All images © Ester Magnusson, shared with permission
“I’m obsessed with lace,” says Swedish fiber and textile artist Ester Magnusson, who loves to deep-dive into the history of garment design. As she prepared her portfolio for a residency focused solely on bobbin lace, she conceived of the idea of a human skull made entirely from the dainty fabric. “Once you express an interest in lace, people come out of the woodworks to give you their grandma’s old collection, so I had a lot of thrifted and gifted material to work with,” she says.
The resulting piece is titled “Skör,” which is pronounced like “sure” and translates to English from Swedish meaning “fragile.” Adjacent to Magnusson’s passion for textiles is a curiosity about wordplay, especially puns. “In Swedish, the words for ‘a piece of weaving’ and ‘tissue (anatomical)’ are both Vävnad, so I was coming up with ideas for a very punny fantasy exhibition when I thought of the concept,” the artist says.
Made of a mix of cotton and linen lace, “Skör” is assembled using cotton thread and wood glue. Tiny stitches connect various strips and shapes, but felt that she needed to add something she had created herself. “I had a feeling that I was just working with other people’s materials, that the piece wasn’t quite mine… so I made the teeth by hand,” she says, noting that she crocheted the details in a scallop pattern using a tiny metal hook. Once the work was complete, the artist used wood glue as a substitute for traditional starching agents like cornflour or sugar glue.
Interested in sustainable production, Magnusson continues to work in the garment industry and has recently been experimenting with a tapestry crochet variation of “Skör” that merges the concepts of pixel art, anatomical studies, and sweaters. Follow her on Instagram for updates.
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The Panasonic Lumix S 100mm F2.8 Macro is a mid-telephoto macro prime lens for L-Mount (Panasonic, Sigma, Leica) full-frame mirrorless cameras.
It can also be used with APS-C sensor models where it provides an equivalent focal length of 150mm.
It offers a minimum focusing distance of 20.4cm / 0.669ft with a life-size maximum magnification ratio of 1:1.
This is a very compact and lightweight macro lens, yet it still offers a bright maximum aperture of F2.8 for better low-light performance and bokeh effects.
It is officially the world’s smallest and lightest medium-telephoto fixed focal length macro lens with a magnification ratio of 1:1 and a focal length of 90mm or more.
It features 13 elements in 11 groups including 3 aspherical lenses, 2 UED lenses and 1 ED lens and a 9 blade diaphragm which creates an attractive blur to the out-of-focus areas of the image.
A newly developed Dual Phase Linear Motor promises to deliver fast and precise autofocus performance with excellent moving subject tracking and silent focusing.
The Panasonic Lumix S 100mm F2.8 Macro lens will be available at the end of January 2024 priced at £999 / €1099 in the UK and Europe, respectively.
Weighing in at 298g / 0.66lb and measuring 82.0mm / 3.23inch in length, the Panasonic Lumix S 100mm F2.8 Macro is much lighter and smaller than any of its main rivals, which include the Sigma 105mm F2.8 DG DN MACRO Art and the Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2:1 Ultra Macro APO.
It’s compact size makes it feel very well balanced on a mid-sized camera body like the Lumix S5 IIX body that we tested it with, as shown in the product photos.
Build quality is very good. The Lumix S 100mm F2.8 Macro feels solid in your hand, even if it is mostly made out of plastic, with a metal lens mount.
It’s also weather-proof, being both dust and splash resistant and working all the way down to -10 degrees. We successfully used it in a heavy shower with no adverse effects.
There is no built-in Image Stabilisation, though, with the lens instead relying on the camera body’s stabilisation system (if it has one).
The Panasonic Lumix S 100mm F2.8 lens has a generously wide focus ring with a ridged, rubberised grip band.
There are no hard stops at both ends of the range, making it more difficult to set focus at infinity.
Polariser users should be pleased that the 67mm filter thread doesn’t rotate on focus.
In terms of controls, there are just two switches in addition to the focusing ring.
Firstly, there’s a focus mode switch with the standard AF/MF settings.
Secondly, there’s a focus range limiter switch that helps prevent the lens from hunting through the entire focusing range. There are three options – Full, infinity to 0.5m, and 0.204 to 0.5m.
When it comes to auto-focusing, the Lumix S 100mm F2.8 is a quick performer for a macro lens, taking around 0.10 seconds to lock onto the subject when mounted on the Panasonic S5 IIX camera that we tested it with.
We didn’t experience too much “hunting”, either in good or bad light, with the lens accurately focusing virtually all of the time in the single AF-S mode.
The Dual Phase Linear Motor focusing mechanism is very quiet, in fact virtually silent, making this lens well-suited to video recording as well as candid stills photography.
In terms of accessories, this lens is supplied with a good quality circular plastic round lens hood which locks into place when fully engaged.
The Panasonic Lumix S 100mm F2.8 Macro’s focal length of 100mm provides an angle of view of 24°.
Chromatic aberrations, typically seen as blue or purple fringes along contrasty edges, were not that apparent in our test shots, only appearing in very high contrast areas.
With the lens set to its maximum aperture of f/2.8, there is some obvious light fall-off in the corners, requiring you to stop down by at least 2 f-stops to prevent it.
There’s some very slight barrel distortion evident in the RAW files – the S5 IIX camera automatically and successfully applies corrections to the JPEG files.
The Panasonic Lumix S 100mm F2.8 Macro offers a very useful minimum focusing distance of just 20.4cm / 8.03″, with a maximum magnification of 1.0x.
Bokeh is a word used for the out-of-focus areas of a photograph, and is usually described in qualitative terms, such as smooth / creamy / harsh etc.
In the S 100mm F2.8 Macro lens, Panasonic have employed an iris diaphragm with 9 rounded blades, which has resulted in very nice bokeh in our view.
We do realise, however, that bokeh evaluation is subjective, so we’ve included lots of examples below for your perusal.
In order to show you how sharp the Panasonic Lumix S 100mm F2.8 Macro lens is, we are providing 100% crops on the following page.
Global Swedish brand IKEA is set to take us all back in time with the third release of it’s iconic Nytillverkad collection. Hitting stores worldwide this month, this latest edition pays homage to the carefree and creative spirit of the 1960s and early 1970s. Reviving timeless designs by influential IKEA designers Karin Mobring and Gillis Lundgren, the Nytillverkad collection offers a modern reinterpretation of the era’s relaxed and playful aesthetic. (Check out the first release of the Nytillverkad collection here.)
The Nytillverkad collection has been a testament to IKEA’s commitment to celebrating its design legacy. The third edition of the collection draws inspiration from a period marked by youth culture, pop music, and political protests that shaped the world. During this era, IKEA introduced new materials like painted particleboard and plastic, paving the way for furniture that exuded a youthful expression. Bold shapes, optimistic colors, comfortable seating, and soft high pile rugs defined the style of the time, and the new Nytillverkad collection invites design enthusiasts to revisit those dynamic days.
Karin Mobring, the first female IKEA designer, left an indelible mark on the brand’s style. Her iconic CROMI side table is reborn in the Nytillverkad collection as the BAGGBODA side table, featuring a white or light yellow tabletop and a chrome-plated frame. Gillis Lundgren, who played a pivotal role in IKEA’s journey after joining the company in 1954, sees his MILA armchair transformed into the DYVLINGE swivel armchair and the spacious PUCK armchair from 1969 revived as SOTENÄS.
Sven Fristedt and Ehlén Johansson are contemporary Swedish designers who also contribute to the Nytillverkad collection. Sven Fristedt’s eye-catching patterns from the 60s and 70s make a comeback on STRECKFLY cushion covers and ÄNGSFIBBLA pre-cut fabric. Ehlén Johansson, a popular Swedish designer renowned for winning The Red Dot Design Award, introduces the SKOGSTUNDRA vase – a sleek piece with a high neck that’s designed to support cut flowers.
Johan Ejdemo, Global Design Manager at IKEA of Sweden, expresses the company’s excitement about the resurgence of vintage furniture: “Vintage furniture has made a big comeback lately, and there’s been a growing demand for certain IKEA products that have become collector’s favorites. That is why we decided to bring back a selection of our design icons, and we are excited to see interest coming from customers of all ages, especially young people who are discovering our design legacy and using these vibrant solutions to express themselves at home. To us, these products are the essence of democratic design; they are timeless, as they combine a beautiful form, great function, sustainability, an affordable price, and quality that lasts long.”
To learn more about or to purchase pieces from the Nytillverkad collection, visit ikea.com.
A wildlife photographer set up a night vision camera after he noticed objects in his shed being tidied up overnight — he discovered a mouse was doing the cleaning.
Rodney Holbrook from Wales, U.K., tells the BBC that the tidying has been going on for two months. Infrared footage shows the mouse, which Holbrook has nicknamed Welsh Tidy Mouse, picking up pegs, tubs, cable ties, corks, cups, and bolts and placing them neatly into a tray.
“At first, I noticed that some food that I was putting out for the birds was ending up in some old shoes I was storing in the shed, so I set up a camera,” Holbrook tells the BBC.
“Ninety-nine times out of 100 the mouse will tidy up throughout the night. It is incredible really that they put them all back in the box, I think it’s possible that they enjoy it.”
Holbrook, 75, doesn’t believe the mouse is doing chores out of the goodness of his little heart: he suspects the mouse is using the objects to hide nuts. He has even begun experimenting to see what the mouse can lift and place in the box.
“He moved all sorts of things into the box, bits of plastic, nuts and bolts. I don’t bother to tidy up now, as I know he will see to it” he says.
“I leave things out of the box and they put it back in its place by the morning. Nearly all of the time he will tidy up throughout the night. I think he would tidy my wife away if I left her in there.”
Holbrook has a Flickr page where he shares his wildlife photos of birds, insects, and small mammals.
In 2019, a similar incident occurred in nearby Bristol, England, when a viral video showed a mouse “stockpiling” items in a shed.
Steven Mckears thought he had a poltergeist after screws and metal objects kept being put back in a box. He set up a camera and discovered a mouse was responsible.
