New version of the Advent Calendar Giftwrap on it's way!

Remember the Advent Calendar Giftwrap I made last year?
(....the paper shown in the photos)

It was a great hit with my son, and with several other people, as it turns out - so this year I have decided to do something a bit extraordinary. I am having a small production of this paper printed professionally, so this year, you won't have to bother with the printing yourself!

It will be brand new colors and patterns, but the concept is the same; 24 different patterns, all playing with numerals in different ways, for a quick-fix but fine looking Advent Calendar. Hang the gifts on a string as a garland or display them in a basket or on a shelf, and let the small ones have some fun figuring the gift of the day out. The sheets will be approximately 30 x 40 cm. this year (or A3), enough for a proper size gift, or even a couple of small ones - and will be printed on quality paper in what I hope will be fabulous colors!

The 24 sheets will come beautifully wrapped in tissue paper and a strong cardboard tube - and will be for sale in my new Tictail-shop from this Sunday, November 1st. Yippeee..!!

I haven't landed on the exact prize yet, but it will be reasonable, and I will ship worldwide. Order as soon as you can, so you'll have time to make dear young ones a cool looking Advent Calendar, ready for December 1st.

So, gotta go - am madly busy to get this product ready for sale! Stay tuned....

2021 update: Please go here for absolutely free download of the new version from 2015. These were a commercial product, I had them printed in a small batch and sold the kits online, but now they are yours for free. The only trouble is that you have to download each sheet individually - but they are pretty! They are scaled for print on A3 paper.

Paper necklaces by Catrine Berlatier

I've always been wanting to make some kind of paper jewellery, but I just haven't found any technique or come up with anything that seems to have the kind of detailing and strength, I think it would need.

It's no fun to make something that falls apart, or can't withstand a bit of handling. But still, I know that paper is this really, really strong material, if you treat it the right way.

And then, as I was browsing away on Instagram, I came across something: these beautiful rope or concertina paper necklaces by a woman named Catrine Berlatier. She is a French jewellery maker, living in Melbourne, Australia, where a local jewellery gallery - e.g.etal - sells her work.

I think they are fantastic - they look strong and durable, and yet you feel that they must be light, flexible and nice to the touch. The weaving or folding technique is simply beautiful, and I have googled like a crazy person to identify it, because I would so love to try it. It looks like a lot of work, and her level of finesse I am not aiming for - but I'd love to give it a go. 

If anyone reading this can help, I would be thrilled! What is this kind of weaving / folding called?

But back to Catrine Berlatier; she makes her folded necklaces from all sorts of discarded paper, old books etc. (for instance old atlases  - see the first necklace below).

There is a bit of an African vibe about them, that I really like - I'm a big fan of Masai and Turkana jewellery, for instance - and they are just so well made, you can really see her skill and craftsmanship.

Her necklaces are for sale here, if you have (quite a few) Australian dollars to spare!

(all photos here are by Catrine Berlatier and e.g.etal)
 

A bit of Yayoi and a bit of anniversary

Louisiana has a stunning Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the moment, and it is not to be missed, if you are in the least bit interested in visual art, art history, pop art - or if you just happen to like to have your senses bombarded with color and wowness. It is a very in-depth look at her long life as an artist, and I found it completely absorbing, and spent hours there, even reading a lot of the tiny print about her fascinating life.

I have written a bit about her before, a mini-portrait of sorts, read here, and also a bit here (I am a great Yayoi-enthusiast!) and I have shown some of her most characteristic polkadotty work - so I thought I'd show some impressions from the Louisiana show, of her more subdued work. All her work is a partly about obsessive repetition, but you have seen the colorful dots and pumpkins such a lot, and I was thrilled to see these pale, discreet paintings (the Infinity nets), all the beautiful black/white photos and her graphic work. 

I also adore the color explosions, the whole sensory overload - and if you do too, you will be richly rewarded. But I really like this side of Yayoi Kusama, and of the exhibition. You should really, really go see it! It ends in late January 2016.

And now for a bit of a long PS:

I discovered, quite randomly, that this is my blog post number 200!

This is not what I had ever in my wildest fantasy imagined, when I started a little semi-private advent calendar event in 2011, but this blogging thing has grown on me. 

I will never be an every-day-kind-of-blogger, not even close, but as it is, I always have much, much more I would like to write about, than I actually manage to find time for - and that tells me I should keep it up. Also, I started a job outside home recently, with an almost full weekly schedule, and that makes blogging harder, but not impossible, no no.

And Christmas will come to the blog as well, for the fifth season this year - yay, another anniversary! 

There will be paper projects - well, not quite daily, but absolutely weekly. So keep the printer, the scissors and the glue handy. And if you want to get warmed up a bit; here's a Pinterest board that links to most the DIY's I have posted over the years - or go to 'DIY's - the full list' in the top menu on this page.

And this year I will even open a small online shop, as well - for one very special product!
More about this is to come, real soon. I'll keep you posted.

Let me use this PS to thank everyone who finds their way to these pages. You are so very welcome, and I hope that my tips, thoughts or paper designs add a bit of color to your life. And you are always more than welcome to leave a small (or large!) comment and let me know who you are.
 

I'd love to know!

Kafka covers by Peter Mendelsund

In Denmark book cover design is a rather underprioritized art form - lots of great books are written and published, but in my view really great Danish book covers are few and far between.

I love a great book cover (as I have mentioned before), and have several books I have purchased almost entirely because of their covers, or their overall graphic look and feel. 

I saw these fantastic covers for Kafka's classics, and immediately set about finding out more about who designed them. They are by Peter Mendelsund, who is, as I was about to discover, completely brilliant at what he does. See much more of his work here, or check out his blog.

The scope of his work is amazing, and his covers are elegant in so many different ways; somehow it is obvious that he really involves himself in the content, and puts that above having a signature style.

You can also study his work in appropriate book form, in this great looking volume: 'Cover'

He is a passionate reader himself, and has written a book about reading, about 'what we see, when we read' (but of course) - and I have to read that too, I think! 'What We See When We Read'

But back to Kafka.

Mendelsund designed this series of covers for Kafka's collected works, published by Schocken Books in 2011. I personally find Kafka almost nauseating to read, claustrophobic and odd. But maybe exactly because of that, I love these: they somehow convey some of that unease and constant, slight paranoia I feel in his work.

Give a little, get a little

It's rough times out there these days, and for a awful lot of people. Including many children. It breaks your heart. Donating whatever you can, be it time, money or something you can do without, is important, and possible for most of us.

It may not be much we can do, but I insist on believing that even a bit here and there can make a difference. In Denmark there are lots of ways you can donate and support, and no, I really don't think it's a fruitless, little effort in what seems to be a hopeless situation. You often wish you could do more than just donate, but money is never nothing. Just imagine what might happen if we all skipped in, all of us. I rarely write about specific political topics on this blog, but here I must mention, that the Danish government is about to downsize our financial aid to countries and peoples in dire need, by a staggering 2.5 billions. So apparently, they fail to see the urgency.

Today I stumbled upon one of these countless small initiatives and decided to support it: Every Child. They collect funds by selling children's t-shirts designed by Henrik Vibskov, and HuskMitNavn (I also wrote about him here - I am a huge fan!).

All proceeds go directly to Save the Children's efforts to help refugee children on the run. 

So buy your kid a nice t-shirt and do a little bit of good.
Or make a donation to Save the Children; go to the USA site - and here is a link to the Danish site.

The last LAST day of summer

It makes sense to me; it's fall equinox today, and to some that is the sort of outer limit of summer, and I think I agree. Others have taken up woolly scarves and closed their windows weeks ago, but I am stubbornly wearing flip flops. With blue toes, some days, but still. Not that much longer, though.

Days are getting darker, nights are getting cold. And soon the season of winter bathing will start! 

We have packed up the summer place, and now only go there on weekends. I have started a new job and I am totally tired most of the time, although very pleased with the job. 

In the garden it is all reds, golds and faded greens, and everything is too ripe and smells a bit mouldy, wet and earthy. We are making apple cordial, tomato soup and blackcurrant jam.

Ground Control To Major Tom

This morning, Denmark's first ever real astronaut went to work at the Baikonkur Cosmodrome launch facility in Kazakhstan, to be sent on a scientific mission at the International Space Station, way out there, somewhere.

We have been in media craze over this the last week or so, so every Dane feels that he or she knows Andreas Mogensen by now - Andreas, who also happens to be this genuinely nice, good looking, level headed (and insanely well educated - check his bio!) kind of guy. You feel confident that he is gonna make it just fine, out there in the chilling emptiness. Which is not empty at all, of course - that being the whole point of space exploration!

So I'm a bit star struck this morning, if I may say so. Talk about a crazy line of work - that takes some courage and wild determination. 

So have a nice one, Andreas, and come back safely to your wife and little daughter. Let's have a song.

Here are my top three songs about life in space...

David Bowie tops the list, obviously.
The 'Space Oddity' video is a real gem, a brilliant live recording from 1973 I never saw before. 

Elton John's 'Rocket Man' is just one of my favorite songs, period. And one of my best running or driving songs, by the way. I wonder if they listen to it up in the Sojuz rocket?

The last one, 'Rocket Brothers' by the Danish band Kashmir is a great song, but I love the video almost as much as the song. The animation video is by cartoonist and writer Anders Morgenthaler, and is a whole, little drama in itself.

The Circle Bridge

Copenhagen has a new wonderful pedestrian bridge, 'Cirkelbroen' - or the Circle Bridge. It opened last week and has been on it's way for years, but it was certainly worth the wait. 

It was designed by Olafur Eliasson, mentioned before on this blog in several contexts. He explains how he, when asked to design a pedestrian bridge, immediately dismissed the 'straight line from A to B' style, but made it an exploration of meandering, walking slowly. He made it a pleasant room in it self, a place to stop and take in the view.

I think the result is just beautiful. I love the tall ship references and the red railing, and it looks stunning from all angles. I sailed under it a few days before the official opening, and it even looks great from underneath!

The Bridge connects two points in the busy Copenhagen harbour, and needs to be able to let ships through, and does so in a most unusual manner: it pivots! 

You can see a short time lapse here, that shows the final construction work, and in the end of it, you see how the bridge actually works. 

See map for location. 

And lots of more info here.

(all images here are by Anders Sune Berg, copyright Studio Olafur Eliasson)

Irving Harper

A few days ago, Irving Harper, one of my new found design heroes, died at 99, in his home in Rye, New York - surrounded by a lifetimes worth of work from his hands; and his house was, quite literally, filled with something that interests this blog particularly - his fantastic paper sculptures and model experiments.

Not many people in Denmark know of Irving Harper. I discovered him by chance, browsing around on mid-century modern Pinterest boards. In US he has become the widely acclaimed designer of that particular era, that he deserves to be - and now I am going to pay him a little tribute as well, and here's hoping that some of you feel like getting to know this abundant, wonderful design mind a bit better. 

He was the man behind lots of iconic designs from the era, mainly as an employee for George Nelson and Herman Miller (many of these have just lately become credited to him), but he worked for other manufacturers as well, and in many fields of design. He did lamps, furniture, kitchenware, textile design and graphic design. He made Herman Millers logo and had great impact as an design director for the company. 

He loved modelling in paper, he found paper to be a versatile, inexpensive, quick medium to work in, and one that only required a knife and some glue. And his work in paper - which filled his house to the brim - was simply amazing. It leaves me breathless. 

Here is a little taste. I will end the post with some nice links, also to a couple of very fine YouTube videos, if you have gotten curious. 

Images for this post are very hard to credit - they seem to have been reposted over and over again.
Some are by Leslie Williams, some are from Elle Decoration, some unknown by me. 

Some may be from this 2013 book: Irving Harper: Works in Paper.

Here are two fine videos from YouTube:

About working in paper 

From Rye Arts Center: Irving Harper: A Mid-Century Mind At Play

Grattis, Tove! (It's Tove Jansson's 101 year birthday today)

A few days ago I discovered a folder of notes and images I meant to blog about, exactly a year ago. I somehow missed the date last year, but I won't neglect to pay tribute to one of my literary heroes on her birthday - and since it is Tove Jansson (1914-2001), mother and creator of the Moomin Troll, among many other things, perhaps it is not at all odd to celebrate her 101st (instead of her 100th!).

To those of you, who only know vaguely of the Moomins, as quirky, animated characters from children's shows - as I did in my own childhood - she is a wonderful acquaintance to make as an adult, as well. She was an incredible artist, especially graphic artist, but she also painted and drew other things than sweet, melancholy trolls. She was a great writer, for both children and adults, and a kind of philosopher in her own right.

If you want to explore the non-Moomin side of her writing, I warmly recommend 'The Summer Book'.

Not so many years ago, I knew only of her wonderful children's book 'The book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My' (beside, of course, the images of the Moomin trolls, printed everywhere on mugs and t-shirts and the like). That book, from 1952, somehow remained in print in Denmark, while the rest of her work didn't, and I had marvelled at it's strong and unforgettable images, it's fantastic use of color (and cut-outs!) and really powerful graphic detail, many times.

(It is even turned into a wonderful app - and there are other digital activities, read more here!)

Here's an example - an excerpt of one of the pages:

Having enjoyed that book so much, as a work of art and poetry, I decided spontaneously to start reading her work, and get to know her better. I read Swedish, and started collecting her Moomin books in their original language instead (Tove Jansson was a Swedish-speaking Finn and wrote in Swedish), and one summer I practically lived in Moomin Valley.

The novels about the life in Moomin Valley are infinitely readable for adults (and for children from, I would say, around 7 years and up). Here is a list of the titles.

I still haven't finished reading every one of of the Moomin novels (which are now on my book shelf, all of them!) but I sometimes read a chapter or two, or an entire novel. I love their strange and beautiful mixture of really weird (but all so human*) creatures, their sweetness, sadness and complete unpredictability.

I think these guys will follow me for the rest of my days. So grattis (= congratulations in Swedish), Tove Jansson. here she is, drawn by herself, surrounded by some of her creations.

 *And yes, they do feel so human, her fanciful characters. And they are, of course. Have you discovered what kind of Moomin character you are? (here is a great wikipedia list, in Swedish)

I have known for years. I am a Filifjonke, or a Fillyjonk, whether I like it or not.
With a touch of Mymlen (Mymble), perhaps?