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I was very pleased to see the colourful throws and cushions by Scholten & Baijings on the Thomas Eyck stand at Maison & Objet. The quality (80% wool, 20% cotton) is impeccable and the colours so vibrant. Thomas Eyke is the publisher and distributer of beautifully selected design products. He commissions carefully chosen designers to work on a series of products each year. Material and techniques are chosen with the utmost care.
Under the cushions is the Aran rug by Christine Meindertsma.
Marie Macon and Anne-Laure Lesquoy are the French associate designers behind Macon & Lesquoy. I first discovered their products in Bonton, so I was pleased to see their entire collection of cute brooches and repair patches at Maison & Objet.
This is my little selection:
Silver cloud with rain (5cm x3cm)
Yesterday Simon and I went to visit the trade show Maison & Objet in the north of Paris. I'll show you a selection of some of my favourite things I saw over the next few days.
Kukkia is a Japanese brand who makes very cute and colourful wooden toys. You can buy them on their website or on Kids on Roof.
Count the stars...
Cars with wind up mechanism.
On the left: 2 chalkboards to draw parkinglots, houses, cars, people and animals
+ the wooden pieces: 6 trees, 3 houses, 2 hills, 1 car, 2 traffic lights. A true mix of 2D and 3D that kids just love!
On the right: Gatcha Gatcha sweets machine.
Geometric neon art blocks by Sketchinc.
Miami airport walkway. Seen on Plenty of Colours
Kaléidoscope by Maud Vantours.
Paper sculpture by Maud Vantours.
2012 planner calendar by Julia Kostreva.
Japanese bird envelops - the yellow beak is the closing flap of the envelop.
Torinosu is a bird’s nest bowl made of paper. Add a little leaf here and a twig over there...This set makes two beautiful bowls that can either be nested together or kept separate.
Available on Upon a Fold.
Embroidery works by Yumiko Arimoto.
The colours are stunning, I cannot images how many hours she has spend on each embroidery. A true labour of love. I'm speechless.
Artist David T Waller used 2500 toy cars to create this stunning round rainbow. My little Lucien would go crazy in front of all these cars!
via Plenty of colour.
Today I went to see the exhibition of French artist Jean-Paul Goude at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.JP Goude is a multi disciplinary artist: graphic designer, illustrator, photographer, film director. He was the artistic director of Esquire magazine in NYC for a decade. He created several well known campaigns for Citroen (with Grace Jones, she was his muse and had a son together), Chanel (Egoiste, Coco with Vanessa Paradis), Kodak and the Galeries Lafayette. In 1989 He was asked by the French government to stage the bicentenary of the French Revolution on the Champs Elysées. You can see here his sketchbook illustrating some of the costume designs.
You can view a compilation of his work here.
I am a big fan of the work of half Finnish, half English illustrator/print maker Sanna Hannukka. Her bold and intricate designs are very much inspired by her scandinavian roots, her love of nature and folklore. Her clients list includes Marimeko, M&S, British band Keane and many more. She also has her own range of screen prints and very cute oak birds, all available on her online store.
We're doing our first sale. So if yo spend over £60 | €70 | $90 you get 20% off the total of your order. This applies to the entire collection. It will only last for a couple of weeks, so get cracking!
Not me! if we're talking about tattoos. I don't have tattoos as I'm far too scared of needles. Also If I had a tattoo I'm sure I would get bored of it pretty fast. That's why I like the concept of Tattly where you can change your tattoo as often as you like!
Tina Roth Eisenberg started Tattly out of her frustration of badly designed children tattoos. She has an amazing team of designers (Julia Rothman, Jim Datz, Marc Johns...) who have submitted their funky designs. You can even get a gift box sets of tattoos if you can't make up your mind!
Yesterday was officially the end of the holidays. Ophelia has gone back to school, Lucien to his nanny and us to our studio.
It's always a little slow to start working again after such a nice Christmas break (I didn't open my computer once for a whole week, yeah!) but I am very excited to begin the year with lots of new exciting projects. The months leading to Christmas have been so hectic that I desperately needed a good break and to spend quality time with the children.
We were in the French Alps near Chamonix and our days were spent eating amazing food, going down the slopes snowboarding and on the sledge afterwards with the children.
Ophelia loved throwing herself backwards in the snow making angel shapes. Lucien was not so sure..
Happy New Year to all of you.
2011 was a pretty great vintage for us. We enjoyed a great deal of change: moving office early in the year (Finsbury Park in London) and launching many new products including our new wallpaper Un Dimanche a Paris, a new map of San Francisco plus a brand new range of tea towels. We also launched a brand new website in both English and French and perhaps the highlight of our year was Priscilla agreeing to join us full time as studio manager. Famille Summerbelle is a growing family and we have a lot of exciting plans for 2012.
We have many new product ideas and innovations to share. We'll continue to develop our small business across the world. Of course we'll do a couple of new city maps (still getting lots of wonderful requests!) and we'll look at ways to personalise some of our existing products.
A huge THANK YOU to all of you who have encouraged us, bought from us, spread the word or even just hung out a little with us on this blog. We're having so much fun and it's largely thanks to you.
We wish you well for this coming year. 366 days to learn a little, share a little and grow a little.
La Famille Summerbelle.
