bloesem foodstyling in NL

As one of their first teachers in Singapore last year, I am so happy to announce that Bloesem Class is spreading her wings and coming to the Netherlands! Couldn't be more proud of Irene and her team: in one year they have built not only a stylish little design store in Singapore, there's also Bloesem Class, with it's own studio and professional teachers from all over the planet. Every time Irene announces a class I think: I wish I lived in Singapore!

The foodstyling class called 'Instafood - foodstyling and mobile photography' will be hosted by Bloesem team member Zara S., together with Trisha Toh a well-known instagrammer. They will teach you how to artfully style your food and take Instagram shots that will make your followers drool all over. The classes will be held in Amsterdam in March. For more information and to sign up, look here.

Signing up is giving yourself a very very nice gift. A Bloesem Class is so well taken care of: An inspiring stylish location, the best tools from great teachers and during the class there's always the finest catering...

NEW: rite (de passage) - sailing lightboats

WAITED FOR 10 YEARS
These were the boats I wished I could have designed ten years ago, when I could have used them so wonderfully to commemorate a dear friend...

Somehow I couldn't design an unsinkable ship with a lighted cabin on it's deck, back then, a ship that was easy to fold from flat paper to 3 dimensional. The first try outs came out as ugly square bowls (out of which we dutch tend to eat our french fries...the so called 'patatbak'), or they looked like lovely elegant boats but they sank within a minute.

This winter I somehow conquered the small technical problems and here they are!

MOVING IN 2 WAYS

It really is an enchanting spectacle: tiny, illuminated boats finding their way across the dark water. When I was testing them, I was moved by their cuteness, it kind of looks like there's a soul in there behind the lighted windows!

MOMENTS TO CELEBRATE

If you buy these boats, you buy an experience, a silent or happy and certainly beautiful moment to share with others.

You can use them (a couple of times) for your pond or pool at garden parties or weddings. You can also set them free on a river or on the sea, they will take your wishes and thoughts away in the flow.

Write your wish/text along the railing and then fold the boat in just a few minutes. Because they are initially flat, these boats make an ideal gift to send in the post.

ENVIRONMENT

And should you not be able to fish them out of the water after use: my boats are fully degradable in nature within 6 months. In comparison: normal balloons take 20 years to do the same! I do advise the use of beeswax tea-light candles, without aluminium cups. 

YOUR LIGHTBOAT MOMENT?

Oh and please if you buy them and use them for an occasion: I would be so thankful with a couple of photo's of your lightboat moment!

You can find salespoints HERE

FREE downloadable wild flower wreath poster

Dust off your calligraphy set or hop over to Dafont to find yourself a nice scriptfont and switch on the printer: here's my free downloadable Valentine's contribution for this year! 

Hope you like my wild flower-wreath on A4 paper. You can (hand)write or print a message for your loved one in the middle. For the most 'crafty-looking' result use thick off-white paper. 

You can download the poster HERE.

Have fun, good luck and  Happy Valentine's day!

ps. the poster is for personal use only... :-)

live add - changing trade fairs

ShowUP was, again, very nice. Everyone was happy with the light and airy location and with the number of exhibitors!

I hardly left my stand, so here's 2 photo's of mine (above) and of my neighbours Ompak, for whom I designed a new collection as well.

Doing business on trade fairs has been changing a little over the years. And I must say: somehow it's for the better. Have we been writing orders anonymously all day some years ago, nowadays trade fairs are more a kind of 'live add' with personal attention to the customers. It's much more about connecting and exchanging: telling the story behind your products, listen to the customers needs, getting to know each other. Customers are more cautious with their purchases (and I must say, so am I), and that is completely ok!

Both my new floating lightboats and my tea towels were welcomed (and ordered, yes!) with great enthusiasm! It makes me feel grateful...

ShowUP spring issue

The biggest stress for a designer/wholesaler is getting the final samples or the production at the trade shows in time twice a year. My experience is that either parcels arrive super last minute on the build-up day (when you are lucky), or the production process gets stuck somehow and you have nothing at all to show. But I never give up hope and I keep on planning semi-unrealistic launches. This dreamer is unteachable in that regard.

New products that will be there for sure are: new Sailing Lightboats (see test ship above left) and my first series of Tea Towels (yay, finally!). The tea towel  final samples are here, the production bulk will arrive within 10 days from now. 

Would love to meet you at ShowUP  next week! So if you are a professional in the field, hop over to their website and subscribe for a free ticket.

2015

my christmas on pinterest

One of my favorite relaxing activities in the scarce spare time I have in winter: filling my Christmas board on Pinterest. I throw pictures out of my last year's board and search Pinterest for new inspiring images that match my christmas mood for this year. 

And of course this collage is a dream, it's the feeling BEHIND all the Christmas fuzz. This board is not about the planning stress when you invited 10 people for dinner, not about busy food stores, it forgets the fact that that one very important ingredient for your christmas recipe is sold out everywhere and it doesn't show the pile of greasy pots & pans afterwards... 

Yes, this is the winter wonderland of my intention and my wish for you: have a warm, light, playful, and relaxed Christmas (good is good enough).

All of the above pictures can be tracked down via my Pinterest Christmas board.

christmas in madrid

Sofia did it again. She managed to find a nice location for her annual christmas pop-up shop, filled with beautifully crafted gifts! So if you are (living) in Madrid, don't forget to pay her a visit between 12 - 16 December. And please do say hello from me ;-)!

advent

Today it's the first of Advent, my favourite time of the year!

I am going for a morning walk in the woods now to find some green for the advent wreath I make every year.

The photo's above - my Christmas collection - are taken by Valerie Delsman.

floral contemporary

It is already 3 years ago that Olivier Dupon wrote about me and my work in his gorgeous book The New Artisans. I remember how proud I was to be featured in such a wonderfully published book together with so many great artisans!

This time Olivier featured florists from all over the planet as well as my favourite Dutch florist Saskia de Valk in his latest book called 'Floral Contemporary' (Thames & Hudson).

There will be a booklaunch in Amsterdam next week: Saskia will decorate the shop windows of Athenaeum Bookstore during the week and she will be present on Thursday the 27th of November to 'sign' your book with a flower...

my autumn on instagram

Autumn has this special kind of 'evening' - atmosphere: before it goes to sleep nature gives us great colours and smells, lovely fruits and foggy horizons....

Would you like to read the 'subtitles' to my pictures? Follow me on Instagram, your most welcome!

SUN - new pop-up poster

Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right 

                                               The Beatles

  

Designed to keep me awake

It was at the last day at the Maison & Objet fair in Paris. At noon it seemed that all the visitors were having lunch, my stand was empty. And there I stood on my sore feet and suddenly I noticed how exhausted I was. I thought: if I sit down right now I never get up again. So I kept standing, took my notebook and a pen and gave myself an assignment, just to keep myself awake.

The A3-landscape posters were almost sold out. So a new A3 poster perhaps? I always loved the sun in these Landscape posters, it was my favorite. So I actually stole the sun from the Landscape posters, draw extra elements and sun beams and wrote next to it in my notebook: large and GOLD!

So here it is

A large graphic sun with die-cut sunbeams you can unfold yourself!

The 'here comes the SUN' pop-up poster has been printed with gold metallic ink on A3 size artisan 220 gr. Rives paper.
The poster can be framed in different ways: in a deep frame with glass, in a frame without glass or by means of so-called reusable adhesive glue − in other words; using ‘Blu-Tack’ to attach the poster to your wall. The framing technique in my photographs shows beautifully finished slats with milled magnets that keep everything nicely (and invisibly) together. I bought this 'frame' at www.lamesa.de.

And of course this product is eco-friendly produced too! 
 
The retailprice is € 18,95 - you can check my website for a stockist near you.

And the beautiful photo's? Of course again taken by my friend/stylist Valerie Delsman. 

NEW - ompak winter collection - the making of...

 Gift wrap paper, ribbons and gift tags for Ompak. 

Finally I have time to launch this on my blog! 

I think this collection shows that the collaboration was one happy flow! It was a dream job working with owner Dorothé and co-worker Hetty from Ompak. Their enthusiasm, the trust they put in me, their energy and kindness... they made me and my designs feel so welcome!

MOODBOARD FIRST

On the first photo you can see the Christmas moodboard. I can only design collections when I have a good source, with exactly the right look & feel, the right colours, materials, textures etc. I put a lot of effort in that part. With a good moodboard, the designs start flowing kind of automatically...

The black and white photo of the landscape with pine trees is printed on silk paper and it turned out to be so awesome! On the left side of that row you can see a photo of the very first 'sketches'/samples I made.

WHERE TO BUY

Ompak is first of all a wrapping paper supplier for shops, so if you are lucky you buy your presents in a store where they wrap it in this paper. But Ompak also sells these paper designs and gift tags in small portions to (web)shops, so these shops can sell it to consumers. 

Please check/call Ompak for more details!

PHOTO'S BY VALERIE

Most of the photo's are again taken by my dear friend and young stylist Valerie Delsman.

  

SINTERKLAAS

PS. Oh, and by the way, for my fellow dutch people: I have also designed a Sinterklaas-collection, for the presents we give each other on the 5th of December. A few wrapping papers and a very oldfashioned and embossed golden (S) sticker. See moodboard and one of the Mijter-papers below. 

 

baby mussel

I am in love. With a golden baby mussel. Designed by Monique van Bruggen from Studio MHL in cooperation with nature. The real mini mussel was found by her mother at a dutch beach at Domburg, Zeeland (NL). Monique had a mould made of this tiny mussel (7 mm!) and is now able to reproduce it as a delicate pendant hanger! Check out her other work too, it's gorgeous!
I bought it yesterday at BonBon Boutique in Amsterdam. They are selling my work too. If you are in the center of Amsterdam, try to find them in the narrow alley, they're worth a visit!