Tag: art

VR 3D modeling the choice for artists

I strongly recommend the 3D modeling VR program Shapelab. It´s the most intuitive way to do sculpting digitally I have come across. It´s also not very demanding on your computer.

If you think Blender Zbrush and Maya ar shitboring programs and you have no interest in these softwares because of the tons of menues and stuff you need to be able to sculpt and you just want to start creatings like you use a pen on a paper and have a background as an artist then this is the ultimate program.

I didn´t write this because I got paid for it, I wrote this review just because I really want more true artists find out that you dont need to learn the stiff programs (That is actually more created for programmers than artists it feels like). So if you own one of the following headsets: Oculus Quest 2,Valve Index,,HTC Vive,Oculus Rift,Windows Mixed Reality there will be no end of how fun you can have with actually feel the true sense of enjoyment to just start sculpting your 3dmodels directly. It´s a must if you like trying new art materials from time to time. And if you hesitate, let me put it like this: What the fudge did your phone cost? some 100+ euro probably and if it did then you own it to your creative side to invest these 20euro for you feeling the raw sense of pure superfunfun 😀

Seen from an artists background like me it feels Blender and Zbrush and most softwares are not actually made for artists and is totally bogged down in the old fashioned tools named “mouse” and “keyboard” and we are stuck in the 1980 with these outdated items which does not belong in a new digital era. I often thought why you cant you be able to use two “mouses” at the same time when you want to make 3dmodels or when playing games or why not even a gamepad for sculpting which would have been more intuitive. Zbrush and Blender is proven to be very good programs as we all know but they are “programs” and feel programmed and not user friendly at all and you need to sit with assboring manuals and watch so many tutorial videos and even when you done that and learnt the basic it really has nothing to do with how you sculpt with a slab of clay in real life and have you can use two hands to cut off or add layers of clay to it. No more is this any true since now you have Shapelab on steam for 14 euro, on sale now or their regular price for 20euro which is the best invested money I ever done in any software ever (except publisher which I use for editing my magazine).

If you just do a search on Shapelab you can watch lots of videos of how it work and also checkout steam and read reviews by others and you understand that this is something you must try or just go own right now and die 😀

Background: I bought my Oculus Quest 2 solely for sculpting and 3Dmodelling but after a while the free program Adobe Medium which is similar to this suddenly changed their minimum requirements to use it and I was overnight without the possibility to do what I started to enjoy so much namely make my twisted creatures in 3D.

So my sort of review is more like a boost of how much I can recommend it and really not about the program in detail of how to use it because it´s that easy to learn so its not really much to tell more than you use your controllers much as you use your hands when sculpting in IRL. The manual is only 12 pages and not heavy on the text and very easy to get how it works. So I say BRING CREATIVITY INTO 3D MODELING!

I´m a huge nerd and game and have written 180+ review on steam so if uré interested in games that deals with: Rougelike,rts,milsims,bullethell,swordcombat,tnaks,strategy,minimalism,procedural generation,Local co-op. then check my steampage:https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197963588013
and add me there ifu wanna teamwork someday and also join CARROTTRiBE on discord.
Nerdfacts:I started playing digital games 1985 and been on steam for 18 years, own more than 100 D&D books,Have 500+ games on steam, Obsessed with carrots. Loves MLPFIM especially Pinkie Pie and Rarity. Love technoparties and inlines and try new stuff in life and love boardgaming. Carrotpalace is where I like to hang around in VRchat so if u come across a hedgehog,cat,carrot,succubus that dances with my name on top…then we have meet :DI send radio in Malmö 89,2mhz, editor of USHiRimagazine, have an artgallery named CARROTTRiBE, created a bunch of boardgames over the years and Asphyxia and think that it´s to little Pokemonporn on the internet.

Shapelabs steampage

A carrot kimchi experience at Möllan

Text, photo, and artwork: Anna Karlsson

A while ago it became known to USHiRi Magazine that Flax, the vegan café and farmstand at Sölvesborgsgatan near Folkets Park in the Möllevången (Möllan) area, has carrot kimchi on their menu. CARROT kimchi! This had to be investigated, we thought.

Below is a report of our visit.

October 2021.

USHiRi Magazine (in the form of Anna): Hi, I’m here from Ushiri Magazine. There is supposed to be some pre-ordered kimchi for me, to review for the magazine actually, I believe there was a guy here earlier today?

Flax (unnamed waitress): Oh, that’s right., yeah… Then you could just speak to Buddha here (nods at the guy behind her).

Flax (Buddha Browett, owner and founder of Flax): Yeah, true, there was a guy here earlier today who ordered kimchi and an apple cider for later. Right, ok, let’s see… (turns to the refrigerator), we sell kimchi in jars, do you want to eat straight out of the jar, or would you like a plate with some bread and dressing to go with it?

Anna: Um…, aha, yeah, well, in that case, I’d like a plate, please.

Buddha reaches for a ceramic bowl and fills it up with fresh-made kimchi, bread, and some whitish, creamy dressing. He also takes one of his see-through glass jars with orange, red, green, and yellow kimchi inside and places it on the counter, so that I can take it with me when I go home.

Buddha: There you go. Hope you’ll like it!

From farming to cooking and serving

Close to the window, I find a small café table with a free seat on a wooden sofa. I release myself from my outer jacket and scarf and pour up the (non-alcoholic) apple cider in my glass. Then I place the bottle and the glass in good relation to the kimchi bowl for a short Kodak moment.

A handful of other customers have made their way into the small café. At the end of the bar is a guy reading a book while drinking his coffee. Close to him is another guy pulling some jokes in English, and then there is a girl waiting for her take-out with a yoga math convoluted in a blue roll on the floor. Another female guest comes through the door carrying a mug and an empty plate, probably having had a fika in the outdoor sitting area. There is also a group of friends who come in to chat with Buddha.

Suddenly I realize that I’ve been here before, in this very room. A friend of mine used to run a massage therapy studio at this location, situated at 10, Sölvesborgsgatan, near the Möllevången, Folkets Park, S:t Knuts, and Sorgenfri neighborhoods, south of downtown Malmö.

Where there now seems to be some sort of a storage area, in a room on top of a stair to the left, I would enter the therapy room to lay down and have my back and shoulders’ muscles squeezed by this strong, dedicated, and kind-hearted girl who always seemed to know exactly where to push and stroke to release the tensions and pain I sometimes suffered from.

That’s almost fifteen years ago, though. After she left sometime around 2010 the facility has housed a few other businesses, and two years ago, at the time of midsummer 2019, chef and farmer Buddha Browett bought an espresso machine and opened up Flax.

An Australian in Malmö

Flax (or “common flax” or “linseed”) is a well-known flowering plant, commonly used for linseed oil as well as linen textiles for bed sheets and table cloths. It’s a name that goes well along with the natural, vegan, and also aesthetically thought-through profile of this café.

Buddha Browett had moved to Sweden from his native Sydney, via Barcelona, some years earlier (“because of the weather, haha, no actually I fell in love with a Swedish woman, that I’m no longer together with though).

Step by step he went from selling vegetables at “Bondens Marknad” (“The Farmer’s Market”) at Drottningtorget, to subsequently co-found “REKO-ring Malmö”, a successful selling service where small local farmers can put up crops on Facebook for pre-ordering and weekly distribution straight to customers.

While also having started up and run Sweden’s largest commercial urban farm “Los Perros” (today 2800 m2 big), he realized that one piece was missing though: a restaurant or café outlet for his harvest.

One day in 2019 he found the facility at Sölvesborgsgatan, and that was it.

Today he’s doing farming between Sunday and Wednesday and runs the café and farm stand from Thursday to Saturday.

Uses everything he grows

Having this set-up, he can use basically everything he grows. He no longer needs to find himself getting up at four o’clock in the morning – harvest, pack, and driving to Bondens Marknad at Drottningtorget, trying to sell as much as possible – before ending the day with perhaps some crops still left. Sometimes trying then to sell the surplus to nearby restaurants, sometimes being lucky, sometimes maybe not.

Delivers to local quality restaurants like Julie, Mineral, Qué, and Lyran are still part of the business, but a lot of his harvest is now also used at Flax. Moreover, customers may buy fresh pumpkins, onions of different sorts, potatoes, apples, zucchini, and more, at a small farm stand next to the entrance.

Buddha Browett recounts all of this after I’ve had my little kimchi and bread moment (which really is quite a joy! The kimchi has a nice combination of a lot of different flavors, it has a lagom heat from the chili and is overall very refreshing.)

Buddha: The menu at Flax is made up of things I like. A lot of it actually has carrots in it, like the kimchi but also a lot of other dishes, because carrot is such a useful vegetable that goes along with a lot.

Anna: Ah, that is very pleasant news for CARROTTRiBE members and USHiRi Magazine readers!

Buddha: If you look at the menu I think there are carrots in all the dishes except the one at the top (he points to a blackboard behind the counter, where different dishes and courses are written in white chalk letters. And yes, I do indeed find for instance one soup, one stew, and one grilled sandwich that all in some way contain carrots.)

Anna: Cool.

Buddha: 👍

Anna: If comparing sauerkraut and kimchi (both fermented vegetables; editor’s note), why kimchi?

Buddha: Oh, well, for me that’s just because of the variations possibilities with kimchi. I like to be able to put in like ginger and chili and that kind of stuff.

Kimchi can be used with almost everything and is considered a staple in the Korean kitchen.

I had kimchi myself for the first time back in 2002 when it was served as a side dish to a bowl of chicken dumplings at “Kafé Japan”, in central Gothenburg. Back then kimchi wasn’t that popular or common as it is today in the Swedish food flora, I think. While sushi or thai food at the time had become almost as popular as pizza, kimchi was more like “oh, this is… interesting…. tastes good though!”

Korean culture and lifestyle have made quite an impact on parts of the Western world since then though (with The Squid game, K-Beauty, K-Pop, and Gangnam style, for instance), but exactly how popular kimchi is I’m not quite sure of (since food writing isn’t actually my main pursuit.) But Buddha Browett might know, I figure out, so I decide to ask of his opinion.

Buddha: Kimchi is very popular I think, and it’s getting even more popular all the time now. Our customers really like it!

Fan art

After my visit to Flax, I draw this picture, inspired by the vibe and features of the place. Incorporated in the drawing is the Korean spelling (김치) of kimchi.

Carrot kimchi at Flax, Malmö. Art by Anna Karlsson.
Carrot kimchi at Flax. Art by Anna Karlsson.

Do you wanna try yourself?

If you want to buy your own kimchi or have it with for example a grilled cheese sandwich, you’ll find Flax on Sölvesborgsgatan 10 near Folkets park in Malmö. Opening hours and other information can be found at Flax’s online site.