in labour

Yesterday we started giving birth to my second series of angels.
I never got used to this part of my work, it is too exciting! When the first samples come out, it allways gives me the shivers. The reason is: I used to print in process (CMYK) colours. This process needs balancing the four colours, which is a hell of a job for my work. I have spent days and days next to the machines, trying to get the colours right. So stressful!
But this time it was different: I have worked with solid Pantone colours! It basically means that you choose colours in your chart and exactly that colours come out on the samples. No endless balancing, checking samples, being puzzled about too much black or blue in the red and the yellow. Solid colours mean: what you see is what you get. Hurray!
Ok, the process is more expensive, but it saves me 20 wrinkles, 35 stress nots and at least 1 migraine attack per new article... From now on: solid colours it will be!

fresh finds

In the last weeks I was dying for a visit at the local second hand store. Really got fed up with the 'solitary-confinement-part' of my (design) job! So I went there last Wednesday for 30 minutes and apparently it was my lucky day!

The folkloric girl is completely handcrafted out of fabric (except for the head, that is made of paper maché with a varnish). She had a worried but sweet look on her face and I simply had to take this little woman home at once.

The pitcher, with the round stopper, looks a bit scandinavian and is great for my bedroom glass collection!

The glass-bird survived the seventies and the rest of the last century and I hope it will survive me and my family as well.

And I bought a bowl and a mini vase for rescued flowers.

In short: Happy for only EUR 7,50!

In Holland it is finally SUMMER! Have a nice weekend!

summer? spring!

Although summer started yesterday, I unfolded a little garden called 'Spring' on my table! It's a new tablecloth I designed for my friend Sabien, who has this great wholesalebusiness called Engel. I already designed Little Elephant, which has a rather different feel. Spring is definately a sunshine design, Elephant is more masculin and could serve in wintertime as well. Sabien sells both designs as tablecloths, childrens aprons (they are sooooo cute, will show them later) and place mats. It's all made of a matt coated cotton, which you can wash and even iron on the cotton side.
You can contact Engel for wholesale information and of course for a salespoint near you!

101

I should be more modest, but here I go: I am proud of the interview in one of our most outstanding, crafty, indie, interior magazines in Holland: 101-Woonideeën. The fact is: I was pictured as myself. Not more than that, just me, with my chaos, my fun, my wrinkles, my colours, my seriousness, my blue dress and a workroom full of paper! 4 pages of me, 2 pages of give away boats, that you can cut and fold yourself. What can I say... if you are in Holland or Belgium: buy this July issue of 101!
ps: you can win one of my Bloms via their website!

paper biënnale, first visit

A small impression of the paperwork we saw today!
Missed it two years ago, so I was happy I came across an announcement somewhere on the www. The dutch paper biënnale is held every two years in two provincial museums, one in Apeldoorn and one in Rijswijk. I took my parents (who live in the countryside near Apeldoorn) and my two sons with me today... it was great! I saw sparkles in my mothers eyes all the time in the museum, she loves paper as much as I do. I loved seeing my sons being so interested in most of the works. They wanted to see them from every angle, wanted to know how the construction was made etc.
In september I'll visit the other museum, the collection overthere seems to be a bit more detailed, less monumental. Can't wait!

a multitude of angels, playing with my heart...

Well, to keep you posted on my sometimes rocky road to a new series of paper angels, we have landed in heaven. This is the fun part of the journey and the hardest part at the same time: Choosing the final angels!

I designed and (hand)made dozens of angels, each one of them with a specific character. The hard part is the fact that they all seem to say: "pick me, pick me" and since I am the designer I am the only one that has to make this choice. Hard, because I even love the ones I consider to be ugly and not well designed. They are so much more to me than only pieces of paper!
I am very happy to tell you that I finally managed to choose seven beautiful sisters yesterday.
To be continued!

soccer world cup

If they would use these kind of balls - gorgeous embroidered woolfelt - in South Africa the coming weeks I wouldn't miss a single match. The colours and the geometric patterns of the embroidery are exactly what I have in mind as an inspiration for new designs this week (see previous post).
Deborah from Kickan & Conkers spotted them at Toirtoise General Store, an American webstore with great (and sometimes rather expensive) everyday stuff. And alternative soccer balls...