Friday, December 19, 2014

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.

Monday, December 8, 2014

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 ;-)!

Sunday, November 30, 2014

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.

Saturday, November 22, 2014

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...

Sunday, November 9, 2014

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!


Sunday, October 26, 2014

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

Sunday, October 5, 2014

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. 

 

Sunday, September 28, 2014

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!

Sunday, September 14, 2014

my week in paris on IG

 An intense and great week: Paris, Maison & Objet, september 2014!

1st row: sore feet on the stand | my little 'M&O home' for 5 days
2nd: our apartment, safe and quiet haven near the Sacre Coeur | the roof of Gare du Nord
3rd: travelling back home via Senlis, only 30 min. from Paris-N, gorgeous, medieval, clean, cosy town...

Would you like to see some more? Just follow me on Instagram, would be great to meet you there!

Sunday, August 31, 2014

trade show times


This was the fall edition of the showUP trade fair last week. Although I was completely exhausted (tell you more about that below) it again felt like being on summer camp with good friends ;-). ShowUP is always a feast! Sabine Wittig, my friend/distributor from Germany came over and took the above photo's of me (which is unique, because no one ever does!).

I hoped to have the final samples of the ceramic cups on the show and I knew lots of customers would love to order them. It was such a disapointment when I found out that I couldn't show any of the ceramics I received the night before showUP started. The cups were not ok in many ways. I somehow forefelt this, but there was the pressure of 2 important trade fairs and my hopes won from my fears. The result: no cups to show, a couple of nights with not more than 4 hours of sleep and no turnover from this nice new collection....
But I do NOT give up. Give me some time, some more rounds, the cups will eventually be in my collection, I promiss.
Still I was a happy wholesaler: I had my new Weave Lanterns to show ánd my almost final samples from the tea towels. And people loved them!

Today I'm preparing for Maison & Objet in Paris. It's going to be my very first time, so exciting! 

If you are around please drop by:  Hall 6, stand Q50 - bienvenu!


Monday, August 18, 2014

NEW STUFF - 4 stories from behind the scenes


The story of the NEW Lanterns
Two months ago one of my dear customers made me very happy and bought my complete stock of Classic Lanterns, which was 1700 sets! Within a couple of days I had to decide whether I should go for a reprint of these lanterns (that were designed in 2009), or give this article a complete restyling.

I chose for Lanterns 2.0 and called them Weave lanterns. I used designs found in woven materials and macramé. After all, textiles are my second love!

It was so much fun experimenting with folding shapes. That's what makes each individual design in this set look different. In the package is a clear and simple instruction on how to fold the pre creased folds, but if you do it differently - fold it IN instead of OUT, for example - the outcome is always great!
One pack contains 7 lanterns. Rrp (in the Netherlands) per pack € 10,50 Weave will be available within a week, so it will pop up in the (online) shops very soon! 



The story of the NEW ceramics

Most people know that I have been dreaming for years of designing my own ceramics. In some strange way, it always seemed a bridge too far. Not the designing part, but finding someone to translate my designs into a producible article and finding a way to produce larger amounts.

On the very first ShowUP fair, 1.5 years ago now, a woman walked into my stand and asked me: Jurianne, have you ever thought of designing ceramics for your company? Maybe I can help you with the product development! I remember that I was moved: this woman, that randomly entered my paper-design stand, was heaven sent!

Mieke Montagne is now my product developer. She is a real crafts woman with a good commercial sense. She experimented with different clays, molds, glazes and dozens of colours for me and I'm sure I must have made her insane at some moments. 
The next step was accomplishing the bulk production abroad. To be honest: up untill now this part has been so very disappointing. At this moment I am still waiting (after 3,5 months) for good samples that can be presented at the trade fairs I will be attending (starting next week!). It gives me headaches and sleepless nights...

As soon as I have the cups in my warehouse I'll come back here and tell a little about the designs and prices.
 
 
The story of the NEW tea towels
During the development of the tea towels I discovered how the conventional cotton industry actually works, and to be honest: I was shocked. If you watch this video called The Conventional Trap
(9 minutes) you'll know what I mean. This dirty business was not something I wanted to be a part of! 
Luckily, I met Hein Voss, who is the owner of H3P Motives. He is a textiles professional who has his heart in the right place, and is the winner of the 2013 Max Havelaar Innovation Award.

Hein knows everything there is to know about his production line, from the organic farmers in the cooperatives to the workers in the factory. He often visits India and oversees all the links in his production chain. For Hein, organic and fair-trade arent just brainless marketing tools; they are important requirements to his trade. This is a vision that I share.

I discovered that the production of my tea towels is also a long, long road, allthough we have short lines in this fair trade business. I received a lot of samples on which the prints were fantastic, the stitchwork great, the labelling ok, but the fabric itself...
You know: I want my tea towels to become YOUR FAVORITE ones, not only because of the nice prints, but also because they have just the right textile quality for drying dishes. Not too thick, not too thin, with a rather high density weave and with the right absorption. 
I know, I am so demanding, but I can not sell anything that is not 100%  approved by me.

Fortunately I have Hein Voss on my side. With his energy, his precision and his communication skills we will get there in the end. But not on ShowUP next week and probably not on Maison & Objet in Paris.

The minute I have the tea towels in my warehouse I'll come back to you to present them officially here!


The story of NEW styling talent Valerie

Valerie is my friend and she could be my daughter. I know her since she was 13. A sparkling and humourous personality with a super sense for style! She is a student at Artemis Styling Academy in Amsterdam, the same school I attended in prehistoric times ;-). Valerie took the pictures of my new products and I am so very happy with the result! 
She exactly caught the right feel: simple and poetic. 

You will hear and see more of her in the future, I promise!