Finding Home

Oh, I am smiling right now :). Have a look, you will smile too!

I even watched the product-line up at the end. LOVE!

This video came from MUUTO.

Hitte

When I wrote about ceramic beauty I sort of promised to follow up on the process-photographs of work by Hilde De Decker. Last Sunday was the opening of the group exhibition ‘Hitte’ (Heat in Dutch). Intrigued by the pictures I posted on the blog, I went to have a look. When I walked in, I got a warm and homely feeling, nothing like the regular exhibition space. The- very kitcheny- cupboards, displaying the work, contained lifelike, ceramic, food items. One cupboard was filled with stacks of ceramic waffles (yes, obviously from Belgium :) that looked like they had stayed in the waffle-iron for to long and got scorched black. The next one showed a full string of garlic in the shape of a neckpiece, made out of very thin ceramic, and some ceramic cake tins, dripping with rich, vanilla colored, glaze. These pieces were alternated by saddle-shaped shields; built out of thin layers of clay. To me, they embodied the human presence in this domestic setting, almost as if aprons had been taken off and left there. One of the shields even had straps with a buckle attached to it,suggesting wearability. The fact that Hilde De Decker is a jewelry artist shows through, even when she uses ceramic sculptures as a medium. In her works, the suggestion of the human body plays an important role, although not necessarily as a wearer. I was really drawn to all of the objects, because of their homey suggestion, but after a while they started to push me away. The delicious waffles: completely burnt! The cake tins, even with glaze on, were only molds and not actual cakes. The huge string of garlic looked too fragile to touch, and would smell enormously if real, not to mention the symbolism of garlic. The shields became defensive instead of protective. Like most things in life, these works surely had two sides to them!


The exhibition is also worth a visit for the quirky shape of the building, which had been restored and made into exhibition-space by Frank Steyaert. And for the works by the other participating artists of course, such as the wonderful sculptures by AnneMarie Laureys with amazing texture and color inside and out. And the work ‘Fever’ by Hanneke van Hage out of Persian tapestry and porcelain shoes, laid out in a certain pattern.
This exhibition runs until December 4th, at gallery and private museum Frank Steyaert, Tinnenpotstraat 16, Gent, Belgium.

Happy Halloween!

Everybody at our house is getting really excited for Halloween tomorrow.

We have been decorating and fantasizing all day!
There´s lots of inspiration to be found online, so here is a little summary for you...




Food is a great way to celebrate Halloween, so get your house filled with the scent of this delicious pumpkin bread and maple butter. Or have your party eat bats! (for the people that understand Dutch only, sorry)

Of course drinks cannot stay behind, here is a fun way to get those in style.

Our boys love to craft and there is loads to choose from at this wonderful boys-blog. Or even a simple coloring page can really help with the decorating.

Let´s not forget about the costume, this one is super easy and will scare for sure!

And since Halloween is also about goodies, here you can enter to win some. They will make you look BOOtiful…

Happy Halloween!!

Klimt02 Gallery newsletter #35

Last night I found a wonderful thing in my email! This great picture is what I saw first when I opened Klimt02 Gallery newsletter #35. The rough brick wall had me intrigued, and I wondered about the lamp. When scrolling down I found a perfect outline of the United Kingdom, made from plaster left on the wall. WOW! A red-ish dot and a 'g' marked the spot where the event would take place. This U.K. has a g-spot; and a sniggering smile appeared across my face.

The g stands for gallery of course. Gallery S O in London is hosting the touring exhibition ‘Collect rocks, plant flag’ curated by Klimt02 (Leo Caballero and Amador Bertomeu) with the support of Benjamin Lignel. It takes place from November 4th until November 27th and shows work by David Bielander, Alexander Blank, Gemma Draper, Manon van Kouswijk, Benjamin Lignel, Sari Liimatta and Marc Monzó, a promising combination.
I am still smiling over the great picture though, and wondering about the lamp…

Happy World Animal-day!

Today, on October 4th, we celebrate animal-rights! As an animal lover, I know our pets are getting spoiled today…
These lovely animals are our sweeties; they each have their fun quirks.

Hally: this love-cat comes in every morning for a big hug, and a bite to eat, after which she tries to sneak off to sleep on our bed (still warm). May be around during the day, but always shows up in the evening for more cuddling. Needs to be out at night to catch bugs and allsorts. The cat acts as a lucky charm.

Koninja: our cute bunny loves to cuddle, hear his name, and be near to us. Given a chance, he hops off into the shrubbery to roam free for as long as it lasts… The rabbit is a symbol of love and fertility, guards fortune.

‘The black one’: is always happily waiting for any left-over food to be gobbled up quickly, produces a small but delicious egg on a daily base, companion of ‘The brown one’. The chicken is a symbol of motherhood and security.

Fishies: These two seem to be super hungry all the time! They love to look at us doing our thing. They have taken turns in near death experiences, but have pulled trough fortunately! Goldfish stand for perseverance and successful living (as they have proven already).


The salamanders: our unexpected pets! After they were discovered in spring, they have been a source of fun for the boys. Specially when they started to have babies, their gills are so beautiful! The salamander stands for purification and renewal.

Mouse: another unintentional pet for only a short time, brought to us by our cat Hally. A good example of the enormous array of animals wandering in our garden. The mouse is a symbol of innocence and faith, eye for detail.

As a special World Animal day treat, you will get a 5 Euro discount on every broesvi-animal-jewel ordered through the broesvi website today!

Apple mania

At our house we have had grape mania for the past few weeks. Our one grapevine seemed to really explode with large blueberry sized, delicious, grapes! (edible grapes, homegrown in Belgium, it’s a rarity) Us grape-lovers, ate such a lot of them, we went into overkill… This weekend, we happily received an enormous mountain of homegrown apples, but I am not willing to let us get apple-overkill. Opposed to grapes-recipes, I know lots of apple-recipes, as apples are very common (but lots of love left here, though). When considering which ones to use for this autumns’ apple mountain, Mrs. Ans’ apple raisin muffins stood out big time. Apart from the fact that these muffins are so incredibly soft and delicious, they are also healthy (no butter!), quick and easy to put together, using unpeeled apples. The recipe makes a huge quantity, so loads to go round, whilst left over ones can be frozen. Mrs. An was a warm and loving person, and a great chef. We had many memorable dinners at her house, or An’s café as she liked to call it. The apple raisin muffin recipe comes from her ‘International Cookbook’, put together before she passed away, by her, and her English as a Second Language- students. Needless to say I am extremely happy that I have been given a copy, a real treasure!

APPLE RAISIN MUFFINS –about 30 (OR 2 BREADS)

Ingredients:
3 cups apples (unpeeled, chopped) –approx. 3 medium apples
3 cups flour
2 ½ cups sugar
1 ¼ oil –sunflower
4 eggs (beaten)
1 tbsp + 1tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
1 ½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cloves
½ tsp baking powder
2/3 cup raisins –or cranberries
2/3 cup walnuts –or flaked almonds
Directions:
• Put all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl.
• Beat all ingredients on low for a minute. Then, beat on medium for another minute.
• Pour into muffin baking mold lined with muffin paper cups or 2 bread pans that have been greased on the bottom only.
• Bake at 325°F (170°C) for about 20 minutes (muffins) or, 1 hour and 10 minutes (breads) or longer, check with toothpick.
• Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before taking out. Finish cooling on rack.
• Enjoy!!


PS I did try to replace the apple in this muffin recipe with our own grapes (whole as they were not very big), it just was not anywhere near as good. But in case you get as desperate as I was, increase the cooking time to about 25 min. until a skewer comes out clean.

Ceramic beauty

I promised you beauty on this blog, and here it is in the shape of ceramics and glass!

photos by mark eden schooley through Trend Tablet
A talented craftsman or artisan has blown these glass bottles on special request by Nelson Sepulveda. As they did not speak the same language, the shape of the bottles is based on the shape of pieces of fruit. I love the thickness of the glass, enclosing air bubbles and giving them their lovely color. Nelson Sepulveda explains how he wishes to bring the beauty of these artisan products in our lives in this video by Trend Tablet.


The gorgeous blue/grey color of the glaze on these bowls is what you might get if that glass color is translated into ceramic. I love the combination with the green and off-white, as if it was always meant to be like that, totally natural. Designed and hand-made by Julie Bonde Bülck.

I wonder what the finished pieces made from this work will look like… Nature captured in ceramic, I’m totally intrigued by the process-photographs. And confident it will be something good, because it is work by Hilde De Decker (sounds like I should follow up on it, right☺? Photographs by AnneMarie Laureys.


And from real nature into designed nature, the vase ‘Ashiato’ (footprints in English) where the animal walks on a seed, pushing it into the ground , so a flower can bloom after the animal walks away. A beautiful example of ecological footprint to me!
Trough Barefoot Dynasty

Bearina IUD

This design freaked me out when it crossed my path. It is an intra uterine device-concept by Ronen Kadushin. The image of his real “Bearina’ IUD is what is shown first. It is an open design, available for downloading. It is even possible to order the real thing for 1,25€! It made me question the functionality of the design straightaway. For an IUD it is huge! Imagine pushing a 1 cent coin through a hole, with the diameter similar to the diameter of a matchstick? This is why IUD’s are T-shaped and fold out once inserted. And how about the sterilization of the coin? It is common sense that coins are amongst the dirtiest things to touch. I concluded that the designer must have crossed over the fine line of art with this product.
Ronen Kadushin wants to act against pharmaceutical companies charging exuberant amounts of money, for things that are low-cost in production. He states: ”The Bearina IUD is a political product. It demonstrates the disruptive potential of 3D printed Open Designs to give free and global access to essential products, and circumvent industries (such as the Pharma industry) that aggressively defend their intellectual property to control the price and availability of their products.”
Furtheron he seems serious about the production of the IUD, (“in partnership with a forward-looking pharma company”) once improved and experimented on. For now, the purpose of the ‘Bearina’ -design is to be visually friendly, in order to appeal to younger women. -I am wondering what age these younger women are supposed to be?- And should absolutely not be used as an IUD or for any internal use. With a very clear disclaimer following. Hm, maybe more of a social-project then an art-project, but certainly not a new kind of real IUD -design. I’m so relieved! There’s definitely some love in this....

Found through DEZEEN, with an interesting array of comments on their article.

Summer love- part two

I feel extremely lucky. We have been on a wonderful trip with the right mix of adventure, sun, relaxing, friendship, action and plenty of paradise. And back home, there is quite a lot of greatness to catch up on, total summer bliss on the double!

Summer love

Although the weather has not been very summer-like in the northern part of Europe, we have still managed to sneek in some of our beautiful seasonal traditions. We love picking the fruit and vegetables growning at my parents place, and eating them! Of course the boys went hunting for bugs and took a shower in the wild at those precious sunny moments, total summer bliss!

Supabold: Fluidvase

Some actions can easily be associated with an object. Like pouring water into a vase. This action is shaped into a real object by Supabold. The best part is you get to decide which part of the pouring action you love most! On their website you can set your own parameters, all you have to do is choose. This is what I would pour:

Or shall I do this?:

Pocket Change

Another proud moment for me; broesvitrine was featured in the lifestyle blog Pocket Change:Be in Style in their weekly review of the most unique, informative and intriguing sites on the web called Best of the Web!! Yeah!

Mom Story

A long time love of mine is Bloesem, an interior design blog by a wonderful Dutch lady, Irene.

A few years ago she also started Bloesem kids, a great resource for anything related to kids, focusing on beauty of course! One of the features of the blog I like to read is Mom Story, where moms or dads get to share their take on life with kids. And * drumroll * today it was my turn! It is so much fun to see us online, what do you think?

plint tapestry

Nobody likes waiting. You may want human interaction, or something to do.This beauty makes it all better.

Plint Typestry from MotionTales on Vimeo.

PLINT typestry is a wall carpet by Sinja Bloeme. It is her graduation project and she graduated cum laude, rightfully so.
Found through April and May.

Change

Okay, it is time for a change. I love jewelry and I love to blog, but there is more! I love art, design, food, nature, cities, civilization, technology, imperfection and simple things, although not necessarily in that order. I love people big and small, accidental encounters, profound conversations and even the occasional gossip. I love the internet and reality. I find wonderful things everywhere in my life and would love to share it with you through this blog. There will still be plenty of jewelry, that won’t change. There will just be more to be excited about, a broader perspective. It is still my broesvitrine blog, but all about beauty that lies in the eyes of the beholder.

A little taste of the magic:

SHOWY SEAL Simple ribbons magically shaped into animals by Ribbonesia, also in the form of brooches at gallery Deux Poissons


Make sure you watch the stunning video of this recipe by tiger in a jar.

Our son Raffie also made the delicious cake, with help from our electrical appliances while I was looking over his shoulder, Sunday-morning love!


Anything by Rhett dashwood , especially heavy backpack


Our own pond full of salamander surprise, we love to watch our miniature dinosaurs.



Beautiful (name) stamps by Muswerk.

Untitled ring

I visited a solo exhibition by an established jewelry-artist, who has been working in the field for over 50 years, showing 70 rings from the last decade. Although the artist insists they are all untitled, some rings have a story or characteristic to name them by. That name may refer to their shape (the Padua-ring has the shape of a building in Padua, the Aquarius-ring is partly blue and has the shape of a fin), or their material (the Edinburgh-ring is made from a very special stone bought from a museum in Edinburgh!), and they are all made with an obvious dedication to perfection. But what is most striking about the rings: they all show a great playfulness and joy of working! All 70 of them! This made me excited to be there, and it also made it very hard to choose one to show you.


This ring was a favorite from the start. It is made from red corian (a hard to get color) making it stand out. The upright-rectangular shape fits with the other 70 rings. It has been cut around the edges to give it a sculptural feel. It has different size holes in it showing off the playfulness. One of the holes is used to perfectly combine the two pieces of the ring. This allows the wearer to fully extend the playfulness it already expresses! What more could you possibly want? (I know what I want and my birthday is coming up…)

The exhibition ‘Fritz Maierhofer (yes, that is the established jewelry-artist): 70 rings’ at Caroline Van Hoek Gallery runs until the 24th of April in Brussels, Belgium.

Both Fritz Maierhofer and Caroline Van Hoek Gallery are members of Klimt02.

…to pull a rabbit out of a hat… 2011

The rabbits depicted in this neckpiece look so peaceful, that I almost want to pet them. The things that are stopping me are the surrounding flowers, with their bright red enamel centers and square-edged leaves. They seem to protect the rabbits. The animals look like they might be wild, situated in a field, but the title ‘…to pull a rabbit out of a hat…’ gives away their captivity. They have come out of the hat and are now free to roam. One bunny is on the look out, turning its’ ears, while the other rabbit is relaxing- such a cozy sight!

Lately I have learned that rabbits like to be petted a lot (my son was very determent to have one for his birthday) and rabbits seem to follow me ever since. But probably not as much as German artist Tabea Reulecke, the majority of her work revolves around rabbits. It is amazing how much expression she puts in her bunnies! Her pieces come in various forms, often including beautiful enamel drawings like this one.

To celebrate the year of the rabbit, Tabea Reulecke has a solo exhibition at ATTA Gallery, in Bankok, Thailand from Februari 19th (tonight!) until March 15th 2011.

The exhibition is also displayed on Klimt02.





Our own sweet little bunny :):