Once in a very while I see a new product that really stands out for me, and the Crockery Range by Atelier NL for Royal Tichelaar Makkum is one of those!! Here are a few words from the Atelier NL website which describes the original concept:

In line with a tradition that lived in
Makkum until well into the 19th century
in which the presence of local raw mate-
rials was a first condition for manufac-
turing, Royal Tichelaar Makkum introdu
ces a straightforward pottery’s service
by Atelier NL.

The project Drawn from Clay by Lonny
van Ryswyck and Nadine Sterk (Atelier
NL) started by digging up, shaping and
baking clay from different locations
through the Netherlands. They created
a beautiful series of plates and bowls in different colors and structures, showing
the local identity of the area the clay
was taken from.

Their ideas neatly met our wishes and
we collaborated to translate it into pro-
ducts. The result is a pottery’s service
made from 6 different local Dutch clays.
 

I saw the orignial show at Gallery Libby Sellers last year and was mightlity impressed but couldn’t stop thinking that Atelier NL really had a bit too much time on their hands. But now I have seen (and bought a few of) the Crockery range, I have to take it all back. Beautiful!

I think I might be a little bit addicted to jam.

But I’m quite fussy about which jam, none of that jellified blob you get in cheap supermarkets.  It’s got to be some decent stuff, and you can NEVER go wrong with Bonne Maman jams. Unfortunately the selection I have in my local supermarket is somewhat limited (Strawberry & Raspberry) so it is now an essential part of my twice annual visit to Paris that I have to check out the supermarket there and stock up on Bonne Maman jams. My current favourite is Rhubarbe, and last time I brought six jars back.

I’ll ponder for another few days and will write whatever I remember.

To be continued…

Maybe some rain would have been preferable!!!

Day 1:

It’s a strange feeling! For the first time in oh, 15 years, I haven’t got a plane ticket to Milan for the annual Circus that is the ‘Salone del Mobile’. I’m on Expedia, Opodo, Easy Jet and Ryanair websites daily and know the prices and times of flights in and out of Milan almost by heart…yet, I simply can’t commit myself to pressing that ‘CONFIRM’ button just yet. The invites are coming in by mail, E-mail, facebook and every other possible way but I am still resisting (for now).

Maybe it’s because I don’t actually like Milan that much (I have lived there for a couple of years many many moons ago) or because I feel they should just do the whole thing only once every two years, like Euroluce. After all (I’m getting all eco warrior on you) we should try and be a little more considerate about the amount of stuff we produce, and we all know that Milan, while being full of good design, is also full of crap!

Day 2:

I have found a new obsession: The Weather. It is beautiful and sunny here in London and I hear it’s beautiful in Milan too, but according to the BBC, that’s it with the nice weather for Milan. I can cope with the rain in London, but Italy in the rain, or worse, Italy in cold rain, terrible. What does amuse me though is the sight of Italians in the rain, especially Italian men. Never a hair out of place, immaculate suit, nice brown shoes…and rain. Well, it makes me smile!

It’s quite in the office, the phone doesn’t ring, very few E-mails coming in. It appears the world has come to a standstill. Is it possible that EVERYBODY is in Milan and I am not?

So, I went out at lunchtime yesterday to get myself a nice big umbrella. I looked completely stupid, bright sunny day, people in shorts & T-shirt and me with an umbrella.

Should I stay or should I go?

Day 3:

I am weak and I’ve given in…I’m in Milan, but since my flight was now twice as expensive as it would have been had I booked it weeks ago I will now have to do these few days on a very strict budget. After all our Great British Pound is just not what it used to be and thanks to our good Chancellors budget yesterday, I just go 2.5cents per pound less.

My first stop will be the local supermarket where I stock up on prosciutto, formaggio, pomodori and a bit of pane, I mean how difficult can it be to make a simple Panino and that’s what I have been living of for the last 10 years in Milan anyway. I always wondered what Italians would eat if they didn’t have wheat, cheese or tomato. Not much!

One other option was to bring sealable bags and just fill them up at various events. There are always a few Parmesan Cheeses and Salamis lying around…I’ll just have to be subtle, but that should be no problem, ‘subtle’ is my middle name!

Should I stay or ….sono qui!

Day 4:

I think I got myself a suntan yesterday. So much for the BBC weather forecast of heavy rain in Milan. I think this is the last time I will consult the BBC website for that. Useless!!

Now that I’m actually here, I’m glad I decided to come. In response to the usual ‘So, what have you seen so far that’s good’ question you ask everyone you come across in Milan, someone said ‘I think this year is not so much about the products, it’s more about the people’. Good answer I thought and on reflection, hasn’t it always been about the people? Obviously Design is why we are all here, but is it Design that makes us all come back year after year.

We all know that it’s tough to make it in our industry but one thing we all have in common is the honest passion we share for what we do and Milan is a great excuse to leave our daily routine behind and enjoy ourselves.

Haha, I’ve come over all philosophical now, well, before I think too much I think it’s time to hit the town!!

See you next year

Anyway, in the name of research I looked a bit further and found this little tresure of a website, The London Banana Project (www.londonbananas.com). It’s a site full of photos of banana skins found in the streets of London. Brilliant.

At least I can see why they would feature Bananas on their site!

I went home to Germany last weekend for my mum’s birthday and as mine is two days later I made a long weekend of it. As it ws a round birthday for my mum, the whole family was in town, all uncles, aunts etc. On the Friday we made a little excursion to the Insel Hombroich, a great little place. It’s next to a small River (sorry, the name escaped me) so all very lush and green. I’m not going to bore you with all the details, it’s basically a museum which is situated in a large park and separated into various building, each built specifically to house parts of the collection. Have a look for yourself on their website (sorry, it’s all in German). Here are a few pictures I took. Enjoy.

PS: Be warned, since I bought a new camera recently I have turned into a right little amateur photographer, snapping away. I will bore you with more of my pics soon.