The world of zines is quite new to me. Sure, I’d heard the term floating around the blogosphere but I never really began grasping the concept until I read about the MCA zine fair via Ebony and Lee Tran Lam, two über creative Sydney-siders (although Ebony has just moved to Tokyo, I can’t wait for her Tokyo blog posts!) who never fail to produce beautiful zines. A few months ago, Lee Tran asked if I would mind contributing to her latest zine and the other day, I received her zine masterpiece. It happened to be a lovely sunny day so I made myself a cup of tea and took her zine out on the front deck of the boat, quietly reading each page…

I’m hear to tell you it is an absolute treat – a piece of art in itself. There are fabulous intimate interviews from French folk and French enthusiasts interspersed by Lee Tran’s personal French experiences as well as clever quotes & beautiful images, illustrations and sticky notes. The amount of work that Lee Tran has put in to producing these handmade zines is evident with each turn of each page. So absorbed I was by the details and conversations that by the time I got to my interview I had completely forgotten about my contribution. What an honour it feels to be a part of it…

Lee Tran sold out of her zines at the recent MCA zine fair but has been busy making another batch for those interested so I highly recommend you get your hands on a copy now before she sells out again. They are only AUS$10 each with shipping (so probably about AUS$15 in total to ship overseas) and you can buy them directly from Lee Tran by emailing her here.

Thank you Lee Tran for thinking of me for this special issue, I’m absolutely wrapped to be featured and I wish you all the best with your upcoming creative endeavours. Also, I can’t wait for our next breakfast date!

Wow, has this month flown by or what? I can’t believe it’s already time for the Urban Arts Festival!

This Saturday, June 26th between 1-6pm on the spui (the big cobblestoned square outside the American Book Center) is where you’ll find this giant outdoor atelier featuring a plethora of creative individuals displaying and creating work on-site, especially for the festival. The concept is to cross fertilize the world of design and crafts. There is a fabulous line up of artists and artisans including graphic designers, illustrators, graffiti artists, fiber artists, paper-toy designers, authors – all with an urban edge.

I’ll be there not only perusing the stalls to see what everyone is up to but also signing copies of Amsterdam: Made by Hand so if you have not yet got yourself a signed copy of the book then this is your last chance as the Urban Arts Festival wraps up my month-long book launch celebrations!

Click on the above collage to enlarge and see some of the creative people who will be there. Also check out the ABC treehouse calender for workshops scheduled for the day (just scroll down to June 26th and then click on the various event links to find out more). And for more detailed information about the festival and links to each artist, click here.

I’ll be at the book signing table at 3pm, hope to see you then!

xx

PS For those interested in Paris: Made by Hand, the American Book Center has ordered more, they should be in store now and yes of course I’m happy to sign copies as well on Saturday!

Wandering the streets of de pijp with such a lovely bunch of strangers, sharing a little slice of ‘my world’… it was all so incredibly enjoyable and rewarding, I don’t even know where to begin…

Photo credits above are as follows:
1. first two atelier photos by fellow wanderer and newcomer to amsterdam, bex radford.
2. 2 of only 3 photos I took on the day – thankfully everyone else had cameras and they took some great shots which I’m thrilled to share with you in this post.
3. the 3rd shot I took – another lovely little vignette at hilde tempelman’s shop.
4. these fab photos of sophia and lenneke are by fellow wanderer Larissa.
5. cool triptych by Dutch-born, Seattle-based linda ferrol.

photo from the front window display at van Rossum, taken by Alice, and photo of mini booklet taken by linda.

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Well, let’s start at the beginning when I lost an elderly lady, shall we? Yes it’s true, within the first couple of minutes in fact! but fellow wanderer Alice filled me in on the mystery of the missing lady during afternoon tea –  I didn’t lose her as it turned out, rather, she ditched us. I’m not too sure where she came from because I was quite certain that she was not an avid reader – or even aware – of my blog, but I think she must have been a customer at van Rossum and perhaps she thought it would be nice to go on this unique tour. However when I handed her the little map with booklet and spoke to her in English, she seemed a little perplexed. As it was, just before the rest of us headed onto the tram, she came to Alice and said very kindly that she had lived in Amsterdam for 30 years and was quite sure she would know all this already and off she went.

part of the group on the tram, on our way to de pijp,  as captured by Alice.

I thought that was quite hilarious. And I was very happy to hear that I didn’t actually lose her after all. So, with one down it was 17 of us in total  – we all hopped on the tram to begin our journey together and man, was it fun!! As most of you know, I’m not fond (to put it mildly) of being in the spotlight. Doing all these book events this past month is a really big deal for me – they are all completely out of my comfort zone. Saturday’s wander was no exception – it meant I was to lead a group of 17 around the city…! But everyone made me feel so incredibly comfortable and relaxed from the moment I met them, making this special adventure an absolute joy from beginning to end…

more incredible photos by bex.

Now I’m not going to take you through everything we did or everything we saw but instead, I’ve assembled some of the images here in this post that my fellow (very talented!) wanderers took to give you a virtual visual wander. And lucky us, those with blogs have even written fabulous posts about the wander already! So I highly recommend you visit them for a full account of our adventure. Their blog links will be at the end of this post…

photo on the left by Alice, photo on the right by Bex.

I have no idea what I’m saying here but I’m glad everyone seems so interested! This image was taken my Malwina who was carrying a gorgeous bag which she made herself, see below in the top right photo…

more great shots by Alice! here you can see us wandering and stopping into various ‘made by hand’ destinations.

Now I seem to be having no problem taking to the stage, ha! Photo on the left by Bex, on the right by Alice.

lenneke and sophia taking tea and scones, as captured by malwina.

photo on the left by Bex and afternoon tea shot by lovely Larissa.

two tiny collages I made for the booklet which I handed out to everyone at the beginning of the wander – they are photos from Amsterdam: Made by Hand, with page references to the shops we visited.

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Thank you everyone who came along, I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed yourselves and I hope to meet you again soon! Thank you to all the studios and specialty boutiques for having us, and a special thank you to my friend Rani who helped set up the afternoon tea tables as well as helped keep the group together on the wander.  A big thank you to van Rossum bookstore for hosting such a wonderful afternoon tea!! All of whom made this something I would definitely love to do again and again.

xx

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Please be sure to visit:

Lenneke from A Little Hamster to read her account of the wander (click here).

Linda from Ferrol Studio for her account here,

and Malwina’s blog post here. Thanks girls!!

In preparation for tomorrow’s wander, I have drawn a little map of the area, complete with ‘made by hand’ destinations to give to each of my fellow wanderers. Tonight I’m busy creating little booklets as a momento for our adventure- in each one I’m including some snippets of pretty papers used for the window displays along with the wander introduction and some extra little treats. Each booklet is unique and handmade, and each one can be added to  – so as my fellow wanderers collect business cards, leaflets, or even fallen leaves along the way they can attach it to this loose leaf booklet. It will be like a petit handheld moodboard from the day, hopefully something that will inspire and encourage more ‘made by hand’ wanders…

I have no idea what the weather will be like but you know what? I really don’t mind – it is going to be such a delight to wander in and out of these special hidden places that it really doesn’t matter… what better way is there to spend an afternoon?

Now I’m not going to promise I will take photos of the event but let’s hope that someone brings a camera and that they are happy to share their snaps with you here in the (blog)house next week.

Have a wonderful weekend,  mes amis!

pretty flowers on my windowsill from Jolijn at Juffrouw Splinter – thank you Jolijn!

Last night at the very quaint English Bookshop we hosted a private book launch for the boutique owners & artisans featured in Amsterdam: Made by Hand. It was wonderful to see all the boutique owners and artisans meeting each other and enjoying themselves. Some of them had not yet seen the book so they were eager to leaf through it and find their work amongst the pages. The evening was a roaring success, thanks to Liesl and Karen from The English Bookshop who made sure everyone was looked after with books, nibbles and wine…

In one of my previous posts I said I’d take photos of the evening but I’m here to tell you that it’s quite clear now that if I ever say that again, you will know better to believe me. After the last few events, I’ve now realise that I am incapable of hosting a party and taking photos at the same time. However, French Boy does know better because I noticed he’d taken my camera out of my bag sometime during the event and was snapping photos – what a hero! Except it was my canon 400d and not the canon g10 so he had no idea what to do with the settings. Regardless, he managed to snap this fab shot above! All the other photos were too dark unfortunately but I think this one is terrific.  So a big thank you to French Boy for taking hold of the camera and snapping this lovely memory. And thank you to everyone who came along and bought lots of books! What an awesome bunch of people you are.

xx