Illustration for the HARDER! magazine

I recently made an illustration for the HARDER! magazine of the Zwarte Cross Festival. 

Dominee Gremdaat wrote a short children's story and I was asked to illustrate it, super fun!

The magazine in for sale right now in shops throughout the Netherlands, how cool is that?

Botanical drawing

I had a great afternoon at Het Pakhuis in Hemmen where I followed a workshop botanical drawing by Wil Wessel. She explained where and how to start to start when making a botanical drawing. The first advice was: start small and simple to keep it fun! So I spent the afternoon staring intensely at a pretty oak leaf. And drew it as well. And loved it. So...to be continued!

 

Da Wanda shop online!

Yay! My new DaWanda shop is now online! For those of you who have no idea what DaWanda is:

'DaWanda - Unique Products from Designers and Creatives
Looking for a completely unique product, the kind that no one else has? Or maybe you need a one-of-a-kind gift for your favourite person's birthday? A lovingly handmade item for your child? Or perhaps you're in need of a little treat for yourself? Look no further than DaWanda for your handmade products, created by talented designers. We hope you have lots of fun exploring and discovering! '

The DaWanda site is a great and fun marketplace to surf around! Please visit it and let yourself get surprised by all the lovely stuff over there, have fun!

The day after

We had lots of fun yesterday at Amsterdam's Museum Market! Thanks for visiting!

Introducing these lovely ladies!

Time to meet Berta, Geertruida, Sjaan and Mientje! I've finally finished these ladies and am really delighted to present them to you now. Right in time for sales kick off this sunday at the Museum Market in Amsterdam! 

Pssst...you can already find them in my webshop now, take a sneak peak there!

Photoshoot

And then there was this fun moment of photographing my dirty old bags! I was already looking forward to shooting these pics in the dirty alley behind my house :-), which I thought to be a great location to fit the theme of the bags.

I love to look at my products through a lens. It just makes everything looks so different. When I saw all these bags together I could hardly believe I made all of these in such a short time. Soon you can find these beauties in my webshop!

Are you sure this is a great location for taking nice pics?!

Yes!!!

Sketching away

Last week I was surprised with a fun request to illustrate a short story for a magazine. So I started sketching straight away as there wasn't that much time to finish it. These are some first sketches I made on the subject. I find this first phase of sketching one of the most fun things to do, just playing and drawing around, no pressure. Just getting ideas out of your pen. Who doesn't love to play right?

The final piece turned out pretty different then the sketches, although I did use elements out of them. When the magazine is published I'll show you the final illustration, a little patience please :-)

Museum Market Amsterdam

Yay, some fun news! Sunday the 17th of May I'll be a participant at the Museum Market in Amsterdam. I'll be showing my illustrations and my Dirty Old Bags. I'll be there together with Dafna van Aymone Bags. I'm really looking forward to it! Come and say hi when you're in the neighborhood? Nice!

The perfect present

The perfect present for a girl that loves old books: aged and torn leather cover, yellow turned pages, musty smell and beautiful old illustrations. Times two. Just awesome.

Sending love around the world - heART Exchange

"Your heART really does make a difference and receiving a gorgeous postcard through the mail makes even more of a difference to each and every person in our creative community who joins the swap" 

I read this line a while ago on the website of a project of the lovely Louise Gale. The project is called the heART Exchange. I wanted to join an art swap for some while already, so I was pulled into this small adventure straight away when I read about it. Within minutes I entered my contact details and I was in! Last week I started to make my 3 pieces of "Collaged Kindness",  the theme of this swap. I wanted to use the line "Grow your happiness". So I started playing, tearing bits and pieces out of my old books. Sticking some washi tape here and there. Adding a lovely detail with a sticker. In the end I finished the collages off with a piece of a washi tape that I wrote the line on. Along the way I shot some pictures of the progress. 

 On the back of the postcard sized collage I wrote a small personal note. I also included an extra postcard of my own making that suits the theme. These small pieces of handmade heART are now flying through Europe and the USA to some lovely ladies, hopefully they will bring a smile on their faces! Isn't that just a great thought?