Karin's Style Blog

Natural, simple things are just the best. Like this twigs and twine ring by Cally.

Nimis, a structure built out of scrap wood by Lars Vilks on the southwest coast of Sweden.

A weed embroidery from the book “Tiny embroidery Tiny garden", via Crafting Japanese. Have you listened to Craftypods interview with Matireya?

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.

I’m probably going to have to pay dearly for this little blogging effort, as I’ve been lying horizontal on the sofa all day fighting a mean stomach bug. Now that I’m vertical I feel quesy again. The only good thing with this sofa position has been that I’ve finally read the issue of Nordic Reach I bought a long time ago. It contained for instance a glowing article of the food and entertainment on offer in Helsinki, illustrated with Ivana Helsinki’s great fashion (above).

I’ve also read through the latest issue of swedish crafts and design zine Slicker. You can download and read previous issues of Slicker on their site (in swedish).

Here’s a pod cast from craftypod about zines.

Back to horizontal now…

The snow is starting to melt and the streets are drying up. I’m relishing in the sound of my steps against the asphalt and am starting to believe that there will actually come a sunny warm day when I could wear a this dress from Erica Tanov, spring 2005 collection (many nice dresses in the 2006 collection too!).

Once in a blue moon I did a summer course in ceramics at Capellagården on Öland, an island in the Baltic Sea. It was a three week course and I loved my stay in this idyllic village. After whole days in the ceramics studio, we went swimming in the evenings, painted water colours on Alvaret and went for a “fika” at café Mejeriet. Bliss.

Capellagården was founded by Carl Malmsten, designer and cabinet maker. Here’s the Carl Malmsten shop in Stockholm. Apart from offering courses in crafts and design, Capellagården also has a biodynamical gardening course and the most beautiful and restful herb garden.

Now, I’m tempted by this summer’s courses, especially the textile workshop with Pasi Välimaa (maker of the beautiful rug above) and the japanese box course with Norio Tanno (Japanese master in box making!).

Here’s a link to other places to see on the south of Öland.

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.

Nutida Svenskt Silver is a gallery here in Stockholm showing contemporary silver - not only jewellery but also bowls and candlesticks for instance. This wonderful leaf bowl is made by Caroline Lindholm, who’s work will be exhibited at the gallery in May and June.

‘Håll Sverige rent’ - ‘keep Sweden tidy’ is part of an exhibition (at the same gallery) of Anders Ljungberg’s work called ‘Positions’, opening Friday 1st April. Anders Ljungberg is one of our most highly regarded swedish silversmiths.

Håll Sverige rent is also an organisation that has tought me a lot of how my actions influence the environment.

I love this image from Camilla Norrback’s spring/summer collection 2006. It definitely communicates her philosophy: “In a camilla norrback garment my hope is that you feel beautiful, empowered and sharp.”

Machine Made Patchworks 2 - I think I’m going to have to try and get hold of this book, it looks so inspiring!. Found it through Amy who’d been given it by Sally.

I liked this image from Wallwear that Sabine Brandt bought for her office.

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.

Postcards from Sweden. The mood, the subtlety, the light… just stunning photography by Niklas Falk.

I found this link at Swedesres, who also posted about tidningar.info, an online resorce (I almost wrote resort, which in a way it is) where you can flip through swedish magazines. For instance Hemslöjden, click on the blue arrow and if you don’t want to look at all of it I’d suggest the inspiring image on pages 11 and the adorable baptising dress with embroidered text on page 32-33. Enjoy!

Here’s my dreamed up outfit for FiftyX3 sustainable carnival!

I love the pocket skirt (above) from Out of Line.

If the Tokyo Recycle Project ever comes to Stockholm, I’ll bring something from my wardrobe to have remade into a top for the carnival. Tokoy Recycle Project was initiated by Japanese fashion designer Masahiro Nakagawa, I first heard about it via Coolchic, when the project was at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. I enjoyed watching this video following a garment being transformed by Masahiro Nakagawa.

To this, I’ll add a colourful bag from slingfings. Here’s an interview with Rachel Bending (who started slingfings) at chaosgeneration.

The shoes will come from swedish Knulp, who’s been making sustainable shoes and bags since the 1970’s (click on the red link just above the address to see their collections). I’ve got one of their purses and it must be 15 years old by now and more beautiful than ever.

I’m turning into quite a low-key coloured carnival goer, aren’t I? Well, well…it ain’t gonna change with the jewellery either. I fell for the philosophy behind Sofia Björkman’s new line of jewellery (best viewed in explorer):

“There are places once populated but sparsely inhabited.
There are houses once with living people but now empty of people.
There are industries once in full works but now with machines idle.
There are cemetaries once with a lot flowers but now forgotten and overgrown.
There are cars, furniture and a number of other things that once had a shining period but now put at the scrap- and junkyard.
There are also jewelry that people has left but that is more unusual because jewelry has always been one of the most important status symbols and are connected with glamour and value. This series of jewelry is made of my memories of empty places and forgotten objects. The question is what status these objects have at present?”

The jewellery will be exhibited at Platina Gallery in September this year. There is an interesting and inspiring article about jewellery in today’s Svenska Dagbladet, unfortunately not a lot of it is shown online.

*sigh*, Ana’s latest paper lady Miss Morris - I’d like to make her aquaintence!

Johanna at kokblog posted a lovely illustrated story about patties with onion and lingonberry sauce.

Anneli has started a blog (in swedish but lots of real nice pics).

Poppy linked to Tim Marr’s illustrations and to the very inspiring threadwork by Paula Sanz Caballero. Here’s lots of images of her work and here’s an article about cool threads (featuring for instance Paula Sanz Caballero) in Embroidery. You might also like the work of Anghrad South (below), from the current issue of Embroidery.

UPDATE: Abigail showed me the way to the website of Angrad South, showing lots of her lovely work.

After reading the interview with design*sponge, I browsed around Three Layer Cake and found the bath chair by Reddish. It’s the kind of furniture I’d put against a crisp wall to ease it up a bit, make it more casual. I love the fast thinking behind the design. Here’s the TLC interview with Reddish.

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!

I’m enjoying going through everyones tips from Mav’s favourite music post last week. I had a such a busy week that I never did write any of my favourites, so here is one!

Rigmor Gustafsson is one of the many talented female jazz singers in Sweden. My laptop is vibrating with her brilliant version of “Over the Rainbow” from the album “Rigmor Gustafsson Live” recorded in 2000. She is the master of her voice and allows it a lot of freedom to improvise and it sounds great!

Through Rigmor Gustavsson I found Eric Boisson’s blog where he recently wrote a glowing review of her music. Now I’m hooked on his radioblog and am finding lots of new favourites there. For instance Feist, that was also mentioned in mav’s comments.

To me, the rythm in music can be directly applied to the rythm I sometimes feel that I find in form and decoration. The harmonies in music is also present in form. The intonation of words or sentences can translate into pictures or sketches. It’s hard to explain but I can feel it!

The images are from my sketchbooks.

UPDATE: Feist is interviewed in HoBO magazine, read the interview online under Current issue / Interview. Thank you, Cia!

I get a really positive vibe from the danish crafts scene. They’re out there, nationally and internationally. A selection of danish crafters/designers are included in Crafts Collection. The first time I saw them was at the Ambiente fair in Frankfurt in 1999 and last year I visited their stand at ICFF.

Until April 22nd Crafts Collection is showing CC+ for MoMA, a collection put together in collaboration with MoMA store in New York. Amongst the 20 selected products for sale are “rubber vase” by Mette Kargo Hvid, cushions by Kirsten Fribert and jewellery by Lisbeth Dauv .

I love the idea of design*sponge podcasts and you can give Grace suggestions as to who to interview. I wanted to hear Jonathan Adler and didn’t realize that Apartment Therapy did an interview with him some time ago. Interesting listening about how his business has grown and I find it extra inspiring as he is a potter like myself!

More design and business inspiration comes from Joy who is continuing her series of designer interviews, this time with Lena Corwin.

And to follow a designers daily entrepreneurial challenges, go read and enjoy Pamela Barsky’s blog . Read more about Pamela at Another Girl at Play.

The orchid is one of Lars’ portraits, I think I want to keep it forever at the top of my blog it’s so beautiful!

Oh, my, this winter just never seem to end! Today has been a glorious sunny day and the branches were creating shadows on the roof of my workshop.
Thank you all for the comments on the previous post! I’ll most certainly invite you in to see more of what what my working day looks like.

Today, however, the theme is sustainability. It’s been demanding my attention lately, popping up here there and everywhere - and rightly so! I’ve added it to my categories list and perhaps, in a while, I can get a clearer view of what it means to me. Here are three things that belongs in that category.

fiftyrx3, a blogger “perusing the crossroads of style and sustainability” who’s goal for 2006 is that 50% of what she wears should be reused, recycled and reduced (you have to visit her blog to see what that means!). This dress was runner up in her Sustainable Oscar Style nominations.

o2nordic is part of the global o2 network, who believe “the development of a sustainable future is the greatest and most inspiring design challenge of our time". In collaboration with others, o2nordic is organizing a Saving the Planet in Style design competition, open until 20th April 2006. For information in english, email ellika@albaeco.com.

Kath at Whip up wrote about altered clothing and that post made me think of Do Redo, a swedish “recycling project".

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…

Luxist wrote about the Beauty Case Table by Silja Kaeser and Jessica Müller-Wallraf of Tisch 5 which made me visit their site and find the poetic Sweet November umbrella. It won 1st prize in the Nachlux award in 2005.

The Scandinavian Designmouse spotted this mug with Marimekko’s birch pattern, designed by Maija Louekari. It’s always inspiring to browse the Marimekko site and I like the way they reinvent their fantastic patterns. Perhaps it’s time for me to get the Unikko apron for the workshop?

“I would only ask you not to forget to play.”

Another timeless design inspiration is Alvar Aalto (quoted above) and Poppy linked to Aalto’s voice, a project to celebrate the Aalto 70-year anniversary. One of the designers interpreting Aalto’s voice is Tomoko Azumi, on whose site I found this picture of the Aalto vase-shaped canapés… I enjoyed reading this interview in icon with Tomoko Azumi.

Update: Maija Louekari is the designer of Marimekko’s birch patterned mug and Maija is shortlisted for the Elle Deco Design Awards 2006 for her pattern Ho-Hoi. Thank’s Mevrouw!

It’s like a tic I have - I like high furniture with thin legs. It’s something to do with the balance of thin lines meeting wide areas… Probably better illustrated with images. The Sevenfeetup bed from Mobile Metallico is right up my creek. It might also, in this case, have something to do with the styling of the photo which I think is lovely.

Earlier this week swissmiss found a work table by architect and designer Alberto Rivera. Again, lovely springlike photostyling!

For more thin legged furniture check this table at twenty twentyone.

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!

The image is of the lamps above the entrance to lingerie shop Tekinoktay in Copenhagen. If I’d had money to spend, it could have been done in there! “A true aesthetic lady’s universe” as Danish Design Centre describes it. (DDC has a very good list of design shops to visit in Copenhagen.)

Holly Golightly is the name of Audrey Hepburns character in Breakfast at Tiffany’s and it’s also the name of a small fashion shop in Copenhagen. I flicked through the Marni sweaters and Marc Jacobs tops and thought they were stunning. The images are from Marni’s spring/summer 2006 RTW collection at style.com.

I also admired the beautiful jewellery by Jo Riis-Hansen in her shop on Møntergade 14. You have to press the bell to get in and it’s worth it!

I saw the ice chandelier by danish designers Refer+Staer dotted around Copenhagen, it was awarded the Wallpaper design award for best lighting 2006.

March is the first spring month but spring felt far away from Stockholm today, this morning I couldn’t see my hand in front of me for all the snow that was falling. The house above is next door to my workshop and I took this picture on a sunny day not long ago.

Mav has requested a new (spring) word to add to her growing swedish vocabulary and I thought you might all appreciate it, so here it comes: vårkänsla. I’ve tried to figure out how the pronounciation is phonetically written… [vɔrʃænsla].
It means spring feeling!

I go through a golf course on my way to work and I’ve often pondered over the pull that golf have over so many people? Beats me, but German company Wechselstelle understand. They have translated the power of golf and football into prints on clothes, oven mitts and table mats. Via Designspotter.

The packaging of xocoa chocolates gives me spring feeling! Found this pic at bergman.

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.