dutch design freak

Next Thursday I'll be sticking a couple of hundred Circles to a huge wall in the Art Hotel in Eindhoven. I am going to attend an exhibition called Dutch Design Freak which is part of the Dutch Design Week.

The Dutch Design Week is my favorite time of the year (ok, apart from Christmas): in this week the industrial monuments in Eindhoven (Philips city) open their doors. Young, but also established, designers (mostly from the Design Academy) show their new designs and ideas.

If you are hungry for inspiration: plan a trip to Eindhoven!

dienke's baskets

 

Dienke Dekker was scouted as promising talent by Lidewij Edelkoort on Trendtablet this week. 
Dienke is a 4th year student at the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands who has a love for craftmanship. She 'reinvented' basket weaving by silkscreening bamboostructures on textiles. I love the shapes and the beautiful details. Can't wait to see (feel!) her objects live one day...

tidy up art

 

There's a trend going on: designers try to get hold of life by mapping social behaviour, everyday life or even emotions in graphic statistics.
Swiss artist Ursus Wehrly is doing the same with daily materials and scenes. I am intrigued by this concept: simplifiying the world, making it well-ordered like a Swiss watch. Must be my Matterhorn roots!

pinterest pill

Recovering from a nasty flu I gave myself a Pinterest-treatment today. Hadn't been on Pinterest since July and I must say: it works seeing beautiful photo's, I feel much better today!
Since I stayed in bed practically the whole week, I was very much focussed on photo's of bedrooms ;-)

You can find these pics (and track down the source) on my Pinterest boards. Have a lovely Sunday!

off to Paris

this is the april/paris page from the lovely new 2013 calender by Rifle paper

Tomorrow morning I'll leave for Paris for a couple of days - Maison & Objet trade fair -  together with my collegue/friend Gemma Broekhuis from Milestone Babycards. Promoting my Circles (which means folding and talking at the same time - both of my 'talents' combined!!), looking at the latest trends, meeting business associates and hoping to find a distributor for the USA!
I am looking for a good (matching!) distributor that represents my work in the US, that attends fairs and takes care of the logistics etc. I would be so happy with that. There's a pile of US-orders waiting for them already...If you have any ideas/advice concerning this, please do contact me!

Planning to go to Paris too? I would love to meet you! I'll be mostly at the booth of  
&K Amsterdam - hal 6, L86, who is my distributor for Europe.
Au revoir!

Life's a Circle

Here they are: my new Circles! Hope you like them...

 

 

Round paper ornaments with geometric print designs in pastel colours and earth tints. The Circles are partly inspired by Indian motifs, but are also unmistakably Nordic.  

This new paper product falls under the category of ‘DIY-light’. In just a few minutes, you can turn the flat pack into your very own 3D work of art! Hang the Circles in the Christmas tree, thread them on long springtime bunting or use them to decorate gifts. With a couple of sets, you can make your own wall art by folding out the circles and affixing them flat to the wall in the arrangement of your choice.

One set of Circles contains 3 different cards each with 3 different pop-out circles (9 circles in total per set). The circles are different sizes (5-8 cm). A 60 cm-length cotton thread (eco quality) is attached to each card by a ‘dragonfly’. 

Are you in the Netherlands and would you like me to fold you a couple of Circles? Please visit me at the Autumn Trade Fair in Utrecht on booth C 341. Would love to see you!

report: New York

Back from a rollercoaster week in New York.
Irene (Bloesem) and I had an amazing week in many different regards.

Main goal was the New York International Gift Fair that I was attending.
Because of my work in the booth I didn't have time to see the city, walk around on the huge gift fair, or take any photo's.
The response on my work was overwhelming. The new Circles I launched in NYC caused a lot of American 'wooooows' which made me smile all day long!

Irene took this photo on our first day on the Show. I look exhausted and nervous

My neighbour on the booth Reineke Otten, with a very special customer

View from our apartment (skyscraper, 40st floor!) on Queensborough bridge

View from our apartment - this was such an everyday treat!

We had many visitors on the booth! Small boutiques, huge (museum)stores, press and collegues like...yes: Lotta Jansdotter! Want to know how she is in real life? She is just very S W E E T ! With capital letters.

Lotta Jansdotter - photo Laura Fenon

Irene and I did some sample shopping - a usual phenomenon during the last hours of trade shows -  at my neighbours Fog Linen (trays) and at Rifle paper (gift tags). I have a serious weakness for gift tags...bought some nice ones from Darrell from Sukie, who's booth was a couple of meters away.

The temporary tattoos (on the Sukie box) were a present from Tina Roth Eisenberg, from the well known blog Swiss-Miss. She launched her cool and funny Tattly's on the Gift Fair.

Our last hours in NYC were a kind of a 'surprise icing on the NY-cake': we attended the US-bloggers event of the year called Alt Summit which was held in the offices of Martha Stewart on 26th street!

It was so fantastic to finally meet Sweet Paul in person and Rachel Faucett from Handmade Charlotte who has been on my little bloglist here since the very begining. Tina from Swiss Miss held an impressive and powerfull keynote about entrepreneurship, balancing familylife-work and living life to the fullest. She's an amazing speaker and I think her words truly can make a difference!

This passed week in NY has been very important to me, not only businesswise, but also personally.

And therefore I thank you, Irene. Thanks big time for assisting me on the booth, for keeping an eye on the clock, for the fun we had together, for opening my eyes on certain issues, for connecting the dots and for your friendship. XXX

T H A N K S!