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

As many of you know, I have quite a number of wonderfully creative and talented friends. I’ve featured them here in the (blog)house from time to time, some have  stayed as guests, and some are by my side when I have special events. These fabulous people inspire me daily, and Leslie Oschmann is one such friend who never ceases to inspire me. For those of you who already own a copy of Amsterdam: Made By Hand, you will know that Leslie is one of the incredible artisans featured in the book (please turn to page 55 for reference).  For those of you who don’t yet own a copy of the book, click here to read a bit more about Leslie’s work and background.

one of Leslie’s reclaimed objects made new, click here for more examples of her work.

Leslie’s work consists of reinventing and manipulating found objects. One of her recent series was “oil paintings on chairs” – a collection of old chairs made new by covering them in vintage oil paintings. Her juxtapositions are stunning, the effect: spectacular, and her chairs have not only featured in magazines around the world but were bought by renown retailers Anthropologie.

Last year Leslie made an incredible window display at Restored (also featured in Amsterdam: Made By Hand, page 19)  – her chairs were hanging from the ceiling by dozens of ropes, cascading down to the window ledge.

The other day at lunch, Leslie showed me her latest creations and I’m thrilled to be able to share them with you here today – consider this an exclusive “seen here first” peek at her new collection…

Made with vintage oil paintings, Leslie has fashioned a series of beautiful carry bags with leather handles. Each one is unique and handmade, and each one, I can tell you, is exquisite…

A combination of portraits, landscapes, and still life vignettes juxtaposed with patterned paper and fabric inserts (as seen above).

I’m smitten. I love every single one of these bags and I know they are going to walk out her door (almost all of these shown above are already sold!).  Leslie is in the process of making more so if you would like one (or ten for your store), email Leslie directly for more details.

Thank you Leslie for giving us a sneak peek at your latest work. I can’t wait to see what you create next!

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all photos except for the first and third are courtesy of Leslie Oschmann from Swarm. The other two are courtesy of me and The Little Bookroom, for Amsterdam: Made By Hand.

For this display I decided on long strands of ribbon with matte print outs of the book cover combined with handmade paper flowers. Irene from van Rossum made the lovely row of canal houses, aren’t they gorgeous?

She cut it all by hand, I love her detailing of the tiny canal house windows and rooftops. I printed out some A3 posters from photos I took for this post to put on the bottom shelf. So the window is all ready for our wander on Saturday. Yay! I am going to hang some extra garlands out in the courtyard for our afternoon tea.

And for those who can’t make it to Saturday’s wander or afternoon tea, there is one more event that you can catch me at – the ABC Urban Arts Festival which is on Saturday, June 26th! Perhaps some of you already spotted the new little link in the sidebar of my blog?  It is going to be a lot of fun – imagine the whole square outside the American Book Center full or artisans and design & craft enthusiasts – all making, doing, crafting. Like one giant open atelier – cool huh?! Indeed!  I will tell you more about it very soon.

It’s Tuesday already! My weekend was quite a blur, it went by so fast and today, I do find myself quite exhausted once again. I know what you are going to say  – slow down, and don’t forget to breathe. I know, I know! And I am, I promise – Sunday I did get a moment or two to chill out, and Saturday I managed to squeeze in some much overdue yoga in between work. I loved reading all about your weekend plans in the previous post – you guys do the most fun things! It was wonderful to be able to live vicariously through you, it felt like you each popped into the (blog)house over the weekend like lovely neighbours do. Thank you for taking the time to let me know what you got up to.

This week I have two book launch events happening. The first one is a private book launch at The English Bookshop which I organised especially for the artisans and store owners featured in the book – a chance for all of them to meet and buy some books. I will be sure to take some photos of the event for you and post them right here in the (blog)house. The second event as you know is this Saturday’s wander. The wander is fully booked and I am so very excited – it is a great bunch of people that I am really looking forward to meeting and wandering with – for those who will not be able to participate on the wander there will be afternoon tea out in the courtyard of the boekhandel van Rossum at 4pm, so please meet me there for some tea and cake, it will be a lovely way to spend the afternoon. (below is a little sign I made for the shop customers)…

Right now, amongst a plethora of other things, I am making some pretty garlands for the van Rossum window display, would you like to take a peek at what I’ve made so far? Here you go…

I am using some of the left over materials from the American Book Center window. The peonies dotted around my home were the inspiration for the paper flowers. And Irene from van Rossum has made a super sweet canal house row. I will be going to the store tomorrow morning to put up the rest of the garlands so I’ll take some photos for you then so you can see.

And fyi, the window display I made for the American Book Center will be dismantled this Thursday (it’s been 3 weeks already 🙁 ) so if you live in Amsterdam, you have one more day to see it in all it’s glory.

xx

PS I may just be slightly obsessed with the handmade yellow striped paper, I really cannot get enough of it (except I just went back to vlieger and it’s all gone! boo hoo)

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve heard reports far & wide of some lovely press for my new book Amsterdam: Made by Hand. It has made the recent release of the book super special.  Below are some such mentions, in no particular order…

Cool Hunting contributor Karen Day posted a great review of the book, click here to read the full review. Thank you Karen and Cool Hunting!

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Inside Out magazine featured the book on their news page in the current July/August 2010 issue (page 34) – thank you Inside Out!

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And locally, Time Out Amsterdam magazine featured part of an interview between me and journalist Arun Sood (who also played the guitar at my booksigning on Saturday!) on page 61 of their current June issue which just went on sale. Thank you Arun, and thank you Time Out ! (click on the above image to read the article in full).

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Grace from design*sponge featured my window display last week! I was chuffed.  If you missed it, click here to read the post. Thank you Grace!

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And Traditional Home featured my little book in their July 2010 issue as you can see above. Thank you Traditional Home!

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It’s really exciting to see the book crossing media genres, reaching far & wide. If you know of some press mentions for Amsterdam: Made by Hand in your country or local area, please let me know. Thanks to everyone who has blogged about the book, or told your friends, neighbours, and colleagues about it. Your support is immense and I’m eternally grateful.

xx