Karin's Style Blog

Larger tulips.

Erika came by and chatted the afternoon away, while flipping through magazines at my workshop table. I’m at the moment not only flipping, but actually reading Kinfolk magazine. I like this appreciation of the everyday, focus on smaller or larger gatherings where we take time to talk and listen and enjoy each others company.

The year’s first semla, small and just what I needed from Bagargänget at Folkkungagatan.

Finally winter has arrived, it’s really cold and the ground is covered with snow that has been falling generously all afternoon. Leonard loves it, he stretches out on his tummy and puts his face into the snow licking it up. All I can do is to prepare for this by rubbing his little cheeks and nose with a covering ointment.

Now, I’ll better get back to the throwing wheel. I’m making all the things that will be included in my ceramics collection this year. Today’s assignment is vases. Have a really nice weekend!

I went around Formex yesterday evening, it’s the largest fair for nordic design. I wanted to visit a couple of stands: Konsthantverkscentrum, Axlings and Växbo Lin (whose products I sell at manos). But most of all I went to see Stylistgruppen in whose stand my work was represented with lots of pieces - tealight holders, flower pots and little soap dishes alongside wallpaper by Marianne Pettersson-Soold and wooden paper pot makers that I sell at manos.

Photo by Anette Åberg.

It’s pretty exhausting to visit a fair like Formex - walking up and down the aisles on hard floors, hundreds of people and millions of products flickering by. I’m very selective in what I choose to look at but somehow everything registers in the brain… It was like a breath of fresh air to find Anna Agger from Örnahusens snickeri, showing simple, well thought through and beutifully produced wooden interior and exterior pieces. For instance a clothes dryer (above) and a planting table. Ithink I’m buying them for manos. I also liked the beautiful boxes by Rie Elise Larsen.

It’s really slow in the shop this week and a perfect time for mending tools and kiln shelves in the workshop.
Last year was a bit rough on my kiln shelves with trying out new glazes and having a ceramic course in the summer with thickly glazed pieces that stuck on the shelves when the glaze ran too much…
I like taking time to mend things - it slows me down plus it’s a financial gain and not least an environmental one (rather than keep buying new all the time). While on the subject of slow - I couldn’t agree more with Kathreen, let 2012 be slow!

I’ve got my collection for Restaurang Jonas in the window at manos now, to my mother’s delight (she thinks that I neglect presenting my own work in favour of all the other beautiful things I’ve got in the shop…) Here’s how the pastry chef at Jonas have used my plates.

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Caroline and Bruno came by with fudge from newly opened Pärlans Konfektyr on a neighbouring street. Delicious in every way AND the wrapping looks wonderful AND they come delivered in handprinted paper bags…

Madame bigger.

From the Winter market in Jokkmokk

Hello everybody!
Long time no see, but here I am again hopefully on a little more regular basis. It seems to me this autumn has been filled to the brim and has gone by so quickly, I hope next year moves at a little slower pace. I have so much to tell you, but all in due time.

Here’s a recipie-film for hot blood orange toddy with spices and rum that my new-found friend Sanna makes. I find her films and images very inspiring, I hope you do too!

I wish you all a joyful and relaxing Christmas time.

Chess pieces and a coiled vase.

Summer ceramics courses at manos - so much creativity! It’s been a varied bunch of participants which is a challenge and really fun for me. I want everyone to feel they’ve gotten the most out of the course - be it that they’ve been inspired, that they’ve come further in their ceramics knowledge or that they’ve made a cup they’re really pleased with. Hopefully all three…

A couple of bowls, two boats and a plate.

More images from the course and other events at manos here.

Iacoli & McAllister.

Midsummer day at Äppelfabriken.

It’s been aerily quiet in the shop today, it’s a hot day and I hope people are sitting in the breeze on a boat or in the shade of an old beautiful oak tree… Like I did yesterday, in Hagaparken. It’s such a splendid place, best lawn for a picknick.

Luckily, the shop doesn’t actually get too hot and neither does the workshop so I’ve been spending the afternoon by the throwing wheel. I’m working on a a vase/sculpture prototype for a restaurant opening here in Stockholm in the autumn. It’s all about dimensions - thickness, height, diameter and the interplay between various parts of the piece. Difficult, and very enjoyable!

Leonard listening to jazz at Slussen last week.
It was really good and he knows how to clap his hands now.

A closer look.

I love the blue of cornflowers - and the green of them too. So summery. Here’s another image that feels like summer.

Nature photography by Carl Fredrik Ekström. More nature by Tend Collective, via 3191.

whip up’s guide to e-mags

Happy midsummer!

Dress by the Japanese fashion label COMME des GARÇONS from the Sarah Moon exhibition at Fotografiska.

Once in a while I get a newsletter from KIKI, the must-visit Japanese design store here on Renstiernas gata, and they always make me happy. The newsletter contain information about what’s going on at KIKI - workshops and exhibitions and such - and thoughts on Japan related things that happen here in Sweden and always a “word of the week". I’m getting quite a Japanese dictionary of interesting words.

Yesterday I was in Hässleholm to give a talk at Konsthantverkscentrums day on marketing and selling your work online. It’s the first time I’ve done something like that and I really enjoyed it - I talked about something I’m passionate about and the audience was active and asked lots of questions. Fun!

jo mcdonald - at at Galerie la Tour this summer

I just had a woman in the shop who has bought a little house in the south of France… It sounds so, I don’t know - charming, romantic, chic, wonderful…

‘Vive La Tapisserie’, an exhibition of small format tapestries by Scottish Tapestry Artists Regrouped at Galerie la Tour, Montsalès, France