A Beautiful Storm... in a Tea Cup !

More info about other lovely and delicate kinectic objects:
http://www.laikingland.co.uk/

Featured on:

Woonideeen issue 09, 2010

NRC Handelsblad, Feb. 2009

Addresses in the NL:

Amsterdam:
The Frozen Fountain
Prinsengracht 645
1016 HV
 www.frozenfountain.nl

Mobilia Woonstudio
Utrechtsestraat 62
1017 VR
Amsterdamwww.mobiliawoonstudio.nl

Groningen:
Vos Interieur
Laan Corpus den Hoorn 100
9728 JR
Groningen
www.vosinterieur.nl

Delft:
Van Waay & Soetekouw
Market 17
2611 GPwww.vanwaayensoetekouw.nl

Jurianne Matter (Paper Design from Holland)

Wishboats, an original idea for parties and a child's room...

Above: the wishboats print set.

Blom in sticks...

The package of a blom.

Mmmm.... paperdesign from Holland. Super delicate and eyecandy made by Jurianne Matter. Cards, lanterns, angels, boats and flowers.

Jurianne completed her studies at the Interior Styling School at Artemis Academy, in Amsterdam. She works as a freelance designer and product stylist. She designs her own paperwork and also patterns for other companies such as &Klevering Amsterdam. You can find her work in many shops and webshops in the Netherlands and abroad. Jurianne told me by e-mail that during her childhood she spent vacations with her parents in Scandinavia - and that area of the world still inspires her work.

Such Sing angels are perfect to decorate my girl's bedroom not only during Christmas but all year long !

A little tree. 

A miniature ode to nature.

All the photos on this entry were sent to me by Jurianne.
Below, a translation of a fragment from an e-mail she sent me:

Hello Ana,


(...) How funny your blog, The Netherlands through Brazilian eyes. It is nice to read what your impressions are ! I have a lot of visitors from Brazil and meanwhile I have discovered why: Brazilians are very good in papercraft ! A Brazilian friend of my got an old magazine, did "raf-raf" en made a pretty Christimas tree for me. She also can make beautiful and resistent baskets with folded newspaper sheets. I have at this moment a free-download piece on my blog and that is very much visited by people in Brazil. (...)

Jurianne, thanks for your openess, your kindness, all the photos and your e-mails !

I love your work !

In order to buy her work visit: www.juriannematter.nl
Her blog, where you can see more of her other design works, tips, trips and comments:

www.juriannematter.blogspot.com

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Even under construction, Amsterdam remains eyecandy !

Spotted along the Damrak - one of the many vital arteries of the city - these Delft porcelain  inspired pannels...

Going Underground

The Dutch Landscape... at your home.

I have just spotted today on Casa de Valentina blog the following colourful carpets  works of art:

Above: Landcarpet The Netherlands, from Florian Pucher.

Above and below: Liz Eeuwes offers you the possibility of having the tulip fields of Lisse under your feet.

Repurposing objects

Urn as a sink.

(I have snatched this photo a long time ago from a French website. If somebody knows who the author of this image is please just let me know and I shall give the credits here). Gorgeous ! However, I wonder whether it is possible to easily clean the bottom of it.  

Above and below: downtown Zaandam, metal trash bins were upgraded to flower vases.

Above, spotted in a restaurant in a place in Perigueux this summer: a pot that was formely used to preserve pate'  is now used as a serving bowl for a dame blanche dessert. My husband asked me whether I was going to serve desserts to guests in such pots from now on. I prefer to use it for butter.

Above: one of the rooms at a hotel in Milan. All rooms have this graphic of a female face a la Sophia Loren on the walls - and paper bins. I asked the manager whether I could buy one and he ofered it to me as exchange for some translation work. Below: an ex-paper bin transformed in socks bin now graces my bedroom.

The tea box above is a Jan Des Bouvries concept for... tea bags (how original). I bought it at Douwe Egberts shop using lots and lots of D.E. coffee package stamps - plus adding some money. But why keeping 9 different types of tea flavours when I use only two ? And during parties my guests prefer coffee. Thus... from tea box to bijoux box. I like to wear big bold jewelry, and this big box suits perfectly my storage needs.

No gas ? No problem ! Just grab an iron and grill some sausages on it (on chicken, or beef...). Medium, no wrinkles please. (Image snatched from the hillarious Brazilian food blog "Rainhas do Lar"). Hahahaha !!
On a previous post I  published under the label "gardens" you can check more objects serving for a purpose different from what they orginally were made for. 

The Dutch Always Know It Better

The Boomerang Wok: the Dutch solution for making wokking easier (wokking for dummies). More info at:  royalvkb.com

Download Error [Erro de Processamento]

The Carpet That Failed to Load, by Dutch designer Richard Hutten.

Would you like to have one at your home ?

Sweet Cake

Muffin cake case from Dutch designer Beerd van Stokkum.

All images from here.

Tulip Vases (Tulpvaas)

The last weeks in the supermarket Albert Heijn I have noted these mini tulip vases above, porcelaine made, very cute. They were firstly being sold at 7,95 euros, then 5,95 euros... and the price is still going down. Interesting how such a symbol of wealth has been transformed into a democratic object.

Tulip vases started to be designed on the XVII century. Tulips were very expensive flowers and deserved a very special vase to be the centerpiece of ostentation in a home. Even without flowers, such vase worked as a symbol of high status and pride for the owners.

The vase had a heart shape and generally 5 to 8 holes for the tulips - and very important: was hand painted in "Delft blue" colour. Another traditional shape was like a pyramid of several layers. Below, some other examples of tradional and contemporary work.

Above: tulip vase Stedelijk Museum in Zwolle, XVIII century.

Above: tulip vase at the Gemeente Museum in The Hague, Delft pattern.

Photo above: contemporary work in clay from artist Fransje van Keulen. To me, it looks like Cretean vases from thousands of years ago ! (But then that's my interpretation, not the author's...)
Above: contemporary interpretation of a tulip vase. Available at several home interior decoration shops in the NL. I have seen it a years ago at Pol's Potten, in Amsterdam and Het Arsenaal in Naarden.
Below: photo taken from a shop in the Prinsengracht right opposite Anne Frank's house museum.

Below: a tulip vase I spotted in a house in Amsterdam South.

Above, a modern variation of a tulip vase according to artists Job Smeets and Nynke Tynangel from Studio Job. It can be admired at the Zuiderzee Museum in Enkhuizen.

Vase... or surrealistic sculpture ?

According to Smeets and Tynangel, their work is inpired in the XVII century tulip vases but there are no holes for inserting flowers. Instead of flowers painted in the traditional Delft blue style you can see cockroaches - as symbol for the decline of opulence. After all, everyone nowadays can buy tulips for just some euros. Even in the Dutch supermakets you can find them available. Design for the masses... that's something so Dutch.