Stitches and Thrills

This is my second post in a series about Bakelite. I had planned to write first about Bakelite jewelry styles, but a lot of you asked me about recognizing Bakelite, so I'll write about that first. (You can read my introduction to Bakelite here .) Is it Bakelite or not? Visually: If you see seams in the plastic or mould markings it definitely is NOT Bakelite. In the finishing process these were removed. The surface is generally very smooth, even after wear. Even if a bangle has been treated unkindly (on flea markets I often find them in boxes thrown together with other stuff) it will usually have a smooth patina of tiny little scratches. In case of a bigger deeper scratch (ouch!) it will show the same solid underlying colour. White Bakelite tends to get more cream coloured over the years. So if you find a sparkly bright white vintage 'Bakelite' piece: beware, and make sure you test it by other methods. Holding it in you hands: Bakelite is heavier than most mode...

A must see this summer are the 3 exhibitions at the Textielmuseum in Tilburg. It's where I spend this lovely Sunday afternoon! A major attraction is the overview of 20th-century textile designs from famous artists like Miro, Picasso, Warhol. The historic background is very interesting, the textile designs by painters and other artists were often created to make art more accessible ("Art by the yard"). But the real stars of the exhibit are of course the fabrics themselves. It is a good thing they put a lot of notes around saying: Don't touch! because some fabrics look so inviting.  (3:Estelle Laverne | 4:Nevill Johnson | 5:Eduardo Poalozzi | 6:Steinberg | 7:Andy Warhol) ARTIST TEXTILES, Picasso to Warhol (- till September 14, 2014) - - - x x x - - - On the first floor of the museum I felt like stepping into wonderland. There are 2 intriguing and surprising exhibits. The first one is the 8 fascinating tapestries based on the subconscious hallucin...

It's time to make a confession. You might not expect it from a environmental conscious person like me: but I have a bit of an obsession with plastic. To be more precise: with Bakelite. My Bakelite collection: This truly can be called a big guilty pleasure . I am very aware of the impact of plastic on the environment, both in the production process as in the lack of biodegradability. What is Bakelite? Bakelite is the first fully synthetic plastic. It got it's name from the Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland, who was working in the US at the time. Bakelite is a resin, built from phenol and formaldehyde. The most important quality was its heat resistant properties. This made it useful in industrial applications like electric appliances. There already had been earlier discoveries of other plastics, like the semi synthetic celluloid, but these were extremely flammable. Beakeland did his discovery in 1907 and also patented the name Bakeliet. For me Bakelite always had been: b...

After last years success Imke from LoveJohnny organised another #creasint . This is a social media celebration of Sinterklaas. About 50 creative Dutch people exchanged handmade gifts. In the weeks before nervous tweets and updates started to appear on twitter and facebook: What to make? Do I have enough time? Will she or he like what I made? The Sinterklaas celebration is on December 5th, but lot of people celebrate it with family that evening. So we opened our gifts on Friday December 6th. My "creasint" turned out to be Daan of maandagdaandag ! She gave me a wonderful hand printed teapot with a text from Where The Wild Things Are. She added some delicious herbal teas as well. And on top of that she gave me 2 fabulous handmade stamps. Can't wait to use that strawberry with my fabric paint. I'm surely very spoiled! The person I made gifts for is Marike . I made her a mobile inspired on the movie UP! (see the bottom of this page for a basic tutorial) ...

Friday November 22nd the  Etsy Pop-Up Winter Pop Up Shop (organized bythe Ka-Ching Collective) was officially opened with a small party. My compliments for Babette , Margriet , Annabel and Barbara : they created a wonderful shop. There is a lot of variation in the items they selected, yet it all works together perfectly. From both my shops items are available in the pop Up Shop ( MissMinoes and AllFairness ): Apart from the familiar Etsian faces I also met some nice new shop owners. I talked to Nelleke of RedCheeksFactory , the girls from the bows at StrictlyAmsterdam , and to Beau from TheHelloShop . Beau is both designer and soap maker. But THE gift idea for this years holiday season is her home made beard oil . It softens the beard and nourishes the skin. Apart from the socializing we also had first choice in doing our shopping. This even created a line at the cash register! A great success on the first day already. I couldn't leave without Muscle Man Paper ...

The Nordic Island Hat: Inspired by the wind, the dune, the colours and the atmosphere at the Wad&Design festival on Schiermonnikoog, at which I was a part of an Etsy Pop Up shop last September. I designed The Nordic Island Hat on Schiermonnikoog and i knitted the first hats there from Drops Eskimo wool. Cute and cosy on the couch in the Etsy cottage where we stayed with fellow Etsians Babette, Margriet, Nynke en Barbara. De Nordic Island Hat shall be available in my Etsy-shop next week. I'm also working on writing out the pattern.      

Last week I was on Schiermonnikoog, a small Dutch island in the Waddensea. It is a beautiful island and with beautiful sea views and walks in the dunes . I was on Schiermonnikoog as part of an Etsy Pop-Up Shop during the Wad&Design Festival. One of the participants of the design festival was the designer duo Soepboer&Stooker . They gave a new take on cross stitch samplers by enlarging the design. You could also participate in the project in a short workshop. In the city hall there was an exhibition of old cross stitch samplers to illustrate the traditional background.   Coincidently a couple of days after I got back two family heirlooms came back together: my aunt showed 2 cross stitch samplers my great-aunt had made when she was 10 yrs old. This great-aunt had later tragically died at the age of 19. Then my father said he had saved her box of needle work which had been at my great-uncles mill house. We all decided these items should be kept together f...