FLOW WOMEN OF THE WORLD KLEURBOEK

Flow Magazine bracht deze zomer het Flow Women of the World-kleurboek uit, een kleurboek vol illustraties getekend door illustratoren van over de hele wereld. Les Belles Dames waren vereerd in dit boek te mogen staan en hebben hopelijk veel Flowlezers een aantal ontspannen kleuruurtjes bezorgd.

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Les Belles Dames in Flow Magazine Women of the World coloring book - Summer 2016

GIVE AWAY STONES

This afternoon I finally started my small project 'Give Away Stones'. I came up with this idea last Summer when we were in France, spending hot days at the riverside. I saw these hundreds and thousands of stones and I was sure the river wouldn't mind if I took a few to share with others.

I'm decorating the stones with kind words and poetry lines. These are stones to secretly slip into somebody's coat pocket for him or her to find when you're not around. Little messages to express love and friendship.

They will not be for sale cause you know, they're Give Away Stones..!
More about this project later..

AUTUMN, THE YEAR'S LAST LOVELIEST SMILE

(William Cullen Bryant)

More pots and plates with birds and leaves in the shop!

HERE COMES THE SUN

Last Sunday's Swan Market XXL edition, an inspirational market offering a range of homemade goodies, vintage, bio-food, design and lifestyle products, took place at Museumpark near the Kunsthal Rotterdam. It started with unimaginable rain but after a while the sun came out and changed the multi-colored pavement into a beautiful mirror. The explosion of talent and creativity of local and emerging artisans boosted my mood and multi-colored my heart.

PIECES

I broke something today 

and I realized I should break something once a week 

to remind me how fragile life is.

__Andy Warhol

OF WOMEN AND HORSES

Years ago I lived near an antique shop. I passed this shop countless times but never paid any attention to it cause it looked dark and kind of creepy inside. One day though, it was different. While passing the shop-window a large framed antique photograph of a woman caught my eye. Her long hair flowed in loose waves around her face and down her shoulders. She elegantly posed with a coal black horse. It was such a mysterious photo. Since then, whenever I passed the shop, I just had to stop and look. Was this woman flirting with me?

After a few months I decided to go and buy the portrait. Instead of the photograph there was a big 'For Rent' sign in the shop-window. I couldn't believe it, I was too late! The woman and the horse were gone without a trace.

The photo looked more or less like this old French postcard from around 1900. 

But..life reveals great coincidences at times.

Shara Worden, alias My Brightest Diamond, is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist I adore. I wanted to blog about her great music, style and creativity and stumbled  upon pictures of her posing with a horse! She used this old style photography concept and her elegant classical looks to create amazing contemporary images. As you can see, even though a century has passed, the concept still is interesting and powerful.

Here's one of my favorite songs of My Brightest Diamond:
'I Have Never Loved Someone'.

LOOK AND FIND

Yesterday was a day full of unexpected finds.

Found the perfect dress in a vintage clothing store in Rotterdam. A gold-rimmed black dress, very cheap but chic at the same time. The most important reason I bought this dress is that it shows it's 'handmade with passion'. I usually don't like it when clothes are too obviously home made. But this time it was different cause I just could feel this woman went the extra mile to make it look perfect on her. How could I not buy this dress?! I imagined that long ago this woman designed the dress herself to impress some nice man. She sketched it over and over again on squared paper to finally come op with the perfect design. She spent hours behind her old sewing machine to make it flatter her womanly curves. Although the fabric is not high quality, she just didn't have much money, she made it look as chic as possible. I really hope she impressed the lad! But I'm sure it looked great on her. And I surely will wear it with pride.

It's a pity she didn't sew her phone number on some little tag in the back of the garnment. Wish I could call her to let her know this dress is enjoying a second life on a woman with the exact same curves!

Found a beautiful poem line on my way back from the city centre spray-painted on the pavement.

It says:

'Ik leg je in mijn oog en zie door jou de wereld'

'Laid you in my eye and I see the world'

I love to be surprised by poetry in unexpected places.

Found a package with sweet gifts from my sis on my doormat when I came home..

Thankful!

MARY & ME

One and a half week ago I attended a soap stone carving workshop together with my mum. I like a challenge so I took the biggest stone I could find, grabbed a hand saw, some fancy rasps and files and got started. I wanted to create a Virgin Mary at all costs, but my piece of stone was formless and somehow I wasn't inspired. I took the stone in my hands and rubbed it, trying to feel the 'magic' between us, but I just didn't! 

Luckily, after a few frustrating hours, I was off, rasping, forming, carving like crazy. While the others were working really precisely, with clean desks and mouth covers, I was a butcher. From top to toe I was covered with dust, forgetting about everything and everyone around me. I felt relieved and it felt great to be in my own creative world again, creating something out of nothing. 


The result:

Just like I have a thing for beards, I have a thing for the Virgin Mary. My love for her started when I inherited my grandmother's embroidered image of Mary with child. It's really special to me cause above all it's symbolic for the person my grandmother was: kind-hearted, motherly and warm. Although she had a lot of hardship in her life, she never lost her pride or let her heart turn to stone. She never judged anyone and has been a mother and grandmother to many different people. Her favorite saying was: 'when you give, you'll receive'. And that's what I believe too.

In my house you find many different Mary's and Mary inspired images. 
Like these on a moodboard in my atelier.. 

..or this one in the lavatory..

..or these in the living room

On the picture there is me and my sister Mary (Marielle) when we were small

LISTEN

Plate 'Listen'

"   Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. 

The friends who listen to us are the once we move toward. 

When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.  "

{Karl Menninger}

CHERISH YOUR MARBLES

A few weeks ago I watched an interview with Dutch comedian Claudia de Breij. She talked about her youth and her feeling of not fitting in. She compared herself to a red marble in a bucket filled with blue marbles. I loved this comparison and it made me think about my own bucket.

There have been times I felt like the red marble. But nowadays I'm such a lucky girl. Over the years beautiful and unique marbles came rolling my way. I don't know why but they just did. And they still do, from unexpected corners, at unexpected moments. They are never plain blue. They have different colors, from smokey-grey to blood-red. Some have lines in purple, white or bluish-green. Some are transparant and others you have to rub carefully with polish to see their true colors. But when you do..wow! Beauty without comparison!

I wish for everyone to find such beautiful rare marbles cause they will enrich your life. Try to be open and attentive.. Maybe there's one laying in front of your left foot at this very moment..

SPREAD A LITTLE LOVE TODAY

I'm a big fan of typography t-shirts, especially simple designed shirts with the word love. Whenever I discover a nice love shirt, I just have to buy it. And as you can see on the picture in the middle, I even force my son to wear the message! (I am so lucky he cannot read English yet..). I can't help it, I am a strong believer in truly being compassionate and open to the world. And it can't do any harm to spread a little love by wearing a T, right??  

Rob Ryan spreads his love through his beautiful paper cut art. I came accross this nice interview in his atelier in London. It is my big wish to visit his shop in London together with my sister one day.

LA BELLE FRANCE

Walking around Belvès in the Dordogne was like a beautiful dream. The streets were transformed into an oasis of paper flowers in all colors of the rainbow.