Etsy treasures: cut out wood

Who: Gypsy and Twink
What: cut out wood, painted and collaged.
Why: What a great combination of shape, patterns and colours. Those are things that make me smile!

Etsy treasures: clocks

Who: And furthermore,
What: Doily clocks, made of soft plastic reclamed doily's, cork and acrylic paint
Why: Because of the great idea and the lovely nostalgic style!

Reprint

Had not much time left for the blog. I am preparing a lantern reprint next week. That means that this is the moment that I can check and change the design of the last version and change the colours a little, since I was not completely satisfied...I am a perfectionist!. Besides I'll have to change the Dutch headercard on the package in both Dutch and English, because of my growing one-woman-mini-multinational!

Arnhem Fashion Biënnale 2009

Went to the Arnhem Fashion Biënnale yesterday, together with Ellen and Annemieke. Two very inspiring, authentic and honest women. Annemiek works as a designer for HEMA, Ellen used to be my boss at IKEA's styling department and she has just bought this incredible embroidery computer-machine-thing...will this Biënnale be the last little push she needed to just get going and produce piles of beautiful, ugly, normal, silly, horrible, boring and sweet embroidered textiles? Hope so.
Theme of the exhibition is 'Shape'. For me as a pattern-designer (decoration, no shape) a bit threatening, but it woke me up as well!
My number one were, of course, the paper lightobjects by Paula Arntzen, couldn't stop taking pictures!





And there was this work by Mattijs van Bergen, blue ballpoint lines (the ones you draw during long telephone conversations) following the superbe shape of a dress!



Other things that struck me:

Sanna Annuka

Inspired by Finnish nature and folklore Sanna Annukka designs the most interesting prints on paper and textiles. They look very graphic and simple, yet they tell magical stories from the Finnish epic called The Kalevala. It is great that young designers discover their traditions to give their work a new perspective and depth!

Rest in peace Pierre Paulin

...and thank you so much for making the world more beautiful!
By the way: thanks for designing my great F 444 chair, generations enjoyed sitting in it (me as a baby, my sons and probably their kids too)!
Pierre Paulin (1927 - 2009)

Passengers party

We had a party last night. Good vibes on a great location on the Amsterdam Docklands! Hadn't been there for years, the former (50ties) passengers terminal called Kompaszaal still has this great nostalgia. We saw a superb sunset from their terrace over the IJ. They serve lunches, dinners and high-tea's in the weekend!

Supermarket

Today we did the shopping in Land & Boschzigt. I really love this organic-food-supermarket! It is surrounded by gardens where you can pick your own bunch of flowers... You can drink herb-tea in the garden and just leave the money in a little box. We bought super fresh white asperagus, an organic Riesling white wine, good eggs, ham and potatoes to go with it...Yummie!

Happy

Found this cute cat in the local second hand shop. Its face and colour gave me a moment of happyness (for only 0,40 eurocents!). It stands on one of Orla Kiely's superbe notebooks. A lovely mother from my kids' school bought this Orla-booklet for me, 'just because'...
As I said: Happy!

Time

Time is my friend and my enemy. Time made me wiser, milder. But these days, time goes too fast. Wish one day had 100 hours to do everything I planned. I am in need for a real human (slow) clock. This is a nice start.

Shopper

A new Björke creation. What a good idea to give it leather handles and - what else? - vintage buttons! I will order one immediately!

Let there be light

Experienced one of James Turrell's installations some months ago when my sister, my mum and I visited a museum of modern art called de Pont (in the south of Holland). Sat there with my eyes wide open, smile on my face, kind of paralised in a nice way. My mother started singing, humming angelsounds, and my sister and I joined her. Felt like heaven.

Maan (Moon)

One of my faves. Love the way they display my work! Maan is located in an old butcher's store in Utrecht.

Lanterns in twilight

It was great weather in Holland this weekend. It gave me the opportunity to photograph my lanterns in the evening, hanging in a tree (with tealights in marmelade pots!).