Moving 'house'

Hey there. Just a short note to inform you that there is a brand new blog where I am hanging out lately and it's called: Pencils & Pasta. It looks real nice, if I say so myself :-) You'll find it at pencilsandpasta.com. It's all about illustration, inspiration, making my work mainly location independent, travel and moving to Italy. Say what? Yes! I am moving to Italy. Ok, maybe not right now. But I am working towards it and my new blog is there for you to join me on my adventurous journey.

I hope you want to join me too! You can subscribe there if you don't want to miss any new blogposts. Read on for a little piece of writing from the new blog.

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....I work mostly from my studio at home and the plan is to change the location of ‘home’. That’s where Italy comes in. I love that place. I love the language, the food, the sun, the ocean. And M and I want to live there within a certain amount of time. A simpler life: more nature and less concrete, more time and less stress, more sun and less rain. La bella vita, si? Obviously that doesn’t happen over night and we will definitely not go unprepared. So there’s work to do. Learn Italian, making sure we can both do most of our work from anywhere in the world (read: Italy), so we won’t be eating bare pasta without any wine. Impossible! And figure out where we want to live. Quite important.

This blog is about my life as an illustrator and this adventurous road to Italy. I’ll show you my work and how it’s made. You will read about the materials and programs I use. I will show you what inspires me. You can join me while I figure out how to earn a passive income and how I am about to change the way I work to being location independent. But it’s not all work related, you can join me here while I go back to school to learn Italian. And of course, you can tag along while we go to Italy and find the perfect spot.

I hope to inspire you to live your life to the fullest and follow your dreams...

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Curious yet? Please join me and don't forget to subscribe there! www.pencilsandpasta.com

An ode to my island

'Your island? I thought you lived in Rotterdam.'

Yes, I do. And we have a few little islands in the Maas. The one I live at is the Noordereiland [Northern Island]. And I love it. I also love maps, so it is sort of miraculous that this never happened before... but I made an illustrated map of the Noordereiland. I gave myself 'a day off' and what did I do? Work! (But I love it, so then it's okay. Right?)

I know what triggered it. There might be a nice collaboration in the near future with a recently opened coffee place just a few streets away. That made me think of postcards that are more specific for that place. I started with tea, coffee and pie. I tried different things and made two cards that definitely have potential to show up in the shop (and who knows... at the coffee place!).

While working on that I moved from coffee and pie to something that's more specific for this island. We have a bunch of landmarks around, especially bridges (duh...). I thought of drawing these specific landmarks, and I might. But I started with the island itself and it's location in the middle of the Maas.

See for yourself. I think it's a little too specific to put in the shop. But you can always request a printed poster if you're interested (click on the image at my website to send me an email)

PS. The coordinates are exactly where this illustration was made ;)

Our big 100 days of summer postcard project

While we were on our 100-day trip along the Mediterranean coast, M and I had a couple of little projects going on. One of them was take a duo-selfie every single day, so I could make a 100-frame video of our changing (tanning and growing beards. Him, not me) faces and changing surroundings. Lots of fun to see that now we're back home.

The second project was send ourselves a postcard from every place we were visiting. Arriving in a new town we had three tasks: get a postcard, get a stamp and find a mailbox. Sometimes it was easy, sometimes it was hard. But we always managed to send our postcard. We have both written a few sentences on each, so it's a bit like a travel journal.

After 100 days of traveling, we had sent about 60 postcards. Once we got home, we found a big lovely pile of memories in our mailbox. There's only one missing. It was a bit of a challenge making a book out of it, since the cards are all different sizes and the pile is rather large. I thought about it for a while and figured out the best way to do this. Even though I bended the rules a bit, my bookbinding days paid off.

Here's the result.

This is (most of) the stuff I used. What's missing in this picture is bookbinding glue. It's just a big ugly white bucket.

Bug-a-boo

I am back from my awesome crazy ridiculous 100 day trip along the Mediterranean coast. Yes, hello again! Tapas in Spain, hiking on Corsica, exploring the most gorgeous beaches of Sardinia and Sicily, eating all that delicious pasta in Italy and wandering through lovely towns, swimming in the bluest waters in Greece. Seeing the sunset almost every night, soaking up the sun. Yep, I would highly recommend :) I have been drawing along the way and there's some stuff I want to show here as well. But I will get to that later.

Being back home,  I wanted to start again slowly, give Stoffer + Blik a lot more of my time than I did before I left. I made the decision on the road to focus on illustrations and the things I really love. But as soon as I was back I was bombarded with a lot of cool projects and so I have been working a little more than I planned or even wished. But last week most things were rounded up. The inspiration was there all along, I just needed the time. And there it was: time. I finished two of the projects I had in mind. (I will definitely show you the other project too, it's too cool not to. Next blog!)

So that free afternoon I took my sketchbook and headed over to the Natural History Museum in my home town. I love the cabinets with all the bugs and shells. I spent a couple of hours sketching the creatures there. When I got back home my brain had worked out a little plan.  

I refined one of my sketches and started carving away...

Once the cutting was done, I made a test print to see where the stamp needed to be refined. And then it was finished. I am so pleased with the result that I feel like making a whole series of bugs and fellow multi legged creatures. This butterfly like creature is now a greeting card and for sale at Stoffer+Blik. Check it out here. 

A Map of the World according to Illustrators and Storytellers

That title alone made me pick up this book at a small bookshop in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin.

It was a wonderful way too short citytrip I was on a few weeks ago and a big book like this wasn't going to fit in my hand luggage. But it took me no longer than 2 seconds of flipping through the colorful pages to decide I wanted this. I mean, I needed this. Seriously. And thank the universe for the internet, postal services and stuff. Short story even shorter: I have it and I love it. And I want to show you how cool this is.

I have drawn my own share of little maps and this book made me want to start drawing new ones immediately. So if you're looking for me, I'm on my couch with a big pot of tea and this book.

'A Map of the World is a compelling collection of work by a new generation of original and sought-after designers, illustrators and mapmakers [....] the featured projects from around the world range from maps and atlases inspired by classic forms of cartographic experiments and editorial illustrations.' 

A Map of the World according to Illustrators and Storytellers
Gestalten / ISBN 978-3-89955-469-4

DIY: banner hanger

I got a cool poster for my birthday recently: a scratch map of the world. I started scratching away all the places I have visited over the years. Although I was a little disappointed about how little of the planet it was, I was also excited about how much more there is to explore. My plan is to keep on scratching.

So to frame it in glass would be a little inconvenient. I figured I wanted a banner hanger and I wanted to make it myself. The cheap way. So I gave it a little thought and decided on self-adhesive baseboards. You can get them at any hardware store for about 3 euro a piece. 

I bought two and used a saw to cut them into 4 pieces of 82 cm (the length of my poster). 

To get the string evenly and firmly attached, I decided I would use small nails I could tie the string around. If you're in a hurry or really clumsy  with nails and hammers, you can use the self-adhesive strips to stick the baseboards together. That's the easy way.  

So I decided to use nails on the top. I taped the poster to the baseboard first. Making sure it's in the right place so I wasn't going to punch any holes in it. Make sure to position the string before you slam the two baseboards together. 

For the bottom I decided to skip the nails and use the self-adhesive strip. I did (paper)tape the poster to the baseboard first, because I want to be able to get the poster out without it being ruined. So make sure the (very strong) adhesive strip of the baseboard is not on your poster.

And voila! My own handmade banner hanger for about 6 euro in less than an hour.. Now I need to go plan a new trip, so I can scratch some more!

Victory!

Traveling is great, but coming home is always a pleasure. In the 5 weeks I have spent in crazy India, my patience has been tested thoroughly. I have waited. Waited at airports, in queues for all sorts of tickets, for people to show up, for meals to be served, for change to be returned, for riksjaw drivers to be done chatting to their collegues and for crossing the street without getting killed. It's a good thing I had some time to spend.

It has taken me a little time to surrender to India. But when I did and stopped comparing, it was pretty amazing. As I expected I have been shocked by poverty and slums, I have been delighted by foods and smiles, I have been amazed by Indian kindness, their cutting-in-line-techniques and by how unorganized things seem and yet it works somehow. I have been annoyed by stares and the endless bargaining. I have been inspired by overwhelming nature and incredible architecture. 

I have met a wonderful variety of people, from a French widow to a concerned Indian mother and from hilarious Austrian guys to an all American entrepreneur. I came to India with 10 kilo in my backpack. And then the airport scale was telling me that I have bought at least 5 kilos worth of souvenirs. But the experience I have brought home weighs much more than that. 

I have traveled India solo and I did so without the expected Delhi Belly, I say victory!

And of course, Stoffer + Blik is up and running again! It's good to be back.

Soaking up the sun

In June of last year, after months of asking myself if I should or should not, I took a deep breath and just did it. I booked two tickets, one from Amsterdam to Mumbai and one from Mumbai to Goa. I spent that month researching online a bit, booking a beach hut at a quiet beach and buying travel guides. Then I sort of 'forgot' about it. 

And all of a sudden it is the end of January and the beginning of my trip to India. I have spent the last 3 months working my ass off, for Stoffer + Blik November and December were busy months with lots of illustrating. But as always, everything happens at the same time. So I was working 3-double-shifts all this time. New jobs, new clients, new magazines...  I finished everything just in time and now I have stopped running and it's sinking in that I am actually going. I have my visum and, yes, a 'shitload' of Imodium. So I am kind of ready to go. I packed my brand new backpack for 5 weeks of traveling through the South of India. 

I am so looking forward to being amazed, excited, surprised, delighted and probably shocked, annoyed, scared and desperate at times by a country that leaves almost everyone with mixed feelings. I have been to India before (north), but that was with a group trying to see as much as you possibly can in a short 3 weeks. This time it's just me. I have 5 weeks and no plans. I want to experience it and not run past every sight, seeing it only through the lens of my camera. I want it to all sink in right there. Forget about work, forget about time, forget about my regular life. It's the mindfulness thing I guess. Just be there. Soaking it up. What better place than Incredible India?

So, this means Stoffer + Blik is closed for now. I will be back in March. Exhausted, probably. Homesick, maybe. Richer, definitely. See you then. 

Foreign memories

My home is filled with souvenirs from places I have been. I see them all the time and it reminds me of good times and inspires me to plan some more travels. I had to learn to pick my souvenirs wisely, though. I have a rule for that now. It must be at least two of the following: gorgeous, useful or have a special memory attached to it, such as the ridiculous market where you have bought it.

I have thrown out the stupid, ugly and useless. Turkish scarfs that fell apart after washing them once. A hideous miniature Eiffel tower (what was I thinking?). I still have a glass/metal lamp from Delhi, India. But that one definitely belongs in the category tourist crap, with glue all over the place. In the craziness of an Indian market I actually bought it and I regretted it the minute I walked away. But I took it home anyway and it's still here, but I will throw it out soon.

The souvenirs that are actually useful are the best. The bowls I have bought in Turkey and Maroc. The wooden coffee cups from Norway, the clay foot scrubber from Maroc and the very best: camel leather slippers from Jerusalem. I already dread the day they are all worn out. The only thing to do then is go back and get me another pair. Here is a selection of the foreign stuff that has found a place in my home.

I also have some Indian and Nepalese money, that is also kind of a souvenir. You can't touch it without disinfecting your hands immediately after... I already spent my Turkish and Moroccan bills, because I went there a second time. I will keep my US dollars though, because I found it so strange to have them in my hands for the first time. I had seen it on television a million times and we used the same kind in our 'Monopoly' games. I don't know, it just feels like toy money. It still does.

Happiness in your non-digital mailbox

After a lovely and exhausting week of exploring Lisbon I am back home. These trips are killing. I need rest. So I bought Flow magazine, made myself a cup of tea and sat down on my couch. Relax mode. Flow wrote an article on postcrossing. I love that. It inspired me to send some cards and write about it here. I started being a postcrosser 1074 days ago, according to my postcrossing profile. I am not sending as many cards as I should and therefore not receiving as many as I want. I am changing that right now.

For those of you who don't know what postcrossing is: it's real simple. The postcrossing website will give you the address of a random postcrosser in the world. You send them a pretty postcard or a letter. Write something on it about yourself or whatever you want. You will get a notification, usually with a thank you email from the recipient, when it has arrived. It also states how many kilometers it has traveled and how many days it took to get there. Once you have sent one card, your address can be given to another postcrosser and you can expect a card in your own mailbox. The more cards you send, the more you will receive.

I have received very different cards from all over the world. Some are gorgeous illustrations, that are still hanging on my wall, others are hideous views of depressing places. But it's always interesting. Someone completely unexpectedly writing you and wishing you a wonderful day just brings a smile to my face. I like the excitement of opening my mailbox and hoping to see something other than blue (tax) envelopes and a flyer from the pizza place around the corner. Once I received the most beautiful package from China. It was a big envelop, covered with all these pretty stamps. And inside the envelope there was a collection of things, lovely things. Pretty paper, Chinese coins, a lollypop, a long handwritten letter, some collectors cards, a button and more. This was postcrossing at its best. It made my heart jump. I used a few of these stamps in my necklaces. The one with the pink love birds is still for sale at Stoffer + Blik.


If you love paper, snail mail, people and foreign places, I think you should give this a try. Besides the cards and the stamps it is completely free. A little happiness on your doormat! Now I am off to write a postcard to Charlotte in Germany.

Something bought & something sold

I love to travel. You know that by now. Even though my last holiday can hardly be called 'traveling', because I didn't do more traveling than walk from the hotel to the beach. The temperature wouldn't let me and it was just fine by me. I just spent my days on a sun bed and in the ocean.

In a moment of bravery I decided to do some shopping while it was 40 degrees and the Niagara Falls were coming down my back. An outside shop with hundreds of beautiful handmade ceramic bowls, plates, cups and more of that stuff. All gorgeous. So even though I was melting away I needed to find my perfect bowl. I looked at each one. Picked them up, put them down. Finally, I picked two. Did some negotiating about the price and now I am the proud owner of these two beauties.

And then something else... Thank God for free Wi-Fi. Because Friday night, when I was still sitting in Turkey with my feet up enjoying a beer, I received an email from Etsy. Someone asked me something about the Pinecone Stamp I have for sale at Stoffer + Blik. I could answer quickly and then last night, in my own Dutch bed again I received a sale notification. See now that is a really nice way to end your holiday. So this morning I happily made the stamp ready for its trip to the USA. My handmade goodies also love to travel, you know. 

The art of packing a suitcase

A few days ago there was a completely irrelevant little 'news' article on nu.nl. It said: "Women overpack by two thirds for a holiday". Oh, really? A British department store decided this was a topic that needed research and the outcome is considered news for some, obviously commercial, reason. I thought it was ridiculous, but it made me think of my own packing behavior, so I will pay some attention to it anyway...

Every guy will agree to that headline and most women will shrug their shoulders, saying: 'better safe than sorry'. And if it fits and you 'carry' your own suitcase: who cares? The funny part is that one third of the women in this research had been caught out by excess baggage charges, due to their overenthusiastic packing. And half of these women had lied to their partners about the weight of their suitcase, afraid their hubbies would make them leave stuff at home. Seriously?

I am sure many women will recognize the overpacking to some degree. If I didn't take the time to reason with myself I too would bring too much (I am talking about two or three shirts that I won't wear, no more). But over time I have become a better packer. Especially since I prefer my backpack over my suitcase. A suitcase will take up the same amount of space, whether it is full or not. And it has wheels, so besides the suitcase-in-the-airplane-throwers who cares how heavy it is? It is not just that I am more mobile with my backpack, it's also a good way to prevent overpacking. (And it makes me feel adventurous, even if my travel itinerary consists of nothing but from airport to hotel to beach to hotel to airport)

In the past I have packed bags to last for a period of six months, twice. So a short holiday is nothing. Bring it on. If I had to, I could go with a pair of underwear and a toothbrush. Seriously.

I am about to leave for a sunny, hot and relaxing holiday shortly. I need to start thinking about packing myself. I have moved many things from the 'should really bring that' to the 'you really don't need that' category. Strange how two minutes of thinking makes stuff change categories so drastically. This is all still in my head. When I start the real packing, I will lay out only the real necessities and then carefully add some to the 'that would be nice to wear to....' category. Next day I check that last category and take half of it out. Then I am packed perfectly.

You can easily do that because you will wear things twice and you can wash your clothes there too. And if you are going somewhere you can't, I am guessing nobody gives a sh*t about what to wear anyway.

This was the long way to say that I am leaving for a (not too long) holiday to a lovely place that you see in the image above. I probably (damn those smartphones and free wifi) will not be writing anything before I am back. If you decide you want to order something at Stoffer + Blik anyway you can, of course. I will ship your goodies the second I get back home. In about 11 days from now.

The story of the Nepalese teapot

This teapot is the start of my postcard collection. It gave me the confidence to keep drawing until I had enough designs to get them professionally printed and put them up for sale.

Years ago I bought a beautiful heavy metallic teapot from Turkey. Not the kind of tourist crap you see on every street corner, but a real one. Back home it stood there being pretty on a small table all by itself. It needed company. A few years later in Maroc I found another beautiful teapot with a completely different shape, but the same metallic. The perfect match for my Turkish teapot.

The two were just happy together, until I went to Nepal and the most gorgeous handmade little teapot caught my eye. I bargained and I begged and I almost walked away, but I couldn't leave without it. I gave the man the rupees he had asked for.

Now the three of them make a tiny collection and I have every intention of making it a big happy family, all different shapes, sizes and most important: nationalities.


Back to the postcard. One day I walked past that little table and smiled at the sight of them standing there. I took a good look at the Nepalese one, all the fine details. I felt like drawing it. I sat down with a piece of paper and a pencil and just began. It took a while to get every detail there, but I completely lost track of time. I then tracked the pencil drawing with brown ink and a dip pen. I scanned and edited it on the computer. Et voila.

I added some color in the form of blue drops and there it was: the first approved design.
If you like it, you can buy yours here.

There's more inspiration that came from my trip to India & Nepal. You will find the outcome of that in a little while at the Stoffer + Blik webshop.