Day 017 / A Special Day Indeed

Today was truly a special day.  The story begins a good while ago, before I started this blog.  I was perusing the dust-breeding blog and I came across this music box in one of mapmap’s posts.  I thought it was so ingenious I decided to google it to find out where I could get one of my own and I was lead to this website, Grand Illusions.  What I found on this site was a treasure trove of ideas, innovations, ingenuity and a bunch of toys to boot.  The other thing I found were a bunch of videos like this.   If you watched the video you’d see a charming british man named Tim Rowett demonstrating an ingenious toy (that particular one from his own collection which happens to exceeds 18,000, all stuffed to the ceiling in suitcases in his apartment!)
 
Anyways, I’ve revisited the site numerous times since then and I’ve become a fan of sorts, not only for the products that they carry but also Tim’s stylish demonstrations.   So, now I flash forward to two days ago while I’m waiting for my plane at LAX wondering what my creative projects were going to be in London, and the idea struck me.  What if I just emailed them?
 
Sure enough the owner of the site and shop Hendrik Ball answered my email directly and invited me out to his home in the countryside with great hospitality.   And this morning I took the train out to High Wycombe to this beautiful property and was greeted by a wonderful woman named Adele who always asked if I needed anything.  And because of the unique situation and particular specialness of this event, I decided to opt for video over photo’s and audio this time.  So, I did a full video interview with Tim and Hendrick and also was lucky enough to be treated to my own toy demonstrations from Tim.
 
So, at a later date, I will present my edited master of the days events but for now I’ve uploaded just a small portion of what I got to film today for your pleasure.
 
Enjoy!
 
Thanks again Hendrick, Tim and Adele!  It was great!