Karin's Style Blog

oil burner, part of the 2010 collection

This oilburner is part of my 2010 collection and it’s one of the last things I fired before taking some time off waiting for the little one to arrive. He’s (yes, we think we know) showing no signs of wanting to come out yet…

Boule & Berså

In the meantime, I’m taking it so easy, sleeping lots and making sure I get my daily ice-cream, that’s about the only tasks on my to do list at the moment. I have also been seen to clear out the wardrobe, de-frosting the freezer and scrubbing the kitchen but those things are optional.

The other night we went to our ‘local’, Boule & Berså. We thought last summer would be the end of this charming hang-out along the canal, but to our delight they’ve survived.

What a wonderful place to go for a workshop! Right now they’re doing a tango course…

Yesterday we watched Ocean’s Twelve and I liked some of the soundtrack - Ornella Vanoni’s L’appuntamento. The baby is kicking its tiny feet to the rythm - not out yet though, but I hope we’ll meet soon.

Greta Garbo had her first big film role in the film Gösta Berlings Saga. Gösta Berlings Saga © 1924 AB Svensk Filmindustri

For the next book circle we’re reading a swedish classic - Selma Lagerlöf’s Gösta Berlings saga. We want to combine it with something more modern and on this excellent book blog I just found another swedish author, new to me and not yet in english: Till sista andetaget by Anna Swärd.

My hanging flower pots in good company, thank you Nicole!

Pretty pink wrapping with vine.

I’m making more of the hanging flower pots and the ones that make it successfully through the firings will be in the shop next week.

This time of year it’s getting warm and lovely in the green house, the warmth spreads in to my workshop and speeds up the drying of my newly thrown pieces - strangely enough it takes me by surprise each year… I’m under the illusion that I cover it real thoroughly when I leave in the evening but when I come back the next morning I realize that I should have tucked it in even more carefully. The result is a lot of drying cracks and so I get to fill up my ’seconds shelf’… One of the joys of clay

An illustration by Judy Kaufmann and here is her etsy shop.

During the autumn I was making lots and lots of tealight holders, shamelessly using a Teresa Green towel for grinding them down around the rim. Thankfully, I’ve now got help with the production and the tealight holders are available again after a times absence. They’re my best sellers and I don’t have the capacity to produce them myself. And to be honest - I’m not at all as good at it as the ones who are doing it for me.

The tealight holders are cast in plaster moulds and although I know how to do it, it’s not my speciality and not what I really enjoy doing. My other work is hand thrown by me and that’s a process I enjoy and am good at. There was a period when I was thinking about which road to take - the mostly-handmade-by-me road or the finding-a-factory-to-produce-for-me road. I chose the first and am really happy with that choice. Having said that, I’m not a stranger to getting things produced for me when it suits the design better or when it cannot be produced any other way.

Lovely Lacerisesurlegateau, found via jodiijodii.

I’ve been working so much lately, but am actually feeling great and the baby seems to like it - keeps kicking me in the stomach when I’m still for too long…

Today is the private view of Liisa Välivaaras Ceramic Heads at manos. Each of them has a story to tell. Welcome between 2 and 5 pm! The exhibition continues until April 11th.

Last week a man from Holland came and bought a whole curtain of hangings which left my walls quite blank. I filled the gap with my new hanging flower pots. They’re available in the shop now!

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Here’s some of the treasures at Skansens Klädkammare (clothes chamber). I’m lucky enough to know two of the talented women who work there and they showed me around. Thank you Yvonne and Berit!

Skansen is Stockholms beautiful outdoors museum where you - for instance - can visit historical buildings from Sweden and meet people dressed in period costume. Most of these clothes are taken care of and kept at the clothes chamber.

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These spiky cups will be in the shop soon.

Read about my day at A Beat That My Heart Skipped!

I’m putting together my collection pricelist 2010 and will post a few images each day on flickr. The price list will be sent out to all the shops that already sell (or want to) my ceramics around the world.

I sometimes get the question which of my ceramics I like the most and I just can’t answer that because I like them all! Of course I tire of a pattern or a shape ones in a while, but they have a tendency to grow on me when we’ve been apart for a while and so I’ve got lots of “old” products in the new collection. And new ones too of course.

Bigger and another view.

I left Dreams part two in the workshop and went for lunch at Restaurang Jungfrusund, lovely to sit inside with this view outside.

I get happy when I get a post card from Raymond Biesinger in the letter box.

This weekend 5-6th December is the traditional Christmas market at Överjärva Gård with lots of handicraft, Luciatåg, pony riding and food. manos will be open extra long during this weekend, from 10-16. Welcome!

My bit of Come Darkness. Photograph by MAV.

MAV has curated Come Darkness at Chelliswilson in which I’m taking part with a ceramic mountain

My friend Eva Wilsson who made the graphic design of my website now has a website of her own. She has also designed manos website… stay tuned.

Here’s images from the current exhibition at manos, ceramics by Elisabeth Ottebring and the theme is compost. The earth under the glass is certainly from the compost. Lisa’s ceramics will be in the webshop on Monday. See the images bigger here.

Tonight is the private view at manos for an exhibition of ceramics by Elisabeth Ottebring. It will be a curious, fantasy evoking display with Lisas beautiful work. Most of the pieces will be in the webshop on Monday next week.

Lisa has taken her inspiration from the compost and here’s her thinking behind the objects:

“life exist within the contrasts. it is when the black highfired earthenware clay with it’s coarse texture are given curvaceous forms and is delicately coloured by hand. it is when a summer feast is held among insects and moths, where bisquits made of honey are served from the blackest of urns, it is when the princess is a valkyrie with armpits full of hair. inspired by vivaldi, mr burton and mr greenway, elisabeth ottebring creates extravagant and playfull ceramics, that holds the uncertainty of life, it’s decay and vainglory. the direct feeling of the black highfired earthenware is translated and processed by hand, screened with old photographies or adorned with drawings. the creations set up an inviting world of playware where we are lured in to telling or own story of light and darkness, a story not entirely unlike life itself. “

Private view Wednesday 21st October 5-7 pm.
The exhibition is open until November 22nd. Thursday-Sunday 11-3 pm.

Welcome!

Figs - I love the colour and shape and taste. In November the small bowls will be in manos, without the figs. See them bigger here and here.

A snapshot from my workshop, my teapot and teacup is never far away from me. Here they are squeezing in on the sink. In the studio I usually drink green tea all day long - love it, whether it is warm or cold.

Ceramics cooperative Kaolin will be at Rosendals Trädgård this weekend. Here’s from outside their shop on Hornsgatan.

If I wasn’t working this weekend I’d go to the harvest festival at Rosendals Trädgård. Here’s from a couple of years ago when I did make it.

If you want to learn how to grow things there is a course in ecological gardening starting at Överjärva Gård in February next year, it’s been running for several years and I feel tempted every year!

Bigger and a close up.

It’s hectic times in my workshop now, I’m throwing and glazing and patterning and packing - all parallel and at the same time?! Today I jumped off the production cycle and went for chamomile tea with Gabriella.

Here I wasn’t working either but sitting down for a coffee before taking a long walk in the woods - best remedy for production cycle disease.

Djurdjica Kesic is exhibiting her wonderful jewellery at Pieces of Eight gallery in Melbourne. There’s an interview with Djurdjica on the gallery’s blog.

Poppies and Great Burnet. Bigger and the whole bouquet.

I was exhausted after last week and inevitably have come down with a cold. It was a fun week though, on Thursday we organized a day for a group of one hundred (100!) visiting 15-year olds from the nordic countries. They went through six stations one of which was my workshop where they patterned a mug. I hope they really enjoyed it and were proud of what they achieved.

A hundred 15-year olds visited my workshop and patterned a mug each, here’s the result after firing.

I like this poppy boutonniere, found the tutorial through whip up.

PS manos news: The 100% linen dish cloth is back in stock and now available also in turquoise and lime.

Dreams on the closet. Close up.

The Progress report show is over and I’ve taken a couple of Dreams home with me… Two now lives on the closet door and the pink dream sits next to a log bowl from Loyal Loot and three of my men - two ceramic ones by Jane Muir and an anonymous Italian in oil.

Pink dream and three men.

The Dreams collection can be viewed here. The future holds more Dreams in store and they’ll be travelling west in the spring!

The next exhibition at manos will be ceramics by Elisabeth Ottebring, opens October 22nd.

Lime and mint soap with sea kelp on top of a Leaves dish.

Late summer news from manos: eco friendly soaps from skinnyskinny (not only the soaps are eco savvy, but the whole way they run their business) - for instance “Lemon and Blood orange” and Rose and Black pepper.

Hand thrown porcelain cup with grass or leaves pattern.

I’ve also added two new products from me -a porcelain cup and a small dish.

We’ve been trying out both at home all spring. The cup is quite lovely with coffee or tea or even to just let a rose float in it… On the small dish we have served sushi and chocolate, we’ve used it as soap holder and to put the tea bag on, it’s also great for putting the cooking spoon on while it’s not used for stirring food (the spoon that is). All in all a pretty handy dish.

PS I saw Lindsey Adelman’s “knotty bubbles” at Remodelista and fell in love.

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I managed to get home just before the storm - thick hails knocked on the windows and the rain was pouring down. Phew.

Thank you for ordering so many of our “dreams", we are delighted you like them!
Most orders will be sent out in a couple of weeks time, when the show is over but the web only items are already on their way. I’ve wrapped them using bits of pages out of a book I was reading when I was last in Gothenburg, visiting Camilla. It was Evan Hunter’s “Mothers and daughters” and it was a really old copy, totally falling apart. I thought it looked nice like this.

Pink Dream no 38 Bigger here.

I’ve added a few more web only items, as well as a lovely pink piece - thick, creamy pink with a chocolate coloured dream on top.

I’m in the kitchen at d*s today - making a cool sweet cake!

Dream no 47.

The Dreams are now available in manos webshop. Thank you all for cheering us along and giving us feedback. We want even more - this is a progress report – only a step on the way. We already know some things that we want to take further and we hope to take on board all the feedback we get from showing our work half way through the project.

The Cake is sold!

You will notice that not all the items are decorated - at least not so that you would notice. We are curious to see what you will think of this. We are vizualising the dreams together – some have clear faces and even stories built up when they come apart (or together) others are Zen-like, calming to go with the faces and the stories - or to be just on their own. Some items we have already placed together and the rest we leave up to you to mix and match. They like each other and we hope you will like them.

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It’s been a sweltering week in manos’ greenhouse, but the workshop keeps nice and cool. The shop re-opened on Thursday and I had a few stray visitors that even managed some shopping in the heat.

The “progress report show” of mine and Camilla’s collaborative work is up and basking in the sun. People who have come to see it laugh and that makes us happy.

It’s good to get some feedback, especially knowing that we will be able to make changes and to develop the work further if we want to. It’s like the feeling I get when Camilla shows me a painting she’s working on saying “I might take all those trees away, and that figure might look completely different when it’s ready"…

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See more of the “progress report show” here. The “Dreams” will be in the webshop on Wednesday afternoon, until then Ciao.

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It’s the third of August and I’m heading back to my workshop. I love that I love to be back and that I feel rested and full of summer. This weekend we went to our friends wedding on a beautiful island in the archipelago. It was raining and the guests were offered plenty of umbrellas upon arriving. During the ceremony the rain magically stopped for half an hour to let some sun out.

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I spent some days with Camilla working on what we’re calling our “DREAMS” collection (as in the delicate cookie with a touch of vanilla flavour or perhaps as in our dreams and aspirations) . This time around, we’re working more with tactility, integrating the patterns with the ceramic shapes, combining pieces into little sculptures… You’ll see and we hope you will like! The “progress report show” opens at manos Thursday August 6th and the pieces will be available in manos webshop on Wednesday August 12th.

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Camilla and I will have a “progress report show” at manos in August. We’ve gone from plump little bowls and plates, to clay faces and desserts and now it’s a mix of chubby-rimmed bowls, smooth door knobs and wall hangers with noses… We are curious to see where this is going?!

To my alarm all my websites were gone during much of yesterday! My webhost was upgrading their servers and it went a little woopsy daisy. It’s ok now though.

It’s been raining all weekend and today it is grey, I could do with all the woolies from Reny van der Kamp.

manos now has a sales category, it’s mostly my ceramic odds and seconds yet and it is added to regularly.

Some of the things are ’seconds’, with visible or invisible faults. I often think that a flaw can add to an object and make it more interesting. Not always of course, but sometimes…

Joannes new blog - jewellery and Max, the dog!

Bigger and another one.

My mum and I went to xoco for tea and dessert. Transported directly to dessert heaven!

I’m gearing up for a clearance sale of my ceramics, it’ll be odd bits and pieces as well as some seconds - everything will be very reasonably priced! All the sale items will be in the shop on Monday afternoon.

Last chance to see Circus Violet at manos.

This weekend is the last chance to see the re-used exhibition at manos AND it is re-cycling time again - for You! Thursday-Sunday 21-24th May, is decal days at manos. This means you bring a cup or buy one from my stash of IKEA cups and decorate it however you want with ceramic decals. Find your way here.

Torsdag-söndag 21-24 maj kl 11-15 är dekaldagar på manos. Ta med en väldiskad kopp eller köp en av mina IKEA-koppar och dekorera hur du vill med ett stort urval keramikdekaler. Jag visar hur det går till och bränner koppen som kan hämtas under nästa vecka! Passar för både barn (från ungefär 5 år) och vuxna. Pris: 100 kr, kopp 40 kr. Hitta till Överjärva Gård.

Welcome!

PS Here are some things I saw at the degree shows at Beckmans and Konstfack. I also enjoyed seeing the chairs by Michel Bussien and Mari Helen Wahlberg and it was interesting to see and understand more of the much talked about art project by Anna Odell.

Our teapot has been leaking for a while but thanks to Myrorna we now have a Bodum tea pot instead. And some glass jars with glass lids, I was inspired by Stephanie in this post at 3191.

Baleine note card tail splash.

I’ve had a really nice weekend in the shop, with a few happy cup decorators and some rain against the windows which always seem to slow things down a bit. And Emily from salt&syrup came by with a delivery of her wonderful cards - both sherbert orange stripes and cornflower blue whales. I would love to sell the whale card together with this book, they are both lovely.

I love these tiles by Heather Knight.

Thank you Tina for picking manos as one of your favourite Stockholm shops in Elle Interiör!

A recycled cup by moi, available at manos.

Fredag och Lördag 8-9 maj kl 11-15 är dekaldagar på manos. Ta med en väldiskad kopp eller köp en av mina IKEA-koppar och dekorera hur du vill med ett stort urval keramikdekaler. Jag visar hur det går till och bränner koppen som kan hämtas under nästa vecka! Passar för både barn (från ungefär 5 år) och vuxna. Pris: 100 kr, kopp 40 kr. Hitta hit.

This Friday and Saturday 8-9th May, is decal days at manos! This means you bring a cup or buy one from my stash of IKEA cups and decorate it however you want with ceramic decals. Both for children and adults!

This place looks like the perfect spot to sit and read the whole day long. Found via Olga.

The Circus Violet collection will be available in the shop at 12 midnight swedish time! Almost everything can already be browsed here now.

UPDATE! Thank you for the overwhelming response! Everything is now sold out.

Yellow, bigger here.

Circus Violet is rolling in to manos by the end of this week. I invited Camilla and Elisabet to pattern old china for the re-use exhibition that opens at manos on Saturday (private view Friday 3-6 pm - welcome!). They’ve made a whole circus! I don’t know if it is because it’s May 1st on Friday and parade time but now I see them in my mind parading up Överjärva Gårdsväg and in through the door at manos with drums and fanfares and the china dancing around them. Can you see it too?!

Photography: Elisabeth Dunker.

Spring will soon explode in green here, the buds are thick thick. We have sunny days and cold nights. The other evening Maria treated me to dinner at Gondolen, with a spectacular view and a delicious creme brulée with a lemon bisquit on the side.

Beautiful green ceramics by Malin Grumstedt.

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Camilla was here working with clay in the green house. Time flies when Camilla comes to visit and I sometimes wonder - was she really here? It’s good to have photographic proof.

Another one bigger here.

I’m off skiing for a week and when I come back I hope spring is here for good! Ciao.

J’ai flané pour vous.

Lisa Larsson cookies at thingscanalwaysgetbetter.

I’ve been making flowerpots lately and in between, little thick rimmed bowls and plates of various size and I am enjoying immensely what Camilla is doing with them! She is coming for a “blixtvisit” to Stockholm tomorrow, perhaps we can sit outside in the snow (yes, again) and have a coffee…

Here’s one of the finished flower pots. It’s made in a coarse stoneware clay that peeles my skin when I throw in it. This is so worth it though, as I love the matt charcoal coloured clay that goes so nicely with a green plant.

New display at manos!

Waiting to be planted. Bigger.

Today is a breathtakingly sunny day here in Stockholm, the snow is all gone! I’m doing a new display at manos and the theme is “The Undisturbed Garden of Harmony". It’ll be winding rose garlands, plant pots with awakening seedlings, lots of low wide bowls filled with water and porcelain pebbles…

Detail of a cup handle. Bigger.

Jena at modish has interviewed me for Modish Biz Tips. If you haven’t yet visited the biz tips - do! It’s the kind of inspirational business information that really gets me going - both for those of you thinking about starting a business as well as those whose come a little longer with their businesses. Go read and get inspired!

PS manos has one Hairy Lady Tea towel left!

Paper pot maker, available at manos. Bigger.

Here’s a wonderful little tool, called a “potter". I bought one for myself last year and made hundereds of pots and planted hundereds of seeds. Here’s some. Now I’ve bought it for manos, so you can also make your own paper plant pots!

More manos news is the hand silk screened pine cone t-shirt and baby bodies. The print is a take on Philippe Starck’s Juicy Salif.

Otherwise, I’m making lots of rose covered cups and planting all the little cutting plants I’ve collected lately. And I’m getting ready to get some cuttings from a beautiful geranium that is thriving in my greenhouse.

Apple blossom (almost) in front of Ana’s beautiful white paper doll. Bigger.

I was under the impression spring was on its way and then I woke up this morning to a white Stockholm - and it hasn’t stopped snowing all day!!

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This week I have lots of company in the workshop: Josephine is doing a work placement with me and Fanny is here for just one week doing PRAO as part of her second year at gymnasium. I wanted to show them Överjärva Gård so we trudged through the snow. The newborn lambs (now 28 of them!) were delirious about the snow - they kept running and jumping around in it, looking absolutely adorable! They melted my snowy heart.

manos turned one year yesterday! hipp hipp hurray! I can’t believe it was one year ago I was making cucumber nibbles and nervously waiting to see how many would turn up for the opening evening… We celebrated yesterday with a delicious kladdkaka that Josephine had made for the occasion.

Thank you all for writing about, shopping from and in general being so encouraging about manos!

A small token of my appreciation: during the rest of the month, all orders from manos above USD 25 will receive a porcelain pebble with a small or a big butterfly.

Yellow Something Old Something New Bag. Bigger here.

Last week was the last of Nicoles six month work placement with me, so now I’m all alone… At least for one day, because tomorrow comes Josephine who will be with me for up to a year! I’ve been so lucky with my assistants. They make my days at the studio so much more easy and companionable! And I make new friends

Last week was also delivery time at manos, I received lots of new beautiful things of which most are now available in the webshop, but for some items you have to visit me at Överjärva… Thursday-Sunday 11-3 pm.

Linen towels with classic red, blue or beige stripes. Bigger here.

Rustic natural linen towels. See the whole picture bigger here.


Recycled plastic baskets from Handed By! Only available in the brick n’mortar shop…

Coriander and Lemon Soap.

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Here’s a proud mum with her lambs, born on Monday at Överjärva Gård. This little onewas born yesterday.

Hand thrown vase and log bowl.

manos is updated with one off little bowls combined with beautiful makramé cloths, Stem vases and some sale items. For instance the vase above, I’m so pleased with that vase - the shape is well balanced and the pattern works the shape really well. And then I forgot to wipe the glaze off properly from the bottom so it stuck a little to the kiln shelf… No one would notice though if they didn’t turn it upside down.

Soon in manos webshop!

Next week I’ll be adding “all white” ceramics to manos. There will also be a selection of vases very modestly priced as they have small “esthetique faults".

Kuksa, lovely tactile drinking vessels. Bigger.

I bought a small wooden drinking vessel at the Jokkmokk winter market. It is so smooth and so well crafted. Scroll down through the pictures in the Jokkmokk set and you’ll also find some horn cups and more reindeer and sami dress pictures.

Finally, I’ve been to level 03 at department store PUB here in Stockholm! Everything I’ve heard about it has sounded so interesting and don’t ask me why I haven’t popped in before. I went to see an exhibition of work by one of Turkey’s most notable artists, Ilhan Koman at Operatingplace (what a good name!). Now I know more about the sculpture I’ve passed so many times in Ekerö Centrum every summer holiday! Some of his work reminded me of the ceramic sculptures by Eva Hild.

Have a nice weekend!

I have just bought a pine tree and a birch tree to save the old forest in Verle. This is Verle. You can also do something - just go to “Ett klick för skogen” and click, a click is free as it is sponsor payed.

More collaboration.

Camilla and I are working on another project together. I’ve just sent her these and am curious to see what she will do with them.

This Friday I’m going to Formex trade fair here in Stockholm, I’m mostly going because I’ve fallen in love with the wonderful baskets from handed by and want to order some for manos.

manos is all set for this weekends Christmas market at Överjärva Gård. Extra long opening hours - Saturday and Sunday 6-7th December 10-4 pm. There are so many beautiful gifts - look here, here, here and here!

Nicole did a very festive and lovely window display, the charming flower arrangements are by Batoul at flowersflow and the new sign is so great.

Rosehip Star pebbles, see them larger here.

I’ve added some more gold star pebbles to manos online as well as some of the rosehip treasures above that Nicole did the other day.

See you at the Christmas market, have a good weekend!

I’m re-reading Shirley MacLaine’s series of books about her life. I was really taken with them when I was about 15 and I’m finding they give me lots now too, but probably different things than then…

Above is the new outside lighting at manos, it’s a PH lamp and I’m so pleased with it!

This weekend is the Christmas market at Överjärva Gård and tomorrow Christmas will move in at manos, I’ll be back with pictures of that later in the week. Above is Christmas wreaths from last weekend at manos.

Golden Star pebbles available at manos.

manos online is updated with wonderful wintry cards from Urubbu, a Golden Star patterned porcelain pebble and the tealight holders are back in stock!

You’ll also find that there are new lower prices on several products - like the Small Butterfly pebble, the Aqua Grass or Leaf bowl and the Reformed Jug which is a great “pourer” and beautifully simple too!

An odd little cup available at manos next weekend!

See the first snow bigger here.

The first snow came in big, wet flakes on Sunday and was all gone before it hit the ground, but it looked softly beautiful.

What is this?? See the answer bigger here.

I’m working every day at the moment, sending parcels here there and everywhere. I’m going to put my feet up for two weeks over Christmas and New Years but until then it is full speed ahead. Thank you for your orders and for your patience with getting replies to emails

Detail of a mobile in the hand.craft.it exhibition.

I’ve got some work in the hand.craft.it exhibition, handmade market and music festival at the Madison Morgan Cultural Centre in Madison GA.

Don’t miss d*s Design By The Book!

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manos has just had delivery of Jenny Alméns stunning “art cushions", I’m uploading them in the online shop later this week, but I just have to show you two sneak previews.

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Despite my not being danish I’ve been allowed in at online shop danishceramics and that’s where I found Jette Arendal Winther’s wonderful work - check it out, one cannot but be charmed.

View it bigger here.

manos has been kitted up with a display of my “collection 0809″ and the online shop is also updated with my new work - bowls and small beakers in porcelain with a new glossy glaze.

It might sound innocent to your ears, but for me introducing a new glaze is big! I’ve tried and tested many glazes - it needs to be easy to use (mix and apply), it needs to work with my clay, with my decals and with my kiln. Apart from that it also needs to be all that I was after, namely a glaze that doesn’t pick up stains and that feels good to hold and that looks good. I think it does

This doesn’t mean I will stop using the matte glaze which I love and have used for a long time, but I think these two complement each other well. See images of the shop display here and the new work here.

Signe Small Porcelain Beaker Leaf, available from manos. View it bigger here.

In Lisbon we stayed in a flat in Alfama which was a really nice area. We found the flat through Lisbon-Holiday-Apartments, which I can recommend! It was quite last minute but everything worked out really well.

We visited the beautiful Museo Nacional do Azulejo in Lisbon. It told the history of the tile and the how to behind making tiles and it was set in a wonderful building with a courtyard restaurant.

The gift shop at the Castle of Sao Jorge were playing Divas do Fado when we visited and I liked it so much I bought it. When we entered the castle grounds there was more music played, this time by guitarist João Bastos, it added so much to the visit!

Thanks to Ana we found the best places to eat, drink and enjoy more delicious nata. Thanks Ana!

Our last Portugal day we spent in Sintra, a small town just 45 minutes from Lisbon. We visited the National Palace and I was quite taken with the beautiful old furniture, the tiled interiors, the amazingly painted ceilings and the light huge kitchen.

After the palace, we walked up to the Castelo dos Mouros - a nice walk and spectacular views from the castle.

Lisbon and Sintra are now added to my vacation pictures on flickr.

Here’s a nice fado sung by Amália Rodrigues.

Mr Black mug

manos is updated with the last pieces from the Mr Black & Mme Ochre series, I hope you find something you like! Camilla and I really got hooked on this collaboration and we’re planning a continuation. It’ll be in a while, but stay tuned.

“wrapping paper flowers”

Today is a working from home day, I usually try to fit one of these into every week. I eat a long big breakfast or, like today, go out for breakfast and after that the day is filled with admin, bookkeeping, updating web and blog etc etc. I treasure these days, they’re like a routine breaker and a breather.

The purple beans has moved outside and they’re getting stronger by each day.

Mme Ochre has made it onto my coffee mug. A beaker like this might be one of the items we add to manos the first week of June (that’s the last week of the Mr Black & Mme Ochre exhibition).

Passion for Business is a new swedish magazine for women entrepreneurs. There are some great articles in the first issue but so far the spotlight is on big business women - not the small scale self employed, I hope they’ll also be embraced.

Thank you for waiting so patiently for manos shop!

It’s now online with most of the pieces from Mr Black & Mme Ochre as well as a few assorted items from manos shop. Happy shopping or viewing!

More pictures on my flickr and on Camilla’s flickr.

It’s been a really lovely last few days and I’m pleasantly tired now but hanging in there as they’re showing “Lost in Translation” on TV.

Camilla and I had planned to put the exhibition together on Wednesday and just have small alterations to do on Thursday. So on Wednesday at 10 am the sun-curtain-repair-guys call me and say they’re coming over in 30 minutes to fix the sun curtains. It’ll take two days they say and there went our plan I’d been waiting to get the curtains repaired since December so we just had to share the green house and make the best of it. They finished the repair just after the private view and now I have great curtains and a great exhibition going at manos!

I know you’ve been waiting for information about where to buy our pieces without flying over to manos, and let me tell you - so have I! There’s been some hick-ups with manos web, but I think I’ve found a temporary solution now and an online shop will be up during the coming week. I’ll keep you posted.

Here’s a moment of peace from my office wall this morning. It’s Tord Boontje’s garland making a beautiful shadow.
Apart from that, my days are pretty much jam-packed full of preparations for the opening of manos next week and the usual day to day running of the workshop. When looking out over my greenhouse this afternoon, I must say that it didn’t look like it will be an inspirational and beautiful shop in a weeks time… Whenever I feel I’ve taken on a bit much, I say to myself that it’s good to challenge yourself and this is a little seed of something that will grow and evolve with every day and it doesn’t have to be perfect!

I sent quite a lot of work to Le Bon Marché in Paris earlier this month and the other day I got their inspirations catalogue in the mail. My bowl is on page 26! I love seeing how others choose to display and “style” my work as it says something about how they interpret it. There were lots of inspirational pages in the catalogue, I’ve added some here (they’re towards the end of the set).

And a link…to 49 sensational skirts by Alison Willoughby, due to launch in the UK on April 24th. That girl certainly knows how to make wearable works of art!

The colour of the ranunkel above is so beautiful. I’ve added some more Stem vases and lots of little pots with chickens on them to my etsy shop.

My grandmother used to save everything under the device that it might come in handy some day. I’ve inherited some of that mentality, and so I’ve found some lovely papers in my archives. I’m using them for wrapping and they make the little parcels really special.

I’ve saved this but where did I get it from? Who’s the illustrator??
Update: It is Sukie, they have this pattern as a handkerchief for instance! Thank you Margit!

Mr D and I went to a west coast wedding over the weekend in a beautiful windswept little town called Fiskebäckskil.

A small preview of some Easter related etsy odds that will be up on Wednesday (probably late as I’m so busy getting everything ready for manos launch in…two weeks time!!), until then here are some links I’ve enjoyed of late.

Photography by Masumi Kawamura.

Recent ceramics work by Gitte Jungersen, via Bibbi’s blog.

Gesundheit clothing, where did I get this from? I don’t remember I’m afraid, but it’s a lovely link. UPDATE: and the link has a lovely blog (thank you!).

Today was spring in the air, beautiful and crisp green, I think I might have got a sun-tan from working in my workshop greenhouse. Yesterday was beautiful but in another way - cold and a layer of frost covered everything, here’s the rosebud bush.

I’m in this months issue of swedish interior and design magazine Residence. I really like the picture!

I’m off to upload some more etsy odds now, I hope there’s something there for you!

Just one link - preloved, Canadian recycled fashion. Thank you Loyal Loot girls!

This week I’m taking part in the designboom mart at the Stockholm Furniture fair. It’s my second mart - the first one was almost three years ago at the ICFF. It’ll be fun and very different doing it again in my familiar environment.

To my deligth I see that Loyal Loot from Canada will also be there, selling their log bowls which I’ve admired from afar for some time now.

‘Things we do for love’ is opening at Platina (my favourite Stockholm jewellery gallery) on February 7th. The artists has been asked to share an experience or show something that they think that the spectator will feel an urge to tell their loved one. The piece above is called ‘Forbidden fruit’ and it’s by Aud Charlotte Ho Sook Sinding.

There’ll be no etsy odds on Wednesday. Instead there’ll be a new and double batch the following week and a report from the furniture fair and the mart this week!

My goodness, you are fast as lightning! I added five etsy odds and now they’re all gone! However, I’ve also added pebbles and candle holders so the shop is not at all empty.

Today’s etsy odds had two porcelain bowls, I used to make everything in porcelain from the beginning and then I went over to stoneware. Now I find myself coming back to the porcelain again and it’s nice. I so like porcelain!

maroulette is no longer blogging, but she’s got a website full of lovely things.
The necklace above is from her transitions series and the pebble ring… wonderful!

Did you see this fantastic combination at the Sartorialist?

This weeks odds are up in my etsy shop and I’ve added some more porcelain pebbles.

I’ll be adding a few odds every week, until I’ve cleared some shelf space. I’ll try to keep Wednesdays my ‘odds day’, I’ll be sure to let you know though.

The day started with wet snowy rain and late trains, followed around noon by this blessed light coming in through my office window only to be taken over by the big grey again a while later. But the flowers in my studio don’t mind, they just go on looking fabulous and making my day.

My shelves are a treasure trove of “odds” - ceramics I’ve made that for various reasons have been saved. It might be that I’ve tried out a different size or a new glaze or pattern. Some of them have little defects that are actually quite charming. Each one is completely unique. I believe that all these pieces can find a home somewhere out there so I’m going to put them up in my etsy shop. Just a couple of them a week, starting on Wednesday so stay alert!

Here’s some wrapped etsy sales from this week, they’re all on their way to you! I have added be adding some more stones later today, the ones featured on d*s. Available in my etsy shop. I’ll try to make some more of the other ones soon as well!

Here’s a nice read about the thinking and planning behind Rare Device. I got the tip via the girl in the green dress.

I’ve been coming across the Carga bag several times this week and I do think it is very nice. The smaller one is available from the all purpose shop at Refinery 29, but I’m most keen on the larger one…

Otherwise, I’ve been directed to all sorts of lovely finds by Tas-ka, a wonderful find in itself!

Here’s what the Stem vase looks like inside.

I’ve updated my etsy shop with vases, votive candle holders and porcelain stones. Enjoy!

Don’t miss - Camilla is doing a great job as d*s guest blogger.

UPDATE: I made a mistake when entering the shipping costs on etsy and the price for the Stem vase… I’ve corrected that and it is now much more reasonable!

The azalea loves it in the greenhouse and I hope manos will too - thank you for wishing me well! I’m spending as much time as I can putting together the first manos collection - there are so many lovely things out there so it is an easy and at the same time hard task.

Here are my new shoes (and here they are from the back), me and Camilla bought a pair each from Knulp. So now we’re walking in the same shoes - I noticed the other day as she linked to enfant terrible, a site I’d found that day too It’s wonderful and I love their story, it echoes a lot of my thoughts behind manos.

Some nice lighting at Propeller design from Canada.

More Canada from Cabin. Both links via Bientot Demain.

Now, hold on to your seats… I’ll be updating my etsy shop this week! Tealight holders and porcelain stones, I’ll let you know when.

My cheeks are warm from being in the cold all day and suddenly sitting by the kitchen table blogging and enjoying a glass of red wine. What a delightful weekend I’ve had! I love the Christmas sale when lots of people come to visit and I can dedicate my time to talking to them. It was extra satisfying this year to open up my new studio with the light flooding in and to show my work against this beautiful backdrop. I took some pictures before it all started on Saturday morning and then I didn’t have a moment until it was all over this afternoon, here they are. To see what else was on sale - don’t miss Överjärva Gårds extensive report! Thank you all for visiting!

Sometimes mistakes turn out wonderfully. I’m glad I saved this porcelain vase that was torn while I was throwing it. The leaf is from the time someone else was residing in the green house and growing large tropical plants in there.

Production must not stop although a move is going on. I managed to throw some big bowls today, if they make it through the whole process they’ll be heading off to Weego in a couple of weeks.

The grape vine in my workshop was infested with some sticky creatures, I’m hoping it still have some life left in those dry but beautiful branches.

Stilleben online shop opens tomorrow.

Once upon a time I wrote a post about Odd Molly and it’s become sort of a forum for their fans around the world it seems Huset is a shop selling Odd Molly.

Well hello there Sorry for the long absence, my 24 hours just didn’t last lately. I have missed you.
Above is a beautiful spread from the latest issue of Elle Interiör - my hangings are on the left hand side and my new workshop is on the right. It’s not just because of this pr that I love it - it’s simply the way it’s styled and the wonderful photography. See bigger here. The tealight holder I’ve made for nest was also featured in this issue. See a sneak peak of the latest issue here.

I need to visit Yllet soon and get myself another pair of their wrist warmers. They’re the best I’ve ever had and they last forever, the only reason I need a new pair is because I’ve dropped one…

Pernilla Sylwan won first price in the Designforum 20050 competition with a bracelet made up of scart contacts, the jury called it “Futuristic unisex esthetics.” I like the bracelet (see it on Pernilla’s site and ‘live’ on Waldemarsudde until nov 18th) and I also like her bowl with wings (above).

Marie-Louise Sundqvist is another potter who’s started a blog. Above are her lidded bowls in production.

Open House is one of my outlets that is also blogging!

Stina Wirséns illustrations on stamps - these make me want to send letters to everyone. Buy them online from the swedish post office. See the cover and more here.

I’ve taken down the ceramics sign outside my workshop and put a vase of autumn flowers in my new space. Am moving my kiln, the big working table and sink when I get back from Istanbul (where I’m going with Camilla and friends on Monday!). The light is flooding into my new workshop, it’s already influencing me and I’m so looking forward to start working there, what a treat!

And here are some more exclamations…

Poppytalk’s virtual streetmarket - wonderful!

I love all the new layouts - design*sponge and whip up!

It was mav who pointed me in Proefs direction and it’s so inspiring there!

Industrial chic jewellery from Ligia Dias via Refinery29 (thanks Philippe!).

Edizione has got a new b e a u t i f u l limited edition book out!

My new work has arrived at Landscape Products (well spotted Camilla!).

Finally, sometimes it’d be lovely to be able to be in two places in one time - Istanbul and Origin

On Friday Liisa is leaving for Finland again and I feel about as happy as the porcelain figure above. She’s been doing a work placement with me for four months but now her fourth and last year at ceramics- and glass design starts and I’m on my own. It has been a pleasure having her around, a delight getting to know her and a huge HUGe help.

Liisa has not only helped me out but also has had time to work on and develop some lovely work of her own. Her porcelain and stoneware heads are my favourites, they have started laughing over time but I actually love these sullen looking ones.

Stina Persson has a new website and I like her heads very much as well.

Thanks to Jolayne who spotted my vases amongst fueledbycoffee’s photos from London design week. Here are designbooms report from London Design week and their photos from the handled with care exhibition (which is the one my vases were part of).

After a tight - but good - week in the workshop I’m enjoying a relaxed Saturday. My workshop is usually open to visitors on Saturdays but this autumn I’m keeping it closed - it’s because I’m moving into my new space and because I need to focus on production! My workshop’s really a factory at this time of year.

The bottom line is I can choose what I want to do with my time and I’m relishing in the luxury! In a little while I’ll bike to the library. I hope they have a cd of Duruflés Requiem to lend me. My choir is working on that now, the concert is first weekend of November.

Last Saturday I went into the Glassery, a gallery of contemporary glass situated in a beautiful space on Ragvaldsgatan.

After that I went passed the pink window display at Face Stockholm and liked it.

I had time to browse through some of my Bloglines subscriptions and found Gesundheit via A Cup of Jo.

Porcelain stones waiting to be smoothed around the edges. These particular ones will turn white and turquoise with butterflies on them and will
be in Cosa’s stand at the HOME fair in two weeks time.

These three ‘Stem’ vases will be shown at Designbooms ceramics exhibition ‘Handled with care’ at Designersblock in London. See them closer here, here and here. I love the small orange piece they’ve used for the poster, although I still have to find out who its by.

I’m packing and keep getting stuck in old sketch books and photographs. I’ve got more sketchbook-pages here.

Here’s a list of links to get lost in:
craft-log
Yen Inc
Papierlabo blogs - browse it all!

Ceramics by Alikka Garder Petersen at Dina Vejling. I think they look lovely and I keep wanting to hear the sound of the lid being put on the sugar bowl! Strange cravings indeed.

Kataoka (above) and Obara at gallery it’s.

All of a sudden it’s turned freezing cold here in Stockholm. Clear skies and crisp cold mornings and days. Perhaps it’s time to bring my coat out from its hiding place.

Hand-made paper coat by Anna-Lena Sondell, with words by Harry Martinsson.

Daniel Reynolds is now selling his beautiful ceramics at Liberty in London. Above is a picture from his ware in progress page, I like those kind of pages.

Liisa and I had a quick inspirations tour around some of the applied arts galleries yesterday - Kaolin, Blås & Knåda, Konsthantverkarna (where Pernilla Svenre is exhibiting some wonderful warm knitted clothes) and Galleri Hantverket. Yvon Trossèls glass at Blås & Knåda looked delicious (above).

Lisa Ottebring is exhibiting at Galleri Hantverket until September 6th. Lisa’s work is so much her! And I thought the clock above was actually quite me as well. Designers Guild in London is now selling Lisa’s functional ware.

Thank you for all the comments on my cosas collection! And thanks Adam for pointing this out

I’ve been longing to tell you this for soo long it’s almost anti-climax now, but I’m moving workshops! Into the beautiful space above. It’s the inside of this wonderful building. My aim is to keep the light and the air and not get too crowded - I’ll be reporting on my progress.

Beautiful pictures of food and vessels on Karen Wise’s site.

Emily has done a third tour of pottery blogs!

You’ve seen her around the web lately, artist Stephanie Levy creates small paintings and mixed-media collages like the ones shown here, created using translucent materials mounted on lightboxes. Here’s what they look like mounted.

I received an email from Elisabeth who told me about DaWanda, a German etsy so to speak. The ‘moon-gazing hare’ is handmade in the UK by Chloe Harford.

I’ve done a collection of vases, bowls and tealight holders for swedish webshop Cosas. We will be adding to the collection as the autumn progresses. I love letting my work take it’s time to mature and slowly grow and really spend time on each piece and detail.

If you look really closely you can see me and David in the coffee pot lid. I find it hard to get my head around working again, I’m usually quite effective, but this holiday has made my head mushy! But to be honest - I think it’s good for me, miss Effectiveness needs it.

Here’s a picture from Krakow, the park that surrounded the old town was just beautiful in the late afternoon light. I’ve added some more pictures from my travels on flickr, as today I just have to tell you some ceramics news I’ve had of late.

Paul has launched a project to get more artists in Ireland blogging, what a great idea! Read more about it here. Through Paul’s blog I found the wonderful little people made by Kenji Uranishi of Kamenendo blog. I believe Mel of Feffakoan has dressed them (correct me if I’m wrong!). The little people also have their very own blog, Sandwich Mountain.

Mette writes a really lovely blog and she’s also a talented potter and textile designer.

Through Mette I found Birgitte Mørk Winthers wonderful brooches, sold through 1+1 Textil.

Emily has put together the most comprehensive list of ceramic bloggers I’ve seen so far. There is a part one and part two. One that she hasn’t mentioned is Bum Crane, that I found just today via Kamenendo blog.

I’ll leave you with the etsy mud team. I hope you’ll all have a lovely August weekend! For those of you spending it in Stockholm - do take advantage of all the goodness at the Stockholm Culture Festival. Yesterday we went to see and hear Yamato (above). It was beautiful and powerful (and they were quite fun as well!).

I’m sitting outside my workshop on a pile of clay that was just delivered. This week, me and Liisa went on an inspirational tour through SoFo, perhaps you can say its Stockholm’s Nolita or Hoxton. Here’s some places we went into or just passed:

Grandpa, a shop with a great mix of vintage furniture, fashion, books and jewellery. Cafe String on Nytorgsgatan, all their furniture is for sale so the place is in constant good change.

Next door to Grandpa is vintage fashion shop Påkläderiet and Coctail Deluxe.

Cafe Skåningen on Skånegatan. Stadsmissionen second hand. I got a pair of very cool sunglasses for SEK 20.

Kunigunda sell for instance Ivana Helsinki and Jenny Hellström.

AH’s ice cream bar on Skånegatan 92. Many believe they have the best ice cream in Stockholm… I also thought they had great table cloths outside. While we enjoyed our ice cream we passed Lolla Palooza, Sara Clausin and Tjallamalla.

King Lily looked interesting but it was closed for the day. We went into crafts galleries 125 kvadrat and Galleri Hantverket.

This is just a little snippet of SoFo, but they’ve got a great website with lots of info about the area. See the whole tour as well as more Stockholm sightseeing on my flickr.

I have to tell you as well that last weeks inspirational afternoon we went to the Architectural museum. Go there!! The summer exhibition with Japanese architectural duo SANAA is just stunning! I was overwhelmed! Of course I forgot my camera at home - I will have to go back I’ll show you later. Here’s designboom’s interview with SANAA with lots of great pictures of their architectural work as well as product design.

More Japan: don’t miss the beautiful stone like vases at Play Mountain Villa.

Last but not least - Abigail’s Sweet Horse Chestnut Mismatched Earrings are on sale!

My odyssey between swedish summer houses took me to Väddö, a longstretched island north east of Stockholm. The wild strawberries were everywhere.

This particular summer house had the most charming bar (its a fine line..), close ups here and here.

Typography by Oded Ezer, the photo of 3D hebrew letters above is from his photoblog on flickr, via beton & Garten.

I’ve been working on some new work - patterns and shapes - that I’m longing to show you. Here’s a small preview of a vase that I’ve had in my collection before. I made the original version during my first year at Central St Martins (10 years ago!!) and its been through a few changes since.

I’ve put aside one afternoon a week for inspiration like museum visits for instance. Yesterday was the first inspirational afternoon and me and Liisa went to Waldemarsudde to see the work of Ulla and Gustav Kraitz. I’ve mentioned them before and this exhibition was as lovely as the others I’ve been to. I love seeing their work integrated into the beautiful garden around Waldemarsudde and I also really enjoyed seeing some information on how their pieces are actually created. That process alone would be worthy of an exhibition. The two ceramic cushions above are about 60 x 60 cm, if not more. I’ll be putting the rest of my images up on flickr over the next few days.

I was asked to give some advice on yarn shops in Stockholm… I’m not a knitter myself, I just love yarn and when googling for for an answer I came across Garnverket and Nysta. The bowl of yarn above is from Garnverket and the delicate linen below is from Nysta.

I’m an admirer of Maria’s seemingly effortless tone and style in her work and her blog. She does things her way and it was really interesting reading her answers to the d*s readers questions.

Happy midsummer!

The rose at the corner of my workshop is blossoming and the scent is wonderful. We moved it from the summer house a couple of years ago and it loves its new accommodation against this very sunny wall. Here’s a big picture and a close up. And here’s a Blossom blog.

I was asked to make a new environmental award for Solna Stad. The winner is Taxi 020, a cab company who has made important environmental improvements this year. For me, it was a different experience to work in a more sculptural way. I very much enjoyed chiseling out the base in the coarse stoneware clay. Close up.

Plastisock - pattern lovers.

The weekend was spent at a friends summer house outside Flen. We swam in the little lake, ate a wonderful barbeque (I especially liked grilled aubergines - why haven’t I put them on the grill before?) and drank Pimm’s in the shade of the apple trees. Like being in a Tjechov novel (at least the apple tree shade, perhaps not the barbeque).

I found little bits and pieces around the house. I love the hen on the plastic cup! I’ve added some more glimpses on flickr. I also managed to catch up on what the Royal family has been up to lately as - like in many summer houses - gossip magazines were frequent.

Feffakookan introduced me to two new ceramic bloggers - musing about mud and bum crane.

Now I’m heading inside to do some glazing and I’m so happy to say I wont be doing it all alone as since yesterday Liisa is here doing her workplacement. And whats more - she will be here four months!! This will be so much help to me - and hopefully lots of valuable experience for Liisa.

Summer is here and I feel like I’ve been given a bouquet of fresh beautiful blogs and links. On happysilly I found Karin Åkesson. I’d love to wrap up presents in her wrapping paper.

Liebling and it’s swedish sister varjehanda was found via fine little thing - sibling to fine little day.

Barbapapa set for salt and pepper by Monty, see more of his ceramics on flickr.

Erika Janunger, taking her MA from interior and furniture design, has made a shelf called Glue and presents her project in a totally capturing video (image below). She’s done some wonderful work - go explore
her website!

I found lots of favourites in the Ceramics and Glass department this year. Marjolaine Lombard paints on glass wall panels for official environments. Her work is inspired by memory and thoughts. I was inspired by the way she’s displayed them on that cart as well. See another view here.

Quite a few projects related to taking care of the environment. Ninna Berger is the designer behind this reconstructed recycled sweater. Jenny Bergström, also from the Textiles department, discuss how design can impact on and raise questions about fear in her case study “Fear of Global Warming”.

I still have some Konstfack things to tell you about, but that’ll be on friday.

Here are a few highlights from my visit to the MA exhibition at Konstfack, more highlights will follow during the week. See the whole flickr set here.

I saw the exhibition with my friend Eva Grinder who’s graduating from MA Graphic design. She’s taken on the task of making a type face (above). It’s called mido and you can see it and download it from here. Eva’s inspiration comes from flowers and plants.

Rut-Malin Barklund is one of the BA-jewellery students showing work in skips outside Konstfack. She’s exploring materials and have been working with MDF board in all her pieces. I really liked them, the texture and the sculptural qualities of the work. See more here and here.

In the Ceramics and Glass department I fell for the subtlety of Pernilla Jansson’s objects made to “disturb the established order". Above is her tiles and here is her lighting.

Christian-Pontus Andersson in the Ceramics and Glass department, is the student who’s probably gained the most press coverage of them all. His “beauty salon in the kingdom of death” was on the front cover of Svenska Dagbladet on Saturday for instance. And it’s worth it - the execution is exquisite, see more here, here and here.

I loved the display of the MA jewellery students work. See the jewellery here.

I’ve linked directly where the student has a website, the others can be found via the Konstfack site.

Karen of K-style has made a slide show of my work - thank you!

Thank you for taking part in my give-away! The six winners have been notified and little parcels have been sent out across the Atlantic and one across the Baltic sea. I’ve loved getting your emails and stories about favourite ceramic pieces. I’ll be doing more give-aways

The little raku piece above was sent in by Ali and it has a story: “..my favorite ceramic piece has to be this little handmade raku vessel, which I received as a wedding present last year. it is both delicate and rough at the same time, and very small [smaller than the length of my hand] - the top part has been pinched together on each side to represent angel wings and there are very fine striations on the front and back. i would love to find out more about the artist who made it, all i know so far is that it came from Gallery Besson in London.”

Does anyone know?!

Butterfly necklaces by Trine Weng and Susan Liebe of danish duo casalinga.

A platter by Louise Ebbmar, it was found amongst her seconds and now it’s living on Desirée’s kitchen table. Doesn’t it look lovely with the tomatoes?

“Turned upon by his own creation” by Rebecca Wilson, I fell for this creature who looks so very determined and wonderfully stubborn.

This was only a small selection of artists whose work you like - more will popping up now and again - I have lots of new acquaintances to explore!

I bought a pair of dangly earrings at Street the other week, here is what they look like on.

Here is a pregnant polar bear brooch by Felieke van der Leest, see more jewellery animals at Beatrice Lang gallery in Bern, Switzerland.

I’m hoping to go and see the exhibition at Konstfack - it opens tomorrow.

My friend Hanna Tonek Bonnett is taking part in ICFF. This is her Ribbon bowl that she made for The Ribbon Project.

There is still time to take part in the give away!
Update: No time left!

I’ve just moved homes and am exploring new ways of getting to work. Yesterday I passed a fire station and the chocolate factory with their cute little car. Do you want to see more of Stockholm? Emma has put together her very own excellent Stockholm guide.

Jill at FiftyRX3 posted about Aurora Robson’s quite extraordinary sculpture made out of recycled plastic bottles, like the Polywig from 2006.

Diana Fayt is talking money and “playing with clay” - I wholly agree with every word she writes!

Having said that, I’m going to give some work away See it as a warm appreciation from me to you for reading my blog and taking the time to give me comments! The girls at Tangled and True gave me the idea to have a give-away, they’re doing it all the time. I’ve got six tea light holders - two of each of the patterns above to send out. Send me an email with a picture of your favourite ceramic piece - just because I’m curious to see what you like. I will put all of your names in a bowl and pick six winners. The lottery is open until Monday 14th May 5 pm GMT.

Update: It doesn’t have to be one of my pieces Just any ceramic piece you like - whether functional or sculptural, it doesn’t matter!

Have a sweet weekend!

Thank you for great folding bike advice! I’ll let you know what happens

Camilla is back in Gothenburg with a report of what she saw in Stockholm! She brought a copy of bloom with her here and we found my cup in one of the pictures! bloom is such a beautiful magazine, what a treat to be in it!

I’m working on some new patterns, inspired by Albertus Seba’s amazing drawings of butterflies and insects. I can’t tell you how wonderful it feels to be able to prioritize working on something new. I can breathe!

The Sartorialist is in Stockholm

This week and next are deadline weeks for me, meaning I’ve got lots of orders to ship out. This week I’ve sent vases of all sizes and patterns to Clio, today two boxes of tealight holders are off to Stilleben and on Tuesday Designers Guild on Kings Road received for instance a whole lot of cups. They sent me pictures of the shop display - it’s a tiny little picture but I hope you can see how lovely they’ve displayed it.

Yesterday I had a TV team here!! They did a 10 second feature of my event on the Applied Arts day (tomorrow), it was sent on the regional news program yesterday evening. I turned as red as a turnip as soon as they started filming… Phew.

I hope to see some of you here tomorrow, make your own mug between 11 and 4 pm!

Just some links before I leave you: I loved some of the designs in Jill’s post about Project Earth Day; Great kitchens on the Kitchen Designer blog; Pernilla Svenre’s (work)shop is also open tomorrow during the applied arts day!

Cherry blossoms in Kungsträdgården, in central Stockholm.

Makoto Azuma is a contemporary floral sculptor, I found him through Beton Garten and fell completely! Everything on his website, the handwritten text, the photography and the floral work - has a lightness and a crispness that I really like. Here’s an interview with Azuma.

“What does your mug look like?” is my theme for the Applied Arts day this Saturday. I will have mugs and decals ready in the workshop for anyone wanting to create their own masterpiece! Read more on my website.

This is one of Nadia Sparham’s mugs. I found her through Sanna Hellberg’s weekly page in DN Bostad. Nadia also makes murals, here’s my favourite:

Paletten no 1/2007 is all about applied arts - not to be missed!

This is what I’ve been doing lots lately. And packing of course, but no blogging - sorry!

Most of the Easter weekend was spent in the workshop, but I had Sunday off and spent it strolling in Vinterviken. The gallery space in the old Nobel factory is stunning. Some more pictures on flickr.

They were showing water colour paintings, but none that I liked as much as Aya Takano that I found through redsil.

I came out of Pressbyrån with a whole stack of magazines, apart from Hemslöjden (a favourite of mine) and Craft (I was very pleased to find this, but realized it was t e r r i b l y expensive to buy here), I also found three brand new ones:
Camino - for a sustainable lifestyle
Modette - fashion mag
Trädgårdsliv - gardenlife

Donna Wilson has created the Scottish weather… in knit. The lambswool clouds, woolen rain and assorted animals has been shown at the lighthouse Gallery in Glagsow.

I’m happy to say the weather in Stockholm is currently the complete opposite to Scotlands. They say the weekend will bring summer temperatures and I’m off to the archipelago - perfect!

This is my new, improved votive candle holder
It’s taller than it used to be, so it glows more. The ‘collage’ (above) and ‘rose bud’ varieties are now for sale in my etsy shop.

The candle holder below is part of the spring collection for nest. If you’re not yet familiar with nest - go read their global vision. And here’s a link to the nest blog!

I’ve been working so hard these past two weeks and I’ve got lots done. I usually prioritize the blog, but this time I had to spend all my concentration on making and trying to keep up with email requests. If you haven’t had a reply from me, it’ll be sure to come next week (and if it doesn’t, please remind me!)!

Spring flowers are looking up through the leaves. Blåsippa is one of my favourites.

Happy Easter!

I love the burst of energy that pre-vacation time brings. And that energy is needed! My workshop table is possibly more crowded than ever before and I have a small army of egg cups waiting to be paraded into the kiln and on Sunday they shall be decorated with prints of hens and roosters (below). I’ll show you on Monday when I hope they’ll be ready (they have to be!).

If I feel like sitting down for a second or two, I’ve got a whole stack of lovely magazines - the new gorgeous issue of Selvedge, a yummy Blueprint that mav sent me (thank you!) and Norwegian crafts magazine Kunsthåndverk.

The cover of Kunsthåndverk is adorned with brooches by Norwegian jewellery designer/maker Ingjerd Hanevold whose work is now exhibited at Kunstnerforbundet.

Amongst the beautiful articles in Selvedge“>Selvedge I found this cute and yet restrained little egg cosy in antique linen with embroidery by Caroline Zoob.

Have a good weekend!

It seems the comments section was accidentally turned off when I was away. I missed your comments! It’s back on again now and I’m almost looking forward to the spam - it was so empty not receiving any feedback!

Cressida sent me an email about her beautiful online shop luxeville. I like their logo, which is also adorning a tray they sell, and I love the masks from Zid Zid kids.

Here are two more things I read about in Kunstuff:

PJUX - shoes made for the foot, with respect for the environment. The women’s collection just launched.

CC11 is the new collection from danish Crafts Collection, featuring for instance Britt Villadsen’s lovely ceramic spoons (above).

Sometimes I get postcards from Raymond Biesinger, I like his illustrations and I like getting postcards! Above is one of Raymond’s illustrations for Vue Weekly.

Jon Tran illustrations, via kunstbetrieb.

Gerda Steiner and Jörg Lenzlinger’s ‘Falling Garden’ has been waltzing around the web, I also like their ‘Brainforest’ installation. Beton & Garten, where I first heard about Gerda and Jörg, recently unearthed work in the same vibe by Japanese artist Teika Itho.

Mmm - Ebay and etsy tips from Molly Symmonds at the d*s guest blog.

I’ve made a ‘love tile’ for Platina’s Valentine exhibition. See another ‘love tile’ here. The exhibition continues until 31st March.

It’s soo cold here today!! I wish I had a stove that could keep me warm. Yesterday at the Stockholm Furniture Fair I kept warm, running up and down the isles… Here are some of the things I saw.

Above is a detail of Annica Svensson’s tiled stove that she shows in Konsthantverkscentrum’s stand. If you bend your neck, you can see the whole stove here and a close up of the door here.

See another view of Konsthantverkscentrum’s stand here.

Processor were showing in Greenhouse - the area for independent designers and design schools. Their new products were just as yummy as I thought they would be. All the patterns are printed on ecological cotton: “Rut brown” (above) and Blue, Rex orange and Green, “Sy, sy, sy”. Here’s a picture of their stand and I liked how they had written their name.

Above is a computer table by Catarina Boström and a flower curtain by Anna Eklund, both third year students at Sydväst University of Applied Sciences.

See all my photos from the fair here.

Enjoy your weekend!

Thank you for all the sweet comments! The water came back and no 3 is blossoming Here are some things I’ve liked lately.

Willow bark basket (I love the sound of that) by Jennifer Heller Zurick, via Design DNA.

Crinkled porcelain paper cup, from Rose and Radish via Joy’s guestblog.

From the spring/summer 07 collection by Gypsy and Loic, via Jill Danyelle at Inhabitat.

Pilha, a project by Angela Detanico und Rafael Lain via Beton & Garten and VVork. I just really like the way the way the boxes are stapled on top of each other against the wall…

Mmm, wintry weekend ahead. It’ll be filled with salsa dancing and perhaps a long walk on Sunday? And work of course Do you remember what the Orangerie looked like in the autumn?

I’ve mentioned Mel Robson before in connection with Craft Australia and now she’s made these beautiful tiles. She’s also got a fine blog!

More Australia: Smart works - an exhibition, symposium and publication exploring the values of the handmade.

‘The Antenna’ an installation by Ilya Kabakov. The text says:

“My Dear One! When you are lying in the grass, with your head thrown back, there is no one around you, and only the sound of the wind can be heard and you look up into the open sky - there, up above, is the blue sky and the clouds floating by - perhaps this is the very best thing that you have ever done or seen in your life.”

Read the whole exhibition history and critical commentary on Ilya and Emilia Kabakov’s site. Via Beton & Garten.

Happy weekend everyone!

Fabulous example of Harris Tweed, Vivienne Westwood style, via SuperNaturale.

Paulina Reyes via Here & There.

This fashion is getting to me now, Cutie booties from Le Trainblue.

Two links found through Popgloss:
Beautiful, it’s in porcelain by Vic Bevan.
Baks - danish jewellery.

I saw Gosia Korsakowski’s beautiful glass tumblers at Grace’s House & Garden blog a while ago and now they’re available from her etsy shop.

Curlin has made some truly enchanting ceramic vases.

I’ve showed this brooch by Bettina Speckner before - led to it by Abigail - and here it is again. If you’re lucky enough to be in Amsterdam: until January 15th it’s shown at Ra Gallery. The exhibition is called The Everyday and the far Away.

To all of you from all of me: a very merry Christmas!

Parisian Dolls by Bencke, via made it.

Fischli & Weiss at the Tate modern, via Beton & Garten. Here’s a film by Fischli & Weiss.

I bought this card in Budapest, I adore him!

A still life of ceramic jewellery and a tile that I’ve been working on during the year. I hope to make some more soon, right now I just thought it has quite a wintry feel to it.

It’s like a little factory here at the moment and I’m clay Santa
For those of you who live around here - this weekend is the Christmas Market. It’s open Saturday and Sunday 9-10th December 11-4 pm.

I’ve made candle holders for thin candles in a coarse dark stoneware clay and my Christmas cards will be for sale - as they are on etsy!

My amaryllis is now in full bloom! But where is the snow?!

Although I’m not a knitter I frequently fall in love with yarn and this soft cloud from Blue Sky Alpacas is one of those loves. Found via Tante Sophies links list.

Lovely porcelain cup by Anna Sykora, found via Maditi.

Rappne’s café is a 20 minute walk away from my workshop and today I went there for a long lunch. One long lunch a week, long walks and sleep are part of my project-not-to-go-crazy-with-too-much-work. Tomorrow I’m starting the day with a very long walk, so I shall stay sane for this week at least.

Giardino calante, via Beton & Garten.

Geren Ford fall 06 via clothes-pin.

Sunday morning and I’ve been browsing bloglines. “How small can beat the big” is something I bookmarked ages ago, but it stands the test of time. And on a similar theme, I agree with Rena!

I’ve ordered a diary from Cecilia. Her diaries are exquisite. She makes them in pink for instance, but mine will be cognac.

My etsy shop is coming out of it’s long sleep.

Morran has made it to flickr top ten!

My little kiln is back on track! It needed some attention and care - and who doesn’t once in a while? I’m not going to bore you with images here, but for those of you who’re curious what it looked like, here’s a flickr set dedicated to my kiln.

Here’s a tribute to the rest of my workshop. It shows glimpses of my workspace. Jehane took the glimpse above when she came over in September, I love that picture! It’s a Tord Boontje garland and a little piggy bank.

I got to know Jehane when she asked me to exhibit at her open house in Brighton and now I’ve been there three times. Jehane also run a webshop all year round, here’s one of it’s treasures: a lined linen bag by Sarah Bidwell.

Here’s a beautiful piece of work, inlayed cabinet by Robert Eaves.

I’m taking the train to Gothenburg this weekend - see you next week!

Today I’m practising patience and calm. My kiln is not very happy with me at the moment! It’s not much that I can do about it until it cools down and the elements I’ve ordered arrives. In the meantime, no firings. Sigh.

Lucky for me, I’ve got some tea that is balancing for women… I bought it from Lilla Gröna, a fresh and modern eco-shop on Mälaröarna.

Swissmiss have had some great links lately. She found the calm invoking shelf above by L’Abbate, I also liked this pendant and this magazine, especially issue 4. She also made me buy this book.

It’s a bit early, I know, but I just got Stilleben’s newsletter and they’ve got these delightful Christmas decorations by Anna Carin Dahl. I’d love to have them hooting away in my Christmas tree!

UPDATE! I have deleted a mistake that sneaked itself into this post: the owls are by Anna Carin Dahl and no one else! You can reach Anna Carin and see more of her work at Designer Zoo.

The first snow is amazing every year. I love that we have proper seasons in Sweden - the warm summer makes me long for a rainy dark autumn which makes me yearn for a white crisp winter and after a few months of that I’m more than ready for spring.

Lots of things are happening today. My Sky bowl is launching with Nest. Read more about the nest mission here or in a previous post of mine.

d*s shop is presenting November’s limited editions.

Lizzie Ridout has launched her website - lots of lovely things to look at! Above is one of her Welcome mats.

Oh yes, I by other people’s ceramics. Big time! Is there anything better than drinking your tea out of a cup made by someone you know or at least have met? These two pebble shaped vases by Miyoko Onishi, I just fell for - the touch, the shape, the colour! They’re small, I can hold each one in the palm of my hand. *Swoon* as Abigail would say! Miyoko doesn’t have a website, but she was at Origin.

One can tell that Tanya Goodwin is a stylist as the images on her webshop home from the sea are so beautifully composed. Found via Sue Paraskeva.

Here it is - casual style. I could just live in it and I know it’ll keep me warm all through our cold winter. Read more about Alison’s skirts in my d*s post from the other day.

Now I really have to go and do some work!! (I mean, get clay all over my hands.)

I had a newt (or was it perhaps a salamander?) in my workshop today. It was probably lost, trying to find a pile of leaves to rest under. It brought me right back down to earth, a nice contrast to my week and a half in London.

It’s so rewarding and so much fun to be at an event like Origin - selling, getting a chance to explain and best of all - sometimes getting a new perspective on my work.

The wall needed a drawing and so I did one. I don’t think it was allowed really but it looked so nice! And I did suffer for it, waking up worrying that I’d done something wrong and getting my little crime completely out of proportion.

The flowers were a nice contrast to my rose patterned vase.

Everything was wrapped with linen thread and tagged with mav’s gorgeous tags.

That’s it for today. More will follow about the excess of talented designer makers I met and about my London shopping spree… Inspiration overload. More pics on flickr.

Hi everyone!
I’m so enjoying Origin, it’s going really well and one after another lovely blogreader is popping up!
Yesterday, I had a good look around the fair and bought some beautifully tactile porcelain vases in the shape of pebbles, made by Miyoko Onishi. I’ve got gorgeous presents for my paper loving friends from Rachel Hazell and I have invested in a skirt for myself. You know by who.
Camilla is here to help me out and the other night we had dinner with Abigail and Claire at Baltic. All in all, I couldn’t imagine having a better time. Will be back next Thursday (or perhaps not)!

PS I hope no one has missed the d*s shop??

Things are slotting into place for Origin. My three big boxes has already arrived in London so I will have something to show… My table is made, by the lovely Roy and Jane (thank you!), so I will have something to show my things on… My postcards are printed and they are great! Eva designed and Lars photographed.

It’ll be easy to want to spend at Origin, just look at the wonderful porcelain pieces by Ninna Gotzsche. Alison Willoughby’s skirts are fantastic. I experienced them last year at Chelsea Crafts Fair and next week I’ll be seeing them at Origin!

We’ll have quite a swedish representation during the first week - I’ll be in the good company of textile artist Åsa Pärson (above) and silver smith Niklas Ejve (below).

My evenings will be spent in the company of lovely friends and I’m looking forward to a blogger meet up on Wednesday! It might be a bit quiet here on the blog though…

PS I think you’ll like howies and the photos by Alun Callender. Thank’s Kathleen!

Oh, yes - autumn has arrived so I uploaded some glimpses from my summer on flickr.

I love this picture! The photo is by Tas Kyprianou and the three dimensional illustration “Primeminister Goldfinch” is by Cathy Miles. She’ll be at Origin next week and I’m looking forward to see her work in reality.

Önskekonsert is a quiet play. Yes, no talking, just a concert being played on the radio and the sounds emanating from an evening in miss Rasch’s life.

I heard about the play because it’s scenographer Zofi Nilsson came by and bought some of my work for miss Rasch. Miss Rasch drinks her coffe out of this and she’s got my porcelain stones (above) and a short hanging.

Riksteatern has teamed up with housing companies around Sweden in whose flats the play is performed. Look at the tour plan - it might be on it’s way to a flat near you?

Livsnjutarens guide till Stockholm seem like an excellent guide to explore Stockholm, whether you live here or not. Found through Brax.

Take a look at Anya Kivarki’s brooch featured at MoCo LoCo.

Jimmy Potter buys a lollipop, 1952. Photographer Erik Cornelius.

I went to see the exhibition about Stig Lindberg at Nationalmuseum. Being swedish, I was brought up on Lindberg’s illustrations in Krakel Spektakel and his Berså coffee cups. But apart from that I’ve never really known all that much about him.

Coffee cups in different models. Photographer Bodil Karlsson.

I was gladly surprised when he turned out to be so much more than Berså and Spisa Ribb (the links are to a very lovely flickr site called fikapaus - it’s devoted to coffe cups)! More about Stig Lindberg on whip up.

The reason I went to see the exhibition now (and not later - it continues until February 25th 2007) is that I’m taking part in a panel discussion on Sunday (yep, I’m a wee bit nervous about this) when Nationalmuseum organizes a theme day about Lindberg. The discussion will be concentrated around pattern, branding and artistic copyright. Book your ticket here.

Playingcard, 1958. Photographer Bodil Karlsson.

PS If you have a flickr pro account - have you ordered your free moo cards? (thank’s my markup!)

All images copyright Nationalmuseum.

Thank goodness for mav, shiny squirrel, clothespin, style bytes, fiftyRX3, sartorialist and Joy so that I can enjoy NY fashion week from afar.

My heart is beating faster for the gorgeous coat from Lela Rose, the colour and shape from Derek Lam and the fantastic dress by Marc Jacobs (top picture). All the images are from style.com.

Refinery 29 highlighted runway headgear, for instance the beautiful gemstone tiara that Marc Jacob’s models wore.

I’ve got two tickets for Origin to give away! Email me before 5 o’clock pm GMT on Saturday 16th September when the big draw will take place. The ticket will get you entry for one week of Origin - I’ll be there week one

Oh, if you crave more potter bloggers the parade continues at whip up.

It really is pretty here at Överjärva, the sun is shining through a crack in the dark clouds and thousands of raindrops are glittering in the grass. And in the background is the constant sound from the motorway - it’s not visible but always there and I’m not saying that to ruin the wonderful image above. I actually think it’s kind of an exiting clash.

Lovely Julia dress from Cecile Belmont that I found through Shari’s blog.

This Marni coat from Browns is my kind of coat.

A Butterfly Egg Stand from Polly George, designer of exquisite and witty ceramics.

I thought this was quite funny, no offence!

In the latest issue of Lantliv the fashion spread is photographed here at Överjärva Gård (where my workshop is). It’s a country romantic mix of frilly skirts and Wellingtons and thrown in are a couple of my cups and vases!

I’ve uploaded the whole spread on flickr.

Nivå 125 is yet another beautifully positioned gallery on the outskirts of Båstad. The road goes up up and once there you’ve got the most gorgeous view out over the Laholm bay.

I fell in love with Torsten Renqvist’s stone elephant who was positioned by the entrance. This little elephant is no 30 in a limited series of 35 made in 1984 for Konstfrämjandet. I haven’t yet found a good site about Torsten Renqvist, but here’s a link that shows two wonderful bird sculptures that he’s made.

Until August 31st the gallery is showing ceramics by Signe Persson Melin. I named my Signe beakers after her (and after a rose), I think her work is so full of life. It’s tactile and strong and beautiful.

The birdbath was wonderfully displayed with the green vine leading the eyes upwards. The birdbath is for sale from Melindesign.

The shop at Nivå had a very inspiring book about Per Benjamin’s flower art. Here’s an example:

We also squeezed in a visit to Design House Stockholm’s outlet where I bought an ever so soft “Pleece". The outlet was situated in a warehouse normally used for storing potatoes, which explains the lovely display.

Bissa and Anders Segerson run the wonderful Hovs Hallar Gallery on Hovs Hallars väg 65, Båstad. Bissa doesn’t have a website (yet), but she’s represented by Blås & Knåda and Konsthantverkarna in Stockholm.

The gallery shows Bissa’s ceramics and Anders’ paintings as well as glass and ceramics by many other artists. When we came to visit, they were exhibiting ceramics by Kenneth Williamsson (no website!!), whose work I find very inspiring.

More beauty scattered around the Hovs Hallar Gallery…

Next door to Bissa and Anders, was the fleamarket at Hov and these girls are getting a good overview. We came too late for the real bargains, but not too late to get a photo of this cracked old plate and the moped that could have been mine…

More pics here.

Where did this week disappear so quickly?
Let’s see, for the first time in my life I went sailing on Monday evening. The weather was a real drama queen - thunder, lightning, rain and sun. It was fantastic and being on the sea with lightning striking puts life into perspective.

I’ve been wearing my latest experiment, a stoneware and silver necklace. I’m getting such nice comments for it and I’ll show you more of the experiments later on!

Yesterday evening was spent in the company of good friends and the bearer of swedish culture - the middle aged ladies. We all went to see the premier of Parkteatern’s play “Vad är det för jävla sommar?”

I’m not going to translate that title, suffice to say the play bring up components of a typical swedish summer and I think it might have reminded the weather Gods of the lack of rain as today it’s arrived. The actors are great singers and dancers and the play is really entertaining - join the ladies and go see it!

“Vad är det för jävla sommar?” will be perfomed in Vitabergsparken until 30th July after which it’ll tour around the other parks in town.

We have four ceramic paintings on the kitchen wall, they’re by Piet Hein for Royal Copenhagen. One says “The one who doesn’t live now, never lives. What do you do?”

And another one says “In the perspective of eternity a moment is a lifetime.”

That’s what I’m pondering while lazying about in the hammock. Here’s from this mornings hammock session, dressed up in my paisley patterned pyjamas with a pine tree view.

When I’m not emerged in deep thoughts I’m reading a book with the beautiful title What I loved, by Siri Hustvedt.

The rose outside my workshops smells wonderful.

A cup with a whale by Ayumi Horie. I like her drawing so much. Don’t miss her Pots in Action page.

A Yohji Yamamoto dress, captured by the Sartorialist today.

Recycled (looks like a piece of a porcelain cup and handle) ring, by Gabriela Felgenträger at alternatives (lots of inspiring jewellery there). Found by Ma Roulette.

I like checking back to see what I blogged about a year ago.

My days are a nice and focused mix at the moment. Today I’ve done some throwing, packed and sent 200 tealights to Stilleben, packed a bisque kiln and made a phone call that I’ve been slightly nervous about.

I’ve just posted about handmade tiles on whip up. Lubna Chowdhary is one of the makers I mention.

Lastly, I’ve stumbled across a bouquet of nice blogs. It’s always a pleasure finding ceramic bloggers, we seem to be a rare species. The latest on my horizon is Coe & Waito. Having said that, it’s a pleasure finding great blogs. Ma Roulette is a jeweller and Miss Hill prints.

I’ve written a Whip up post about Chris Keenan’s ceramics.

I’m joining mav and Stephanie’s colour week. Scrubbed and washed ceramics drying on my doorstep.

Here’s a link to the black cat’s puppet theatre. Click on “smakprov” to see a short taster. Via swedesres.

It’s a good thing I have my little camera, or I might have very well emptied the beach in Brighton of its stones. I find the texture, shape and colour of stones so amazing. I want to have each one of them set in a silver band and made into rings so that I can wear them and adore them everyday. On a more ceramic note, they’re also a great inspiration for glazes…

I’m off to Brighton tomorrow, business intertwined with vacation.

Every year in May a growing number of houses and artist studios in Brighton open up for Artists’ Open Houses which is part of the Brighton Festival. This year 170 houses are taking part and I’m in the Yellow House.

The Yellow House is the home of Jehane, Alex and Lucas who generously opens up their house for artists to show their work and visitors to come and view and buy. I’m taking up recidense in the kitchen and will probably spill out with a mobile or two into the garden, in the good company of Kathy Laird. I’ve brought a bit of everything - vases, bowls, tealight holders, beakers…

Amongst the other artists taking part this year is Jane Muir, whose little ceramic men I simply adore.

Beautiful paintings by Becky Blair (above) and Hannah Cole (below).

More ceramics by Sylph Baier and jewellery by Nicola Becci. And last, but not least, Jehane’s exquisitely embroidered silk cushions and other textiles.

There will be something for everyone! But the best thing is The Yellow House, it’s every bit as welcoming and lovely as it looks in the picture above. If the weather allows it, perhaps Alex will bring his guitar out and we will all sit around the garden singing and sipping Pimm’s…

Check out the opening weekends and hours for the Yellow House. I’ll be there for the first weekend only, but my ceramics will stay on. No 5, cuthbert road, queen’s park - say hi if you come visit this weekend!
And if you can’t make it, you can always buy these artists work and many more from the Yellow House website.

This is Vera and her mum decorating a mug together. I love organizing events like today’s “decorate your own mug". It’s really interesting to watch people being creative - to see how they go about the task and how they interact with each other - viewing each others mugs, helping each other out and perhaps giving each other advice…

I picked lots and lots of spring flowers to decorate the workshop with.

I’m heading out to the country to light a great big bonfire and put my feet up. Here are some links I’ve enjoyed lately:

Mateo Ilasco teatowels and other work. And her blog Designer’s library!

Marianne Thygesen - painter and architect. Here’s one of her goache’s on paper.

LYNN fabriken - shop and workshops in Aarhus, Denmark. Browse through their shop and take a look at their new showroom, Das Moebel, in Vienna - it looks really relaxed and lovely.

Rena at Rare Device has created a flickr group called “Rare out there” for her customers who want to show off their Rare Device purchases. Great idea, I thought! I love seeing what things looks like in other peoples homes, in an unpretentious kind of way.

Happy weekend everyone!

Nu på lördag den 29 april är det Konsthantverkets dag, i hela Sverige och i keramikverkstaden på Överjärva Gård! Så här hittar ni hit.

Jag har öppet i keramikverkstaden 11-16, men kommer nog själv att spendera mest tid i Kapellet (ovan och nedan) instruerande alla som vill mönstra sin egen mugg eller kakelplatta.
Jag har bunkrat upp med IKEA-muggar och vanliga vita kakelplattor och massor av roliga keramikdekaler och färgark. Kostnad: 150 kr för en mugg, 100 kr för en kakelplatta. I priset ingår förutom mugg/kakel och mönster även handledning och dekalbränning. De färdiga konstverken hämtas upp i verkstan. Läs mer om tekniken bakom keramikdekaler.

Konsthantverkets dag är organiserat av Konsthantverkscentrum.

On Saturday it’s the Applied Arts Day, which means artists and designers are opening up their studios to show and sell their work and sometimes offer a try-it-yourself activity. I’ve borrowed the winter garden (images above and below) at Överjärva so that everyone who wants to decorate their own mug will have space to do so. This is a wonderfully creative environment to make your very own art in! Of course, my workshop is also open for everyone to view and buy my work, 11-4 pm.

The event is organized by Konsthantverkscentrum. Here are pictures from my workshop at last years Applied Arts Day.

My second post for whip up is about ceramic decals, which is what I use to decorate my ceramics. I know many of you want to know more about the technique and I hope the post sheds some light!

I was up in the crack of dawn to give my parents a lift to the airport and when one gets out of bed at 4.20 am one does get a lot done! Up until 13 hours later when ones eyes are beginning to feel like they’re full of gravel…

But before I crash on the sofa, I want to tell you the workshop is looking pretty for the Easter market! With beautiful helleborum and tulips in the flowerpots and vases and a boilt egg illustrating what the above little things could be used for.

Around about noon, one of you dear blog readers came through the door! I didn’t know of course, but she said after a while - how wonderful is that? A flesh and blood blog reader… I’m still smiling.

I’ve hung a large mobile in the glass porch of the Yellow House, which used to be the mansion building of Överjärva gård but now is shabby chic on the inside awaiting it’s future inhabitants. For the Easter market, Pernilla has transformed it into a flower haven…

In the middle of the afternoon, I left my friend Pia in charge and took my bicycle to the rehearsal of Haydn’s oratorium, which is being performed tomorrow evening in Sundbybergs kyrka. Here’s my view from the choir through the orchestra:

It’s very powerful music, ranging from quiet beauty through dispair and ending in an inferno. The concert is tomorrow evening at 6 pm, free entry. Here’s how you find the church.

Välkommen till Överjärva gårds påskmarknad nu i helgen!
Logen är fylld av marknadsdeltagare som säljer snidat, virkat och lagat. I Gula Villan har blomsterdekoratör Pernilla Breyer gjort vårfint och i Kapellet är det äggmålning. Krokusen blommar och i hagen skuttar 70 lammungar omkring (de två baggarna nedan är stolta fäder).

Keramikverkstaden är vårstädad, krukor och vaser är fyllda med blommor och jag har gjort ett tjog äggkoppar! Påskmarknaden är öppen lördag-söndag 8-9 april kl 11-16.

This weekend is the Easter market at Överjärva gård, where I’ve got my workshop. Wouldn’t it be great if you could all be there? To see all the handicraft on offer, taste the honey’s and homemade sausages for sale, paint an egg and enjoy the pretty lambs jumping around all spring fevery… And you could try out my limited edition egg cups!

These two live in the field next to my workshop and I give them apple, that’s why they come running so egerly when they spot me coming a mile off.

It’s like a little factory in my workshop at the moment. Fortunately, these tealight holders are off to Copenhagen tomorrow.

Wonderful jewellery by Raquel Moreno (especially the mah-jong/butterflies series).

Stylish things from small businesses: notonthehighstreet, via Daily Candy.

Organic clothing from stewart + brown via fiftyx3.

My first post for whip up is up! Every other week, I’ll be covering the universe of ceramics. Whip up is a group blog featuring handcrafts and if you’re not familiar with it yet - go get updated!

During my research for the premier post found the porcelain lighting by danish ceramic designer/maker Helena Hedegaard.

I especially like her egg lamp (above). As a contrast to the smooth white porcelain she also makes a series of rough bowls and square shaped forms.

Helena Hedegaard sell her ceramic through for instance 1+1 textil, which looks like a wonderful shop.

My next post for whip up will be about screen printing, which is the technique I use for decorating my ceramics. It’s also something many find intriguing and want to learn more about, so I hope to shed some light on it!

My world is spinning fast at the moment with orders coming in and being sent off at tremendous speed! Last week I sent off plates and bowls and beakers to the shop at 21 c Museum Hotel in Louisville, due to open any day now.

According to the NY Times it’s one of the hotels of 2006 or to quote The Informed Traveler: “the hottest thing this side of the Mississippi” . Oh, my, I do get a little jelous of my ceramics sometimes.

Here are more of my outlets that I’ve posted about.

Today is the 80th birthday of Gustav Kraitz, whose ceramic sculptures I admire very much. Together with his wife Ulla he lives and works in a beautiful house and studio in Förslöv, in the south of Sweden. It’s difficult to tell who makes what in their artistic collaboration, so let’s just say I admire their joint work very much!

My parents first took me to visit the Kraitz’ place when I was about 12 years old and since then I’ve been coming back to marvel at the richness in colour and the smoothness and strength in shape of their ceramic pieces. The Kraitz’ has often participated in an open studio event called Konstrundan and that’s when I’ve been visiting.

The outdoor pieces are meant to become part of the environment and they are placed on the lawns outside the studio. It can be a large sphere in cobalt blue or a giant head of a horse in oxblood red. Sometimes the rain might have left a little puddle of water in a crevice of the ceramic piece. The images above are from an exhibition at Norrvikens Trädgårdar in 2003. If you look real close you can see the seals in the water…

Ulla and Gustav Kraitz fire in an 8 cubic metre large kiln, using an old Chinese firing technique. Each firing reaches 2,370 degrees Fahrenheit and take several days and some pieces need to be refired many times in order to reach the wanted effects. The kiln is fired with coal and wood, which creates ash and minerals that leave their trace in the surface of each piece.

Some of my favourite works are the tiny items. The piece above is called “Life” and it’s a series of beautifully made bodies in soft greys to matte charcoals.

In 1998 the Hope monument was unveiled outside the UN building in New York. It’s a tribute to Raoul Wallenberg. Here’s a detail:

I enjoyed reading this article from the Kraitz’ exhibition at San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts.

This ethereal knitwear by Iben Høj was found by hoping for happy accidents.

Ideally, I want time to interfere as little as possible with my life. I like it when my choices are more intuitive and not dictated by the clock. I don’t have a watch, but I could live with this clock on my wall. Found via Better Living Through Design.

Super lovely teapot by Bee House, via design*sponge. You’ll find a whole lot of Bee House teapots here.

Fred Eerdekens art, via MoCo Loco and Cool Hunting. I like the incorporation of shadows in his work. And Helene at favorite choses liked it too!

This particular piece reminds me of Marianne Tolmunen’s ceramic calligraphy from Konstfacks degree show last year. Her work is currently being shown in a showcase at Odenplan tube station here in Stockholm.

I rarely spend a whole day shopping, but that’s what Camilla and I did on Wednesday. Phew, we had to stop often for coffee!

We went to Victoria Arena (above), Sintra, Mouche (which I loved), Maria Westerlind, the food market…

At Sintra, we looked at the ceramic sculptures by Karin Östberg.

Two pair of shoes, one coat from Nygårdsanna and several yarn balls later we dragged our tired feet to the fish shop and bought fresh shrimps and a couple of bottles of wine.

Olivedalsgatan 18 is the address of my window exhibition!

Some of you might get a wee bit jelous of me now: I’m off to see Camilla!
I’m doing a window display in her shopwindow on Olivedalsgatan in Gothenburg.

Even more than the previous window display I did, I’ve used this to experiment. It’s been so rewarding.

I’ve had a limited amount of time and have had to work really fast with ideas and making. I decided to make tiles and work with texture. I’ve used black and white clay, some leaf decals, relief, one clay on top of another that shrinks and creates this really lovely pattern.

And now, the best part is still to come - putting it all together with Camilla!

PS Don’t forget to send a picture of your real outfit or your dreamed up outfit to fifty3X sustainable style carnival!

This year I’ve got more work than ever before and - so far - I’ve had the best work flow with a balance of production, experimentation and inspiration. Not much rest though…lucky me that I sleep like clock work.

This is me at my throwing wheel, making tall “Signe” vases.

The mirror is not only narcissism but an ergonomic worktool… It allows me to look at the profile of the object I’m working on without having to bend over to the side. I think I’ve trained my eyes and my hands to see and feel the shape, it’s such suttle changes that is needed for it to be just right or just slightly off. And sometimes the slightly off is just what is needed…

This is what the vases will look like when they have been turned, fired, glazed, fired, decorated and fired again…

When I saw the tag mav printed, I knew I wanted one for my work too. And the other day they arrived, printed in a shimmering copper colour. Mav did the layout and added the line which is so simple and works beautifully.

Now every purchase from me will be thoughtfully wrapped and tagged.

I bet you will want your own tags now? Visit mav’s etsy shop. And if you want a piece of mine - send me an email!

Laura of Cul de Sac design has her very first solo show at Gallery of BC Ceramics on Granville Island, Vancouver, Canada. I found Laura’s work last year and would love to see her new botanical imagery in person. The show runs through to April 3rd.

Sunday morning and time for web browsing in the sofa with a cup of tea. I spotted this really nice tea container in Sabine’s kitchen and she took me to Illums where they sell the tea. From now on, I’ll be drinking Kusmi tea out of my favourite teacup. And I’ve got five little Kusmi’s for future presents.

Both the cup and the tea has a history. The cup is by Richard Dewar, an english potter in France. I bought four cups of him, two for my dad who likes his teacups big and two for me who love these cups! The tea has this fantastic history which began in St Petersburg in the 19th century, with a man called Pavel Michahilovitch Kousmichoff… that name alone would spark my interest in the tea! Read the whole story on the Kusmi site.

Illums is a very nice department store, good for fashion (although I only had eyes for tea this time) and here’s the scrumptuous display of flowers outside (and pink danish fashion for men…).

And so for the browsing…

“Self healing", an illustration by Caroline Hwang found via Ringo Lo.

I like the diverse style of OGIgraphics, found via chewingthecud. The image is from OGI’s show at the Receiver Gallery last May.

Before I leave my comfortable position in the sofa - I agree with Tribunal of Good Taste that “good blogging requires authenticity and some degree of vulnerability” and thinks she’s succeeded with her dip into cultural antropology!

mirror mirror is the first web-only shop selling my work. Paola has taken some beautiful images of my vase, showing the rose garland pattern trailing along the underneath. And she has done a great job styling the beakers.

mirror mirror sell jewellery, handbags, scented candles - all sorts of nice things, but I’m especially fond of these ethereal porcelain bowls by Mizuyo Yamashita, just beautiful.

mirror mirror is also equipped with a blog (and having just read today’s post, I’d say she needs a little pick-me-up).

Helen Felcey makes stunning bone china and porcelain pieces that breathes harmony. Bone china is a material with a will of it’s own and I admire the exquisite finish of her pieces. Helen’s website has been under construction for an awfully long time now, but hopefully we’ll be able to see some more very soon! Read her statement on Photostore and view more of her work at Peter’s Barn Gallery.

Take a look at Caravanstyle’s inspiring web tour, some of the images doesn’t show up but don’t let that put you off - just keep clicking that arrow!

Camilla finds the best illustrators, here’s Alain Corbel.

With all this snow that just keeps falling, I should take a sleigh ride to the workshop tomorrow! I just need someone to pull. Any takings?

It’s fantastically fun to do a window display and a wee bit tricky too. Here are the windows I put together at Mikaela Willers shop last week. I wanted to do something crisp and light to celebrate January!

The little pot with two horns is a new adventure, following in the footsteps of my dark espressocup (which has got only one horn).

I bought the mocha cups from a local charity shop. They are so pretty, but I wanted to make them more contemporary so I’ve added more pattern which makes a nice contrast and a surprise.

The left window didn’t get the green moss like the right one, but instead it got some painted flowers trailing along the podium. I think it works nicely with the patterns of the tealights.

The pink orchid makes a beautiful contrast standing in a dark textured clay pot, here it is photographed closely with the porcelain leaves in the large mobile.

Mikaela Willers shop is on St Paulsgatan 11 in Stockholm and my ceramics will be in the windows until February 12th!

rum+ is a new outlet for me. It’s run by Helle Dørge and she found my chopstick cushions on FLiT. It’s funny that, how we find each other. Helle now sell my tealight holders, but not the chopstick cushions.

Rum+ is in Lejre in Denmark, situated in an old train station which looks so charming.

Rum+ also sell the brilliant ceramic flowerbags by danish group fabula. I love the pictureshow on their site!
This image is from Craftscollection, who sell fabulas work.

I’m getting ready to ornate both the window displays in Mikaela Willers shop - yep, the same one as the Ginger Cookie Land but this time I have all the space for myself!

I want to create a crisp and quirky and springlike feel in the windows. I’ve made flowerpots and bowls in various sizes into which will be planted the first spring flowers - snowdrops and small grape hyacinths. I think this combination of the coarse charcoal clay and the first flowers to brace the snow creates a nice balance. Note the devils horns on some of the small pots.

In combination with the pots, I’m hanging a large mobile in one window and in the other mint cups “delight” (below), hanging in their handles. It’s all coming up on Tuesday next week, so more pictures will follow!

My, oh my, is it Wednesday already? The days just roll by in a frenzy of playing Captain Hook with my brothers children, eating Christmas ham on crispbread, listening to the CD I got for Christmas (Kings of Convenience), going for walks, reading about planet Blest in Diana Wynne Jones’ The Merlin Conspiracy and taking afternoon naps on the sofa…

Almost forgot: being entranced by the beautiful redbreasted bullfinches (in swedish they’re called domherre) in the tree oposite my kitchen window.

I’m having a rest from the workshop until next week and I’m looking forward to making charcoal coloured flowerpots in a textured clay that will be such a beautiful contrast to fragile snowdrops or helleborum… Am feeling inspired by the texture in Rick Henam’s red clay flowerpots and his very solemn and straight wireneck vases.

Last week I helped decorate the windows of Mikaela Willers shop on St Paulsgatan. It was so much fun! I do some displays in my studio once in a while, but this was more for real as lots of people will pass here and see it. The best thing was however to do it together with the others, Mikaela herself and Hattie from Bric a Brac (great fashion and shop here in Stockholm)

It wasn’t the easiest of tasks as we had a very mixed bunch of things to display. Mikaela had invited friends to make things in clay on the theme “ginger cookie land". From this sprung for instance a cool saxophone player in red clay and flying pigs with adorable little wings, a group of angels in white porcelain and the baby Jesus with golden lips…

I had done a drape of ginger cookie shapes in my favourite charcoal textured clay, some of them are attatched to the wall together with the red clay ladies with glazed and transfer decorated skirts…

I love Mikaela’s trademark flowerpots, glazed in brilliant strong colours. She sells them in her combined ceramic studio and shop on St Paulsgatan 11 in Stockholm. It’s a tiny showcase with loads of charm.

Oh, it’s great to see my pieces in Rena’s shop! I was introduced to Rena Tom’s jewellery and to her shop, Rare Device by design*sponge. Here’s d*s post about Rare Device and here’s one of d*s posts about Rena and her jewellery.

This marquise lariat necklace is from Rena Tom’s Holiday 2005 collection.

Check out all of the designers carried by Rare Device, with links to their individual websites (a very generous gesture!). This Saturday is the Trunk Show and Holiday Sale in Rare Device and once more I wish I could travel around the world by snapping my fingers… But I’ll do second best, I read about it on Rena’s blog!

I’ve had the nicest weekend! I don’t think I’ve ever had so many people through my doors in just two days. Thanks all of you who came to visit and all of you who took a virtual peek here!

Now I’ve got another open studio weekend to look forward to, I’ll be open this Saturday-Sunday 11-4 pm. This weekend it’s only me though, but to make it more alluring I’ll treat you to glögg and pepparkakor! And I will be selling not only my ceramics, but also some of Daniel Reynolds beautiful pieces. Welcome!

The sun has been glimmering in the snow all day and I just swing open my workshop door to be in all this beauty. I’ve had to put on my cardigan before venturing out as it’s been a little cold.

Inbetween getting orders ready, I’m preparing for this weekends Christmas Sale. Signs of Christmas are popping up all over the workshop.

The newly thrown tumblers will dress up in my new chocolate pattern, in fine company of the espresso cup with a golden leaf. The pattern says “hot chocolate with whipped cream” (which in swedish is “varm choklad med vispgrädde") and it’s available in english as well! The tall beaker cost USD35 (GBP18) and the the short beaker is USD27 (GBP14).

Yesterday I sent these (and lots more things) off to Clio on Thompson Street in New York. Clio is a beautiful shop selling cups, vases, lighting, napkins and other objects for the table by designer/makers from all over the world. To see what the shop looks like, here’s my post from back in May. And here are more products Clio carries:

This glass is from the Czech Republic, isn’t it everyday beauty?
And the Mirza teapot, beautiful mix of materials by the ever so talented Tsé & Tsé.

stilleben is danish for still life and when entering this little shop there are lots of three dimensional still life displays to fall in love with. Of course stilleben’s website is filled with still lifes, cleverly photographed from above so that the things turn into a pattern. I’ve been so inspired by these photographs!

I visited stilleben when I went to Copenhagen in February this year. I had brought some of my ceramics to show them and since then they’ve been carrying my tealight holders. I’m sending a new batch this week and am thrilled that they’re also trying out a couple of Signe mugs/vases from my “delight” range.

Chelsea Crafts Fair is a juried show for applied arts. It lasts for two weeks and each week present new artists. Here’s what I loved this years first week and here’s a link to both weeks exhibitors.

The skirts by Allison Willoughby are like pieces of art and I adored flicking through them, feeling the weight of the beautiful materials.

I always judge my own material the hardest…but Kathleen Hills ceramic light I love. Another light I fell for was Sheldon Cooney’s Bull Dog Light, one of those glass lamps where the bulb becomes an important part of the design and you see it through the glass.

The willow work by Lizzie Farey is made with such feeling for shapes, the piece above is called “Willow wallsketch".

I wish Diana Irani and Kei Ito had websites so that I could show you their work. I was inspired by the cuts of Irani’s suit jackets (Irani is currently working on a project about healing garments, read more) and Kei Ito makes stunning sculptural bags and garments (Craftscouncil’s Photostore has a large image collection of Kei Ito’s work and she is also represented by Lezley Craze Gallery).

There’s always some great jewellers at Chelsea and I liked Sarah Lindsay and Clare Hillerby (below).

It makes me so happy when shops that sell my work give a little report on how my work is being received. In an ideal world, every shop should have a blog about this kind of thing (for instance)!

The other day, I got pictures from fifi and ally, a brand new shop in Glasgow that sell my work. I had a feeling the shop would be something special and sure enough - doesn’t it look smart and at the same time friendly and charming?

My work’s on one of the display cubes in the window as well as on the shelves next to Jonathan Adler’s ceramics. Another nice thing about fifi and ally is that they sell work by my friend Hanna too.

fifi and ally sell for instance my new collage pattern beakers.

Jonas Lindholm makes quiet and strong ceramics. Until 19th October, his work is exhibited at Konsthantverkarna and tomorrow evening is late night opening. Jonas will be there and the shop stays open until 7.30 pm. I love late night openings!

PS Jonas Lindholm is also a member of glass and ceramics cooperative Blås & Knåda.

Until recently, we had Rose Cobbs beautiful lamp shade “Moth” hanging over the kitchen table. That was only on lone and now, all that is left is a single naked bulb…it’s miserable! I avoid turning the light on for as long as I can. Instead, all our candles are lit and it’s very cosy (above is my Signe tealight holder and a bunch of autumn asters I picked this weekend), but after a while the room temperature has risen to unbearable heights. Until I get my hands on a decent lamp shade, here’s a few candle lights that has caught my eye.

I kind of like Wieke Somers oillamp from Dutch by Design, it’s like a huge robot hand with crooked fingers… Also like the simple tealight holder from Morten Hippe that Designspotter mentioned today.

Angry chicken have had some unmissable links this past week. The little purse (I agree with Amy, this is my favourite as well) and bag comes from hum. And from kawana comes these cute oven gloves.

Designspotter linked to feindinge who’se vase looks stunning.

Crayon had a link to Miun, who’s fall/winter collection included this happy green dress with arm warmers.

I also enjoyed the massive moose at Groupies!

A couple of years ago, I used to sell my work in the shop at Rosendals Trädgård and now we’re giving it another go! I’m hoping to get over there on Wednesday to deliver, amongst other things, a couple of small mobiles (not this particular one though, it’s off to the U.S tomorrow!).

Rosendals Trädgård is a breathing space in Stockholm, one of the must-visit places. As well as being a very beautiful garden with an inspiring program , the greenhouses also hosts a cafe, a bakery and a nursery.

Rosendals has redesigned their website and now it really captures the feel of the place.

I like the philosophy of living with and caring for objects and clothes rather than just throwing them away and buying something new. It’s a reclaim revival in the ceramics world (and so many other worlds as well) at the moment. I’ve been rescuing a whole lot of odd crockery that I’m reinventing with new patterns. My friend Sabine Lavigne recently launched a website together with Kristine Meyer and they’re offering a service where you can leave your old ceramics with them and get it shaped up and modernised with added patterns (above).

Clio, which by the way is another of my outlets (and as such will get a posting of their own!) sell a range of improved crockery by dutch designer Esther Derkx.

Weego home in Santa Monica, California, has just received a box of my ceramics. They’ve got for instance the mint large bowl with butterflies and roses and the small Signe beaker with a cut rose (below).

Amongst the lovely things in their store, they sell these super dishcloths, Jonathan Adler’s range of ceramics, including the man and woman vase (above) and stretched canvases with prints by the awsome Florence Broadhurst. I know I’m not the only one to have tons of images with her patterns in my inspirations books.

Pomme is a recent addition to my list of outlets. I’m not doing this shop listing in any special order by the way, just as it takes my fancy.

My work was introduced to Pomme by my brilliant agent Cate, with whom I’m finding my way into the lovliest shops in Australia and New Zeeland. Sue is the owner of Pomme and she opened in the spring and has been selling my Signe beakers and tealight holders. I’m sending her some new work, including the embroidery tealight holder above.

I’ve found so many treasures through Pomme’s website, such an inspiring mix of things! I love especially the Textiles & Papers section: the zines and journals from Hammer & Daisy (above left is from their Omar and Olive zine), the Tarta de Limon tea towel by Julie Haslam at Domestic Bliss (above right) and the tea towels from Third Drawer Down has, literally, been made into art (below).

I thought it was really clever of Cecilia Nykvist to open her design/fashion/interiors shop Frank Form opposite one of the big hotels in Stockholm, where usually all you can find are not-so-very-special souvenirs with moose or polar bears on them. Contrary to this, Frank sell Cecilia’s personal selection of things that will last far longer than any polar bear mug (having said that, it would be a challenge to make a polar bear design souvenir with a difference).

Enough about bears… I love getting Cecilia’s newsletter every other month or so, gently and humoristically reminding me about Frank’s existence and all the new things available. In the most recent one I spotted the Granny purse (I love that style purse) by danish fashion team Becksöndergaard and “Stitch” light by my friend Kathleen Hills.

I very seldom afford things but when I do buy it’s usually something I really fall in love with and so I splashed out on a skirt from Lorek Mendian, one of Frank’s brands. And I can’t write about Frank without mentioning another friend of mine, Hanna Tonek Bonnett, who’s soft boxes from the “Rush of Plush” series are available at Frank. By the way: Frank is nominated as Best Shop by Alltomstockholm ("everything about Stockholm") and he certainly got my vote!

I thought I’d start a series about the shops where I sell my work as they are such an important part of my business. They are often small independent and magnificent treasures scattered around the world and I am so proud that they sell my work!

Line Kanafani, who runs the fabulous shop mint on Wigmore Street in London, came to my degree show at Central St Martins in 2000. Since then, mint has been my stockist in London (and that’s where the name of my mint collection comes from). It’s really important to have someone to believe in your work and with whom communication works. It’s as important to have a regular stockist where my customers know they can find my work. I’ve just sent a big batch of work off to mint so it should be plenty on their shelves!

One of the first “mint” cups that sold at mint.

Today is Signe’s nameday! My Signe range got it’s name from the rose Signe Relander.

To celebrate the occasion, I’ve dressed her up in new patterns that I really like - what do you think?

Update: Thank’s for the comments! Here’s a bigger picture.

Intoto had a booth at ICFF and I fell for their “soma” wooden bowl and “gro” space divider. I got reminded when I saw their beautiful creamer at MoCo Loco and Core77.

Sabine Lavigne and Kristine Meyer graduated from the Danish Design school in January and since then they’ve taken part in Table Manners and Amongst Tigers and Rhubarbs - the two exhibitions FLiT has organized so far. They do design work for Royal Copenhagen and they write about design in danish fashion magazine Eurowoman.

Look real close and you’ll see the beautiful details on these porcelain cylinders that Meyer Lavigne has made for Amongst Tigers and Rhubarbs. They’ve taken their inspiration from the ocean, it looks like the subtle layers of sand on the beach.

Oj vad roligt! Jag har haft fullt ös i verkstan idag, massor med positiva besökare! Imorgon är det öppet igen, 11-14 (åtminstone). Så här hittar du hit!

Läs Sanna Hellberg’s superfina artikel om mig i DN Bostad idag, med bild (av Linus Meyer) och allt! Öppna pdf-en här.

Tomorrow and Friday I’m manning Amongst Tigers and Rhubarbs together with my friend (and collegue!) Hanna Tonek Bonnett. We’re showing Hanna’s lovely, cosy, ceramic Sherwood box as well as the little jewel with lemonade green inside.

I’ve written about Hanna before and her website is amongst my links.

I saw a moose the other day - it’s the second moose I’ve seen in two years! Before that I hadn’t ever seen one, I think. I also spotted an owl and they’re beautiful, shy and intelligent creatures so I’m secretly hoping it’ll find a home in the huge pine tree at the summer house. Anyway, I’m straying. The topic of this post is actually a crafts exhibition I went to see. It’s called KRAFT, but that doesn’t mean crafts in swedish, instead it’s the word for strength and power. In this case I believe it stands for the power of creativity and collaboration.

The exhibition is a collaboration between the crafts cooperatives in Stockholm: Metallum and Nutida Svenskt Silver (jewellery and metallwork), Kaolin (ceramics), Blås och Knåda (ceramics and glass) and Konsthantverkarna (all the applied arts materials).

The two Stockholm-based dailys differed in their opinions (links to articles in swedish); DN’s Peder Alton slagged it off as being nonforwardthinking whereas Malin Vessby for SvD thought it a manifestation of the material sensibility of the exhibitors. I enjoyed reading her account and liked that she acknowledges the strenght of material knowledge that is sometimes ignored in favour of conceptual thinking. However, the things on display didn’t rock my world.

Oh, and the moose story was related to this because of Jacob Danhard’s moose muzzle on the wall (on the picture below in company by Carina Seth Andersson’s glass). Above is “The four Seasons", dolls by Anna Sjon Nilsson. The ceramic “Bookmark” is by Kina Björklund (I thought it might be lovely to have just one of the parts it’s made up of). The exhibition is on until 11th September in Gula Byggningen, Gustavsberg.

Nathalie Lahdenmäki was my tutor during an exchange term at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki and now I see she’s exhibiting at Kaolin, one of the ceramics galleries here in Stockholm. If you have a chance to see it - do go! The exhibition is open 27th August to 21st September. She’s got such form sensibility - look at the shape of the plates, the combination of thicknesses and sizes. Just beautiful.

This flowerpot of mine is taking part in the summer exhibition at The Röhsska Museum of Design and Applied Art in Gothenburg. On show are old and new things somehow related to the garden, for instance the “willow chair” by Niels Hvass. The exhibition is open until 21st August.

Cul de Sac earthenware ceramics. Love the way the illustrations work on these shapes.

Anna Karin Dahl is one of the talented swedes taking part in Amongst Tigers and Rhubarbs. Anna Karin lives and works in Copenhagen but we met her at STREET just before christmas and fell in love with her porcelain vases adorned with mushrooms or striking black silhouettes.

For the last year or so, I’ve been really busy with orders and trying to get organized so that I can expand my business. I haven’t set aside time to play around with or develop new ideas, but somehow my mind and body do that themselves. All of a sudden I find myself completely endorsed in working on new patterns or shapes that I’ve been pondering on. And thank goodness for that, it’s a necessery breathing space.

Lately, I’ve been collaging my own prints with words and readymade images.

The sown drawings has turned into for instance tealight holders.

I enjoyed visiting Konstfack’s new facilities at Telefonplan. It felt fresh and spacious and kind of fun.

Four people graduated from the Ceramic and Glass department. I liked Eva Lövqvists glass collection of lights and jewellery (above) named Parasit, Marianne Tolmunen’s calligraphic ornament in black clay (above) and Magdalena Nilsson showed a photo of a ring that I liked very much. It looked like it could be made of silver, a smooth approximately 1.5 cm wide ring with a cut out oval in which a symbol was painted straight onto the skin. Nice idea. I also enjoyed her concept, it was very similar to the one I worked with for my degreeshow although she had worked it through much better than I did. She called her project The Royal Nilsson’s and based it on her family members, so that the products that came out of it somehow expressed their personalities. (I used my friends as my inspiration for a series of cups.)

From the Textiles department, I enjoyed Gill Weibull’s rug that crept up on the leg of a chair and continued in rugged edges out on the floor and painted up on the wall. I was also mighty impressed by the professionality in Josephine Drakenberg’s well thought through concept “Bonus".

But what I will remember from this year’s degree show is metall designer Klara Schmidt’s superb brooches made out of glue and pearls (I think! correct me if I’m wrong!), exquisitely displayed on glass shelves and lit so that they created a shadow on the wall.

Thompson street is lovely with all sorts of small shops. The childrens clothes and accesories shop Makie carries charming and beautiful dolls by Tamar Mogendorff, across the street is another of the many designer dog accesories shops that New York has many of. Next to that is Michelle and Daniel Lehmann’s lovely shop Clio. I was keen to come and visit Clio as they will be the first New York shop to carry a range of my ceramics!

On our way to moss gallery, we passed a parade of rubbish bag carts that looked as if they were on display but it was most likely someones life belongings. One of the incredible things with New York is that opposites live side by side and it seems to be a friendly jargong between them. I also was happy to find that I felt safe and well taken care of by the New Yorkers: if I was lost standing with my map someone immediately would ask if they could be of assistance and I very much appreciate that.

moss is located on Greene street and show a fusion of contemporary crafts and design, items that are handmade or production manufactured. Most of the work in moss is displayed in glass cabinets as if it was a museum. Usually I want to touch an object and lift it up so that I can feel the texture and weight of it in my hands, but I didn’t really mind the glass interuption. The display and mix of the objects in the cabinets were interesting and I was intrigued by them. Next to Moss is a shop called Troy (like moss, named by the man who owns it), where we admired the fantastic sculptural glass chandeliers. Unfortunately Troy was the only place in New York where they completely ignored us, everyone else was very charming and helpful, and so I didn’t find out who the chandeliers were by. Oh well. Vivienne Tam has a shop further down on Greene Street and I fell totally for her adorable clothes.

Maj Eskilssons fina broderade tetraförpackning i keramik kommer att finnas med på vandringsutställningen 100 tankar om konsthantverk med start på Parapeten i Helsingborg den 17 juni. Utställningen ska handla om “…smak och tradition, skönhet och äckel, funktion och prydnad, manligt och kvinnligt.” 100 tankar om konsthantverk är en gemensam satsning av Riksutställningar, KHVC och KIF (Sveriges konsthantverkare och industriformgivare).

I’m very fond of Jane Muir’s little ceramic people, especially the ones with birds on their heads. I’ve got a ceramic man of my own who currently lives in the shade of a sunflowerplant in my window. He was accidently beheaded by a hot dog last spring but a bit of superglue cured him and now it almost makes him more special.

My website is updated with a whole load of new pictures on the press pages.

Stilleben is a beautiful ceramics shop in Copenhagen and I find the way they create patterns of things (see photos on their website) really inspiring.

Nästa lördag är det Konsthantverkets dag, som arrangeras av Konsthantverkscentrum och förverkligas av Sveriges konsthantverkare. Jag kommer att ha öppet i min verkstad mellan 11-16. Under dagen kan alla som vill (och får plats!) klippa och kreera mönster på muggar. Ta med dig din egen mugg (den måste vara glaserad!) eller köp en hos mig i verkstaden, jag kommer att ha ett lager av enkla vita muggar tillhanda. Läs mer på min websida!

I love the tactile ceramics/flock/wallpaper softboxes and vases in the Rush of Plush series by Hanna Tonek Bonnett. Hanna is a great person with a very special approach to ceramics. Right now she’s in Dubai with the British European Design Group, taking part in the Ambiente trade fair. Hanna’s ceramics is available at Frank Form in Stockholm (which by the way is a lovely shop!) and from June, she’ll be spending her summer in the new ceramics workshop at Gränsö!

Porcelain is a beautiful material, one of the purest clays and it’s translucent. Here’s Facet by David Wiseman, the lit one has got a tealight inside.

Swedish ceramicist Eva Hildt is exhibiting at Galleri Inger Molin on Kommendörsgatan 24 in Stockholm until April 6th. If you’re in New York, you can experience her work at Nancy Margolis gallery. I went to see Eva Hildts amazing structures today and was really taken with the scale, impressed by the technique and totally wanted to interact with them.

This is how she discribes her pieces and workprocess:
“Influence, pressure, strain. These words have been the foundation for my current projects that comprise communicating the theme in large, hand-built clay forms. Delicate continuously flowing entities in white thin built clay. They reflect varying degrees of external and internal pressures, and how, as a consequence, perception of inner and outer space is changed or challenged.

My inspiration is the ever-changing landscape of my own life and environment! I try to relate my work to my life. What is happening and how does it feel? Pressure. Flow. Strain. Ramification. Inside turns outside. As a starting point I put words onto my feelings, and use the vessel form to translate this into three dimension. The size of the form relates to my body. The thin walls are pulled and bent in different directions.

I feel a great freedom in hand-building. It grows slowly, I have time to reflect, I can change direction, make connections and have a smooth surface with the same thickness. I build big forms, the clay will dry slowly and not collapse. When the form is ready and the clay is dry, I sand away at the surface and then spray it with a slurry of kaolin. The pieces are finally fired in stoneware temperature, about 1250°.”

Så här gult och fint är det inte vanligtvis i min verkstad, men idag och imorgon är det påskmarknad och det har storstädats. Finkronan är upphängd, påskliljor har planterats och äggkoppar har tillverkats. Välkommen imorgon kl 11-16!

Uppdatering: Kanske inte alla hittar dit lika väl som jag… Överjärva Gård ligger i Solna vid Ulriksdalsfältet strax norr om Järva krog. Tag pendeltåg eller någon av bussarna 505/509/540 till Ulriksdals station. Promenera norrut genom golfbanan upp till gården.

The way the butterfly is used on this Insect vase is just too alike the patterns I’ve been working on lately… I promise, I only just saw it! By Ted Muehling for Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg . The silver spoons are also his and I think they’re just beautiful.

I went to Copenhagen with my friend Eva, and its thanks to her I’ve got most of these pictures as my own photographic skills turned out to be poor…

At the corner of Kompagnistræde and Læderstræde is Creme de la Creme a la Edgar (I think it’s named after something out of Aristocats?) which is a gorgeous shop with a very inspiring way of displaying childrens clothing, toys and this charming moose which I just fell in love with.

Opposite from ‘Edgar’ is Wettergren & Wettergren, a fashion and accesories shop run by mother and daughter selling costumized vintage clothing.

Stilleben is dedicated to selling ceramics, a personal mix of industrial and studio ceramics. Take a look at their website for a clever and beautiful way of mixing and styling objects!

We now strolled down towards Nyhavn and on to Bredgade to visit the Danish Museum of Decorative Art. We had a lovely omelett with spinach and goats cheese in the cafe and talked for so long that the museum was closed by the time we were ready to see the exhibition… We did manage to see their Design Studio which is like an educational room where design objects are chategorized after which material they’re made out of, several of the objects can be touched and even tasted. It’s so well put together and a great resource for children and grown-ups!

I was looking forward to visiting Gallery Nörby, Denmarks leading ceramics gallery for studio ceramics and we happend to come on the day of switching exhibitions. Paul Scott, well known for his research into ceramics and print, was in the middle of putting up his joint exhibition ‘Body Blue’ with Ann Linnemann.

Crafts Collection promote and sell danish applied arts and design. Their showroom might be a bit tricky to find if you don’t know it’s there, but we just followed our expert guide through the streets of Copenhagen, Sabine Lavigne, and arrived at the second floor of Amagertorv 1. Unfortunately most of the collection was at the Ambiente trade fair in Frankfurt, but we did get to see some of their latest collection CC09, recently featured by Design Sponge.

Designers Zoo is situated a 20ish minute walk on Vesterbrogade away from the city centre and it’s well worth it. Lots of danish ‘gemyt’ on the way and when you get there the shop is light and airy with some great crafts in it. I especially fell for Charlotte Ostergaards ethereal clothes.

Lucky for us, the Danish Design Center was open until 9 pm on wednesdays and no entry fee. We tried out seating by the Campana brothers from Brazil and Eero Aarnio from Finland, saw graphic design and the Danish Design Prize winners from 2004.

Before bording our train, we just had time to peak through the window at Koenroeg and Moshi Moshi.

Mia E Göransson is one talented ceramicist. Her hauntingly beautiful “Bonbonierre” made out of bone china, stand on short legs (I’ve always been drawn to vessels that have legs) with twigs and leaves growing around and out of it. I also love her elegantly simple tiles in terracotta clay with imprints of leaves and sprigs.

Ms Göranssons work is now on a touring exhibition with swedish design in the UK, it just left the Crafts Council gallery in London and is now heading for The Whitworth Gallery in Manchester. I also spotted an article about her in CRAFTS magazine no 191 as well as the February edition of brittish Elle Decoration. Mia E Göranssons work can be purchased from Blås & knåda, a group of swedish potters and glassblowers.