design classics - master gallery

Turnhout - Wednesday 19th of July

Flanders on repeat. At the Vitra shop in Antwerp, we were tipped to visit Master Meubel in Turnhout, for a large collection of design classics.

In the showroom of Master Meubel there is a permanent exhibition of the history of the 'Masters', the master furniture designers who are the basis of design furniture and the design classics in design furniture.

Before an object becomes a design classic, some time must first pass that determines what lasting impact the design has had on society and what influence the object has on later designs. The designs of classics are often remarkably simple, in essence, and are described with words such as icon, pure, valuable or meaningful.

In the Master Gallery in the showroom, well-known furniture is exhibited from Eero Saarinen, Arne Jacobsen, Charles & Ray Eames, Harry Bertoia, Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Michael Thonet, Verner Panton and many more.

The most surprising 'new' design piece (in my opinion) was the 'duo seat' by Muller van Severen. This object juxtaposes two seats made of lacquered steel and textile. The rectangular shape of the object contrasts with the arc-shaped cloths. The back rail of one seating becomes the arm of the second one. The simplest way of designing a seat, gordious!

After the surprising and inspiring visit we drove on to the nearby center of Turnhout and had lunch at Cafe Sorbonne and went for a city walk in the 'small' city center.

arrival of spring by david hockney

Due to lack of museum visits in this lockdown, i bought the new David Hockney art book by Taschen for Henk.

And we also framed the exhibition poster The Joy of Nature, which we bought in 2019 during the visit to the exhibition in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

The poster of Hockney's painting The arrival of spring in Woldgate, fits perfectly at this time of the year. Bring on spring!

At the time, we couldn't find a suitable frame and fixed the Hockney poster on the wall with masking tape in my studio. We decided to adjust the size of the poster to the frame.

b l o e m

Remember the massive neon sign b l o e m , written in italics with beautiful loops?

Bloem is the dutch word for flower, a word that suits me well.

My dear and very handy colleague Sjaak came to fix it on the wall this morning.

And look how cool it turned out!

I climbed on the kitchen counter to take this photo, with lousy November light, because I wanted to share the end result today, nonetheless.

A grand wall flower between the houseplants, Urban Jungle at the kitchen table!

disco ball magic hour

Disco ball magic hour in my studio.

blog versus instagram

In 2009 I started my blog.

It's a kind of diary, where I share my passion for photography, interior, travel, art, green and inspiration. Only a few posts every week and after all those years it's still a pleasant way to capture my 'life'.

Blogging is a way to archive my daily activities and besides it's also nice to inspire people.
(It still happens regularly, someone approaches me at work in the market at Villa Augustus or somewhere in a city; "you are woodwoolstool right?" So funny. Of course it is always flattering to meet blog followers and who get inspiration from it.

Visually oriented as I am, my blogs are rather 'photo reports' then extensive stories.

In the pre-Instagram era I read more blogs. It used to be how I started my day, a cup of coffee and reading my blog roll. With the number of blogs I followed, it was clear and took little time and nevertheless provided me with a daily dose of inspiration.

And suddenly there was Instagram.

I've been a fan since the first hour. And yet it is more 'fleeting' and before you know it, you are swiping endlessly. Instagram can be very time-consuming and addictive. Daily dose of inspiration sometimes is an overkill of inspiration.

It may sound a bit old-fashioned, but sometimes I miss that good old blog time.
Do you recognize this? or am I the only one?
Well, as long as I enjoy it I keep blogging (and instagramming)

workspace wednesday

In case you didn't notice yet, i love having a home workspace. It just feels luxurious.

So nice to have a spot where I can hang inspirational photos, art and prints.

Browse my endless piles of design and interior magazines and besides when i’m in my atelier I’m getting things done!

The advantage is that now everything has a place and I can finally find my stuff.
Since I have 'moved in' in what used to be Pippa's room, the rest of the house is considerably tidier, even though things keep popping up in the rest of the house anyway.

I stopped a while ago making recycled wooden stools with crochet covers, which I started making in 2007. This explains the name WOODWOOLSTOOL. Well, the wool-part will stick for a while and the weird name remains unchanged.

After many years (and countless stools) I was ready for something new. Organizing and preparing the workshops in Marrakech also meant that I did not have time for it anymore.

Obviously I keep making things, I could not do otherwise. I get a lot of energy and simply love to create something new.

I recently made covers with Moroccan wool for some vintage steel stools. I instantly fell in love with the 'Carribean blue' frame and design, however the brown plastic seat, could use a makeover.

One of the stools is available in my Etsy shop, as well as the reversible herringbone-chevron pillow.

Now I'm back to work and wish you all a pleasant Wednesday!

workspace

A workplace is a place that feeds your imagination. Creating a 'perfect' studio won't happen overnight, it's a growing process and that's how it should be.

A few weeks ago we started creating a studio in Pippa's old bedroom. The idea was to create something new with nothing new.

Enough stuff in da house to redecorate this workspace, nothing new, no purchases, but furnished with items that were stored in the attic.

My wool stock (previously spread throughout the house), moroccan rugs, personal souvenirs, books, my home office (which started taking over half the kitchen table), vintage letters, stools (in all possible variations), etc etc...

Oh wait, something comes to mind...Correction, there is something new. Some new 40x60 cm photo frames. I printed my favorite photographs from Marrakech (and a few from Sicily).

Obviously I will often work at the kitchen table, but in that case I only need my laptop. It's really great to have 'everything together' in one place. I am full of ideas and love to work (or just be) in my new studio. The place still has to 'grow', anyway the good vibe is already there.

bring on the wool wardrobe!

The woolen winter collection has been brought out from the attic again.

I could easily 'live' in these homemade sweaters and cardigans from now on.

The loopy cardigan and tweed yarn sweaters I made in previous years.

Right now I'm knitting a harlequin spencer, a project that I started shortly before I went to Marrakech and continued last week. It's almost finished, I only have to 'design' the neck and put it together.

You can find the patterns of this whole pile in my ETSY SHOP. So if you fancy a homemade sweater or cardigan? Have a look at the patterns, download your favorite one and...

Bring on the wool!

summer project

The harlequin herringbone pattern.

My two favorite patterns meet each other in this handmade rug, also to be used as a blanket.

You can find the harlequin herringbone pattern with a lot of detailed photo's, so you can make your own harlequin herringbone rug or -blanket. It's a very nice project to work on, because you can make a harlequin a day and finally all the small daily projects, will end up as a rug or blanket.

You can download the P A T T E R N in my Etsy shop.

beside the banana tree

I love spring changes in the house. Brighten up the space!

The old grey sorting cabinet on my desk moved to the attic for the time being.
It's a piece of furniture you can easily stuff with everything, you don't know where to put. So this happened all the time, everyone in the house is putting things in those 'sorting boxes'; keys, sunglasses, postcards, receipts, half a dozen chargers, scissors, but most of all 'things that absolutely must not get lost'

It was about time to tidy up my desk and get rid of the 'unnecessary' and I obviously moved a lot of stuff to other cabinets and drawers, but at least my desk is not a stockroom any longer.

The banana plant, that has awakened from its hibernation in the attic, has taken place on my desk.

It feels good, working beside a banana tree!