limited edition extra large hawthorn needles

I've wanted to make these beauty's for a long time now but i couldn't find the time with all kinds of projects on my mind (which I'll share with you later on). Because the regular hawthorn needles all of a sudden sold out (yeah!) i realized i had to find some time to finish the limited edition. And here they proudly are, my newest finished product. Made from the largest thorns from the may-tree. Looking a little different from the smaller regular hawthorn needles, which where one color, these needles have the unique quality of having a darker colored tip. The needles are longer in size. They are also stronger which makes them great for the coarser textile crafts. I could only make a few of these beauty's because the largest thorns are a rare find. So if you would love one these beauty's to complement your sewing equipment, be quick!

beautiful 'thank-you card'

It's always wonderful to get positive feedback from costumers. But I've never expected to receive such a wonderful 'thank-you card' from someone who got my wooden needles as a gift!  This one deserves a special place on my desk!

NEW Knitting needles from branches

For some time now I have been working with my beloved father on a new product. Knitting Needles made from branches.

These knitting needles are made from pruning wood of different kind of trees.

The trees used have an ideal wood, but is only cut for pruning. The tree has better growth and fruit trees give more fruit after pruning. Pruning occurs yearly to improve mostly fruit trees. So no trees where cut down for these wooden knitting needles! Due to this, this product is very sustainable.

After pruning, the branches are hand selected to mach each other by size.

They are stripped of bark en hand sanded to make them smooth enough for knitting and to keep as much detail as possible.

Afterwards they are treated with a little bit of natural beeswax to preserve the wood.

These unique knitting needles can be purchased through my web shop.

Shop is online!

Finally! My very own shop is online!
It has two kinds products in it at this moment, The wooden needles and the wooden crochet hooks.
Soon there will be more to see and buy! You can visit my shop through this link or through the "shop" button above on this site!

Visiting Textielfabrique

I recently discovered this super cool sustainable initiative called 'textielfabrique' and ow my god I was sold. Such a beautiful philosophy and beautiful sustainable fabrics and yarns they have. I discovered that the shop/atelier was just a town away from me! I got in touch en visited the interesting woman behind this initiative designer, producer and teacher, Maaike Gottschal. We talked a lot about our experiences in natural dyeing and also investigated possibility's in the future. She also showed me her atelier/shop. It was so nice that I couldn't leave without buying myself something to experiment with... can't wait to find time to try this! In short it was a wonderful trip, let's have more trips like these!

A sneak peak in her atelier/shop. Showing wool she recently dyed herself by hand using walnut and cochenille

The 100% organic Indigo Starterkit I couldn't resist buying.

Having a glimpse inside the box reveals a lot of interesting things including marbles! Can't wait to try it!

 

First orders coming in!

After my recent post the first orders are coming in! I've already send out the first package with wooden needles today. I'm completely loving the envelopes I discovered made from recycled old german maps, they are just gorgeous!

I'm currently working on a webshop. Soon it will be a piece of cake to look at and order my newest collection! I'll update soon!

New sustainable collection!

I finished some super cute earrings, wooden needles and crochet hooks made from twigs. They represent what I think is important, use of existing natural materials like found wood or feathers and next to that they are so darn cute! And the best thing is, they are now for sale in two shops. The concept store Urban Nomads and the supercute shop Elle Aime They both have a shop in Rotterdam North (NL) All for very affordable prices, so searching for the perfect holiday gift? Contact me or visit one of the lovely shops!  I'm also on the hunt for new shops to sell my products, If you have suggestions, let me know!

First up I present, wooden needles made from the large thorns of the indigenous Crataegus. The long thorns where traditionally used as nails to attach the shoe-sole onto the leather shoe in shoemaking. The needles because of the irregular shape are perfect for the somewhat coarser fabrics. Handmade by me and treated with a touch of beeswax to conserve the wood. They come in super cute handmade packaging perfect as a gift for textile craft lovers! And the nice thing is they are very affordable. You can contact me or visit Urban Nomads concept store in Rotterdam (NL)

Next up are the crochet hooks handmade from found twigs treated also with a little Beeswax to conserve the wood. They are  in different sizes depending on the size of the found twig. The crochet hoofs are for sale at the cute shop of Lisa called Elle Aime and you can of course also buy them trough me! So feel free to contact me :)

And last but not least, Earrings made from found feathers. Every feather is washed carefully en blown dry before making these lovely earrings. They are sold in recycled glass bottles finished with a used wine cork. A handwritten label attached to the bottle tells you where the feathers where found and also from what kind of bird the feather came from. Every earring is different en unique because every time I find different feathers. And to make it even more complete I decided to donate a percentage of every earring sold to the 'vogelbescherming' (bird protection association). If you are interested in one of these earrings as a gift or as something you want for yourself. Contact me or visit the concept store Urban Nomads in Rotterdam!

New sustainable project almost done!

One my latest projects is almost done. It all has to do with feathers! This is gonna be a sweet sustainable little product which is gonna be the perfect holiday gift. As you are used to with my designs, this will not only make yourself happy, it will also make the world a little better! At the moment I'm working on illustrations to explain the concept.... very soon more about this mysterious feathery project!

a glimpse of the drawings i'm working on!

New Atelier!

Long time no blog! A lot has changed in the mean time. I've moved to a beautiful atelier-livingspace with my love in The Hague (a city near the sea). The surroundings and my atelier inspire me a lot, I've started a lot of new projects, soon more about that!  

working in my new atelier on exciting new projects

having a stroll with my love on the beach 

inspiring surroundings on just a bike ride from our new atelier and living space

Secret Gardens

This week I've been a busy bee perfecting my "Leaves Impression" collection for a new and improved Artshop and exhibition of the Centre of Art of Rotterdam. They exist for 30 years and celebrate this by having a wonderful exhibition called "de Geheime Tuin" which translates into "Secret Gardens". The very Exciting thing is that I will be featuring most of my "leaves Impression" Collection in their new and improved shop! If you are in Rotterdam and have time on the 5th of April around 17.30, come and join me for a drink at this amazing opening! Check their website for more details.

 

column!

Wohoo I am the new columnist for "de groene offerte" an initiative of the BNO (organization for dutch designers). If you can read dutch follow the link and enjoy my first column! You can read my column here! I'm gonna try my best to monthly produce something funny and interesting about my green design work and the dilemma's surrounding it. 

Dutch Designweek WNF auction

During the dutch designweek in Eindhoven there is a special auction for WNF.  

WNF Asked me to donate a scarf from the Leaves Impression Collection to this wonderful auction, and off course I said yes to this very good initiative! I've selected a beautiful scarf of the eucalyptus dyed collection Leaves Impression that also featured in the issue of Libelle Balance before!  

This WNF auction is filled with beautiful products that are made with good materials or have interesting subjects that stimulate consciousness or are made from recycled materials. 

Most important of all is that all the income of this auction will go to a good cause, so we all donate to the good cause! What nicer than that? Well, you also have a chance to start bidding on my scarf for a very reduced price! So check out the website, make a beautiful bid of at least 50 euro, and maybe you are the lucky owner of this beautiful hand dyed antung silk scarf! And next to that the highest bidder will also receive next to the scarf a personal letter from me explaining the whole dyeproces, a businesscard and a beautiful card from the Leaves Impression Collection. You can also start bidding on E-bay so be quick to try to be the highest bidder on this beauty because the auction closes at the 30th of October 18.00! Here is a direct link to this beautiful scarf on the auction website. And don't forget, it's all for a good cause!

eco dye workshop in Tilburg!

There is a unique chance to follow one of my workshops! There are a few places left for a workshop dyeing and printing with eucalyptus, It is in Tilburg (Holland). In this course I will teach how to dye different colors with just leaves water and a little love. You're also getting the chance to print with the leaves and you also get lot's of tips and tricks from me! I will give the workshop in English and in Dutch.

So grab this chance and follow this amazing workshop I'm giving! It is going to take place on the 27th of October, so be quick! Hope to see you there!

See more info and how to enroll on this page!

Libelle Balance meets Leaves Impression.

There is a nice article in the dutch magazine Libelle Balance showing a scarf from the collection "Leaves Impression" with an explanation of the process involved in making the lovely leaf prints. Enjoy!

staindress premiere!

After working long hours and having had great help by lot's of sweet people, my newest project "Staindress" is a fact. It had it's premiere at the wonderful event Fashion clash in Maastricht.  The Project "Staindress" is all about creating things that are interesting from simple materials, and most of all I wanted to convey that "mistakes" can make things more beautiful instead of ruining them.

I designed and constructed the dress myself with (much needed) help from my lovely mother (as I have never made clothes before!). The material of the dress is a high quality organic silk. Which I silkscreened with a homemade PH value changing silkscreening ink. I made this ink from inviromentally friendly materials that are used in the food industry.

To really understand and see the effect happening, I decided that this had to be captures in a short film which would also was an opportunity to really create the fairytale like atmosphere I had in mind when I made the first sketch on paper. This made me search for a professional to help me with this. I found a real professional in Rico Sohilait who has a company named "laid back productions". I wrote a script, found locations to use as filmset and Rico decided to help me. Which he did wonderfully! This video really portraits what I had in mind, so thank you Rico and his assistant Robert Jan! This video needed also unique music, the music is composed by my new love! Jolle Roelofs who is a great Composer and pianist.

Below the video showing the transformation of this dress and underneath some photo's of the performance and also of the presentation in Maastricht

The photo's are made by Jolle Roelofs and the Film by Laid back productions, enjoy!
PS: If you want to use the photo's for your blog or something else, that's cool but please remember to mention the project and a link! Thankss!


next blogpost is all about, "the making of staindress" plus the people that helped to make it reality!


staindress from wieteke opmeer on Vimeo.