Bloesem

gam plus fratesi

I am completely in love with these amazing chairs by GAMplusFRATESI. Inspired by illustrations made by children, GAMplusFRATESI designed these "Antropomorfo Chairs". They find illustrations by children “extremely free” and spontaneous expressions and which they translated into furniture. The typical Scandinavian materials, colors and details are combined with the “out of proportion” drawings by children.

Stine Gam from Denmark and Enrico Fratesi from Italy met during their architecture studies in Italy. Since 2005 they have been working together and their work has won various international design competitions. I can see why…

Another beautiful collection designed by GAMplusFRATESI is the "Bouquet collection".
Closets and coffee tables all with smooth and reflecting surfaces. On their website you will find many more products designed by Stine Gam and Enrico Fratesi.

Tumbly

A fun design I think is this “tumbly”! Designer Annet Neugebauer created this eye-catching, egg-shaped seat object. The tumbler moves when you touch it, but it sits very comfortably. It would be ideal for a childsroom, because of its playfulness and moveable shape.

But as you can see on the picture it will definitely look good in your garden as well. The tumbly comes in al sorts of colors and you can order them online by sending Annet an email or in the online shop of Artolive. Much fun with this stool!

wall jewellery

After a revisit at Handmaid I was happy to find these new creations made by Julie. Such a great idea: Wall jewellery! Here are some of Julie’s thoughts on wall jewellery:“…I love hanging pieces of art and crafts on the wall ... the idea of dressing-up ones home ... creating a unique space which represents ones personality ... small jewels of drama and decoration ... maybe theatre...”

Fortunately for us Julie has been able to translate this great idea into actual jewellery. You can by Julie’s Wall jewellery at her Etsy shop. For more information please visit her blog.

Optimist

{image from the beautiful collection by Én Gry & Sif}
A new blog in town! My dear friend Petra Graatsma started Optimist. Her blog is completely devoted to children. Petra will show you beautiful items and practical gadgets for babies and young kids. She couldn’t have picked a better name for her blog. What I like about Petra is her positive view on life and her amazing energy to get things done. But for Petra the name Optimist is more associated with her passion for sailing (for those of you – including me - who didn’t know, an optimist is a small boat for kids). Petra is a wonderful friend and I’m very happy that we have met each other in Toronto.  So Check out Optimist!

Bureau de bank

When I first saw this ‘coat stand’ I was amazed by it’s beautiful simplicity! The designers of this fabulous item are Hans van Veen and Floortje Donia. They call themselves BureaudeBank. Both are graduates from Artez Institute for the Arts Arnhem in 2004. BureaudeBank has a collection in furniture, interior products and accessories. In their own words: their design vision is based on the belief that every design assignment has three dimensions: Concept, Aesthetics and Technique. Each of these dimensions needs the proper attention to result in a good product. I think they are doing a great job and hopefully they will bring us much more in the future. You can buy some of these beautiful designs in their online shop. Would you like more information just send them an email.

{Writing about Bureaudebank is a good opportunity to introduce (maybe you already know it) to you a great design blog from the Netherlands: Reluct. The writer of this blog happens to be a good friend of Hans and Floortje.}

Spinning ABC

{image via Core77}
By spinning the letters from the alphabet, Esther Ermers has developed the first 3-dimensional alphabet. The 26 letters of our alphabet form the basis for 26 stools. This is design in its ultimate form I believe! Such a fascinating idea. Esther Ermers is a 2005 graduate from the Design Academy in Eindhoven. She has also written a book called “vormentaal”.

The shapes of the stools are telling us a story about the magic of learning to write and creating the 26 typefaces of the alphabet. As we will be using less and less paper we will need these three dimensional letters. Until then we can just sit and relax on these “letters”. Esther would love to see her stools in spaces such libraries and bookstores. Hopefully the stools will soon be available for us, so I can buy my “i” to sit on.

Mrs.Me

Mrs.Me are two Dutch women Lianne Ernst and Mariëlle Kreulen who founded their ‘Home Couture’ company in 2003 in Amsterdam. A couple of years ago I met the very friendly Lianne when she was working as a designer for Bam Bam. Lianne was kind enough to buy my baby cards and in doing so supported me starting my own business. Lianne and Mariëlle are extremely talented women and designed a fabulous new line of Mrs.Me interior products.

The Mrs.Me home textiles are pure luxury. Their idea is to translate the latest trends in fashion in a sparkling range of home interior products. In 2005 they launched their first collection ‘Bedtime Stories’ and is now followed up by ‘Falcon and the Swan’. I would love to sleep in a bed covered with these incredible sheets.

If you are interested in buying one of these pillows, blankets, tablecloths or duvet covers you can send Mrs.Me an email. Or if you are in the Netherlands take a look at the list of available stores on their website. I will definitely visit one when I’m in Amsterdam this April. 

By Guus

After reading about an exhibition in the Dutch design centre in Utrecht I found the wonderful work of Guus Kusters, by Guus. A recent graduate of the Design Acadamy, Guus collects fabrics used for traditional costumes from all over the world. These bears are made of traditional fabrics worn by the women in Zeeland, a province in the South of the Netherlands. Guus wants to preserve these beautiful fabrics by using them in a universal shape. I’m glad he did and I would love to have this “Bear of Zeeland”.

“New/Demolished”. According to Guus Kusters closets are a good example of our ‘throw-away’ society. Regardless of the perfect wood condition closets are often thrown away if the shape is not fashionable anymore. For Guus this was unacceptable so he demolishes the old closets and uses the wood to build new ones. The result is a series of unique closets.
Nor the Bear of Sealand or the Closets are in production yet, but you can send Guus an email for more information. The exhibition in Utrecht is open until February 22.

New weekend read

Finally...here is the new weekend read. I hope it is worth the wait...I know the weekend is almost over for most of you but hopefully this will keep you in a weekend mood! As this topic is so broad and there is so much more to show you, I will update this read in the coming weeks. Have a great week!

Yosoh

This morning I received a very friendly email from Scott Rench. I am very happy that he took the time to show me his beautiful work! Scott is a ceramic artist who combines the old tradition of ceramic making with new computer technologies. The result is amazing. An eclectic mix of one-of-a-kind gorgeous ceramic items. In his own words, Scott says he represents the next generation of ceramic artists. There is so much more I could show you, but please have a look for yourselves at Scott’s website Yosoh, or even better, go directly to his online shop and treat yourself to one of his limited editions.

Such a coincidence that Scott emailed me today…. I have been working on the new weekend read about vintage ceramics… it is not completely finished yet but I promise it will be up this weekend…