etsy treasures: illustration

Who: Inaluxe
What: art, illustration, prints, cards
Why: Australian illustrator Kristina Sostarko has an amazing feeling for colours and a simple graphic style that I adore. She uses my favorite paper: matt & recycled. And... she has an inspiring blog as well!

no-tree paper bowls

Bought these paper bowls yesterday. I fell in love instantly. They are made from reed pulp and waste of sugarcane, so the material is in fact a 'no-tree paper'.
The bowls are part of a wide range of amazing disposable tableware designed by Wasara from Japan.
Why disposable, I'll keep them forever!

domestic candy

Found Domestic Candy through Enna's blog yesterday, about whome I wrote a post some time ago.
Somehow the name Domestic Candy did ring a bell, but I was surprised by the wow!!! -factor of Kerstin's blog and the products in her DaWanda shop. It is striking that we share the love for certain flower shapes and background structures (my lanterns), must have been something in the air?
Of course: what Kerstin does with it, so different, so lovely! What a subtle, simple and sweet designs, just...wow!
Again a German pearl.

pom pom pom pom pom

This morning I opened the curtains....again a thin white layer of snow in the garden. I am getting a bit fed up with winter (sorry!). In order to speed spring up a bit I searched for 'festive', 'paper' and 'colours' on Etsy. And I found hundreds of pompoms!
These lovely ones you can buy at Orange Kisses and Party Poms.

But it must be real fun to make pom poms yourself as well. Made real easy with a little help from good old Martha!

a cup for life

These Kuksa are made by Laplanders from Finland. The kuksa is a hand carved drinking cup made from birch burl. Laplanders have a personal Kuksa that stays with them throughout their lifetime and has been used by Laplanders for as long as anyone can remember. They use it for everything they drink: coffee, tea, vodka and water from the stream. The cup will not hold any flavors from previous drinks.
In other words: the most sustainable cup I ever came across!
Available in several shops throughout the planet (like kellamknives), but it might be even better to craft one yourself, with help from: Jon's Bushcraft

socklights

Completely focussed on fabrics since last Thursday.
We saw these knitted lights by Beeldenbouwers in the museum shop of the Textile Museum, they are so pretty! The fun thing is, the knitwork is hard as glass because they used epoxy. Not very sustainable (is there an eco-epoxy on the market?), but oh so beautiful. I forgive you, Beeldenbouwers!
Available at BijzonderMOOI*.

secret preparations...

Allthough we both hardly found time in our busy schedules, Sabien and I did go to the Audax Textile Museum today. We prepared Sabien's celebration of the 5th anniversary of her company called Engel. For that she invited her designers, which I am - lucky me - to have their textile dreams realised. We will design our own personal woven and/or embroidered tablecloth and napkins (or teatowels, for me!!) and the technical people of the museum will make it happen.
Isn't this the most wonderful present ever? Well, we already spotted great techniques, yarns, colors and inspirational ideas today... In the coming weeks we will have to design and on the 18th of March we'll go there for a whole day to have the designs converted into real textiles. I am so excited... I'll keep you posted!

happy birthday!

My friend (and business coach) Sabien turned 40 this week. Tonight we'll have her roller-disco-70's-party at her home in Amsterdam! Bought her a great vintage button necklace made by Bjørke. After I wrapped the necklace in a done-in-60-seconds homemade giftwrap I took some photo's. So if you want to see the present itself just check out Bjørke's website. Sorry!
The giftwrap is just a printed A4 sheet of paper with a pattern and a personal text. Tied up with some of my last bamboo paperclips. Bought those (I don't remenber where) already 15 years ago. Does anyone know if bamboo paperclips still are manufactured somewhere in the world? Thailand, Vietnam? Anyway, paperclips are worth to write a special post about, I love them!