ninainvorm.punt.nl

ninainvorm 2013-04-29 23:40 - (1) - permalink- in Art and design, What I like

When speaking to people from Japan, they often tell me how much they love European art & design, and that they want to buy and have 'everything European'. I always find that remarkable to hear, because I feel exactly the same way for Japanese art and design. I always feel so inspired when I see the work of Japanese illustrators, and when I found the work of the super talented Mizuki Goto my heart really jumped. You know, in such a 'I-want-to-have-this-all, please-tell-me-there's-a-webshop!' way. Unfortunately I haven't found one though...

The good news is that Mizuki Goto's amazing work can be viewed extensively on her website's gallery, it's quite a treat! And hopefully I can soon find a way to order at least a print or so...

Comments (1)

Share on Tumblr

Woonbeurs 2012: some more thoughts and images

ninainvorm 2012-10-05 14:22 - (3) - permalink- in What I like

Usually when you go somewhere, to an event or so, you already go there with certain expectations. You think: this is going to be so much fun, or: this is not my cup of tea at all (but I must go there anyway for some reason).

Before I was invited to the Woonbeurs interior decoration fair more or less 'profesionally' this year, I'd never really considered going there: I'm not particularly fond of big commercial events with lots of people (though I sometimes make an exception for the big flea markets that I both love and hate ;)), and these fairs always seem a bit artificial to me: they build some booths and stands that should look cozy in a normally totally uncozy big hall, they invite a lot of people and they put lots of brochures and free 'goodies' -that in fact are just promo materials- on the tables, and then the visitors should just walk around a bit and take lots of brochures home in those big free bags filled with more advertisements that they were gifted at the entrance.

So would I have gone to the Woonbeurs myself if I wasn't invited? Probably not. But now that I've been there, would I go again next year? Well, actually I probably would! Because a bit to my own surprise, I liked the event much more than I would have thought. Yes, it's commercial and it's a bit artificial, and I'm not particularly interested in the stands that offer exclusive kitchen equipment or bathroom floors. I'll go to a big furniture mall if that's what I'm interested in. But what I really liked about the fair was the variety of designs, products, colors and interior decoration inspiration that were offered. When you walk around and look at everything like the way you'd walk around and look at things in a museum, there's really so much to see!

So I'd say forget about all the brochures and the free goodies and the kitchen tiles and all that: just focus on what visually attracts you and you'll come home very much inspired! (and tired and totally overwhelmed too ;))

Read more... (2 comments)

Share on Tumblr

The Yvestown fair

ninainvorm 2012-09-10 15:53 - (12) - permalink- in What I like

Can you imagine having a front garden this big and beautiful that you can actually host a complete craft fair in there? Well, Yvonne has one, and it turned out to be the perfect place for the wonderful first edition of the Yvestown fair!

As you can imagine when you know Yvonne's style a bit, her garden was like Fermob heaven! I was able to quickly take these pictures of the empty chairs before the fair started, because later during day the chairs were occupied constantly by people drinking fresh lemonade (it was quite hot all day!).

The images above are taken at the table of my fair neighbour Anki of Zilverblauw. At her colorful table she sold handmade bibs, plastic peaces and lots of her posters.

Oh, it was so tempting to immediately spend my whole revenue at the tables of the other fair participants again! The beautiful crochet cardigan by Wood & Wool stool on the first picture above had been on my wish list for a long time, and when I saw it in real life I liked it even more. But I worried that it would already be a bit too small for Rosa (and I told myself that it would be wiser to save some of the money I made for my maternity leave instead of spending it immediately ;)) so in the end I didn't buy it, but I'm so keeping it in mind for baby #2! ;)

A few images from my own table. I had brought lots of small tiles, postcards and writing paper sets and that turned out to be a good choice. I was really happy with all the nice reactions and chats, and of course with the great sales. I think it's quite exciting to see how people react to your stuff 'in real life' when you normally sell online. Somehow after all these years of online selling, I can still sometimes worry that people will only like my products online, and not in real life... Though I'm used to selling my stuff online, I can still feel quite shy when actual people standing in front of me want to buy the things I made, or tell me they like them. So with so many people visiting our table I was feeling quite shy about all day, I was lucky I had my sister Olga with me who did all the hard work while I was jus standing there feeling shy! ;)

Unfortunately I didn't have that much time to take pictures of all the participants tables (and the light overdose due to so much sun also spoiled a lot of my photos), but I did manage to take a few of the lovely stuff sold by Muswerk, whose style I really admire.

Inbetween all her work organizing the fair (what an excellent job she and her team of helpers did!), Yvonne had somehow still found the time to decorate and run a beautiful table selling her yarn and crochet products.

With all these great creative women together there were many nice 'shop girls', but I don't think I insult anyone when saying that MaandagDaandag girls Elvis & Maantje Piet were among the cutest... (and they worked hard too!) ;)

After the fair everyone sat down for food and aftertalk. I guess after an event like this you're always supposed to say that it was a big success, because that's just what people do, but I think this time we all felt it was really true! ;)

(Only 'not-such-a-success' was that I came home with a headache, which had nothing to do with the fair, but everything with the strong sun & heat during the day. I always get headaches easily when the sun is shining strongly, but somehow during this pregnancy it seems to have gotten worse, which is quite annoying, especially for someone like me who always used to love the sun & hot weather... Now I guess winter works better for me! ;))