Famille Summerbelle

Ikko Tanaka

When I was in Tokyo a couple of weeks ago, I was lucky to see the exhibition on one of Japan most admired graphic designer Ikko Tanaka (1930-2002) at the 21_21 Design Sight Museum (located in Tokyo Midtown).
The exhibition presents a selection of colourful drawings, paper collages, logos, packaging, bold postwar posters as well as some if his different projects with Issey Miyake and Muji. Ikko Tanaka created a style of graphic design that fused Western modernism principles and aesthetics with the Japanese tradition. As he used to say he was "totally committed to the aesthetics of design".

21_21 Design Sight Museum in Tokyo Midtown, designed by architect Tadao Ando.

Ikko Tanaka, Graphic Master book.

Left: Hiroshima Appeals, 1988.
Right: World Commercial Design Exhibition, 1959.

Left: Original material for Graphic Art
Right: "Ikko Tanaka Graphic Art Botanical Garden" Poster ginza graphic gallery, 1990

Left: Japan poster design
Right:"Music Today '73" Poster

Charvin, Paris

As we were crossing Le Pont de Arts last weekend, we stopped in this charming little shop Charvin specialised in extra fine oils, acrylic and gouaches. The range of colours is very impressive. The minute I walked in I wanted to start painting again...

Little village

A little bit of time, a little bit of clay, et voila! the first few houses of my little village...

Let's play!

We are so happy to show you our latest photos from our new collection The Performers. We have teamed up with the hugely talented stylist/photographer Aurélie Lecuyer from Le dans La. She had carte blanche to shoot our collection. We were blown away by all her images. Merci Aurélie!

Ludo le Lapin and Maximilien le Magicien, hand screen prints.

Maximilien and Ludo cushion cover.

Flower tray made from scandinavian birch wood.

Boom le clown and Flower tea towels (sold as a pack).

Boom le clown fine bone china mug.

Ludo le Lapin and Maximilien le Magicien fine bone china mug.

My 16 top addresses in Tokyo

Here is my selection of some of my favorite places to shop, visit, see and eat in Tokyo. I wish I had extra days to discover more hidden places as Tokyo is so vast. If you would like to add to the list please leave me a comment!


CIBONE
Magnificent interior design store located on the basement floor of Bell Commons shopping center in Aoyama. Metro: GaienMae on Ginza Line.
ACTUS
Few doors down from Cibone. This store has also a very good selection of interior accessories and clothes.
Minato-ku, Aoyama.
Metro: GaienMae on Ginza Line.
QUICO
Cute store with a selection of Scandinavian furniture, accessories and books.
Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
Metro: Omotessando
TOKYU HANDS
A must see if you visit Tokyo.The best place to find anything you want!
4 different stores in Tokyo: Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, Ginza.
GALERIE DOUX DIMANCHE
For the best of European home accessories and for their famous Edition Paumes book collection. Galerie Doux Dimanche has two stores in Tokyo. One located in Jiyugaoka, a residential area. The other shop and gallery space is in Aoyama.
Metro: Omotessando or GaienMae.
KITCHEN TOWN
A 800m street with shops only selling kitchenware and plastic food! Just incredible and not to be missed (See my previous post).

MINA PERHONEN
Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
Metro: Gaienmae
ISSEY MIYAKE
4 stores on the same street: Minami, Aoyama.
Metro: Omotessando
TSUMORI CHISATO
Minami, Aoyama
Metro: Omotesando
GOOD THINGS
Men's fashion store near Tokyu Hands.
PAUL SMITH SPACE
Just to see the interior and exterior of the shop!
Jungu Mae. Metro: Omotesando
JIKAN
Scarves and hankershief
Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
Just round the corner from Quico shop.

SPIRAL
Metro: Omotesando
CRAYONHOUSE
Minato Ku, Aoyama.
Great selection of children books + a nice cafe

KIDDYLAND
Not just for kids...It's so much fun!
Jingu-mae, Shibuya
Metro Omotesando
PARK SIDE CAFE
For a nice lunch in Ueno park. Fresh food and a great selection of herbal teas.
MUSEUM DESIGN SIGHT 21_21
Founded by Issey Miyake. The building is designed by Tadao Ando. I went to see a beautiful exhibition on Japanese graphic designer Ikko Tanaka.
Tokyo Midtown
Metro: Roppongi

The images used to write the text are taken from Mina Perhonen 2013 A/W textile collection.

Tokyo's kitchen town

Kappabashi street is a 800 meter long street devoted to kitchenware. You will find anything you need to open a restaurant, from rice cooker, crockery, knives, disposable chopsticks to plastic food (realistic-looking plastic models of dishes that are displayed in many restaurant windows in Japan).
Subway stop: the Ginza Line’s Tawaramachi station.

You are welcome by The Chef and on the right you can see the new Tokyo Sky Tree tower.

All plastic food!

Famille Summerbelle exhibition in Tokyo

The exhibition (and the book launch) of Famille Summerbelle and Terre et Montagne opened yesterday at Doux Dimanche (Aoyama area). We had a wonderful evening organized by the girls at the gallery. It was such a pleasure to meet many lovely people who knew about my work. My mum was also delighted to show her work for the first time in Tokyo. The exhibition will continue for another couple of weeks.

We only have a day left in Tokyo before we fly back to Paris on Friday. Our week here has gone so fast but it feels like we've been away for a long time as we've done so much. We had such an amazing time. I am also happy to go home to see the children and hug them (ah! I've been missing the cuddles).

Kyoto (some details)

Kyoto

This morning we woke up in a cloudy and rainy Tokyo so we decided to visit Kyoto for a couple of days before we return to Tokyo on Tuesday for the exhibition. With the bullet train Shinkanzen, Kyoto is only 2h30 away from Tokyo. This train ride is very pleasant.

It is fascinating to look out the window and observe the changing landscape between the two cities. There are towns, lookalike houses, factories following each other with some patches of vivid green rice fields. As you go further South lush hills are appearing in the distance. If the sky is clear you can see Mount Fuji (Just an advice if you head down to Kyoto, you need to be seated to the right hand side of the train to be able to see Mount Fuji).

We are staying in the ryokan (japanese B&B) Yoshimizu Inn on top of a hill in the beautiful Maruyama Park. We are surrounded by luxuriant vegetation and as I type the crickets are singing outside (it's nearly midnight here!). I always wanted to stay in a ryokan so I we are delighted to have been recommended this one. It is authentic and very homely. Our room has tatamis, rice paper sliding doors and we made our own bed with the white thin mattresses and bedding provided. Before we went out tonight we had a relaxing warm bath in the communal bath (btw you are on your own in the bath). Tomorrow we will rent a couple of bikes to cycle in the narrow streets of the old city center, visit some temples, go to this bag shop and relax drinking green tea...

Some images of our day in Kyoto:


Kyoto Tower in the distance (no, i didn't Photoshop the ray of light!)
















Sushi sweets and garland of colourful sweets!

Shopping in Tokyo

I first visited Tokyo four years ago during our world tour travels with Simon and Ophelia (do you remember this post?!) I fell in love with this vibrant City and how welcoming Japanese people are. Four years later I come back to the same area we stayed last time (Aoyama) and to my surprised nothing has changed much. Today Coco (the editor of Edition Paumes) and Hisashi (the owner/creative director/photographer of Edition Paumes and Doux Dimanche) took us out to visit the area. It was very pleasant to be guided around the busy district of Omotesando, Harajuku and Shibuya. They took us to various shops and to a delicious sushi restaurant (only locals would know about as it was hidden away on top of a high staircase). We did a lot of shopping (like I haven't done for ages- no children bored or crying - just my mum, heaven!). I actually bought lots of silly stuffs for the children in Kiddy Land and Tokyu Hands...stickers, Hello Kitty note books, paper soap, garish pink pencils and stupid things that they will both love. I had a fantastic time in Tokyu Hands (the best lifestyle store in the World!!) buying A LOT of MT Tapes - they cost only €1 each over here! I also bought some colourful vinyl adhesive by the meter. I am planning to do a lot of cutting on my return home!

Kiddy Land.






















Tokuy Hands in Shibuya.




Quico Store.




Jikan Style.






Vibrant and crazy Harajuku!

Famille Summerbelle in Japan

Kon nichi wa, hello!
I am in Tokyo and very much looking forward to my week in Japan! I am traveling with my mum while Simon is at home having fun with the children (thank you Simon!). We are over to launch our latest book Be Creative with Famille Summerbelle with Edition Paumes . They have invited us to do an exhibition of Famille Summerbelle work and Terre et Montagne (my mother ceramic work) at their gallery space Doux Dimanche in Aoyama (my favorite area in Tokyo!).

Galerie Doux Dimanche is owned by Edition Paumes. Each product is beautifully presented in the shop. You can find designer pieces from Nathalie Lété, Tsé-Tsé, La Cocotte, Famille Summerbelle :-) and of course the huge collection of their wonderful books!

Screen printing the Performers

Sorry for not being very active on the blog at the moment. The beginning of the month has been pretty busy with the rentrée des classes (back to school) for the children and the trade show at Maison et Objet last week. We had a great time showing all our products and our new collection. A big thank you to all of you who stopped by.
Next week I am flying to Japan to launch the book Be Creative with Famille Summerbelle with Edition Paumes. For the occasion we will do an exhibition of Famille Summerbelle work at Galerie Doux Dimanche in Tokyo, Aoyama. I am very excited to meet the lovely people I have been working with over the past few months and also to (re)discover Tokyo and Kyoto. I am traveling with my mum who will also exhibit her ceramic work at the Galerie Doux Dimanche. More on this very soon.

For now I wanted to share with you the process of hand screen printing our latest prints Ludo Le Lapin and Maximilien Le Magicien.
This is what I really love about my work. The designing bit and then follow closely the making of our products. So here we go...


Each colour is separated and printed in black on an acetate film. The film is placed over a mesh silkscreen and exposed for few minutes over the lightbulb. The image will be burned in reverse into the silkscreen. The screen is then washed out under a high powered shower head and dried.








Each screen is carefully checked to make sure no holes appear around the design. Here is the head of our magician with all the tiny holes that have been blocked off.




Now the fun bit, choosing and mixing the colours! I love this shelf with all the pots of emulsion lined up.




We are mixing the pink for the ears of the rabbit and the face of the magician. The ink is spread evenly with the squeegee to the silkscreen. We are just making a small sample to test the colour. Once we are happy with it we start printing on a larger scale.






The ears and nose of the rabbit are drying before we can apply the next colour.




Et voila! Ludo Le Lapin. Same process for the other colours. It's such a fun exercise and seeing the design appear after each layer of colour is very satisfying!












Maximilien Le Magicien.

Here come..... The Performers!

The smell of the greasepaint, the roar of the crowd....finally after a good six months drawing, cutting, designing, sampling and starting all over again (!)....we very proudly introduce our new collection. The Performers.

Colourful, resplendent and ever so slightly mysterious we introduce you to Maximilien le magicien, Ludo le lapin and Boom le clown. A motley crew of traveling performers.

We're so excited about this range, as not only do we have a new design but also quite a few brand new products.

This post really just introduces the final product. Over a couple of subsequent blog posts I'd like to share some of the journey that we've been on. Learning about new products, finding the highest quality local producers and getting really involved in the process.

We really hope you like this new work. Over the next few days we'll be at Maison et Objet in Paris exhibiting the range (plus our other products).

Also, if any of you are in Paris on Saturday night we're having a drink or two to launch our new book (Be Creative with Famille Summerbelle) @ The Collection, rue de Poitou in the 3rd Arrondissement (from 7.30pm). Do feel free to come and join us to say hello!

World Map Issey Miyake - Osaka

I just wanted to share with you the latest images I received from Issey Miyake, Osaka store showcasing the World Map Collection.

Apricot Jam

It is something I wanted to do for a long time as I love apricot jam on my bread (or croissant) for breakfast. So this morning I went to the local market down the road to buy some apricots. This is the recipe:
1.5kg of apricots just ripe. Take the stones out.
Cook for 10 minutes in a large pan with 20cl of water.
Add 800g of sugar and the juice of 1 lemon.
Add a sachet of Vitpris (It's a French product to set the jam - sorry I don't know the equivalent in English).
Turn up the heat and boil for 3mn.
Bottle straight away in warm sterilised jars. Cover and seal while still hot.
Enjoy!

Holidays - lazy days

Jumping in the pool.
Eating ice Cream.
Building sand castles.
Playing with his Duplo.
My little Lucien is happy. So am I.

Horizon

Ile de Ré. France.

Sweets

Local market stall in the Port of Saint Martin - Ile de Ré.

Time to switch off

That's it.
We're away on holidays!

We've worked really hard over the past few months to get our new collection ready for September. We are very excited to launch it as soon as we return from our Summer break. We've been so looking forward to these holidays to recharge our batteries before we return for a very busy September: Maison et Objet trade show in Paris, the launch of our new book and at the end of the month I am traveling to Japan to see our dear friends at Edition Paumes in Tokyo. I will be there for a Famille Summerbelle exhibition in their gallery!

For now we're off cycling back and forth to the beach in l'Ile de Ré. You can read our Best Of things we like to do on the island on Bozaround.
After a couple of weeks here we will be heading South West of France, to Cahors to spend time with our relatives.






Enjoy (the rest of) your Summer!

World Map Collection Pleats Please Issey Miyake

I've had something of a love affair with Japan ever since we visited back in 2008, so it feels extra special to be able to share this with you.
We have just launched this collaboration with Issey Miyake for their Pleats Please range.

It's based on my World Map design and it includes a wonderful collection of clothing and accessories.
The map has been adapted specifically for Pleats Please, placing Japan absolutely at the heart of the map.

It's a fabulous collection, with this special limited edition dress as a centre piece at their flagship store in Tokyo, Ginza.

I'm also very proud to see our paper cut original maps used as part of the exhibition.

The World Map Pleats Please collection is available now in all the Issey Miyake stores worldwide.