage women business leaders.

 With an ambitious mission to educate and empower more than 20,000 women in India to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams before the year’s end, IFortis Corporate has enlisted business owners from around the globe to share their personal journey of failure and success at Entrepreneurship 360. ”This program will be India’s first evidence-based practice in creating women entrepreneurs and we have secured women (and some men) business owners from around the world, to share their own insightful and practical journeys of business ownership,” he shared. According to Naidu, attendees of Entrepreneurship 360 also will have a chance to realize access to potential business opportunities and even possible start-up funding for the simplest ideas, offered through IFortis Corporate.

 Among the components of the coaching program could also be gaining knowledge of how to spot the important thing people important to the entrepreneurship process; growing formulas for developing a fresh organization; understanding and planning for challenges aspiring commercial enterprise proprietors can have and therefore the thanks to resolve them, and therefore the way each of these play an essential position in commercial enterprise achievement.

The virtual courses are going to be taught via Webinarjam and invited speakers include business owners from the us , India, Australia, Israel and UK . “Our goal through this exclusive entrepreneurship program, is to support the development of entrepreneurship in women in India, as well as to inspire and motivate them to turn their ideas into viable business ventures, by learning from other women business owners of various industries, who’ve done it themselves and who could offer success strategies and expert advice,” Naidu explained.

 From the study, CEO of IFortis found that young people between the age of 18 and 25 are showed  interest in entrepreneurship and are confident and wishes to start their own business and to become business women. The mission of this programme was to supply a viable path forward for children to not only to be ready to earn a living, but to even be ready to positively impact the communities they serve. And also, the goal is to make sure there'll be a supportive environment where young aspiring entrepreneurs can learn, explore and leverage their entrepreneurial acumen, energy and creativity through their participation within the Global Youth Entrepreneurship Program,” said Rohit Naidu. This mission has reached 70,000+ people across the world impacted the lives of 10,000+ youth so far.

 As being a neighbourhood of the firm, I had an incredible enjoy and a really nicely schooling additionally to a really cooperative team leader Ms Kavya S. She was completely cantered on the organizational goals and altered into running in accordance thereupon . Being a group chief, she become very an entire lot dedicated and persuading to the whole institution. She typically stored a functioning and solid correspondence inside the group and constantly concentrated around empowering, devoted, worked together and units aside some plan to undergo with the companions. She became modest and really tons dedicated to work and this precipitated the expansion in performance of the organization standard and this accordingly moreover triggered myself as an character in personal growth in build up the selling competencies, the board abilities, and especially the way to helpful and solid within the present day cooperate global.

 The firm itself was aimed in making the youth and ladies self-reliant, so because the youth will lead the cooperate world with better and innovative ideas. Sop on encourage this IFortis corporate introduces different projects that encouraged youth. Some of them are: Not a school, AARAMBH 2020, Entrepreneurship 360, Become an Entrepreneur, Solution for Tomorrow, Youth Should Lead, More Power to Women, Block changing The World, Go Green, Cultivate the Skills, We Are Fit, Social Accountability. Each of these programmes were at most motivating and inspirational to the youth. Thus, the youth will gain a strong understanding over the rapidly changing future of work.

 IFortis Corporate is stepping into Apparel Manufacturing Industry (Textile & Manufacturing Industry) with an ambitious mission to create more employment opportunity for the women & youth across India and helping them to become self-reliant with obsessive focus on the quality, worker’s safety & welfare, Social Responsibility and customer satisfaction.

  For media inquiries, contact [email protected]

#makingwomenselfreliant #youthshouldlead #ifortiscorporate

IFORTIS CORPORATE - https://www.ifortiscorporate.com/ 

CEO – https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohitnaidu-s/

 Team Manager - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kavya-sanu-554771188

  [email protected] -

 mailto:[email protected]

#MakingWomenSelfReliant YouthShouldLead IFortisCorporate MakeIndiaProud

[rpritchardjournal]

Sade Mica - Artist Talk & Tutorial (28/10/2020)

I was really looking forwards to this artist talk, as Sade Mica is an exciting emerging artist working with similar methods and exploring similar themes of queer identity to me. I had been very encouraged and inspired by their success since graduating from Salford in 2018, and was excited to get an insight into their artistic practice. 

The talk from Sade Was Invaluable, chock full of real and practical advice for art students, while also giving us an insight into their practice and the realities of being a working artist. 

(Images from Artist Talk)

Initially, Sade discussed their time at the University of Salford (2015-2018). They talked about having a sense of direction throughout university, and how for themself, they didn’t really develop a real sense of what they wanted to explore with their practice until third year. Instead, Sade emphasized the importance of exploring and being bold with your work. This advice was particularly valuable to hear from someone who has achieved such success since leaving university, as this is something I have been trying to embrace within my own practice- letting the exploration and ideas lead my practice, and trying different things- even when these things feel too big or too hard- try. In my tutorial with Sade afterwards, we talked about this in terms of the AI work I have been doing- how it’s ok to not know every detail of how something works at first, it is better to try different things and be ambitious and how the desire to try something should be the driving force, over trying to tick and academic box.

Sade discussed two pieces from their time at university that really shaped the direction of their work going forwards. Solo disco (2018) and Always 23 at Eva (2018) mark a turn towards performance- which became a key element of their practice. I really liked these pieces, In both Sade dances to music in their headphones. To me, this creates the sense of a private space, where Sade can be exactly themself- leaving the audience to watch a performance of someone who is completely themself, breaking down gender binaries and preconceptions. I think this work is really interesting in how it explores gender identity- creating this kind of un-gendered experience. Performance alongside textile work has gone on to form the keystone of their practice.

Immediately out of university, Sade applied to the BBZ.BLK.BK alternative graduate show and was successful. The alternative graduate show celebrated work by black and queer graduating artists, and Sade stressed how influential this show has been in leading onto other opportunities, and building their professional network. 

(source)

They were also successful in applying for a University of Salford graduate scholarship, which gave them access to a studio space, funding and a mentorship with Lubania Himid. This was obviously an invaluable experience- learning from a seasoned and hugely successful artist such as Lubanina Himid. They didn’t sugar coat this experience however, they talked about the anxiety of being a new graduate and not knowing how things would pan out, as well as balancing full time work as well as being a professional artist. I think it was really valuable to see both sides of this experience, as hearing about all the success of big shows and being mentored by Turner prize winners, you can lose sight of everything else, the struggle and the pressure and stress that is still felt even when from an outside perspective everything is amazing. This is something important to hold onto I think.

(Images from Artist Talk)

A key take away from both the artist talk and the following tutorial was the importance of applying for opportunities, while also managing workload. Sade discussed turning down opportunities that didn’t align with their ethics or how they wanted to represent themself, and the importance of saying no when something doesn’t feel right- even if that’s just because it is too much at one time. I think this is really important- I know I have a tendency to say yes to everything, and then the next week comes and I dread having to do it all, and I realize I’ve taken too much on. It was really good to hear a successful artist discuss this balancing act, and stressing that it is important to take on what is manageable, and not to beat yourself up over this. Sade talked about embracing the ebbs and flows of your practice- stressing that being malleable while making the most of opportunities was key.

(Images from Artist Talk)

Sade has achieved a huge amount in the two years since graduating, including making videos commissioned by the Tate collective, two solo shows, national group shows, and talks at both the National Gallery and Home in Manchester. It was really interesting to see their perspective on these opportunities. As someone who is now where Sade Mica was only 2 years ago, these opportunities and experiences seem incredible and in many ways unachievable. Talking to Sade however, they were extremely encouraging, and we talked about my work and how it could be presented and exhibited, and just talking through these ideas, you already get a sense of how, if you go for these big ideas, and you apply to opportunities and you have the drive, these things are achievable. I found the experience a really important one for helping me to see myself as ‘a real artist’.

In our tutorial, Sade gave me some very practical advice about the realities of being a working artist including organization, being open with the people you’re working with-  being clear about the deadlines and maintaining an open line of communication. They also gave me some resources for finding and learning more about applying from opportunities- something that is really useful, as I have been beginning to apply for opportunities externally to the university.

Something I took away from the whole experience learning from Sade, was that following your gut, and making the work you want to make and pursuing the avenues you want to pursue is key. We talked about this in more depth in our tutorial, and I think it really helped me to solidify these ideas that you have to do what is right for you. You can’t make the art of someone else- or art to please someone else. It has to be your art for you. Having passion and drive was something that we talked about a lot, being excited about the work you're making. This really encouraged me that I was heading in the right direction with my current work. I am excited by the new methods I’m using- learning their limitations and how I can push them to make interesting and different work, and I’m excited by the ideas I’m exploring. I really related to Sade and their outlook on their practice, how they use social media, how they thought about university and opportunities. I found it hugely encouraging to hear this from a practicing professional artist. This talk and tutorial gave me a much better understanding of the realities of working as an artist, while also making these things feel achievable, and setting out a basis for how these things can be achieved. 

https://bbzblkbk.com/Sade-Mica

https://bbzblkbk.com/Alternative-Graduate-Show-2018

https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/qvnved/calling-all-queer-womxn-trans-and-non-binary-artists-of-black-ancestry-this-new-show-wants-you

https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/48051/1/adham-faramawy-sade-mica-and-more-explore-gender-through-art-and-science

https://www.sademica.com/ 

#sp3 #cr

[sciencespies]

5 Questions With Derek Du Chesne, President Of Exactus Hemp

https://sciencespies.com/news/5-questions-with-derek-du-chesne-president-of-exactus-hemp/

5 Questions With Derek Du Chesne, President Of Exactus Hemp

Derek Du Chesne touring the Candera processing facility

Candera

As a rule in my journalistic career, I’m pulling away from CBD, but Derek’s story made perfect sense to me and I felt that world deserved learning about his scene. I wanted to do this primarily because of his understanding of the pharmacological benefits of the plant. Not just another snake oil product. This is accurate for me because what Derek doesn’t do is CBD infused pain lotion, nor another CBD infused toothpick, but a philosophy that is grounded in deep healing. And after writing the book named Apothecary Cocktails, this path that he is taking is very familiar to me. It fulfills the desire to do well by others through healing. Thank you.

Warren Bobrow=WB: Please tell me how you discovered the plant? Who introduced you? How old were you? Where did you grow up? Now?

Growing up during the 90’s in the middle of Farmville USA (Shawano, WI) the beer and cheese mecca, alcoholism was everywhere, and cannabis was scarce. Drinking alcohol didn’t appeal to me growing up. After watching Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous, I was determined to become a music critic and was enamored by cannabis culture. I think the music videos we watched before the bus to school normalized cannabis use for me. It was a hot summer night after junior year and I was skateboarding to meet a group of friends by the lake. I sat down next to the bonfire prepping a tree branch to roast marshmallows when my best friend pulled out an empty soda can and began poking holes in it. She was crunching up the can in a peculiar way so I asked her what she was doing. She didn’t say a word, put headphones over my ears (Joker – Steve Miller Band), and pressed the can to my lips. Needless to say, s’mores never tasted so good and I finally understood the movie Half Baked. Some people are highly functional on THC, unfortunately I am not one of those people. Eating. Sleeping. Laughing – anything outside of that I’m incapable of. The non-psychoactive cannabinoids are my personal preference.

Flash forward 20 years later and somehow I find myself in a different city weekly educating consumers/businesses alike on the pharmacological and economic benefits of cannabinoids. Home base is Los Angeles but due to the explosive growth of cannabis/hemp globally, I was on the road 300+ days in 2019. My Mother has been very ill for the majority of my life and after witnessing the pharmacological benefits of cannabis 2016, I dedicated my life to helping companies incorporate cannabis-derived ingredients into their products.

WB: Please tell me about what you do? What obstacles do you face? Stigmas?

DDC: The most important aspect of what we do is education. There are over 113 cannabinoids in the cannabis plant, each acting differently upon our CB1 and CB2 receptors. These cannabinoids have varying effects on our bodies and it is crucial for consumers to understand the differences between them. By providing supply chain services, product development, and brand incubation for the wellness, cosmetics, pets, food, beverage, and pharmaceutical industries, our goal is to drive sector growth while making cannabinoids more accessible for all. In 2016 every major CPG brand and big-box retailer was rejecting the idea of including CBD/CBG/CBN/CBL/etc. into their products. After the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, the narrative quickly shifted and the demand grew exponentially. If you have a CPG company and you’re not having the “CBD talk” at a board level, you are being reckless. In a few short years it went from taboo to seeing toothpaste, make-up, hair products, lotions, nutraceuticals, face masks, muscle rubs, and beverages with CBD on the shelves at your local convenience store. More and more countries are legalizing cannabis-derived ingredients and we’re looking forward to developing those markets.

Derek Du Chesne taking in the fine smell of cannabis at a Colorado farm

Derek Du Chesne

WB:  What is your six and twelve-month goal? What markets do you want to enter? Why?

DDC: Within the next six months we are focusing on the empowerment of enterprises through mergers and acquisitions. Motivation for concentration comes from different objectives that encompass increasing revenues, penetration to new markets, overall costs reduction, and protection of the market from new arrivals by combining focus. Bringing lesser known cannabinoids to the market at scale,and working with the world’s leading brands to develop products and educate consumers on their benefits is a primary objective. Within the next 12 months we would like to further explore opportunities in other uses, in addition to cannabinoid and terpene extraction, from this versatile plant: commercial and industrial products, including rope, textiles, clothing, shoes, food, paper, bioplastics, insulation, animal feed and biofuels. The hemp industry in the United States is in its infancy and we are seeking opportunities to leverage our hemp supply chain while increasing shareholder value and improving EBITDA margins.

WB: Do you cook? Who taught you? Food memory?

DDC: At 12 years old I was a dishwasher at a restaurant down the street from the house I grew up in, by 14 I was prep cook. French cuisine is my go-to, a strong balance of healthy and delicious. Mm, mm crepes! Just kidding, the mastery of crepes is elusive. My Mom taught me how to cook, she is the most brilliant and strongest woman I’ve ever met.  Cooking is therapeutic for me and provides a fun opportunity for family and friends to come together, strengthen ties and build better relationships. Leaving people satisfied after a healthy meal is a win win!

WB: What is your passion?

DDC: Finding my passion has been an interesting journey for quite some time because as life progresses, so do ideas and interests.  I am grateful for the years of working on films and television shows for the creative outlet and entrepreneurial thrill that inherently comes with each new project.  After caring for my Mother and going down the rabbit hole of naturopathy, my life trajectory completely changed.  Seeing first-hand how broken the medical system in the United States is and how aggressively addictive and deadly pharmaceuticals are prescribed, led me to seek alternatives. The more that I learned about plant-based medicine and environmental sustainability, the more determined I became.  Sharing that knowledge with people became the type of interactions that sparked motivation.  Cannabis can feed, fuel, and house us. Recently I have been researching mushrooms extensively and incorporating Turkey Tail, Reishi, Maitake, Shiitake, Chaga and Cordyceps mushrooms as part of my daily routine (Thank you Paul Stamets).  The applications for mushrooms are quite impressive as well: building materials, cleaning products, textiles, medicine, biofuels, and packaging to name a few.  I am passionate about helping people achieve unimaginable goals.  Focus on the value you can provide and success will follow.  Between Cannabis and Fungi there lays extraordinary opportunities to help our friends, our businesses and our planet.

#News

#News

[aforanio]

Traces

Anio

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‘‘ML: You do something with architectural means that makes an obsolete reality present again. 

PZ: I think it is more about creating a feeling for the things that are absent than about creating a feeling of presence for things lost. So I try to create a feeling for things that are no longer here or for the lost context of things that are still here.’’ 

 Peter Zumthor and Mari Lending - A Feeling of History 

Allmannajuvet Zinc Mine Museum in Sauda - Peter Zumthor 

 As a child I rarely took the tube. But when I did, I found it a hostile environment; the artificial light, or better said the lack of natural light, the unrealistic fear of falling on the train tracks, the lack of anything to do while waiting. As I grew up I had to start taking the metro in Bucharest. I remember going to drawing lessons from school, and in winter, when I was coming back, it was right at that time of day when the light is dimming. 5 minute wait, 12 minute ride, 4 stations, and when I’m out its pitch dark. I find it the closest mean of transport to teleportation. 

 Imagine yourself in a city where you’ve never been before in an underground station. Remove from your mental image the station sign, the clock (including the line monitor) and the posters. Now you find yourself in any station of that city, at any time of the day, at any time of the year, in any year since the station was build; it’s a feeling of atemporality and a-spatiality. Most underground stations are quite sterile spaces, they are utility constructions that are guided by the laws of efficiency. The materials used are durable and don’t show signs of weathering - glazed tiles, metal or plastic seats, rubbery paint; they are materials that don’t absorb any memories, except of their initial moment(from station to station they vary slightly in fashion according to the time they were built). 

Berlin underground stations closely respects this morphology (I will be referring as underground stations to both U-Bahn and S-Bahn stations that are in the underground). Built at the beginning of the 20th century, with a rapid growth up until the Second World War, and further, after the separation of the city, Berlin underground system(and overground) was and is an ever changing fingerprint of the city. From the lines’ web to the specific sign and lettering it is a system, or better said the circulation of the city’s body particular for Berlin and only for Berlin. Even though it respects the guidelines on which a metro is built, it can only tell the story of Berlin. One distinctive aspect to be noted about German underground stations is that you don’t have any form of physical barriers when accessing the platform; in this way I would argue that the stations become extensions of the streets and the ‘no questions asked’ public space. It acts primarily as part of the transport scheme, but auxiliary it undertakes non-direct characteristics of shelters, meeting spaces and shortcuts in the urban scape. 

As a downfall, Berlin underground stations develop as more than shady places. For instance, the film ‘Christiane F. - Wir kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo’ - 1981 (Christiane F. - Us children from Bahnhof Zoo) focuses on a group of West Berlin teenagers who get addicted to heroin. They’re place of hangout is an U-Bahn station around which are depicted scenes of drug dealing, violence and prostitution. Another example, is set in East Berlin in the film ‘Coming out’ focused on the LGBT community in an oppressive regime(the film first airs publicly the night Berlin wall fell). One of the scenes shows a man being beaten up by a group of people in a tube station for looking distinctive. 

From ‘Christiane F. - Wir kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo’

From a historic point of view, Berlin underground bears marks and tears, nowadays mostly concealed or erased, of the city’s life. In WW2 part of the tube stations served as air-raid shelters and  housed military wounded in trains on underground sidings. In the final Battle of Berlin, on 2 May 1945, the Nord-Süd-Bahn tunnel (a major service line) gets flooded, leaving behind an unknown number of casualties, making it paradoxically a safe space and a death trap. 

The night commencing the 13th of August 1961, underground passengers were the first to experience the division of the city. The late-night trains started stopping at the boundary between sectors, travellers were brought to the side they belonged to, and outside there was the wall. In the following years to come, the whole metro system got separated, cut in two, being another form of disruption. Bearing this in mind, it had its blind spots, small inaccuracies given by the complexity of the rail system, both physical and political. 

 Certain lines(U6, U8 and S2), primarily in the West were still running under sections of Eastern ground. This services were not interrupted, but it was decided to continue working without stopping in Eastern stations. They become ‘ghost stations’; on western maps they are crossed out, while on eastern maps they disappear all together, access being sealed and guards permanently surveying them from newly built concrete booths. In 1989, shortly after Berlin wall fell, Max Gold films one of the ghost stations(Potsdamer Platz). In the video you can see the station, in a form of weathering and decay through lack of use, but at the same time it is frozen in time in 1961. There are not many differences to any other station in Berlin, besides the old posters and the guard booth, but it is covered in thick dust and tiles are falling off the wall. In 1992, Potsdamer Platz S-Bahn station is the last ghost station to reopen, after the restoration of the Nord-Süd-Bahn tunnel. The station looks awfully a lot as it looks in the 1989 footage, even the white tiles covering the concrete columns are kept the same, making it almost impossible to distinguish if you’re in 1961 or 1992 or 2019. 

Potzdamer Platz S-Bahn Station in 1989

U-Bahn map West Berlin

S-Bahn and U-Bahn map East Berlin

I’ve set as a direction for ‘Traces’ the insertion or change of an element in the Potsdamer Platz S-Bahn station that gives it a sense of temporality and spatial distinction, while alluding to its memory, without reconstructing it in any forward manner. By decomposing the station into component parts I focused on identifying the bit that interacts with the largest amount of people, that realistically, is touched, directly or indirectly, by anybody who passes through the space; and that would be the pavement/flooring. What I would find as being the three pieces characteristic for a metro station flooring are the general waiting area, the delimitation strip (for example the yellow line in London) and the space between the delimitation line and the track lines, where you are not allowed to step if the train isn’t in the station. This structure triggered my interest, as it creates a visual and tactile language that communicates to you through changes in colour and texture. 

 Materiality, Form and Sizing 

 After watching Adrian Forty’s lecture on his book ‘Concrete and culture’ I have reinforced my idea of concrete as a suited material for my endeavour. He argues for the multiple dualities of concrete; natural-artificial, historic-unhistoric, universal-local, memory-amnesia etc. Moreover, I took as inspiration Rachel Whiteread’s approach on concrete as a material that can embed the memory of an object, while creating an identity of its own. Through experiments, I have tested how different compositions of concrete get set or altered by the use of textiles. The indentations are generally made by using my fingertips not only to show how concrete can be easily manipulated, emphasising the antithesis between solidity and fragility, but also to give a scale for the striations that are meant to be felt while not being dangerous(if you’re not wearing stilettos). The patterns create shadows that give relief to the station, moving it away from a 2D register of materials. 

The pavement is able to store information such as the weather outside, or the time of year, while being quite durable and easy to maintain. It might resemble to the eye the side of a river where there used to be water, suggesting the tunnel’s flooding (Potsdamer Platz was and is part of the  Nord-Süd-Bahn tunnel). The liminal bit is rougher making a visual statement of danger and brittleness, while the demarcation strip is set in wood and stuck in using mortar, talking about an old ‘doorstep’, that was hard to place, but effortlessly removed. The model is 40cm x 64cm so it can be tested. The liminal bit and the strip will rarely be stepped on as they have a width of 24cm while an average step from heel to heel is 76cm, leaving an untouched space.

[miramodhvadia]

Everyday moments

1.Introduction

In this project i am going to be exploring the everyday moments of the woman in my life. The different clothes, the different cultures and how despite all these differences between us we are all connected. My aim is to showcase a variety of different fabrics and embroidery from cultures as well as the similarities between the differences we have between the generations i have surrounding me.

2.As a British India girl i want to show people how two clashing cultures are balanced out with our lives. When we go to social events as girls we’re expected to dress in formal indian wear. These clothes have intricate embroidery and serialised thread work. I wanted this to be shown in my work so i decided to sew together something similar to what my sister is wearing and surrounded it with thread work. The clear film that you’re meant to wash away after sewing through it didn’t quite leave the fact I wanted to and instead the embroidery fell out leaving me with scraps of material. Initially the idea felt as though it may work but after trying to execute it I soon realised that was not the case.  then void you work around the material was left to be very floppy and had no substance therefore just disintegrated.  for this reason I could not use this embroidery work in my sketchbook

3.The same girl, just in a different setting.

Away from other people from the same culture, which means none to judge. As a British Asian girl, i get judged for everything. From who i talk to, too how i dress. Being in a different environment away from people you know means you can be yourself more. For the main part of my project I have decided to recreate a dress that I would wear in a more westernised situation like this picture dictates.

4. In the second page of my sketchbook I decided to recreate a traditional Indian dress which is called the “lengha.”  in order to get the effect of having embroidery running throughout the skirt I decided to draw directly into my sketchbook a very simple yet effective design that would show us what kind of invoice you might be on some of these dresses I then sewed a sheer fabric on top of the drawing to show us what kind of material and shape the bottom half of the dress would be like I decided to completely draw on the blouse and the jewellery that would match what someone would wear with the outfit.  The designer that I took a lot of inspiration from for this piece it’s called Sabyasachi. He is a famous Indian fashion designer who is known to recreate cultural outfits in a more modernised way which entices the modern day people to wear and continue to carry forward the culture and the traditional wear in their lives.  keeping his designs culturally appropriate yet modernised really enables the modern day generation to enjoy wearing the outfits as well as keeping them rooted to their culture and background.

17.03.2020

To begin this project I completed some primary research of what inspires me within my surroundings, for example the people in my life and connections I come across daily. Looking back on this first bits of research I believe I found clear themes I wanted to develop further therefore I decided to look into how the women in my life dress and what textiles techniques were similar to what they would wear.

I had an induction into printing this is where I watched a tutorial and make my own screen and digital printing materials. During this workshop I had inductions on how to use metallic dyes, disperse, pigment and Procyon. I also prepared  pigment and metallic dyes myself, i found that the process of creating the other dyes were similar. As well as screen printing, digital printing is also a technique. Overall, the tutorial was extremely helpful as it allowed me to explore other areas within the fashion industry and looked more closely at textiles. This tutorial was important as it gave me the basic skills of printing which can supported me in this project.

We went on to having an induction to embroidery, this gave me the skills to create samples on Bernina sewing machines. The person giving the tutorial gave a detailed account on the working of the machines. she went onto explain the functions for stitch type and size, tension, as well as the set up. The samples created allowed me to try the different stitches as well as the tensions. We learnt to complete samples in straight stitch, also learnt free embroidery.

My first session into embroidery was an experience, i learnt a lot more about sewing machines and about different stitches as well as certain functions. I understand that i made mistakes however the likelihood of them happening in the future were lessend. Moving on with embroidery I looked to explore the possibilities of combining fabrics.

The induction into weave was quite interesting as we had an induction into many different machines within the workshop, including types of looms which were used to weave cloth and tapestry. We looked at different machines for knitting as well as tufting, this information was given alongside health and safety.

I found the induction very interesting because I learnt to how the loom works as well as learning about many different types of weaving techniques.

The beginning of my research consisted of looking at different artists that fit into my theme of the fashion of women. I found a number of designers who influence my initial narrative.

During the second print workshop I dyed both natural and synthetic fabrics. To do this I learnt about how to tell the difference between natural or synthetic fibbers, this is done by completing burns tests on our fabric. In the workshop we were given a chart of different types of synthetic and natural fibres. The chart explained how they react to fire. For example, if a natural fibre such as cotton or linen is placed near a flame it would burn easily. It would then continue to burn after being removed from the flame and produce grey ash. This identification skill is important as different dyes are used on synthetic and natural fibers.

During the first session in traditional print I created two prints that matched my narrative.

The first type was mono print and it was called colograph printing. To create this print, I used multiple materials as stamps, the different textures created different patterns. on an A5 board, we were told to layer textured paper to create patterns, I used different textures across the board, The board was then varnished. It is important that the printed board is completely dry. This is vital so that the first layer of ink added to textured paper doesn’t leak and doesn't alter my design. During this process I used two coloured inks, yellow and purple. The yellow ink was added using a spreader, the ink was then pressed into the board using rag, this insures that the ink fills the imperfections of the board.

The next step is applying the second layer of ink using a roller. This ink will only be seen on the raised parts of the board for example the letters, and some textures on the first layer. The paper that we were printing onto is wetted to be then rolled out so that majority of the moisture is retained. This allows the ink to permeate the paper when pressed. We then transfer the ink onto the paper using a roller press.

During my second session is weave, I practiced creating plain weaves, I also had an introductions into twill and cross ribs. We were given a visual explanation about the process of these new skills and then we were left to experiment and create my own designs using a pattern grid.

To further develop my samples I decided to add embroidery to my printed fabrics I did this because it shows intricate detailing which is also similar to what some of the women in my family wear. This really helped develop my piece and it gave it a more detailed look. I started this off by slowly using different stitches to try and figure out which one I wanted to use and then when I found what I was looking for I went straight onto my fabric and began working on embroidering my work  

To try and help develop my visual communication skills in my final outcome I decided to create collages throughout my sketchbook and involve the sketches that reflected the specific desired look I was going for. I decided to use different forms of things for example are used fine liners to draw something on as well as using thread to sew through layered paper to give it a more defined and edgy look. I decided to replicate some of the pictures that i used from my primary research and remade them using the fabrics materials and the different workshop techniques that we had learnt

Looking back at my development throughout my work I feel like I have achieved some new skills however I could really further develop these skills and ensure that I am better one way to have done this Would have been by practising more and having a clear idea of what I was trying to achieve when it came to starting my work on the different samples I also feel like I would probably have chosen a different theme and I wasn’t as passionate about this theme which meant that it was very difficult for me to come up with new ideas.  

I also feel that I should’ve been more precise with what I was doing rather than having a rough look as I feel as if that would’ve worked better with my theme of it being quite pretty however it turned out to look quite messy instead

My finished final outcome was a reflection of different types of outfits that were all embroidered onto one silhouette of a dress that was made out of fabric. Why did was I sewed on pictures of some of the women in my life and the different types of clothes they wore on to address that was similar to what I have in real life the idea behind this was that I wanted to show how each person in my life has had an affect on the way I dress and my fashion choices

Throughout this process I completed a number of workshops that helped make my theme presentable I have interpreted the scene in the direction of my own every day life and based on the fashion choices either. Through this project I want to busy communicate my own fashion choices as well as the fashion choices of the woman that I that inspire me.

My research that this project was quite vague which was what was my main downfall however I did conduct a lot of primary source research when it came to gathering my own materials however my secondary research was not the best.  Through this project I learnt many practical skills for example weave embroidery and printing. Considering I’ve never weaved or printed before I think I learnt successfully how to do these things however I need to brush up on my skills and further my knowledge. It did take me quite a while to learn the basics which is why I don’t think I had time to complete experiment and reach my full potential I also wish I used a large variety of materials and other methods that I could’ve showcased in my work. I created simple samples however wish that I made more of a variety of things also I wished that I had more of a story when it came to my actual sketchbook rather than it just being a collection of outfits and designs. If I had more time I would like to have been more precise and detailed with my work as well as rethink the idea behind what I was trying to show I also would have made more samples and done a lot more secondary research to further my knowledge.



[mainadjacent]

Sticking to the Script (pt.2)

Pairing: Gwilym Lee x Reader, one-sided Ben Hardy x Reader

Summary: You are the star of the hit TV show, “Winthrope Manor” and you’ve just got a new costar, Gwilym Lee who happens to bring around his friend, Ben Hardy, to set. You develop feelings for Ben, but they’re not well received. Lucky for you, your costar is there to help make things better.

Author’s Note: I just want to say how blown away I am by this response! I truly am grateful to all of you who are reading, liking and reblogging. It honestly makes writing so much easier and faster when I know people are looking forward to reading what I write! I also wanted to point out that the whole plot & name of “Winthrope Manor” is legit from the episode of “Bob’s Burgers” entitled “Zero Larp Thirty” so there’s that. Lastly, if you want to join the tag list, just add your username HERE. If you’ve already messaged me or commented about being tagged, you’re good!

PART 1

PART 2

Things don’t get automatically better between you and Gwil, nor were you expecting them to, but things have gotten easier. You find yourself spending more time with Gwilym and you are actually enjoying it. He’s funny and easy to be around and he makes the long hours on set bearable. The other members of the cast take a liking to him too which is encouraging. The two of you gain some sort of familiarity with each other and you can tell it helps with your on-screen chemistry.

The only time you feel like the two of you have regressed back to your original awkwardness is when Ben is in the picture. You figure it’s because you and Ben may be approaching romantic territory and he feels awkward being the third wheel. You try not to put too much thought into it.

What you do spend a lot of time thinking about is what’s going on between you and Ben. The day after your initial lunch, he shows up on set and jokingly tells you he’s hoping to get your number before filming wraps that day. You are more than happy to give it to him. He showed up again, the next day and wooed the cast with fancy pastries from the “X-Men” superior craft services tent, which pretty much granted him free entry for the rest of his life.  It’s been a week since you and Ben had met and the two of you have been texting pretty much nonstop. Against your initial impressions of him based on the media, Ben is a true gentleman and has been nothing but respectful and sweet. The texts are pretty flirtatious in nature and that makes you scared but excited. You don’t want to jump into something or make assumptions, but you think he might be interested in you beyond a meaningless flirtation. Next time you see him, you decide, you’re going to ask him to hang out, just the two of you.

Hey beautiful! Mind if I stop by the set this afternoon? X

Not at all! You can finally see me and your boy in action! :)

_______

Despite having been filming for almost a month, you and Gwil are just getting around to the scene where your two characters meet.

Your character, Violet, is an avid suffragette and is attending a Women’s Rights rally in the city. The police show up and Violet flees from the scene and ends up running directly into Gwil’s character, Edmund, knocking him literally off his feet. The two characters exchange a “meaningful glance that shakes both of them to their core” before Violet gets up and keeps running. It’s a classic “Winthrope” scene, all dramatic and full of tropes so obviously, you’re excited to film it. And you can’t wait for Ben to see you in action.

You arrive on set that afternoon and greet Gwil with a warm smile. He smiles back nervous.

“You doing okay?” you ask.

“Yeah totally, it’s just that, it’s the first time I’m filming and not just rehearsing. Just a bit of nerves is all.”

You reach over to pat his arm comfortingly, “You are going to do great and lucky for you, you have one of the best scene partners in the biz.”

Before Gwil can respond to you, you hear someone bellowing your name from across the set.

“Ben!” you can feel yourself light up when you see the blond.

“Hello Miss Winthrope,” Ben says, slinging his arm around your shoulder, “how’s the most beautiful textile heiress in the world doing?”

You smile brightly in response and excitedly begin showing him around the antique street set, your nervous costar forgotten.

As everybody else filters in, Ben quietly slinks to the back, trying to respectfully give you the space to do your work. You, on the other hand, are accosted by makeup artists and costumer techs putting the finishing touches on your appearance. Gwil, who is suffering from a similar fate, catches your eye and you send him an encouraging smile and thumbs up.

The two of you separate and go to your respective marks as the extras are ushered in to be suffragettes and other background characters. You film the suffragette scene first, which is a lot of fun, you’re in your element in a crowd and feeding off of others’ energy. The scene is filmed in only four takes. You’re on you’re A-game which probably has something to do with your very handsome audience member.

The crew begins to reposition for the next scene: Violet running into Edmund. One of the most frustrating things about shooting scenes like this is that you can easily lose your momentum, so you try to talk as little as possible to keep in character.

Your director signals for action and you begin to run down the recreated streets of 1919 New York. You expertly weave through a throng of extras, your skirt bunched into your arms. You spot Gwil ahead of you, and just like you rehearsed in blocking, you run full throttle, into him. You land exactly as you were supposed to and out of the corner of your eye, you catch the camera coming in for a close shot of your face, inches above Gwil’s. You look deep into his eyes and you feel your heart stir as if a shot of electricity is going through you. You jolt into yourself and jump up, into your blocking. You run away from your camera and turn into an alleyway where another camera is already set up to film you from the other angle as you catch your breath. The “police officers” run past you and the director yells “cut!”.

You come out onto the soundstage to cheers and applause.

“We got the take!” the director exclaims. “That was great!”

You are smiling so much your cheeks hurt. Getting the scene in one take is an incredible accomplishment and you’ve never managed it before. You turn to Gwil, who’s approaching behind you, just as enthused. You rush over to him and throw your arms over his shoulders.

“That was amazing!”

He chuckles as his arms find your waist, “You were a great partner.”

The two of you are quickly ushered out of your embrace and off of the sound stage while the crew repositioned for a new scene. Gwil is pulled into wardrobe to change for the upcoming scene, you meanwhile, stick around. You still have another scene to film with your onscreen siblings.

You find Ben near craft services. “Did you see our scene?” you ask excitedly. He nodded silently, his lips press together.

“Yeah, you guys were great.”

You’re thrown off by Ben’s sudden coldness.

“Is anything wrong?”

“No, not at all,” he says quickly, “It’s just, er, I just got a call. I’m needed back on set for some more reshoots apparently, so I need to go now.”

“Oh,” you try not to sound too disappointed.  You realize that if you want to ask Ben out on a proper date, this is your last chance to do it. It’s now or never.

“Listen, actually, I was wondering—”

“There you are! We’re needed on set!”

It’s Melanie Todd, the girl who plays your younger sister, Alice. On screen, Violet and Alice are close, even though Violet is sometimes frustrated by Alice’s flighty nature. Offscreen, you care for Melanie as if she was your sister. The girl is only a few years younger than you are and you strive to take her under your wing. You usually love Melanie, but right now you hate her.

You throw Ben an apologetic smile over your shoulder as Melanie pulls you away.

“He’s cute, are you two dating yet?”

_____

You resolve that you’ll just ask Ben out the next time you see him, which will most likely be tomorrow. No sweat. Maybe it’s for the best.

Thanks for coming today! I hope you had a good time, you text Ben in between takes. Just as you hit send you kick yourself; you should’ve sent a heart. Or a smiley face. A kissy face, maybe? Were you there yet?

Before you can agonize over it any further, you pulled into wardrobe to change for your next scene which is supposed to be with Gwil and Melanie inside a jazz club.

Violet accompanies Alice to a jazz club, so she can rendezvous with her new beau (Alice was always falling in love and she seemed to have a new love interest each week) then, Violet miraculously runs into Edmund, the stranger from the rally earlier who identifies her immediately. The scene is meant to lay the framework for the relationship, so you pay extra attention to getting it right. You’ve read and reread and re-reread the script, marking the margins with sloppy notes and gone over the blocking a thousand times. You’ve gone over this scene so much you had dreams about it.  

You are ushered back to another sound stage, this one a glittering and golden night club already full of dancing extras and a full jazz band. Melanie comes and grabs your arm and pulls you towards your entrance mark as the two of you quietly run through dialogue. You run the initial scene a couple of times, trying a number of different angles. Then, Melanie runs her scene with Alice’s love interest a  few times while you stand at the periphery of the set.

Your scene with Gwil is rapidly approaching and he has yet to show up. You try not to let your confusion and concern show while you’re on camera, though. Around take seven of the scene, you spot Gwil being ushered onto the stage by some costume techs and for the first time since you met him you’re struck at how handsome he is. He’s wearing a dapper three-piece suit with tails, his hair groomed back showing off his sharp, angular face and you realize you’ve never seen him in eveningwear. It occurs to you that you might have been staring too long when his eyes find yours and he smiles discreetly, making you blush and look away.

Soon, the two of you are brought together for your scene. His character, Edmund, finds Violet on the edge of the dancefloor and asks her to dance. Violet doesn’t recognize him at first but agrees. While the two are dancing, Edmund confronts Violet about being the girl that knocked him over earlier that day, having been at the rally and Violet panics.

“So, you’re the girl from the rally.”

Gwil leads you in a waltz while a camera follows your movements through a close shot.

“I don’t know what you are talking about, sir.”

“There is no need to lie, I remember you. Beauty like yours does not escape easily from one’s memory.”

“What if it was me? I don’t suppose you are interested in turning me into the police.”

“On the contrary, Miss…”

“Winthrope. Violet Winthrope.”

“Miss Winthrope. I am a supporter of women’s suffrage and I want to know more about your opinion.”

“You tease me, sir.”

“Not at all. I am an editor for the Post. We’re looking for an interesting female voice to write a column of women’s politics for our opinion’s section. You’re a high society lady who risks her position by going to rallies in the city. That seems pretty interesting to me.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t say anything. Let me take you to luncheon tomorrow and we can discuss it further with some of my other editors. Stop by the Post’s office around 1 o’clock and just let them know you’re meeting with Edmund Nottingham. “

Gwil delicately places a card in your gloved hand and leaves you in the middle of the dancefloor.

“Cut!”

______

You run the scene with Gwil a few more times.  It’s interesting to see him transform. You know the silly, laidback Gwil that you’ve come accustomed to. On camera though, Gwil transforms completely into the mysterious and suave Edmund and you can feel both yourself and Violet being charmed.

You finish up filming for the night and by the time you are stripped of your beautiful costume, your intricate hair and your delicate makeup, it’s pretty late into the night. As you walk to your car at the edge of the lot, you check on your phone. Ben has yet to respond. Internally, you’re a little freaked out. He seemed weird this afternoon and now he was not responding to your texts. You try to placate the surge of panic by trying to convince yourself that he might still be filming, or his phone might be dead although you know how unlikely those two things are. Still.

“Hey! Wait up!”

Gwil jogs up behind you breaking you away from your panicked reverie.

“Oh, hi,” you say, slightly surprised, “I thought you would have left by now.”

It’s true, the men take much less time to get out of wardrobe at the end of the day than the female actors.

“I was waiting for you actually, I wanted to walk you to your car,” he says sheepishly.

“Oh, there’s no need.  It’s safe here, we have security patrolling.”

“Right, er,” he pauses for a second, running his hands through hair, “I also wanted to say that you were great today. Working with you was… really… You make falling in love with you easy.”

“That’s just the writing,” you shrug and smile noncommittally. “They don’t call it ‘award-winning’ for nothing.”

Your car beams at you from a distance.

“Anyway, this is me. Thank for walking me. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” You shoot Gwil one last smile before opening your car door.

“Right, see you tomorrow.”

TAGS: @xbarrjallenx @alexfayer @chlobo6 @softbenhardy @thathufflepuffbitch

#ben hardy imagine #ben hardy x reader #ben hardy x you #bohemian rhapsody imagine #borhap fanfic #bohemian rhapsody fanfiction #gwilyn lee imagine #gwilym lee x reader #gwilym x reader

[galwednesday]

@chibisquirt: Do you ever do soulmate stuff?  How about a soulmate take on Steve/ (somebody of your choice)?

I saw this and had to laugh, because at some point when I opened prompts a year ago, you sent me an All Caps soulmate prompt that I wrote this ficlet for, after first getting an idea for a much less silly fic that wanted to be MUCH LONGER, and guess what one of the many WIPs I’m procrastinating on is? In lieu of a new ficlet, here’s a chunk of that WIP:

Sam didn’t know what the driver was seeing, had no idea what he was thinking or feeling. As soon as he’d lost sight of the man wearing the Captain America costume, doubt had crept in--it was a trick of the light, Sam was coming down off a combat high and his emotions were clouding his judgment, it was a deliberate deception by SHIELD, anything and everything except the man really being Steve Rogers. It couldn’t be real, couldn’t be him. His whole life, Sam had known that his soulmates were dead.

But Sam didn’t jump out of the car. If there was a chance, even just a chance, that Steve Rogers was alive, Sam needed to know.

(continues beyond the cut)

The car stopped in the garment district. The driver turned to look at him, her face calm, the authority in her voice absolute. “Stay in the car.”

“I was a soldier, you know,” he told her.

“Are you currently armed?”

Just with the knife in his boot. He’d gotten into the habit of carrying it overseas, less for combat and more for the assurance that he could cut through a soldier’s uniform to reach an injury, or through his own flight harness if he crashed and got tangled up in the wreckage. Sam shook his head. That wasn’t the kind of armed Hill meant, and he knew he was being a dumbass, anyway. SHIELD had always been clear that the only reason they weren’t surrounding him with 24/7 bodyguards was that obscurity was a more effective defense than personnel. He was just tired, all his nerves frayed, and it chafed to be treated like a civilian when he felt like he was suddenly back in a warzone.

“Then you need to stay in the car.”

Sam sighed and slumped back, fighting for the self-restraint to not kick the seat in front of him like a frustrated toddler. Whatever role Hill had played in the invasion, it was a safe bet her day had been longer and worse than his. Giving her a hard time now wouldn’t get him anywhere, and probably none of this was her fault.

It was hard to be fair about that with Steve Rogers is alive still ringing in his ears. It could be a lie, a manipulation, but if it was, it was going to be transparently obvious the moment they put Sam in the same room as the imposter. Soulmate bonds couldn’t be faked.

Hill came back a couple minutes later and opened the door. “They’re ready for you.”

She escorted Sam through the doors of a textile showroom, the bolts of colorful fabric looking ludicrously vibrant after a day spent sifting through concrete dust. There were two agents standing at the foot of a staircase leading up to an office on the second floor. One of them went ahead of Sam, one falling in step behind, while Hill took up the guard position on the staircase.

When the man opened the door to the office, Sam saw it was already occupied. Fury was there, and a handful of agents, and that was all Sam had time to see before his eyes locked onto the man sitting on the edge of the desk, looking at Fury with wary annoyance. He was blond, broad-shouldered, wearing a too-tight shirt emblazoned with the SHIELD logo. His face was unmistakable.

Sam had spent a lot of time pouring over archival footage of Captain Rogers, and this man was either him, or his clone.

“Glad you could make it,” Fury said. Sam barely heard him. He couldn’t take his eyes off of Steve Rogers.

Steve only glanced at Sam and the agent who’d come in with him before his gaze settled back on Fury. His clothes were clean and his hair was wet, like Fury had pulled him out of the shower for this meeting, or told him to clean up before it.

“Captain Rogers,” Fury said, “meet Sam Wilson.”

Steve’s head snapped around to face Sam, his eyes wide and utterly shocked. Sam had been braced for a my soulmate is black? double-take, but this was way beyond that, and Sam realized Fury hadn’t warned Steve about who was coming to see him.

“Hi,” Sam said, hopelessly banal. “It’s good to meet you.”

Steve was sure looking at him now. He still looked stunned more than anything, but when Sam reached out a hand, Steve stood up to take it, his movements jerky and too fast. “You’re Sam Wilson?”

“Yeah.” Sam had to remind himself to let go of Steve’s hand. They stood a few feet apart, staring at each other, both at a loss. Sam hadn’t expected meeting his soulmate to be so damn awkward.

Steve opened his mouth, then shut it. The shock was easing into the same hard wariness he had worn when Sam first came in the door. The realization almost made Sam laugh; Steve didn’t believe him.

Fury was looking as mild as you please, but the other men in the room weren’t as good at controlling their faces. The ones behind Steve had their hands near their holsters. Fury, what the fuck have you and SHIELD been doing to this guy?

On second thought, what had Steve done to them? One of the men in the room, the one with his hand actually on the grip of his gun, had a big handprint bruise along half his neck, mostly faded, too old to be from fighting during the invasion. How had Steve reacted to crashing in wartime and waking up in unfamiliar hands?

Sam felt the familiar irritation of going into an op with bad intel, and carefully set it aside. He’d had practice at this. Treating this like a mission helped him calm down enough to think things through.

Who’s hurting? Steve. What’s he need?

Sam looked at Steve, thought about how disorienting it must have been to wake up alone in a strange new world, and the answer came easy.

Someone to trust.

Sam’s awareness of the other people in the room, all of them watching closely, made his skin crawl, but there was no help for it. Steve wasn’t going to believe Sam was his soulmate without proof. Sam pushed up his sleeves and started undoing the cuff buttons.

“Director Fury,” Steve said sharply.

“We’ll be outside,” Fury said, and just like that, everyone else in the room filed out, Fury closing the door as he stepped out last.

Sam waited until the door shut to start moving again. He unbuttoned his left wrist cuff first, folded the fabric back to his elbow, and held his arm out to Steve. It was the first time he’d shown his mark to another person since the day it had arrived.

Steven Grant Rogers. Steve looked at it for a few seconds, then took a deep breath.

“Could you--may I see the other one? Please.” Steve’s whole body was rigid, his hands clasped behind his back. Sam wondered if they were shaking. Sam’s hands weren’t; his whole body had reverted back to combat mode under the force of the adrenaline, and combat medics developed steady hands.

Sam peeled back the other cuff, revealing James Buchanan Barnes in much neater handwriting. Steve stared at the name for a few frozen moments before his face crumpled. His hands flew up to cover it, his shoulders hunching forward.

“Oh, hey--” Sam couldn’t stop himself from reaching out, lightly touching Steve’s arm. “Fury didn’t tell you I was coming, did he? I’m sorry to spring this on you, man. I know it’s a lot.”

“It’s fine,” Steve said, his voice a lot steadier than Sam expected. When Steve dropped his hands, his face was already back under control, although his eyes and nose were reddened. “Sorry. Thank you for showing me.” His hand hovered over Sam’s left wrist. “May I?”

“Be my guest.”

Steve traced his name on Sam’s skin, all the breath shuddering out of him as his fingers made contact. “Sam,” he said, voice raw. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“Hey, I wasn’t waiting,” Sam said. “I thought you were dead.”

Steve huffed something that might have been a laugh. “I don’t know if that’s better or worse. Oh, sorry. Here, let me just--” He pressed his thumbs to each of his wrists, the matte black material of the cuffs suddenly interrupted by rectangular blue panels showing 0 - 9, like a PIN screen, running down his forearms. Steve tapped a ten-digit code into each cuff. The cuffs split down an invisible seam and fell aside.

“Wow,” Sam said, staring. “And I thought SHIELD was paranoid about my marks.”

“It’s some kind of nanotechnology, I don’t know, Stark made it. All the active duty agents wear them. Everyone told me not to go without them unless I was in the shower. I didn’t get what the big deal was.” Steve held his arms in front of him, inviting Sam to look. “I thought you were gone already, that we’d lost our chance to find you. Never thought I’d get a second chance at this.”

Steve’s James Buchanan Barnes looked exactly like Sam’s. Sam ran a thumb over it just to acknowledge it, acknowledge him, their missing third. Steve didn’t say anything, but he stopped breathing, and didn’t start again until Sam’s thumb lifted off of his skin.

Sam touched the first S in Samuel Thomas Wilson on Steve’s other wrist, then flinched away from the sudden tingling heat in his fingertip. “Woah.”

“You’ve never--of course you’ve never.”

“No,” Sam said hoarsely. Steve and Bucky might have touched each other’s marks every day for all Sam knew, but Sam had never had this.

“Go ahead,” Steve said, his voice weirdly gentle. He held his arm out, patient and steady.

Sam touched the W in Wilson, braced this time for the sensation, which was like pins and needles mixed with the wash of a hot shower, a rushing, vital feeling of energy and connection. He knew what it meant now that soulmarks couldn’t be faked. The feeling he got from touching his name on Steve’s skin was one of absolute certainty. He and this man were made for each other.

“Hey,” he said softly, not really paying attention to what he was saying. Steve was smiling at him, his eyes still a little red at the edges. “There you are.”

“Yeah.” Steve wrapped his fingers around Sam’s wrist and sighed like a man sitting down after being on his feet all day, relief and pain and comfort all in one. “I’m here.”

#ficlets and headcanons #sneak preview #soulmate AU #it's been very slow going on this one but I'm such a sucker for All Caps

[viscanmagazine]

How Srikakulam is re-inventing the famous Ponduru Khadi

For the past two months, District Collector of Srikakulam, Mr. Srikesh Lathakar,IAS along with most of his officers, ensured that they wear Srikakulam Khadi every first Monday of the month. It seems a “small step” but he feels that it will go a long way in creating awareness and demand for Srikakulam handloom and textile products.

“Awareness needs to start from our own people. We also conducted an exhibition recently where only Srikakulam products were exhibited. It was a big success. We plan to continue such initiatives in future as well,” said Mr Lathakar speaking to Vizag Industrial Scan.

The fine quality Khadi produced in Ponduru village of Srikakulam district is popular throughout India, and in fact Mahatma Gandhi always preferred it. However, it has not been able to get weavers sufficient remuneration due to various reasons.

Mr Lathakar says they have proposed mini Khadi clusters to empower weavers.

“Mega clusters require certain pre-conditions like minimum number of weavers, among others. Since the number of weavers are very less here, we have finalised the proposal for three mini Khadi clusters in the district, including two in Ponduru, which will require infrastructure, training and marketing expertise. We will try to increase the number depending on the progress,” he said.

It is not the investment but manpower that is a major challenge, he said.

“Investment can be arranged from the Central or the state government. Even NABARD is coming forward to fund something up to Rs 1 crore. We are asking weavers to come forward with a plan/their demands but they only present very minimal needs. Most weavers are old now and the younger generation is not taking it up as they don’t see a huge scope.  Hence there is a shortage of manpower,” he says.

Branding Srikakulam Khadi

To set up 3 Mini Khadi Clusters

APCO to help in Technical and Marketing

NABARD, State/Central Govt to provide Funding

Training to weavers

“Also, these products are very labour-intensive and hence, expensive and are in competition with powerloom products which are cheaper and of better quality.”

Mr Lathakar says they have roped in the Andhra Pradesh State Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society Ltd (APCO) to benefit from their technical and marketing expertise.

“To create a niche brand for Ponduru Khadi and Srikakulam handicrafts, there is a need for marketing which is lacking at the moment. Khadi has its own brand image so similarly we have to create a brand for Srikakulam Khadi even if it is costly, there will be sufficient demand and the benefits will flow down to the weavers,” he contends.

Besides marketing training, a few machines are required to improve quality and productivity so that the overall cost goes down and the quality improves, he says.

Andhra Pradesh’s Handloom Industry*

2,00,310 handloom weavers in cooperative fold

1,58,902 outside cooperative fold

81,000 Powerlooms both in cooperative and outside cooperative fold

*As per the The Department of Handlooms and Textiles

APCO DMO Mr. Someswara Rao says that they are seeing a rise in the sale of Srikakulam products through their e-commerce platform, which helps the weavers reach “a bigger customer base”.

“We supply raw materials to the weavers, give them a production programme with certain specifications and then, purchase the woven stock from them. This is sold at our outlets throughout India. We also conduct meetings with the weavers in Srikakulam and train them to develop new designs as per the demand of the customers and to compete in the larger market,” he says.

Mr Lathakar says that a meeting was held with Ponduru weavers recently. “We asked them to come forward with their requirements. We want youth from the weavers’ community to come forward and share ideas to reinvent the Ponduru Khadi magic. We will fund it and provide all possible support to create our very own ‘Brand Srikakulam,” he adds.

#ponduru khadi #Vizag Industrial Scan #e-commerce #Khadi #Marketing

[almostnoisydonut]

𝓐𝓰𝓻𝓲𝓬𝓾𝓵𝓽𝓾𝓻𝓮 & 𝓕𝓸𝓸𝓭 𝓟𝓻𝓸𝓭𝓾𝓬𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷

Big food and agriculture corporations have invested billions trying to convince us that they are the future. But we know that small farmers and agroecology are the way forward.

Who will feed the world as our global population grows and climate uncertainty deepens? What will the future of food production look like? These are some of the most important questions of our time. We believe the answer lies in the people and practices that are feeding the world right now: family farmers practicing diversified agriculture, together with small-scale fishers, herders, and ranchers.

Small farmers produce most of the food people eat—over 80 percent in much of the developing world. They do so on a fraction of the land, using a fraction of the resources compared with large-scale monoculture growers. And the majority of them are women. Data can be hard to come by, but where it’s available, it paints a dramatic picture: consider El Salvador, where small farmers use just 29 percent of the land, but grow 90 percent of the beans, 84 percent of the corn, and 63 percent of the rice—the three basic staple foods.

For better or for worse, agriculture was a driving force behind the growth of civilizations.

Farming probably involved more work than hunting and gathering, but it is thought to have provided 10 to 100 times more calories per acre. More abundant food supplies could support denser populations, and farming tied people to their land. Small settlements grew into towns, and towns grew into cities. 

Agriculture produced enough food that people became free to pursue interests other than worrying about what they were going to eat that day. Those who didn’t need to be farmers took on roles as soldiers, priests, administrators, artists, and scholars. As early civilizations began to take shape, political and religious leaders rose up to rule them, creating classes of “haves” and “have-nots.” Whereas hunter-gatherer societies generally viewed resources as belonging to everyone, agriculture led to a system of ownership over land, food, and currency that was not (and is still not) equitably distributed among the people.

Agriculture may have made civilizations possible, but it has never been a safeguard against their collapse. Throughout history, increases in agricultural productivity competed against population growth, resource degradation, droughts, changing climates, and other forces that periodically crippled food supplies, with the poor bearing the brunt of famine.

Sectors related to agriculture include: food and beverage manufacturing; food and beverage stores; food services and eating and drinking places; textiles, apparel, and leather products; and forestry and fishing.

This is an exciting moment to be talking about food: we are at a crossroads. across worldwide, people are calling for a global commitment to agroecology, land reform, food justice, and food sovereignty.

[awadhenterprises]

Women's Sensational Kurtis To Give Them A Traditional Avatar

This is one in all the primary vital factors that develop this clothing rather stylishly among Indian girls.With each passing day, a lot of styles are occurring within the marketplace, as well as you'll make a decision the one that matches your style as well as choice well and most significantly supply you with a picture outstanding, stylish appearance.

Be extremely little sensible and take a look at varying types of Kurtis to create distinctive style declaration. Use women ethnic flaring or developer kurti for great institution style, anarkalis for the wedding celebration, along straight tee shirt for the remarkable competent look, etc. Some standard sorts of Females Kurtis area device discussed below; simply have a look as well as you'll get sensible methods which to show up ideal entirely characters. 1. Shirt style Kurti A real development to your house of Kurtis, these square actions developed like skirts. You'll be able to include current appearance by picking the proper shade. Except this, it's friendly to your skin. People with rectangle-shaped body kind will look wise with this kurtis. 2. High-low Kurti This is frequently a brand-new option to the heap and also includes a much shorter hem. You may look classy so after you use it for celebrations as well as events. The ideal option of leggings is to be created. You might obtain the all-necessary female bit to your character. 3. Princess Cut Kurti This is typically a kurtI personalized to supply you an imperial appearance, type of a patrician. It's entirely created with a basic shoulder line and also arms as well as works out if you use it with glasses and trendy shoes. 4. Asymmetric Kurti This kurti breaks far away from the common styles and brings you an unique look completely, with an alternative line. This is commonly a vaporous type of apparel, and you'll have the ability to go with the appropriate towel. 5. C-Cut Kurti This is commonly almost similar to the texas hold'em kurti. However, the C cut comes within the front rather than the boundaries. It supplies a slim and also fashionable appearance. 6. Dual layered Kurti The style is cutting-edge, with one layer of textile overlapping the reverse. You'll be able to wear arm bands, fashionable jewelry, as well as sandals with this one. There square procedure two forms of variation during this kurti, and also you'll have the ability to obtain a clastic variation if you please. 7. Overlay Kurti This is typically a various range of kurti, and likewise the overlay begins right from the waistline to supply a stunning look to you. If you pick this one, ensure to grips in with marching devices as well as precious jewelry. 8. Cold shoulder kurti The cold shoulder is that one of the most revitalizing trend in the city and you'll be able to sporting activity it an expert together with your kurtis also. If you want forward to supply a contemporary bit to ethnic search in an extremely glamorous method, then ensure to offer this pattern a strive. 9. Frock style kurti This one is that the right choices to indicate your buoyant girly aspect. With a normal flare at the pointer, this kurtis are better-known to create a positive indo-western appearance. So, make certain to provide it an effort to startle your peers. 10. Kurti with pocket Absolutely nothing will certainly supply your ethnic wear a much more contemporary twist than pocket describing. This versatile pattern is the entirely vital enhancement to any kind of or all classy Indian women available. 11. Pintucks kurti Pintucks or decorative pleats within the material are a classy addition to the style globe. Pintuck Kurtis ended up being extremely in style and had produced their method on the style ramps. Kurtis with knotty styles with pintucks on the necklines are a demand have in each style wardrobe! Kurti is simple to hold as well as but also provides an ideal aim to the girl sporting it. Female of every ages will try kurti and that we can not deny the extremely truth that this attire makes women look plentiful younger than their real age. Check out any style shop in India online, and also you'll recognize that there is the complete selection of kutis of various designs patterns, color, as well as material. The collections are hence complete that you just can at some point really feel overwhelmed that to travel with as well as what not.

For More Info:- Traditional Kurti for Women Online India Floral Palazzo Suits Online in India Indian Print Cotton Dresses Online India

#Indian Print Cotton Dresses Online India

[earaercircular]

'The ban on washing cars with tap water was just a foretaste'

Pieter Loose stood on the highest Alpine peaks, built a bamboo village in Brazil and took part in the World Rafting Championships in Bosnia. Now he shows off his water technology company Ekopak on the Brussels stock exchange. “Let us also try to become world champions in water recycling.”

Pieter Loose pulls his leg as he receives us. A muscle tear in the calf, the result of an hour of padel. These will be difficult weeks for the man in his thirties, without sports. "I'm a bit hyperkinetic. I need sports to recharge.'” He usually does that on the mountain bike. He covers 10,000 kilometres every year, with tours in Patagonia, Africa, Greece, the Dolomites. And sometimes rides of 5,000 altimeters per day. Suffering. “But for me this is pure holiday: crawling on my bike in the morning and just follow the GPS.”

Loose talks rather quietly and monotonously. Yet he is brimming with enthusiasm. "I've always had a big mouth and I've always been ambitious. But I never dared to think that my company would ever be listed on the stock exchange.” At the end of March, his water treatment company Ekopak[1], supported by main shareholder Marc Coucke, raised 50 million euros and it is now worth about 240 million euros. It is the temporary highlight in Loose's course. With Ekopak, he surfs along with water recycling technology on the realization that we are depleting our water reserves.

He paid "a few millions" for Ekopak. “It was a small, local company at the time, with a lot of knowledge. I put more ambition into it. The ball is rolling now. My dreams become reality. That gives me power.”

The company has been building container installations for many years to produce ultrapure water for chemical, pharmaceutical, textile and food companies, among others. “Compare it to a descaler for the city water in your home, to protect your taps. But we go much further." “For customers who produce high-pressure steam, the entire Mendeleev table has to be removed, otherwise those elements will affect the steam boilers,” explains Loose. “Every customer requires a different degree of purity. For cooling water, water to clean machines, water for chemical processes.”

While until recently Ekopak treated groundwater and drinking water, today - after thorough research - it starts from waste water at the companies themselves. “A technical challenge, but future-proof,” says Loose. In addition, he launched the WAAS (Water-as-a-Service) concept, whereby Ekopak not only builds installations, but also finances and operates them and invoices the customer per drop of water. This should result in unprecedented revenue and profit growth in the coming years. “We have turned a sustainable product into a sustainable business model.”

What is the driving force behind Ekopak's growth?

Loose: "Long ago, investments were made in a network to provide everyone with clean drinking water. Industrial companies have joined the same network. That was the most obvious solution. But the situation has become completely out of balance: factories today use billions of liters of drinking water per hour. This used water is subsequently treated in a biological water treatment plant to be discharged into streams and rivers. It flows to the sea and you lose it. Consequently we have to install desalination plants at the sea side that consume a lot of energy to pump the water inland again. That is not future-proof, and companies are increasingly interested in that.”

How serious are companies about this?

Loose: “Twenty years ago you had Greenpeace with a slogan like 'better a hole in my T-shirt than a hole in the ozone layer”. But that's where it stopped. Now a tipping point has been reached. Companies set themselves concrete targets for energy, CO2 and water use. This is important to attract investors, subsidies and staff. The dominoes are falling, and that's a good thing. Climate change is real.” “The water supply is under pressure. Companies are not only afraid of a blackout, but also of a blue out. We've already had a foretaste of bans on using tap water to wash cars and fill swimming pools, and bans for farmers on pumping water from streams and rivers in certain regions. Water has a value like oil. We never thought about that. But the awareness that there are limits is growing at a rapid pace. We feel that. We keeps us occupied.”

How bad is the water scarcity in Flanders?

Loose: "Very. There is plenty of rain, but because it is a densely populated and paved area, the rain disappears into the sewers instead of seeping into the ground. Moreover, we have an economy with water-intensive sectors: food, textiles, pharmaceuticals, chemicals. In the OECD ranking, we are at the very bottom for the amount of water available per person, behind southern countries such as Spain and Italy. That also offers opportunities. We are forced to find a solution: Belgium will educate the world when it comes to rational use of water. That creates companies like Ekopak. We also intend to score internationally with that knowledge.”

Is the industry the main culprit?

Loose: "I'm not saying that. There is also agriculture. And in families at home, only 10 percent of drinking water is used for drinking. We still flush our toilets en masse with drinking water instead of rainwater. But our focus is on industry, which uses a quarter of drinking water in the northern region of Belgium. If we could reduce that, we are taking a big step forward.”

What is the role of politics in the water problem?

Loose: “Everyone is aware of the issues. The Blue Deal of Flanders[2] proving it. Money is earmarked for buffer basins and more wet nature, or for reductions in leakage losses, and so on. Mandatory water audits are introduced at companies and linked to environmental and expansion permits and subsidies. It is being examined whether companies can inject any surplus of recycled drinking water into the network against payment. It wouldn't surprise me either that there will be a limit on applications for which you can use drinking water or groundwater in industry, comparable to measures for your swimming pool.”

How important is the IPO in the growth plan?

Loose: 'It is crucial to roll out the Water-as-a-Service strategy. We will not only build the small water factories at the customers' premises, but will also operate and pre-finance them. This requires money: from 100,000 to 10 million euros per installation, depending on the flow rate and quality. We invoice per drop for a period of ten years or longer. We decrease the customer’s worries. And while tap water is becoming more and more expensive, our price is 20 to 40 percent lower. We therefore also strengthen their competitiveness. That makes companies bend in our direction more quickly. In this way we can tackle the water problem at an accelerated pace.” “The IPO also generates more than just money. It gives you more body when negotiating long-term contracts with multinationals. We are now approaching them as a listed company, no longer as 'that SME from Tielt with a skilled CEO'.'

Do you already have customers for that new concept?

Loose: “Eight projects are up and running, among others at the chemical companies Eastman[3], the copper film producer Circuitfoil[4] in Luxembourg and the vegetable processor Darta[5]. An installation has been started up at the pharmaceutical company Takeda[6] in Lessines to reuse 600 million litres of waste water. That's the equivalent of 18,000 people's water use, which means all of Lessen. We actually connect an entire city to the water network in one go. I also see many small and good initiatives, such as trucks collecting construction site water. But what we realize is of a different order. We are going fast, and sustainability knows no bounds. We also go abroad. Takeda wants to roll out our technology in its factories worldwide.”

You have now lost control of Ekopak. Is that difficult?

Loose: "The opportunity we now have to move forward gives me more satisfaction than the idea of being one hundred percent owner of a small company from which you are not getting the most out of it."

Source

JAN DE SCHAMPHELAERE, Ekopak-topman Pieter Loose: 'Het verbod om auto's te wassen met leidingwater was slechts een voorsmaakje' in: De Tijd, 24-07-2021,

https://www.tijd.be/ondernemen/technologie/ekopak-topman-pieter-loose-het-verbod-om-auto-s-te-wassen-met-leidingwater-was-slechts-een-voorsmaakje/10321369.html

[1] https://ekopak.be/en/sustainability/ [2] With the Blue Deal, the Government of Flanders is increasing its efforts in the fight against water scarcity and drought. With this deal, it wants to tackle the drought problem in a structural way, with an increased deployment of resources and the correct instruments, with the involvement of industry and farmers as part of the solution and with a clear exemplary role for the Flemish regional and other governments in Belgium. The Flemish Decree on Integrated Water Policy is officially approved in July 2003 (Belgium Law Gazette, 14.11.03). This decree is the juridical implementation of the European Water Framework Directive and the Floods Directive in Flemish law. https://www.integraalwaterbeleid.be/en [3] Founded in 1920, Eastman is a global specialty materials company that produces a broad range of products found in items people use every day. With the purpose of enhancing the quality of life in a material way, Eastman works with customers to deliver innovative products and solutions while maintaining a commitment to safety and sustainability. The company's innovation-driven growth model takes advantage of world-class technology platforms, deep customer engagement, and differentiated application development to grow its leading positions in attractive end-markets such as transportation, building and construction, and consumables. As a globally inclusive and diverse company, Eastman employs approximately 14,500 people around the world and serves customers in more than 100 countries. The company had 2020 revenues of approximately $8.5 billion and is headquartered in Kingsport, Tennessee, USA. The chemical company has 2 plants in the Ghent harbor in Belgium. https://www.eastman.com/pages/home.aspx. [4] Circuitfoil develops; Produces and markets high-quality copper foil, while constantly ensuring a safe and healthy environment in its plants, processes and products. rom its corporate headquarters in Luxembourg, Europe, the company distributes and markets its large range of products through a wide network of service centers and sales companies to customers worldwide. https://www.circuitfoil.com/company/profile/ [5] d’Arta is a Belgian family company founded in 1988 that has grown into a global player in the development, processing and commercialisation of fresh frozen products such as vegetables, fruits, herbs and ready-made (side) dishes. It employs more than 900 people and export our products to more than 100 countries. https://www.darta.com/en [6] Takeda is one of the 10 largest pharmaceutical companies in Belgium. Takeda’s presence in Belgium is reinforced by its global manufacturing site in Lessines. This Takeda site has over 18,000 m² of building surface and operates 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. It is a flexible plant for purification and a packaging center for immunology and hematology products, covering a total geographical span of over 80 countries worldwide. In total, more than 1000 professionals work for Takeda in Belgium, making us a top 5 employer in the pharmaceutical industry. https://www.takeda.com/en-be/who-we-are/contact-us/

#circular economy #water recycling #water management

[paulsiethecontentwriter]

An unpaid work for one of my previous clients

About the Founder

In 2014 Artypen Designs was born as a Branding & Graphic Design Company by Ishita Shah, Founder & Graphic Designer. She herself being a distinguished creative person, knows what it takes to elevate a brand’s identity and outstretch a lasting impression around every corner of the world. The Founder is a young lady who anchors the entire design process with her knowledge and experience she has accumulated over the past years.

About the Company

We are based out of Mumbai but you can find our vision and signature touch imprinted on brands worldwide. We are a creative boutique and excel in Branding, Packaging, Graphic Design and Digital Communication. As a team of creative minds, we use our expertise to the best and achieve an aesthetic balance between strategic thinking & visual execution.

As a professional creative design studio, we believe that, to conceive remarkable designs that can make a brand outshine in the highly competitive market, one has to apply both his brain and heart to the design. Hence, we first understand you, your business, your vision and then conceive the entire design and apply our creativity to give it a proper shape. 

Our more than six years of experience with eminent brands has gifted us with the knowledge that every brand, project and creative challenge is unique and different from each other. So the entire process of our design is bespoke, tailored specifically around your brief and connects your brand with your essence.

At Artypen Designs we deliver designs that not only satisfy our client’s imagination but also meet their expectations even better than their conception. Our digital craftsmanship is all about ensuring that the designs we conceive help your brand make a statement. So if you are looking for stunning designs that make you look good in person and in pixel, just drop a line to us!

U GRO Capital

brand identity, brochure design, corporate branding

U GRO Capital Limited, (formerly known as Chokhani Securities) is a BSE listed NBFC with a mission to solve the unsolved. As Artypen Designs took over the project of designing the complete Brand Identity of a company that strives to build a strong financing platform for small businesses that is entirely based on sectoral understanding enhanced by a totally integrated technology and analytics platform, it’s obvious that we had to conceive some unique designs that help the company to symbolize horizon and energy and foster recognition. 

 Since the establishment in 1993, U GRO Capital has focused on addressing capital needs of small businesses that operate in selected eight sectors like Healthcare, Education, Chemicals, Hospitality etc. by providing customized loan solutions. Hence, the entire branding system is designed with an overtone of orange. Not only that, the creative and innovative designed solutions of our expert graphic design team has personalized the corporate branding with a formal tone only to underline the corporate communication and collaterals.

 The robust and structured website is a vehicle for the brand’s aspiration. As its powerful look reflects the on-point approach and company’s value of being REAL, EXPERT, CURIOUS and YOUNG, its imagery of dynamic clouds conveys the brand story, of going higher with intelligence. The brochure design has also been planned to transfuse the company’s endeavour and help them fulfil their ambition. 

The visual vocabulary is extended to a playful expression of the word GRO borrowed from the identity which has become a part of the brand language. The focus corners are used as a brand symbol, creating a language unique to U GRO CAPITAL and subtly reinforcing the brand.  (274 words)

 Meta: Check out our winning graphic design portfolio & how we’ve designed the best brand identity, brochure & materials of corporate branding for U Gro Capital  (153)

  Snowcem 

packaging design, print design, creative design

 Over the last 5 decades Snowcem Paints has been the first choice as the Paint and Emulsions Company for the consumers and painters across the country. So being the most trusted creative design studio, Artypen Designs was being approached with the project of developing a strategic portfolio solution for SnowCem Paints that would accentuate the brand’s ethos of owning and spreading the true colours into people's lives. 

    Artypen Designs has worked with such a brand that believes that lasting protection must be rewarded with beauty and develops products with such intention. With a strong notion to reform with the emerging technology, the brand has delivered a line of innovative products like water based liquid paints, unigloss, eco friendly products etc. that are totally value for money. A simple yet dynamic look and feel that our knowledgeable and experienced creative persons had conceived as the best pattern for planning this brand’s identity and print design, also helped the brand demonstrate the genuine colours of its ethics and maintain a high level of consistency across a wide and evolving range of products.

 With the right unification of creativity and technology we have learnt the brand’s vision of delivering a pathbreaking approach to painting and then placed innovative and smart solutions for packaging design to define the brand’s unique propositions and help them make a statement. The clarity, purity and resonance that our talented and professional team of graphic designers contemplate has provided the brand with exemplary illustrations and also complements the brand’s mission, vision and aspirations of leaving a touch to every other drawing room of its target customers.  (267 words)

Meta: As the top creative design studio, we have conceived packaging design & print design solution that boosted the brands ethos of spreading colour into lives   (154)

NMIMS

graphic design, motion graphic designer

NMIMS is one of the most famous among the globally reputed universities that offers the utmost demanding degree courses after school education. As the best graphic design company, Artypen Designs received the project of creating exceptional corporate designs for the brand. 

To satisfy the emerging demands for management institutions in India, NMIMS initiated its journey in 1981. Since then, the meteoric growth has kept pace with the ever-evolving education scenario by offering major initiatives in terms of programs, curriculum, developments etc. 

Artypen Designs is rewarded with the task of designing the presence of this broad vision to carry forward and spread among the generations. As the most trusted creative design company we know that innovation is the key to progress in the recent days. Accordingly, our pursuit of excellence has enabled the brand a constant upgrade and added desired success to its crown. 

The team of professional motion graphic designer at Artypen Designs has designed the How to Apply video for The School of Performing Arts in the Department of Music of NMIMS. As creative designers our aim was to align our design with the thought of the university whose basis was diversity, innovation and progress. 

Ensuring a complete knowledge to the students and easing out their concerns for applying in the school of performing arts in this university with attractive yet simple designs was what we aspired for. And today we are proud to admit that the creativity we possess knows no limits. 

And as per the brand’s aspirations it has let them nurture the scientific spirit of enquiry among the students and outshine in the field of college education. The stunning designs and smart ideas we conceived for creating the video for the brand has successfully helped them provide opportunities to students and realize their full potential.  (299 words)

Meta: Learn how the expert motion graphic designer at Artypen Designs has rendered the How to Apply video and other graphic design stuffs for admission in NMIMS   (154)

Rhythmic Squad

logo design,stationery design,business cards

Rhythmic Squad is the most renowned dance studio based in Mumbai that provides the talents with training and opportunities for growth and establishment in their desired dance profession. Artypen Designs crafted remarkable stationary design for the brand. With a mission to create a hub of excellence where talents in dancing get truly nurtured, professional exposure and immediate recognition, the studio commenced its journey a few years ago. 

So being the top logo design company in Mumbai we took the task of designing the face of the brand Rhythmic Squad. And we have successfully delivered the brand’s recognition and a logo that represents its values, aspirations and desires. The logo resembles the brand’s forward-thinking visual identity while integrating R & S as the logo icon during the brand creation. We have developed a bold, strong and edgy visual identity system with black and golden as primary colours. Also, while conceiving the exquisite designs for the logo our knowledgeable designers keep in mind that it must be coherently relevant and in line with the trends and fashions. 

Apart from the logo we have also given shape to stunning business cards for the brand that is enough to nail the first impression and make the brand unforgettable as well. Our professional graphic designers are adept at framing custom business cards that are a perfect fit for all budgets. We, at Artypen Designs, always keep an eye for crafting eye-catching designs that speak for itself. We ensure that the remarkable designs that we conceive is unique, hit the bull’s eye and let the brand outshine.   (260 words)

Meta: Explore the business cards, logo design, stationary design service that the graphic design professionals at Artypen Designs have provided to Rhythmic Squad  (155)

Enpee Group

letterhead design, poster design, creative logo design

Since its establishment in 1961 Enpee Group has been venturing as a manufacturer of woven, printed and dyed textiles as well as embroidered laces and fabrics. This brand has given us the responsibility to craft letterhead designs and other such items. Now, for more than five decades the brand has grown into a multi million dollar transnational business joint with a mass of market-leading businesses across five major industry segments like packaging solutions, construction products and services, FMCG, energy and chemicals and has footprints across the global market. 

Artypen Designs was rewarded with the responsibility to craft creative logo designs and also designs for presenting corporate identity for such a brand that aims at preserving the past to create the future. In the logo The vector icon symbolizes the Enpee force backing its diversified businesses and the unified values flowing among them. The logo font was given a clean and minimalistic look to balance with the dynamic logo symbol. 

Our professional graphic designers crafted stunning letterheads for the brand that work with its identity along with adding dynamism to every touchpoint. We know that letterheads are the most coveted official stationary for any company and having a custom letterhead is one of the best ways of branding. So while creating the letterhead for the brand we have taken optimum care to ensure all the credentials are put in and designed in a manner to display the brand values properly. 

Apart from that our team of creative designers have created excellent poster designs that easily meet the promotional needs of online marketing of the products and services of the brand. We know that posters always play a key role in showcasing and creating brand awareness among the customers. That’s why we create bold, precise and catchy posters to meet your marketing needs.   (301 words)

Meta: Glimpses of the graphic design services like letterhead design, creative logo design etc, by Artypen Designs, for Enpee Group, has been shared. Have a look   (155)

Frutea

creative brochure designs, graphic design portfolio, brand design

Frutea is a renowned brand producing high quality and healthy fruit drinks in India that has always ensured quality and freshness from orchards to the bottle. They aspire to provide superior quality products that improve the lives of their customers and community. So for such a brand we have crafted impressive and creative brochure designs that evokes their reliability and trustworthiness to the potential clients. Our exclusive and customized brochures have given the brand an edge over the competitors and also helped them beat the curve. 

At Artypen Designs, we know that a well-built graphic design portfolio is a token for every brand to earn professional success. So the visual representation of all that a brand has accomplished has to be mind-blowing, stunning and kick-ass. That’s why we have inscribed the best projects in our portfolio. And Frutea is one among them. 

The knowledgeable creative artists at Artypen Designs believe that simplicity is the key that brings clarity of thought. And the work we have produced by that clarity of thought has brought desirable results to the brand. Our research-driven, creatively- armoured and thoughtful creative artists have also crafted the entire brand design items for the brand and have dug out its true potential. Creating a brand strategy is like a blueprint and the way we have planned it, has transformed the brand into an exceptional one in its trade. Our exclusive and customized creative solutions have helped the brand touch every possible part of consumer emotions, needs and the competitive market.   (252 words)

Meta: Catch a glimpse of the most stunning graphic design portfolio of the best creative studio Artypen Designs, organized with brand design stuffs for Frutea   (152)

Touch A Life

brand logo design, web design, corporate identity design

Touch A Life is a HongKong-based non-profit organization with a mission to help the underprivileged children in India and provide them with proper guidance, opportunity, and financial support so that they can turn their dreams into reality. We have crafted creative designs along with web design for the company. With a vision to perceive a world where there is no obstacle to education and health facilities and every child is protected and ensured their fundamental rights, the brand works for the betterment of the deprived society. 

At Artypen Designs we know that every brand has some unique characteristics that they want to define with proper use of colours, sizes, typography and all. We simplify the process of corporate identity design by providing customized solutions to cater the business needs. With our designed solutions we ensure the brand develops a unique identity and outshine among the competitors. Our team of passionate and creative directors and graphic designers are devoted to craft the most exclusive designs and highest quality services to the brand. 

 We know that a logo is the first visual intimation of a brand that makes it an essential and effective tool for brand awareness. Our brand logo design procedure has few layers and we ensure the final product is unique, iconic and eye-catching. Now, after designing a bright and sharp identity, our goal for the website design was to create a structured website and engaging brand experience that allows users to dive deep into project content, browse real pictures and explore multiple ways of taking action. Thus we have provided them with customized and highly effective creative strategies that help them build their brand and recognition.    (264 words)

Meta:  The professional graphic design artists at Artypen Designs have crafted brand logo design, web design, corporate identity design services for Touch A Life   (154)

Apollo

business card design,company logo design,graphic design work

Apollo Ingredients is a science oriented organization that has a global recognition in the arena of nutrition and hired Artypen Designs for their graphic design work. By harmonizing its business strategy and exceptional skill sets, the company has been making a significant and crystalline contribution to the elevation of economy, ecology and society. 

The company believes in building and delivering innovative solutions that not only nurtures the spirit of human beings but also improves their performance and productivity simultaneously. Thus Apollo has successfully achieved its credibility as trustworthy sources in the market of dietary supplements and natural edible colours. 

So, for such a brand with magnificent values, Artypen Designs was accorded with the responsibility of creating the company logo design. We know that an outstanding logo has the ability to persuade tons of your prospects to reach out and connect with your brand. That’s why our professional graphic designers have designed a unique and customized logo that helps the brand to create an individual identity and form a strong client foundation. 

Apart from that we have also accomplished other creative designs that include items for branding, stationary etc. The experienced team of creative artists are adept at creating exceptional and appealing designs that make your brand outshine. 

Also we have delivered the most appealing business card design to make the brand unforgettable to the client. We are always vigilant to the detail only to ensure that the highest quality of work is provided within the deadline. Being the top creative studio in Mumbai we focus at endorsing the corporate culture of your brand and strengthening its public image with our services.    (271 words)

Meta: Explore the inspirational graphic design work, company logo design etc. that the leading creative studio Artypen Designs has crafted for Apollo Ingredients     (155)

Alpa Industries

company brochure design,graphic design, business cards,print design

Alpa Industries is a brand that manufactures a wide range of spare parts compatible with the machines that are made in America, Japan or Europe. And as the best graphic design company, Artypen Designs has designed various corporate items for the brand. 

Apart from being a specialist in creating customized products for industries across the market, the brand leverages all the state-of-the-art infrastructure that enables it to adapt to the environments arising out of customer needs since 1971. The spare parts that the brand produces cater to all mills for their machines in spinning and winding and it has mastered its field of operations. 

 We, at Artypen Designs, have provided the brand with exclusive company brochure design to help them flaunt their legacy, demonstrate their magnanimity and mesmerize their prospective customers to become a part of them. Our creative design experts have crafted the brochure just like a physical website where everything is written in captivating words and in stunning designs that showcase the best of the brand. 

 Also the business cards that we have shaped for them define the brand’s personality and help them weave a story of their success. The exquisite design of the business card is also 100% custom made, trendy and appealing and has actually the power to make the brand stand out amongst the competitors. 

 Apart from that, the print design items that our expert creative designers have let for the brand earn remarkable appreciations. We know that a perfect design is a combination of texts and pictures to explain that illustrate the business ideas through different mediums and this insight is what we have executed for crafting items for this brand.    (277 words)

 Meta: The winning graphic design company, Artypen Designs, has crafted stunning company brochure design, business cards, print design etc. for Alpa Industries.    (152)