Give the gift of Green Fingers

Need inspiration for all those loved ones who pretty much have it all?
How about the gift of 'green fingers': Waterworks is an all-natural hydration system that makes caring for your houseplants incredibly easy.

photograph by Masha Bakker Photography
Design by House of Thol

A set consists of a Terracotta cone that is pushed into the soil of the plant, and a glass reservoir that is placed on top.
Because of the porous nature of the terra-cotta, water will slowly seep through the walls of the cone into the soil.
All you have to do is refill the reservoir when it's empty (takes approximately 2 weeks, depending on the type of plant). Easy, no?

photograph by Masha Bakker Photography
Design by House of Thol

And a set comes in this lovely cardboard packaging. Perfect for gift-giving!

Get your set in House of Thol's webshop now!
(they ship worldwide)

Looking for a bargain? Like House of Thol's Facebook page and/or follow them on Twitter for the latest promotions.

Textures and Tension

1. Robust - Assemblage by Thaddeus Wolfe - Spotted on Wmagazine
2. Woolly - Soft Forms by Mariko Wada
3. Subtle - Faience collection by Mathieu Pung / Phase 1-0 Design
4. Carved - By Mark Smalley 
5. Pretty - By Lenneke Wispelwey
6. Textured - By Lone Skov Madsen
7. Layered - Utilitarian collection by Ben Fiess
8. Imprints - Reversed Volumes by Mischer'Traxler
9. Tense - by Juz Kitson
10. Naturally crude - by Kazuhiro Katase
11. Old/New - Red Revisited by Bas Warmoeskerken
12. Nature - Jellyfish air plant by PetitBeast

Chinese + Easy = Chineasy

Water
image courtesy of Chineasy.org

To me China is a country of contrast:
Enormous areas of natural beauty versus cities full of smog; villages full of skilled artisans versus huge factories creating design copies; lovely omnipresent culture versus a questionable approach to human rights; farmers with ox-carts versus state-of-the-art skyscrapers... -Somehow i can't really put my finger on this land of Mao.  (Maybe just as well, since it's Enormous)

Mountain
image courtesy of Chineasy.org

Mouth
image courtesy of Chineasy.org

Political situations aside, i've always loved Chinese characters -unless they're not tattooed on someones body-, but have never been able to make anything of them.

Luckily for me Taiwan-born ShaoLan teamed up with graphic artist Noma Bar (from Israel) to create 'Chineasy'.
After spotting the lovely graphics on Pinterest i was sourced back to Dezeen.com, where ShaoLan is quoted as follows:

"I created a methodology that breaks down thousands of Chinese characters into a few hundred base building blocks," explained ShaoLan. "When these building blocks are combined, they form compounds that can in turn be combined to create phrases. Through this method learners can quickly build a large vocabulary of characters with very little effort." 

Everyday
image courtesy of Chineasy.org

'Quickly build a large vocabulary of characters with very little effort' - i'm up for that!

The book is published by Thames & Hudson and can be ordered online, for more information about the project check out the Chineasy website.
Just ordered a copy myself, i'll get back to you as soon as the mailman delivered it to my roof.
(i mean doorstep, obviously, but didn't find the right character)

Roof
image courtesy of Chineasy.org

Studio Thier&VanDaalen: Bubbles and Curator Cabinets

photograph courtesy of Studio Thier&VanDaalen

Have no idea why i didn't spot this earlier... i adore these Curator Cabinets by Dutch Design duo Thier&VanDaalen, which apparently they already showed during Dutch Design Week 2011 and the Salone in 2012.

photograph courtesy of Studio Thier&VanDaalen

Say what? 2011 Eindhoven? 2012 Milan?!
I must have been under a rock somewhere, can't believe i missed it back then.

photograph courtesy of Studio Thier&VanDaalen

The only negative i can find in this story is that the glass is not exactly glass, but acrylic glass. Which is probably just as well, when it comes to staying in one piece.
Alright then... added to the wish-list!

photograph courtesy of Studio Thier&VanDaalen

Happy pots

photograph courtesy of Atelier Stella

These pots by Atelier Stella (by Stella Baggott, London) make me smile. (spotted here)

photograph courtesy of Atelier Stella

the tub + the shower

Dolphin Court House - photograph by Toby Scott

Love the feel of this shower, would be perfect somewhere near T's bathtub, don't you agree?

Evolution Bathtub by Studio Thol - photograph by Johannes van Assem

Carpets to masks

Image courtesy of Fontanel

These masks are the result of a happy little accident that designer Bertjan Pot and his assistent Vladi Rapaport encountered when experimenting with carpet-making techniques.
More about them (and other work by the designer) can be found on Bertjan Pot's website.

Wildflowers

Styling: Frans Uyterlinde - Photography: Jansje Klazinga
for VT Wonen

One of these days i'm going on a hike to scavenge a bouquet like this from road-side wildflowers.

Thunderbirds / Brian Jungen

Thunderbirds
Brian Jungen - 2006
Mirrors, plastic bottles, leather
image courtesy of Casey Kaplan Gallery

Not completely sure why i'm so taken by this work of Brian Jungen, but somehow it speaks to me. He does a lot of great stuff with unconventional materials, like making tribal masks from Michael Jordan sneakers, or a full-scale whale skeleton of plastic garden furniture.
Brian Jungen doesn't seem to have a website but i found a bit of information in this article on ArtFixx that dates from April 2010.
spotted here.

Bordering on brilliance: Mieke Meijers' suspended staircase

Object Élevé by Studio Mieke Meijer
photograph courtesy of MiekeMeijer.nl

Spotted on Dezeen, this extremely cool staircase / cabinet / workstation by Dutch Designstudio Mieke Meijer (Mieke Meijer + Roy Letterlé) for a private residence in Wassenaar, the Netherlands (near The Hague).

Object Élevé by Studio Mieke Meijer
photograph courtesy of MiekeMeijer.nl

I'm not sure whether it is in fact the most convenient staircase, but it certainly is well-designed.

Object Élevé by Studio Mieke Meijer
photograph courtesy of MiekeMeijer.nl

More about this project can be found on Dezeen and on Studio Mieke Meijers' website.

Aha

AHA - Alicia Eggert - 2013
Mirror, plywood, steel, paint, sandbags
Photograph sourced from Alicia Eggert's website

AHA by Alicia Eggert, spotted here.

FractalLED by Arik Levy

FractalLED by Arik Levy
photograph by Ian Scigliuzzi

I'm into lines this week.
Also I'm very much into lighting-designs with a LED lightsource that don't look as if someone tried very hard to make LED appear like an ordinary lightbulb.
Maybe Arik Kevy tried a little bit to make LEDstrips look like neon tubes, but we'll let that one slide since it just looks pretty and new and old at the same time.

Gold lines from Galit Barak

Gold brooch by Galit Barak, photograph from his website
spotted on Pinterest

Ironing board

Photograph by ??? (who knows?)
spotted on Pinterest

I have no room for this, but what a lovely set up.

shed

Potting Shed by Nitty Gritty Dirt Man on Hometalk.com
spotted on Pinterest

.

Photograph by William (Bill) Kirby
spotted here

The world of Anne Claire de Breij

Photograph by Anne Claire de Breij

Last week T and i were 'Crowdfunding Superstars' during 'What's Up' at creative warehouse Pakhuis de Zwijger (more on that here on the House of Thol blog). Among the other Superstars that were featured was Anne Claire de Breij, who -together with Niels van Muijden- successfully crowdfunded the book 'Dutch Champions, about the less visible champions in our little country.

Dutch Champions by Anne Claire de Breij and Niels van Muijden
photograph sourced here

The photography in this book is outstanding: sometimes glamorous and staged, while other photographs capture the gloomy reality of champions who don't receive recognition for the success they worked so hard for.

Below a few other photographs by Anne Claire de Breij.
Visit the photographers' website for a lot more, including lovely portraits and many photographs that aren't as pastel-colored (i made an incredibly narrow selection).

Photograph by Anne Claire de Breij

Photograph by Anne Claire de Breij