Spent last weekend in Stockholm, doing exam-work related stuff. I also took the opportunity to go and see some exhibitions. Luckily, there were no less than two at the same museum that served me a serious load of inspiration for my project. Right now at Nordiska Museet, there is a fantastic little exhibition on Swedish school sloyd. Let's just say it spoke directly to my heart :) The impression of all these little objects togehther was very special.

 

Upstairs there was another collection of handmade objects, the Folk Art exhibition, gathered from places all over Sweden. It was a vast mix of mittens, garments, embroidery, bed linen, furniture, tools, cutlery and... just objects. Fun, inspiring and rampantly creative!

 

I have a thing for cross stitch. The bigger the better. No, not really, I like them tiny too. But this one is huge. I called it "monumental embroidery" in the beginning, but that's not really what it is either. It's simply a cross stitched masonite board (measuring 161 x 122 cm). I had fun. I want to do another one. The cross stitch pattern comes from my favourite book of old Värmland samplers, and the work is part of my autumn project.

I recently discovered Instagram. It's so... nice. I'm @bergslagsgatan by the way.

And oh, I was on TV some days ago! Watch me talk mittens at the end of the programme. In Swedish only.

The previous post with the little red house made me long for summer. It's -17 outside now! How long will I have to wait? I'm so Swedish.

The red house in this post is not the same as the other one, it's a sorry little thing on the other side of the road from our country house. A friend of my grandmother's was born and raised there; Ethel, a textile artist. It's a very sweet little house, which I would like to repair one day. It deserves better.

Another nice thing that you can only do in the summertime is going on the little 1960's railbus in Dalsland. That was my way of transportation when I worked at a gallery last summer. Not bad at all.

You can always trust Fine Little Day for new, inspiring things. Recently stumbled across the work of Sabine Timm. Well, I'm inspired now! These pictures make me realise, somehow, what creativity means to me and why there is no end to my ideas or lust for making things all the time...

I'm gathering loads of inspirational material these days, in terms of preparing for my upcoming BFA exam project. Starts in three weeks!

And like the autumn project, my work still evolves around my "native lands"; identity, origin and our family photographs. This photograph from 1965 shows my great grandmother and friend outside the house where she grew up. I would like to find out if that house still exists. The start of my project will be a little expedition to Värmland, quite naturally.

Got this invitation in my inbox today. Grand opening on Saturday 28th at Mimmi Staaf Möbelmakeri, a brand new shop in Stockholm where you can buy remake furniture, jewellery, books, Granliden mittens and more. Unfortunately I won't be in Stockholm this weekend, but I'll make sure to drop by next time I'm there! 

And what an honour to be featured in the same shop as both Elisabeth Dunker and Donna Wilson...

Ta-da! Next weekend I'll be featured at INTERNATIONAL STYLE STATION at Depot BG in Amsterdam! How nice is that! 

It's an exhibition and pop-up-store featuring a selection of young creatives from different areas such as photography, jewellery, graphic design, craft and fashion. I'll show and sell the Granliden mittens as well as the Scallops prints. If you are in Amsterdam, be sure to check it out!

And thank you, organizers Zsuzsanna Ilijin, Sandra Turina and Barbara Hennequin, for inviting me :) I'm glad to take part in an event like this!

Today, I'm packing mittens to send to a soon-to-be-opened shop in Stockholm and to an exhibition in... More about that later!

Meanwhile, I'm eating lots of fruit.

While being home for the holidays, I took the chance to go through some old boxes (my favourite thing to do) and found things from my mum's childhood. Wooden toys, 50's Lego and little picture books. 

This one, Charles Perrault's "Puss in boots" (or "Mästerkatten i stövlar" in Swedish) was among the stories I admired the most as a kid, probably because of the fantastic illustrations by John Parr Miller. I just image googled him and oh my, it's going to be a long night. Mid-century picture book illustrations, I just can't get enough of them. I suggest you too image google J P Miller now.

Yesterday, we got in the car and went to see Richard in the workshop at Not Quite in Fengersfors. We also had lunch, and lots of tea of course.