I came across the illustrations and paintings of artist Paola Zakimi of LaSrtaPil yesterday while I was out shopping with a new friend, Katja Behre, who is visiting from London. I found Paola’s work while flipping through a DaWanda lookbook at the Snug shop and instantly fell in love. Would you like to see why?
What’s not to love, right? And here are some of her paintings in-situ — I always like to see the art living in a space to get a better idea of how it would work in my own. These paintings are very interesting… I like the contrast of the black art against the crisp white wall. Her work would be beautiful in a children’s book.
Paola, who lives and works in Argentina, can be found online at her DaWanda shop, on Etsy and at her personal blog. In addition to her beautiful art, she also is a doll maker. Her drawings really speak to me… I wonder if her style speaks to you and if so, what does it say? Okay, other than “buyyyy meeeee”. :)
(images: paola zakimi)
Nesting is a new interiors book published in Sweden and calls itself, “The Scandinavian version of The Selby,” and was shot by photographer Pia Ulin who collaborated with Swedish author and stylist Cilla Ramnek. It features 26 homes shot over a period of 7 years, all homes were “barely” styled so what you see is what you get…
I was talking to someone lately who advised me to stop writing about decorating books until after the launch of my own, that I should not direct my readers to other books to purchase when I myself have a title coming out soon. Hmmm. While I understand where she was coming from and respect her business opinion immensely, I do not share this view. In fact, I walked away from that conversation feeling a bit flat because I simply do not believe in keeping it all to myself. I believe in sharing the wonderful talent that exists out there, which is why I will continue to praise and review the many beautiful decorating books currently on the market and those that will come, including my own.
I’m proud of all of us who are out there taking risks, making things, writing stuff, publishing in unstable environments, opening new stores, starting new blogs — we’re all part of this community and as long as people show respect for the work of others and play by the rules, we can all exist together just fine — in fact, we can all help one another to flourish. What comes around goes around anyway, right? The day that I stop praising others then my work will officially be boring and worthless to me because I could never get through to the next day without encouraging and raising others up today.
And with that, I will continue to review books that inspire me now and for months and perhaps even years to come, like Nesting — peeks into this lovely book are shown above. If you like what you see you may purchase it at Swedish bookseller Papercut. Enjoy!
(images: pia ulin)
I’d like to share Neëst with you today as I know you will love all of their natural wood products which makes my heart so happy. Based in Paris, Neëst is an online shop which merges Japanese and Scandinavian style resulting in a natural, simple style that so many of us are drawn to like a moth to the light. Are you attracted to this look as well? Curated and owned by the talented Sandrine Pigeon, I’m sure you will find her shop, blog and her home very inspirational — it oozes with pure + natural style. See for yourself…
Sandrine also has a beautiful home tour over at the Stir, you can see it there if you’d like. She lives there with her husband and two teenage children and the space is simply divine — mixing lots of mid century classics, pure white walls, small floral prints, linen, and natural hardwood floors. Here is a glimpse below…
Everything is so sweet in Sandrine’s world including her adorable kitty Pompon shown above… that cat in the basket photo has to be one of the sweetest photos ever. :)
(images: neëst)
I woke up this morning thinking about Leslie Oschmann of Swarm, no clue why really, and so I thought I’d check out her website to see what she has been up to since I visited her atelier over the summer (read about that here). Well first things first, Leslie is blogging! I’m thrilled because now I can keep up with her work as she goes.
Above are some of her latest creations… “Myriad” necklaces! When we were chatting in person, Leslie was talking about some of her ideas for jewelry making so it’s exciting for me to see the results above. I love how she used wooden discs and applied mini paintings to them on both sides so that you can flip them over to change the look of the necklace. Beautiful work, Leslie!
Her new “Altered Ego” chairs are clever as well. Something once old and considered boring even is suddenly desirable again and has a quirky twist, I like that. It’s inspiring to see Leslie working on new projects and I can’t wait to see what 2011 brings for her.
(images: leslie oschmann)
After writing about Store Without a Home earlier, I had to further investigate those amazing paper alarm clocks and now I’ve discovered their maker, Korean design studio Joon & Jung. Also based in the Netherlands, Joon & Jung is a conceptual product design studio based in Eindhoven. Their designs are intriguing and so very special because their work is abstract yet practical and there is an obvious story behind each and every design. Joonsoo Kim (Joon) and Jungyou Cho (Jung) met while they were students at the Design Academy Eindhoven and they’ve been working together since 2008.
“Our experiences of studying design in Korea and the Netherlands give a unique affection to concrete our philosophy and aesthetic. Especially, the influence of Dutch Design made us a storyteller with a form language and our design identity more strongly.”
What imagination! You can purchase many of the Joon & Jung creations at Store Without a Home in Amsterdam.
(images: joon & jung)
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