Bonnie & Buttermilk

As soon as I get in the mood for clothing again (it is bikini weather in the Netherlands!), I'll check their shop and buy myself one of B & B's awesome shirts, skirts or dresses.

STOCKIST SPOTLIGHT: my red poppy

Initially I started this series just to satisfy my own curiousity. The shops, the people who sell my work worldwide...who are they? What are their dreams, their inspirations, what made them start their own businesses? A feature in words and images with a little surprise-coupon at the end...

Number 1: My Red Poppy - 18Rue Gambetta - 49300 Cholet - France


Owners: happy Caroline on the left, fashionable Benoît on the right

What made you decide to start your own business?
Benoît wanted to start a business of his own already for a couple of years. He loves retro design from the fifties and sixties and interior design objects in general. I was in for a carreer switch and I was looking for activities in the kids world. So we decided to combine our skills and open an interior shop with decoration, accessories and vintage furniture for children.


Is there any article that you sell - or maybe more - that you are simply in love with?
We adore these origami designs made by a young designer from Nantes, called Erwan (see below). His flowers, buntings, mirors…simply wonderful. His paper designs are very elegant and combine with whatever atmosphere, whatever space in the house. Of course, Jurianne Matter, we love your creations a lot. Your designs are small objects that adorn your house and your daily life. Furthermore: the bed linen from Pipoca, the Acapulco chair and we are completely taken by all things designed by Herzensart. And of course many other things!

Erwan's origami

Pipoca

Acapulco-chair and JM-wishboats

Another Acapulco-chair and Herzensart stamps

Do you have a particular way of styling in your shop? Your own ‘hand’?
Our personal touch is Benoîts’ sister! She has helped us a lot with the shop interior; she has the gift of knowing how to create a real special feeling by composing different elements. The most personal touch in our store is the crocheted bag (see below) by ‘Mémère Brossard’, the grandmother of Benoît. We try to create a warm ambiance, that makes you feel at home.


What article did you buy for the shop recently and why did you buy it?
We have chosen the cushion covers by Clare Nicolson, because they really depict what My Red Poppy is about. The prints are retro, tender and very creative.

What do you expect to become a real future trend in your business?
We are focused on a nordic feel, mixed with vintage as well as contemporary elements (like you can see in the Edition Paumes – books). And on printed designs that have inexpected colours. We try to show this inspiration in our assortment.
What will you be doing in five years? What is your dream?
We are thinking of a range of products of our own brand. We are grouping together with some very talented graphic- and product designers in order to develop an assortment of textile accessories, interior objects, printware and – why not – furniture…

Is there anything else you would like to share with us?
It is through our work that we meet very nice people with whom we share a passion for creating, doing business and for the distribution of beautiful objects…and that is simply fantastic!

Are you living or travelling near Cholet? Visit My Red Poppy and don't forget to take this coupon with you!

It was a pleasure meeting you, Caroline et Benoît, merci beaucoup!

etsy: white and grey - clay

After the overkill of colour of the last weeks I was dying for some visual peace and rest. Found it in clay, on Etsy.
From top left: hand built ceramic pears, by Element Clay Studio, Leaping Rabbits mobile by the Amsterdam-based Artisanie Europe, vintage Hungarian porcelain easter bunny from Vintage Biffan and a porcelain wall sculpture called Graces, made by Prince Design from the UK.

DIY free downloadable mini paper bunting!

I designed another free downloadable paper craft. This time for one of my customers - Hippe Kippe (fashion and more) - who opened a brand new store. They wanted to celebrate it in style and share it with you!

You can download the prints and the (sorry: dutch!) 'how-to' here. Print page 1 (how-to) and pages 2 and 3 (the prints). Cut about 2 mtrs of cotton thread, cut the diamond shaped prints, fold them and glue them as triangles on the thread.
You can use the bunting for wee parties, send it as a sweet greeting card, or just use it as a home decoration. Have fun!

ambassadors?

Dear foreign blogreaders: below you see my first blogpost in dutch. Don't be afraid: this is only once. And it has a reason!
It is hard for me (by myself) to find and visit all the lovely shops, that might be interested in selling my paperwork and that are hidden in this country. Therefore I am looking for dutch ‘reps’. Friends, fans and ambassadors that are willing to share their enthusiasm about my work in their favorite local shop. I reward succesfull contacts with 3 different sets of my designs. Wouldn't it be great fun when this works through my blog?


Win – win - win: Werk aan de winkel!

Er zijn veel bijzondere en leuke winkeltjes verborgen in Nederland. Die zou ik graag kennis laten maken met mijn ontwerpen! Welke ambassadeur, fan, papiervriend en vriendin maakt één – of meer - van deze winkeliers enthousiast voor mijn werk?

Doe je een goed woordje in je favoriete winkel, dan kun je daarmee drie mensen blij maken, een win-win-win situatie dus!

1. De winkelier is blij met de kennismaking met een leuk nieuw merk.
2. Ik ben blij met een nieuwe afnemer.
3. En jij wordt blij, want je krijgt van mij 3 producten naar keuze toegestuurd.

Wil je een winkel in je buurt gaan benaderen (liefst locale winkel, geen web), stuur mij dan van te voren even een mail. Wordt het een match - maw: doen zij na jouw bezoek een bestelling - dan neem ik contact met je op om je te kunnen bedanken voor je ambassadeurswerk.

Ben heel erg benieuwd hóe en óf het werkt zo vanaf mijn blog, spannend… Ik zou het zó grappig vinden om op deze manier samen te werken!

bibi and chief

They have arrived: the 2 new mini buntings I designed for Engel. Owner Sabien is now showing them on the Spring Trade Fair in Utrecht, together with some other great new stuff she sells in her wholesale company (I''ll post about that later...)
The commission was traditional yet open-minded: design a blue-ish boy bunting and a pink girl bunting. People who know about my relationship with the colour pink will think this must have been a difficult project. Well, it wasn't! Maybe it is the flow, the spark between Sabien and me, I don't know, but designing Bibi and Chief was a feast!

pr presents

Time absorbing, but so much fun to do: sending my new design to close friends, distributors abroad and to some dear press-contacts.
The tape-dispenser bird just flew in from PSikhouvanjou, isn't it cute?

sunday morning etsy visit

From above left: Zakka Nouveau, Paper Phine, Pardon My Vintage and again Zakka Nouveau

one week ago

...we came home from Paris. Haven't had one spare moment to post about our little business trip. Here we go!

Metro Abesses, a couple of minutes from our apartment.


The streets - and the Sacré Coeur - around the corner. We were haunted by so called artists who wanted to draw a 'charicature' of us. My answer: no thanks, I am already a charicature of myself!
Are there actually people buying these horrible paintings and drawings from them?


The night we arrived we went straight on to the Eiffeltower. I have to admit, after 20 years, it was pretty impressing. All that steel, it looked like black lace, lit against the dark blue winter sky. It didn't feel cliché at all, it was just amazing. Hurray for tourist hot spots (hi,hi!).


On Saturday we visited some of the places you recommended. Like Tombées du Camion, which was just some minutes away from our apartment. It was great, but crowded and dark, couldn't take a proper picture. We went to Le Marais, rue des Rosiers, which had been changed so much since my last visit there - ehhhh...20 years ago!

One of the must sees was Merci on Beaumarchais (see photo's above). My children remarked: Mom, it feels like being in Eindhoven at the Dutch Design Week. Nice difference this time was that in Merci everything is for sale! Even for simple people like us: we bought some good old Duralex esprresso and wine glasses (not the picardie-type, but the round ones) and some other very handy kitchen utensils!

On Sunday we were at the Maison et Objet Trade Fair, or 'le Salon' as the French call it. Apart from several highlights - like my dear friends of &Klevering of course - I found it rather disappointing. But then again, we missed one of the best halls, number 8, full of great designers like Scholten & Baijings and the Bouroullec Brothers...Next time hall 8 will be the first to go to.
By the way: the reason I went to Paris was & Klevering and they did a wonderful job! It was an honour to have my paperwork in their stand. Thanks guys, you are great!

jurianne for &K

For international wholesaler &Klevering Amsterdam I designed these two coffee mugs in a giftbox. One is called Sun (but has rainy blue colours!), the other is called Rain (with little yellow clouds) and they 'live' together in a little weatherhouse, with cut out doors. If you have finished your coffee, you discover a boot (Rain) or a bare foot (Sun) on the bottom of your cup.
For me the mugs are rather abstract, just because I really felt like designing something less figurative. It is a blessing that I can work together with people like Harkon Klevering, who gave me the freedom to just follow my heart. Well, of course I had to make some commercial concessions for him (have you ever seen me using such bright colors?), but the result is still 'Jurianne', at least that's what I think!

The other news I cannot show to you yet, since it is not ready: my new paperdesign! I hope to take some pictures next Wednesday when it's ready.

& K will will take over the distribution of all of my paperwork as well! That is: for those countries in Europe (exept NL) that I don't have a distributor already. So I will be doing less business and more design in 2011! I am really, really happy with that!

Would you like to meet us? & Klevering will be on the Maison et Objet trade show in Paris next week. Their gorgeous and large stand will show the lovely own &K-collection (including 'my' mugs in their weatherhouse)and my Paperwork!
We would love to meet you in Hall 1, stand F94. I'll be there on Sunday.

san pops up in the north

Wish I lived up north and had a little time left - next to the pressure cooker designing I do at the moment. I would definately visit the living room concert and pop-up shop/gallery from Van San next week!
What a beautiful little event, good luck Sandra!

'paree' must see?

I am so happy to announce that my work will be presented on the international trade fair in Paris called Maison & Objet (jan 21 - jan 24)! I'll post some details later.

I'll be on the trade show at least one day, the others I'll spend with my three men, who are my 'assistents' on this business trip.
I would like to visit Merci Conceptstore on Beaumarchais and one of the Muji stores. But there must be a lot more worth visiting (apart from The Louvre, Centre Pompidou, Palais de Tokyo etc)!

Could you please give me some advice? What is the Parisian 'must see' according to you? And do you happen to know any great places to have a coffee, good food and/or a nice view? Are there any blogs with Paris tips and tricks that you can recommend?

In short: I would love you to be my indie tourist guide, please leave a comment or email me... Thanks in advance!

Map by Juliette Borda

getting in the christmas mood with

Joel Henriques and Happy Doodle Land

Orla Kiely

Pingvina and Xmoonbloom

winter-pop-up-shop in my village

Sorry for all you people living abroad, but there is finally something blog-worthy going on in my rather sleepy village, so here is some regional news...
It is about 3 sisters in a lovely - yet empty - new built house in Bussum. For years they have collected the best furniture and accessoires from the thrift shops, designed lovely (baby)T-shirts, crafted toys and cushions, made jam in beautiful jars etc. And now they are having this wonderful wintersale in the empty building. Everything they show is for sale, even the house is!

The weather is cold and sunny and the pop-up shop is open today so take your bikes for a little winter shopping tour! (landstraat 223)

The flat (waterproof) wall-vases are designed by Carolien Brusse and the terracotta lampshades are sold (to me!).

children - where are you now?

My products are my paper children. And like other grown up children, they tend to leave home and go on long trips. And like every other worried mum I don't want to loose track, so I google them every once in a while.
It fills me with pride to find photo's of them taken by their new friends in Sweden, Germany, in the UK, Japan or in the US... They are obviously well taken care of and they feel at home!
From above left: Sing angels in Sweden staying at the blog of Emelie and Kicki from Havtorn, two pictures at Anneli's 'house' called Cosas in Sweden and one photo at Sabine's place called La Mesa, in Germany!
To be continued...

sustainability day

Today it is sustainability day.
I think I can say, I do my best. It is often a matter of balancing between bad and worse. For example: the production of LED-lights seems to be very bad for the environment, whereas the use of LED-lights saves the world masses of energy!
Same balance-problem with these gorgeous Envirosax reusable bags I allways carry around. I save a pile of plastic bags offered in shops, but I wondered if the production (polyester) of the bags is that ecofriendly. Fortunately Envirosax has a good and honest answer to that on their website.

Oh, I almost forgot: of course my own products (paper, ink and bags) are ecofriendly as well!

early morning etsy

The bracelet of hollow green glassbeads I found in Alisha White's etsy-shop. I love the shape of this orange bag by Bayan Hippo. Well and on this one I actually should spend a whole post: J Clay's pottery, it is awesome! Check out Sheepish to keep you warm this winter, beautiful knit/crochetwork!

gift from germany

I have these great distributors abroad that I work closely with. One of them is Sabine Wittig from La Mesa, my German representative. Not only do we share the love for paperwork, we also share beautiful memories of a mutual very special friend that died almost 6 years ago.
It's a thin line between doing business and being friends sometimes... not always easy, but I still like it.
Yesterday a gift package from Germany was delivered with beautiful greeting cards from her assortment and this apple-teatowel from Koloni, that I simply had to photograph in the early morning sun.
On the gift tag it said: 'Dear Jurianne, thanks for the great cooperation, Sabine.' Isn't that super sweet?

style cookie

Style Cookie, a new stylish shopping 'e-zine', is online! Style cookie guides you - with great, inspirational photographs - directly to the shops that offer the presented products.
I've seen many great pictures taken with my Bloms but this one is the cutest of 'em all! Blom and I feel honoured.
Thank you Sanne (photographer) and Anke (stylist) for doing such a great job.

we sing for ing

They were waiting for a Sunday like this, my little Ing-birds. I gave them a stem, as if they were flowers (like my own Blom). When I put them in my green glass vase they filled me with joy: Paper, patterns, colour, folded with love and attention, send to me by a very sweet kindred spirit... What more does Jurianne want?
I want to send a part of this joy back to Ingrid, the mother of these birds and the owner of one of the most inspirational, honest and pure blogs I came across last year. She folds birds, she crafts and crochetes, writes like a poet, goes treasure hunting on second hand markets and last but not least: she takes lovely pictures. A lot of the items on her blog are for sale. And every visit at her blog moves me in a way.
So Ingrid from INGTHINGS, today they sing for you!