Art by Petit Collage
Slon : Elephant
Zmija : Snake
Cačak : Cat
Pas : Dog
Lav : Lion
Majmun : Monkey
Ovca : Sheep
Konj : Horse
Leptir : Butterfly
Sova : Owl
Sma : Deer
Kurjak : Wolf
Jelen : Stag
Know them all? Play this fun game here!
Have you checked out our Sma, Kurjak, Sova, and Jelen clothes this season? :
One of our readers and commenters recently told us about one of her favorite children’s book authors from Croatia – Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić. Although she passed away 1938 she is still considered to be one of Croatia’s most famous and well-loved writers for children. Born into a family of politicians and poets, Ivana homeschooled all six of her children, and became famous in 1913 for her book The Brave Adventures of Laptich. Croatian Tales of Long Ago was published in 1916 with huge success, which prompted Ivana’s nickname – “The Croatian Andersen” (in reference to Hans Christian Andersen). The stories are original, but reference characters and themes from traditional Slavic mythology.
In 2002 and 2003 an animation artist named Helena Bulaja decided to adapt some of the Croatian Tales of Long Ago into a web animation project. In her words: “The digital revolution, the Internet, and modern communications are on one side, and the world of fairytales on the other…the concept of the interactive book is so open, and unlike film, theatre, or illustration, it can take almost any form, it can be a film, an illustration, a game…” The website is a little dated, but the animation is stunning, such as in Yagor below:
Yagor from Helena Bulaja on Vimeo.
This is part of an ongoing blog series exploring children’s literature and folk tales from the regions of Hungary, Romania, and Croatia. Do you have any recommendations? If so please feel free to leave a comment below.
Today is a Hungarian national holiday, celebrating St. Stephen I, Hungary’s patron saint and First King (between 1000 and 1038 AD). Through his powerful role as King he helped to establish the Kingdom of Hungary, so August 20th, while commemorating his life, also celebrates the birth of Hungary. During the Soviet occupation of Hungary St. Stephen’s day was dismissed as being “too religious”, and was replaced with a celebration of the Stalinist constitution, as well as a “celebration of new bread”, referring to the beginning of the harvest.
Modern day Budapest celebrates St. Stephen’s Day with fireworks, air shows, and outside fairs, with stands selling bread and cakes.
This season we happen to be carrying a shirt that references King Stephen’s reign – our Knights Double Decker Tee was inspired by the Knights of King Stephen’s army:
Have you ever been in Hungary during St. Stephen’s Day? Did you celebrate it as a child? Feel free to share your experiences in the comments.
On a quest for children’s stories from Hungary, Romania, and Croatia, I found myself at the San Francisco Public Library:
The Main Branch downtown is massive, with 6 stories of books, and an amazing Children’s Section. To my surprise I found piles and piles of folk tales from these regions, and thanks to a kind librarian, was able to look at some books from the Historical Archives, which are not loaned out to the public. The one which resonated the most for me in both illustration and content was Kati and Kormos, written by Anico Surany and illustrated by Leonard Everett Fisher:
Kati Viszla is a prize-winning hunting dog who lived in a grand kennel on a huge estate in Hungary. She was happy, but lonely, as her owner Count Toldy was away often, and she spent most of her days inside a cage, and bored.
Luckily one day she met Kormos Puli, a shaggy little sheepdog, and his owner Old Imne:
She learns to love a life of herding and not hunting, and abandons her life of lonely luxury for a life with good company.
The illustrations are gorgeous in person. The tale is simple but the writing is wonderfully descriptive, and similar to Selma the Sheep, I find it conveys wisdom within its pages. The author Anico Surray is born of Hungarian ancestry, and owns a Viszla dog similar to Kati. Leonard Everett Fisher has an MFA from Yale, and has illustrated over 100 kids books, including 11 of his own.
Published by Holiday House Press in 1966, copies of this book are not very easy to find, but Amazon has a few for sale here.
This is part of an ongoing blog series exploring children’s literature and folk tales from the regions of Hungary, Romania, and Croatia. Do you have any recommendations? If so please feel free to leave a comment below.
Pink Blue Project by Korean photographer JeongMee Yoon.
When his young daughter only wanted to wear pink, Korean photographer JeongMee Yoon decided to explore the connection between consumerism and color preference. How much are girls and boys influenced with their color preferences by what’s available to them? Seemingly a lot. It just reminds us to to notice and make thoughtful choices whenever we can. As designers, brands, people, companies, parents.
Be sure to check out more amazing photographs and projects on his website.
found on LMNOP
At Tea, we’re always thinking and getting excited about new inspirations and possible destinations. Very soon you’ll get glimpses of our latest travels. To win today’s $100 Tea birthday certificate, we’d love to hear your ideas on on our Facebook page where we should go on our next inspiration trip.
At Tea, we were born (8 years ago) to explore the world and for 8 years we’ve been going there, across the globe and across the street. On our inspiration trips to wonderful places like Korea, West Africa, Norway, Japan and Brazil, we’ve been captivated and enriched by our experiences. We’re thrilled to have been able to share those inspirations in our seasonal collections of children’s clothing.
We know you’ve been going there too…where have you been in the last 8 years? To win today’s $100 Tea birthday certificate, please share with us on our Facebook page some of your travels. We can’t wait to see and hear from you.
