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

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.