me, five years later

Had some portrait photo's taken by photographer Caroline Coehorst last Friday. It was about time: the last ones - also taken by Caroline - were 5 years ago. And I can tell you, a womans body and face go through quite some changes between the age of 47 and 52! Anyway: time for an update...

Caroline did a wonderful job again. She manages to make me feel at ease every time. That is rare, because posing for a photoshoot is one of the least relaxing things I can imagine. Usually I stay on a safe distance from camera lenses. Next to her relaxed character and her professionalism (her photo's are always kind of fresh and crispy), Caroline has a good feeling for composition.

I am happy with the photo's, it feels like this is really me!

my swedish 'leftover' vacation homes

Most years I start making summer holiday plans already in winter. I search the internet and make long lists with links to lovely homes. I love doing this, it is such challenge every year!

Last December I thought we would end up in Sweden this summer. But I didn't book anything. Main reason: we will go to Northern Italy instead!

It would be a pity though not to share some of the lovely Swedish houses from my list with you.
From top to bottom:

1. house in the woods
2. red wooden house with large garden
3. architectural cabin at the lake
4. limestone cottage close to beach 

Apart from quiet, clean, green, spacious and within our budget, I want my vacation homes to have a SOUL (meaning build/furnished/maintained with love). 

I can get so sad in ugly (and dirty) interiors, or outdoor spaces with no green at all. 

If you have enough money it is easy to rent a beautiful furnished vacation house with a well-maintained garden etc for about € 2000,- per week. But it's my fun to find rental homes for at least 50% less that give the same luxurious feeling. Luxury for me is in the good taste and the love of the house owners and in the gorgeous location of it.

we are hiring ;-)

I have a dream for the future....an online platform like Instagram, that will keep one simple pledge: Never ever ever ever to interfere with the way content is shown to its users and stay algorithm-free.

We are all grown-ups, we can make our own decisions, and we really don't need anyone (or anything) to tell us which photo is more important or relevant than the other.

I am dreaming of an app for independent people, an app without threats of interference, a platform made and run by persons who respect their users. To download this app I am willing to pay a few dollars, of course. And maybe the other 400 million Instagram users are willing to pay for their freedom too... 

So, we - a community of 400 million people -are hiring!  ;-)

What we are looking for is a skilled app designer with moral standards (!!!) who wants to make a buck (like a couple of million of 'em).

What we offer is a strong and growing community of happy free people that love to share their photo's. 

Until this dream comes true please let Instagram know that following the algorithm plague from Facebook and Pinterest is NOT a good idea. Please sign the petition HERE. Thank you!

insta winter

My winter pics on Instagram show that I am a winter child really. Especially trees in winter I find intriguing: their silhouettes, leafless, sleeping their winter sleep...I love them!

I had a busy winter: I designed many things (some didn't reach the production phase), sold piles of small and large paper angels, started to do my own photography and styling again and we opened our first consumer WEBSHOP!
That was a hell of a job, but worth it big time. It is so nice to be more in touch with what we (in wholesale land) call: 'end-consumers' or our target group. It reminds me of who I am designing for and I am thankful for and I feel honoured with every small (and big) order that comes in...

our apartment in paris

Because I booked my stand at the international Maison & Objet trade fair for september 2016 already, I thought I'd better check the lovely apartment we rented last year and book that right away. What a disappointment, it was booked already for September! I understand it, it was a popular location (Les Halles): a nice, spacious, quiet and clean place in the bumping heart of Paris. 

Fortunately I immediately found something else (at AirBnB, like always). See photo's above. The apartment looks  real nice and is located is on 200 meters from the subway station and from the entrance of the gorgeous Jardin du Luxembourg! Quartier Latin is around the corner and on the other side there's the Sorbonne University, where my grandmother studied back in the 1920's. (Note to self: ask dad what she did there, where she lived etc...)

Well, at the moment I am picturing my co worker Kim and me - after a hard days work at the huge and busy fair - with our take-away sushi in a lovely real French Fermob chair in the parc...

new designs!

BLATT - flowers & leaves
MAYPOLE - greeting cards

My new designs are in stock! Deep colours, simple patterns...

Above you see the new bunch of everlasting paper flowers called Blatt (= Leaf).
This time I was very much in to full colours and more mature patterns than when I designed the Blom flowers 6 years ago. They still have the same kind of nordic look, but it's 2.0 (or 2016 if you want)!

Blatt contains 19 easy pop-out flowers, leaves and bean pods. Oh, and of course this set contains florist wire too to make a nice floral arrangement!
The retailprice is € 10.50. You can buy them in my webshop HERE.
ps. don't worry, I still have plenty of Blom flowers too!

And also available: my little bonus design for this spring, Maypole greeting cards. Abstract little trees, inspired by folkloric maypoles as I saw them in small villages in Germany. Prints in deep pastels on thick matte Olin paper (400 gsm).  
Retailprice is € 1.95 per card. You can buy them HERE. 

If you have a shop and you would like to buy my new designs for wholesale prices, just drop me a line. I would love to welcome you as my new salespoint!

 

urban spring collection - wrapping paper

 

Last week Ompak giftwrap company launched their new collection called Urban Spring, which I designed for them. Like always it was such a pleasure designing together with and for Ompak. I remember driving to their head quarters, with a moodboard and dozens of sketches in the back, singing along loud with the radio and feeling so utterly happy with the job I have... 

This time we wanted to create a cool and urban collection, based on materials like wood, stone and  marble and based on construction elements like floors, tiles, bricks and iron gates.

Butterfly Gate is a black and white print and pattern Brick comes in three colours. I even 'designed' a real looking white/gray marble gift paper and a 'birch veneer' gift tag!

The lovely photo's above were taken by stylists/photographers Stylecookie. They even had a hipster male model to complete our sturdy look!

spring showUP - februari 7 & 8

 

As one of the handful ShowUP trade fair pioneers from the very first beginning I will of course be there again presenting my new designs! 

There are 250 stands these days. Founders Maya and Daan know how to make small events big, keeping an eye on the quality in the meantime! So next to the trade aspect of this fair, they see to it that it is full of inspiration, there's room for work from design talents. The overall styling is wonderful, and there is good food and interesting workshops! The entry of this trade show is free for professionals, you can sign up on the website.

And please drop by at stand 37, to meet me or Peter and Kim, who will be there to assist me. I would love to tell you about my new designs! And of course show you the collection I designed for my trade fair neighbour Ompak!

Don't miss it!

ps: Photo's taken by ShowUP at the last issue in August 2015.

designs from the pressure cooker

In 10 days I will present my new and old stuff at the ShowUP trade fair here in the Netherlands again. It feels like being in a pressure cooker at the moment.

Last week I decided to skip one of my new designs because of the costs: a beautiful tray, made in Sweden (see photo of a sample together with my Ode cup). Reason: the consumer price would become too high for my target group! 

So I needed a back-up plan.

My friend Linda Lammerts recently mentioned in passing that good old simple greeting cards would be such a nice match with my designs. So funny, although I am 'Mrs Paper', the idea of designing greeting cards never occurred to me! Thanks Lin, for waking me up!

I started last Friday, worked all weekend, and I just sent the greeting card files to the printer's. On the above photo the sketch looks a little pink, but in reality it's more camel. It's going to be printed on beautiful 400 gr. Olin paper, one of my favorites!

In short: I will still be rather busy the coming weeks, but for now I can let some steam out!

looking for color courage - styling dark

I feel that little by little I am leaving the white and pastel overexposed world behind. I am very much intrigued by products, interiors and (photo)styling with dark colors at the moment.

Dark colors are often connected to some occult draculastyle, a worn out industrial feel, or an obscure baroque style (with chandeliers and dead pheasants etc). This is totally not Jurianne.

So I am actually searching for a dark style that would suit me and my designs: fresh, clean, nordic, always a bit midcentury modern.

My new paper product (coming in a few weeks) has hardly any white and the colours I used are rather dark and strong. Above some pics I used for my products' design-source/moodboard. This is the house where my product should live ideally! 

At the moment I am gathering courage to use this new style for the photoshoot next week too. Black or dark blue backgrounds? Huge colour contrasts? The pics would definitely stand out on my completely white website...

To be continued!

Photo's: house/barn by Philip Ficks, black kitchen (left) by Jure Gorsiç, the blue shelves and the kitchen on the last row are by Linda Ahman, I couldn't trace who took the gorgeous grapefruit-photo...

wilder mann - folk rituals in europe

Somehow European culture - the folk and rituals part of it - is in my genes. 

If I had time I would spend most of my days doing research on this particular cultural field. What I love about this pre-Christian culture is the leading role for nature and the cycle of life. 

Filling up my 'celebrate' board on Pinterest I came across these pictures taken by French photographer Charles Fréger for his book Wilder Mann. Fréger visited 18 European countries, photographing people performing ancient rituals. They dress up as savages, devils, bears and goats to celebrate the seasonal cycle, fertility, life, and death.

This book is an important European document. Not because I think that ancient traditions should be preserved at all costs. But it shows us how people gave and still give meaning to their simple daily life in a very personal and authentic way.  Maybe it can encourage us to invent our own beautiful rituals that suit the modern times we live in.

christmas: 8 easy peasy projects - DIY

All I want for Christmas is...TIME! Just some little spare time to do a few small craft projects. Maybe more because of the meditative part of the crafting itself than for the stunning result. However, when I see these lovely easy peasy projects I found on Pinterest I might go for the results as well! 

From top left: 

• For small houses, a flat wall-hanging christmas tree. www.domino.com
• A complete advent village, cut and built in a few hours. www.abeautifulmess.com 
• And my own free printable christmas lights, they were on my blog a few years ago, I still kind of like them. You can download them here: last-minute-christmas-lights 
• Completely my cup of tea: a paper cut christmas wreath. www.fallfordiy.com
• What about this easy wool bulbs? You can make wonderful variations with different kinds of wool I think. www.sinnenrausch.blogspot.es
• If I can lay my hand on pine pipecleaners somewhere (never heard of before!) I will definately make these pine-snowflakes! www.camillestyles.com
• I would love to make 10 small versions of this cranberry wreath/crown to decorate the plates on the christmas table with.  www.papernstitchblog.com
• 'Words on the wall' version 2.0: moss-sheet letters! www.themerrythought.com

loena - magical glowing patterns in the dark

You might know them already, these Loena lanterns by Nathan and Tineke from the Dutch Design brand Ontwerpduo. I bought the lamp about one year ago and forgot to blog about it. In the meantime they have been designing dozens of new incredibly beautiful things (amazing glas pendant lights for instance). But I had to start somewhere catching up with my blogposts!

Besides: I love my Loena lamp, especially switched off, it makes me not want to leave the room, because of the magic that happens in the paper as soon as it gets dark. 

I love Ontwerpduo's dreaminess, their nostalgia and the fact that every one of their designs could be a prop in a beautiful fairytale.