The Hermione Prototype

My Love gave me the book ‘Misfit‘ about Hella Jongerius’ work as a present. Most foreign people know Jongerius for her design of the PS Jonsberg vases and wall hangings for Ikea, furthermore she’s one of the most influential Dutch designers of our time (and that still doesn’t do enough justice to her enormous efforts for Dutch design and design in general). I visited an exhibition about her work in the Boymans van Beuningen museum a while ago, the book is a perfect addition for those who want to learn more about her work. I love the way Hella Jongerius combines industrial techniques with good old craftmanship and how her designs seem to have this conceptual, raw look, like the wallhanging for Vitra on the picture below. That said, I also think her work is very accessible for people like me that have a difficulty with understanding the meaning of a lot of art movements (Like the ‘Hey-look!-A-pile-of-cow-dung-on-a-stick!-That-must-represent-the-way-people-hang-on-to-their-life-and-to-the-world-in-general’ kind of art movements.) To come to the subject of this post: when I worked on my first bigger-than-usual-Hermione-the-Rhino-prototype, I wanted her to have this raw finish too. Not that I feel the least worth to even stand in Hella’s shadow (I’m not that stupid ;-)), but I’m quite happy with the raw result of this project.

I made this Hermione on my sewing machine by the way, which was again a very nice and recommendable experience (recommendable because, if you’d still feel reluctant to use your sewing machine, you should really just go for it! If I can make it work, anybody can! And things go much faster on the machine, which is also very nice for an impatient person like me.)

I closed the shop for a while for I felt it was time to work on some new ideas and get creativity flowing again. Sometimes it’s good to step back, look and think, to keep going and keep liking what you do. I love this time-out and I hope it will bring me more and new inspiration for new creations for my little shop. So, I’m dying to know: do you like this new rhino? Please let me know, I’d love to hear your comments!

(July 9: Perfectionist as I am I changed the photo of the prototype, I kept feeling the other one wasn’t postworthy enough!)