Vintage inspiration

We were roaming around in London, and took a trip to Brick Lane.  First thing I found was a streef full of african fabrics

I became totally facinated by the patterns.  Fantastic colorfull patterns made for African women.

We then found Londons biggest vintage shop.  There is always lots of inspiration in old things.

We had a coffe and sat down to read one of the many books. 

It was quite fun to hang around and just watch.  Its interesting to see the supercool hipsters coming in to look for vintage treasures.   They were obviously very inspired by late 80is and early 90 ies. 

 

My son found this sweater.  "It looks like one that you father wore when you were born" I said.

Its true !  I have a picture from 1989 from the hospital.  I kind of think it looks really ugly.  But I can understand that he thinks it looks cool.  I know the feeling.  I always used to love vintage my self.  I still do, but my taste goes more to the 50ies.  Vintage looks better on young people.  Not on me anymore.

He absolutely LOVED these old Swatch wathces in strong colors. 

I

After a long day of walking we found a cool cafe and sat down.  Ha a nice beer from Jamaica, and watched alle the cool London crowd. 

Inspiring London

My son lives in London at the moment.  And that gave me a great opportunity to go and visit.  Its been a while since I have been in London.  I used to live there one year when I was young.  That was a great experience, and maybe a major reason why I desided to travel to India that time long ago.

This is him.  He studies at the university.  He showed me around.

And this is what he reads !  Im glad its not me !

I did even find the house I used to live in 150 years ago !  Nice !

We decided to go for some interesting inspiration, In stead of just heading for Oxfordstreet shopping.

British Museum was our choice.  Its so big !  You dont know where to start.

And inspiration was plentifull

I like this eagel here.  History is exciting.  To see all the works of man ! 

In the evening we go to Jamie Olivers restaurant in Kingston.

The atmosphere was quite nice.  Very informal, modern, like I expected.

We ordered this really nice salad with gorgonzola and pear.  Very tasty !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a thin Italian feather stake with sage.  Mmmm..

My inspiration

Hi !
An important part om my job is to take in impressions.  Inspiration.  Then I let it all go through my internal computer, loaded with my childhood impressions, my personality, and hopefully a little bit of talent ?

I do find inspiration in everything.  In memories, objects and history.  Not to mention the culture and house I grew up in.  Maybe Ill tell you about it one day.   But I have to follow the important events in our trade, and thats the fashion industry.  That means going to shows and other points of interest. 

Im in Copenhagen lookin at an interesting designer

I watch the catwalk show

Just watching the other people at the Copenhagen fashon fair is interesting.  A lot of inspiration in just looking at the others

This is in Paris.  I trying on a very nice scarf

I watch the trend exhibitions to pick up, or confirm the trends.

People from all corners of the world come these shows

And in the evening I myself a nice little restaurant to have my dinner.

 

Dutchmen in winterwonderland

The Dutch team who are working with A&C in the Netherlands were coming to Norway. We thought wed give them a real Norwegian experience, and took them to our cottage in the mountains. The cottage is near Rjukan, my hometown. With no electricity, running water or road, they were in for a special experience.

A

We were brought in by snowmobiles late at night. Next morning we woke up to heaps of fluffy white snow.

They put on the skis for the first time. It didnt go that well. Heidi settled for snowshoes ! At least they didnt slide !

We went to visit the polar dogs of a "mountain neighbour". These dogs have been modeling in an A&C catalogue some years ago. They are so cute. Very friendly dogs who likes to give a kiss.

Jose did really well on her langlauf skis. In Norway we say that this is normal skis. Why do they use german terms on this ?. Dutch people claim that normal skis are alpine skis. As if they would know !! The Norwegians invented the skis for heavens sake !. So they should be called langrenns skis if anything !

Our hut is quite small and very simple. But nevertheless very exotic and comfortable. Its nice to get in and feed the fire !

In the evening we enjoyed to sit in the cozy warm hut. I made good Norwegian delicacies like "Rakfisk". They loved it !! To my surprise. Its really quite special, but my experience is that lots of people love it. And with a little shot of Aquavit its just mmmmmmm ! For dinner we had reindeer. I love to make good food of the best ingredients. Not so different from making jewellery actually !

Next day we took our guests on a tour by snowscooter . It was crisp and cold with lots of fresh snow. Im glad we could cover our legs with a reindeerskin which is so amazingly warm. Jose and Maurice injoy themselves. Maurice shoots a loot of pictures for the newspaper.

Powdersnow of the best sort. You can just throw yourself into it and its so soft like feathers.

We drive up along the trail, and in the end there is no trail anymore. Just the endless wilderness. Its biting cold and finally the scooter cant get any further. We just sink in to deeply. Its a special feeling. The view is fantastic.

The littel trip was just great. We hope we gave our guests an uforgettable experience of something simple, yet authentic. This is how we like to do thing. The real way !

Gave & Interiørmessen

 

The new year is here, and spring is just around the corner.  We are preparing for the coming giftfair in Oslo, called Gave og Interiørmessen.  Its a good place to meet new customers. 

Jeanette is testing out all our new displays and filling them with jewelry.

The new spring poster is ready !

We will continue our pure silver campaing for WWF

Ths spinners are beeing prepared with the new collections.

Our great basic items.

I år har vi laget 17 mai sløyfer for det norske markedet

Jeanette i farta

We are not quite ready yet, but we are getting there !

Vi ønsker alle forhandlere velkomne til vår stand på Gave og Interiørmessen i Oslo 26.-29 jan

January life

Hi again !  Its January, and time to get moving !  I want to show you my hobby !

We are a group of women who dance African dance with Raymon Sereba as our teacher.

 

This time we had great musicians.  On different instruments.  Most important is ofcourse the drums

Sometimes we sing too.  We learn different kinds of african village songs etc. 

The man in turqize t shirt is Kossa.  He is a marvelous percussionist.  And to his left Siddique.  It was great to have the Cora player also. 

Its quite difficult.  One has to listen to the rythms quite carefully, and train the body to move accordingly.

Raymond Sereba is a fantastic teacher.  And dancing works wonders.  African dance is like laughing with the body !

On the other hand, we dont have any ambitions to become really good.  We just enjoy it.

 

 

 

And when I got home I took a hot lovely bath.

With lit candles, and some nice luxurious oil.  And then just sink back and enjoy !!