New wall stickers in my online etsyshop, a beautiful book from my bookcase & a vintage book gem

I was so happy with my self-adhesive wall stickers I made last month, (and they sell nicely in my etsyshop) that I expanded the series a bit with illustrations from the same series. These illustrations are inspired by vintage Dresden ornaments. (These are metal or paper mache ornaments for the Christmas tree.) They became such nice and sweet illustrations that it would be a shame ‘to leave them on the shelf’. I do have the feeling they will go best in a children’s room of day care, because of their subject matter and sweet style. I had them printed nice and large on this beautiful self adhesive gekko material. It sticks really great on the wall or on a door or cupboard. And you can remove it so easily. (hence the name, gekko) The glue feels a bit like a large post-it, except that it really stays on. Post-its eventually fall off the wall. But not these. I hope you enjoy these paper cut based illustrations in these bold colors.

Since I have a large collection illustrated childrensbooks, next to vintage books about art, design and craft, I have decided to add pictures and a bit of info of these magnificent or inspiring books in my newsletters. So hopefully they inspire you or just bring some joy.

 Inspirational book

The Forest, 2018

author: Riccardo Bozzi

illustrations:Violeta Lópiz and Valerio Vidali

 The book, with illustrations of ink and paint, is combined with beautiful white embosse illustrations with cut outs. The combination with the painted illustrations is beautiful and inspiring. How is such a book made? you wonder. There is not much text, but when you read the book, the forest and the adventurers seem like a metaphor for life. I decided to look on the internet for a bit more information.

online I read: a lyrical book about the journey of life, from our wide-eyes of childhood through the tangles and brambles into our end.

A new York Times best illustrated book of 2018.

"A wondrous piece of bookmaking for all ages" "Much like a poem, it will evoke new emotions and layers of meaning with repeated readings" (Publishers Weekly)

I am very happy with my find and indeed, I keep seeing and reading new things. It must be such a joy to make a book like this.

A vintage gem, a book for inspiration

Modern Keramik

publisher: Artia, 1965

 I found this book in a secondhand shop in Utrecht. I put it back on the shelf but returned the next day in the hope it was not already sold. Luckily it was still there ;-). It’s so inspiring, I think it’s because of the language of the clay. It is coarse and delicate at the same time. The organic shapes of the vases and the intricate wall art pieces are sometimes enchanting. Various ceramics from different countries are shown and the shapes from the mid-century period are beautiful. The book is in German, so I can’t read it, but that’s fine. It’s about the images.