After my last weeks post about Saskia and Stefan Diez’ paper bag Rianne gave me a hint about another kind of paper bag: this designed by Ramon Middelkoop from Rotterdam (Holland) looks like a real paper bag but is made of leather contrary to the other paper bag that doesn’t look like a paper bag, but is a paper bag. A bag made of paper contra a leather bag looking like a paper bag. Quite funny, hein?
Thanks for this great hint, Rianne!
(pics from Ramon Middelkoop, linked to their sources)
On Saturday we had a packed full day. First two Guerrilla Marketing seminars and then a more funny event: our neighbours to the left (two very nice girls trained as designers as we are) opened their shop called Pomeranza Design Ranch located at the corner Senefelder Straße/Raumer Straße. We went there to have a look, to drink a glass of champagne and to chat a bit with a few people.
See here Katrin with the two girls at their coffee bar (they offer coffee as well. We even benefit from their very delicious coffee sometimes, because we don’t have out own coffee jet:-)
Pomeranza offers awide range of interior design and decoration products from brands like Koziol. 
See here their wonderful window decoration.
(pics from Marsupialia)
Last week some unexpected goods for our future shop arrived at construction site. Well … unexpected not really, because we ordered these goods. But unexpected at that time: we told all the suppliers not to ship before march 1st to Raumerstraße 19 and even switched delivery date not before march 15th, because of the shop not finished yet.
But thanks to Klaus, one of our favourite workers on site, we’ve got the small package. He accepted it and stored it the construction trailer. A big thank you to you, Klaus! You did us a great favour!
Now let’s have look what was in the package. The small box came from Darmstadt, our former hometown, from a company called Eigenart. Eigenart are two women called Heike and Nina, who are are developing their own fashion collection and a shawl collection called Frans. They have as well a shop in Darmstadt. I just read a very interesting article about them and their story on FAZ.net. I am sorry for all the English speaking readers, but the article is in German.
Now I give you a glimpse into the parcel’s content:
the very colourful selection from the box
some white ones
Stay curious on all the other shawls that have been in the box. There are even some for men. You will be able to see their full beauty soon in the Beuteltiere Shop.
(pics from Marsupialia)
appeared in defiance of the numb weather today. My mind cleared when I noticed these:
Barbara and me found a nice shop with these precious items. These fabulous lamps come from Marco Hinze a designer who has his showroom in the to-be neighbourhood in Berlin Prenzlauerberg. As we will need a representative showroom ourselves, we thought of taking one of Marcos light-sculptures as a shiny point of interest. What do you think?
Here you can see Marco setting up one of his “knospe-rondells”. The lamps are made out of a polypropylen-foil, which is available in different colours and luminescences as you can find here. So you can compile the different attributes together to your ever-dreamt-of-light. Isn´t that great?!
And what I found out about the inventor of these beauties: He took part on the Business Plan Competition we are participting too.
Sunday is not a working day. That’s why I didn’t spend my time on our business-plan today, but I spent a wonderful afternoon with Udo at Trendmafia in Berlin-Friedrichshain, Frankfurter Allee 21a-23a. in a former bank.That’s why there are funny safes in the basement.
Trendmafia is a kind of Christmas market for designer goods with lots of small booths with peoples creative work. Most of the products sold there are self-made and you can get in direct contact with the designers. It remembers me of Dawanda in real life.
Find here some of the creative people selling there:
Mitzebra: a girl making nice illustrations and small textile pets
Carmen Täuber: jewelery
Van Bardonitz: high fashion and more
Sonntag Berlin: printed T-Shirts
Shneiderman: lovely obi-belts and really fun hood-scarfs by Miriam Schneiderman (see a pic of Mariams stand with her wearing one of her hood-scarfs.
And there was the ice designer Horst Birekoven who made a famous looking ice sculpture in front of the building. You know what it is? It’s an audio cassette and you can find some small packages of jewelery in the ice block if you look closer.
And the best is: I even found a Christmas gift for a friend. But psst…
Don’t be sad if you have missed Trendmafia this time. The Trendmafia market doesn’t only take place during Christmastime. Check the Trendmafia website for more dates.
(pics from Barbara Marsupialia)
To all knitters out there! Look at these fabulous knitted pouffes! They are so great… great colours, great pattern, great details, great photos! I love them.
They have been designed by a dutch textile designer called Liset van der Scheer, who is working on carpets, bathroom textiles, curtains… all kinds of textiles. And the company that produces them under the name ‘Bonnet’ is Casalis Carpets from Belgium. Their carpets look great as well!
Many thanks to Tessa from Flannel Apparel who wrote about these a few days ago and I found so brilliant that I had to show them to you.
(photos from http://www.casalis.be/ )
Thanks to contacts to Belgium I’ve recently got this tip from Steven: Michael Verheyden. He is a fashion and accessories designer from Belgium. And I just found out while reading his biography on his site, that he (about the same age than we are) studied industrial design as well. As Katrin and me did. Amazing! He found is way to fashion by being a model in Paris and started to develop his passion for fashion.
But now let’s look at his work:
In my opinion these bags could fit into our shop as basic products. They are not crazy, not fancy but really solid, well designed bags made of nice lather. What’s your opinion about these bags. Do you like them?
(pics from www.michaelverheyden.be; photographer Arthur Roovers)
Today I want to show you one of my latest selfmadebreedings: a scarf. the special thing about: it´s for a man. “Please nothing itchy, scratchy. It should be soft and gentle and not to thin.” My instructions where given.
I choose a very soft merino wool in a dark maritime blue to fit to all clothes and outfit styles. To realize the thickness i use a pattern which is called “Netzpatent” in German. Any English translation is appreciated, just comment it below! Here you can see front (on top) and back (bottom):
It creates a nice voluminous piece.
To knit this scarf takes time but in the end it seems nearly double layered. For those who are interested to knit it as well: I will post a pdf soon, in German and English, if you like and maybe you get a scarf ready for your beloved to Christmas?
(images by Katrin Hufer for marsupialia)
Today I’d like to talk to you about a very interesting shop in Hamburg, that I found in Wallpaper magazine (sorry, I can’t remember the issue any more) a few months ago: ‘Mutterland‘. I kept this article because I was impressed by the simplicity of the shop interior as well as the quality of the packaging. Nice inspirations for our own shop!
‘Mutterland‘ (in English: mother country) is a shop where you can buy original German organic food, such as marmalades or grandmothers cakes … and a lot more.
Look at their great flee-market-style interior:
And now the best: their lovely gift packaging! A textile label stitched to a brown paper bag. How cute!
For sure I will go there next time I am in Hamburg.
(pics from http://www.mutterland.de and wallpaper magazine)
