Sunday Kultour

The weather offered us a significant break (actual blue skies!!) on Sunday, October 8, so we set off for a cultural tour of Ini’s sister’s neighborhood, Friedenau. The neighborhood itself was lovely, and for this organized “open house” studio tour, artists and artisans opened their doors to the public starting at 1PM. We had a grand time, and saw lots and lots of strange and beautiful things, met some strange and beautiful people, and thoroughly enjoyed our day. Reminded me so much of the Floyd Artisan Tour event, only for this folks walked or biked to each (where in Floyd, you have to drive, thus the studio/shop participants must offer some decent parking areas).

The booklet/pamphlet itself, produced in support of this two-day event, was impressive.

We didn’t cover the entire neighborhood, but each of the numbered dots is a home, shop, or studio that invited folks in off the street.
We visited both of these places, but I show it here as an example of the published coverage in this significant book, which had only one advertisement that I saw.
Scenes as we strolled around the neighborhood.

Amazing squirrels hereabouts. That soft-focus, almost “air-brushed” red behind the squirrel, which appears disconnected from it, is its long, fluffy tail.

Arch over a school’s doorway. The printed words mean, essentially, “Reap what ye sow.”
An entryway design in terra cotta tiles.

Jack spent much of the day getting all geeky about the variety of scooters parked everywhere. Matthias joined him to admire an old Vespa (I think).
Sculpture or discarded fruit?

I liked the design of this veterinarian’s “sign.”

There were several memorable stops along our way. At this art school for kids (the bottom info in the photo of the booklet page above), the walls were papered with their colorful renderings of (mostly) animals and scenes in their neighborhoods. As we arrived, a young man was having his photo taken standing near the wall where his art was hanging. He shyly responded to Ini’s inquiry that his work was the hawk that I (of course) photographed. He also had one other, but I didn’t see which he pointed to.

Practically next door was the woodworking shop of Michael Wintjen (shown in the top panel of the booklet page above), where he displayed a sampling of unfinished veneer, and the same piece finished in several different final forms. Beautiful wood, but the photos didn’t turn out so you could tell anything about the finishes. Again, Jack went all geeky on us (he’s a clamp nut and Michael had lots and lots of clamps) about matching wood grains and tools.

This was just one of two entire walls filled with clamps. The craftsman was working on a repair of a small box (maybe the housing of a clock?) that was porcupined with clamps. I’ve never seen so many clamps on one collection of wood pieces before.
The woodworker’s wife or partner is a painter in black and white and gray.

We spent the most time in a violin-maker’s shop. The two women there were quite happy to talk about their craft, and we listened and Jack asked a lot of questions while we admired their work.

The artist showed and explained the differences between a Baroque violin and a Classic violin. Much was in German, so I missed most of the gist. Beautiful work, though.

Selfie with Matthias and framed violin.