Messe to Zoo: visiting Cologne

The IMM/Passagen in Cologne seems ages away already, although it's only been five days.

We came back late Sunday night, pretty knackered from our lovely long weekend in Germany.

In hindsight, bringing the kids probably wasn't the best idea: it made Saturday and Sunday very much about entertaining them and very little about seeing any design. Well... The Zoo was pretty nice too.

Luckily we had a chance to run over the actual fair on Friday (i took over 23.000 steps that day - thank you Iphone), but we sadly missed most of the Passagen-programme due to lack of interesting stuff for three-year-olds.

Aside from the great weekend away and the lovely reactions in the shop, we received a more tangible token of appreciation from the city of Cologne, or -more specifically- from the 'Kölner Stadtanzeiger', a local newspaper. 

We were pretty happy to be featured in their Weekend-special last week. (Click on the photograph to enlarge it.)

And a few snapshots from the Weekend:

Kokino: Waterworks & the Flower City

photograph by Johan Martens for Goesting Magazine Oost Vlaanderen

Apparently the Belgium city of Ghent is also known as the 'Flower City' (because the largest part of the Belgium Flower trade is located in the area), how very fitting that Ghent shop Kokino is now selling Waterworks.
Kokino might not be located in the city centre, but that's not a problem for the shop: last December they celebrated their 20 year anniversary!

photographs by Kokino

For more about the shop, check out their website, like the Kokino Facebookpage to stay updated on current events.

KOKINO
Kortrijksesteenweg 1092
9051 Gent - St Denijs Westrem
www.kokino.be/

Click here for a full list of House of Thol stockists.

proud and a bit self-conscious | Fonds Kwadraat presents House of Thol

from our Instagram

A while ago the lovely guys from Koekepeer visited our studio and made this killer video portrait for Fonds Kwadraat:

Video by Koekepeer | commissioned by Fonds Kwadraat

We're happy and proud but also kind of self conscious about it (which will probably wear off over time).
Thank you Fonds Kwadraat and Studio Koekepeer!

This video is part of a series of portraits from artists who received an interest-free Fonds Kwadraat loan, the series is aptly named 'Fonds Kwadraat Exposeert". Click here for more video's from the series (even more will be added over the next weeks)

Interested of seeing more from Koekepeer? Visit the Koekepeer website, or check out their page on Facebook.

ps. - we'll look into the possibility of adding subtitles to the film later.

IMM / Passagen - all set up!

Passagen / IMM 2016 has started and we're all set up at Salon Zwei in Ehrenfeld, Cologne.

If you're visiting the IMM, don't forget about Ehrenfelds' design parcours, and -more specifically- make sure to visit Salon Zwei at the Gutenbergstrasse.

Here's a close up of the little map from the Passagen booklet, showing where you should be (#76):

Don't just look through the window, but walk in for a closer look of our latest projects: The first chapter of our stoneware glazing experiment Off the ground and the Confetti & Fireworks necklaces.
Also, many of the products are for sale. Some of them only during this week.

We're having a little soiree with music and drinks this Thursday.
Will we see you there?

House of Thol @ Salon Zwei - IMM/Passagen 2016

18-24 January 2015 | SALON ZWEI

The first furniture fair of each year is the one in Köln, the IMM: By the end of January the whole German city is about fresh design and innovative ideas.
The actual fair takes place in the 'Messe', but there are plenty design-related events going on throughout the entire city.

And this year we'll be there too: House of Thol will present a fresh and green exhibition with new and renewed designs at Salon Zwei in Ehrenfeld.
We're planning on being there from Thursday on, will we see you?

SALON ZWEI
Gutenbergstr. 2 // 50823 Köln-Ehrenfeld

18-24 January 2016
Mon - Fri 12:00-20:00 // Sat & Sun 12:00-18:00
Music and drinks: Thursday from 18:00

We Want You

Yes, we're there: we have enough ongoing projects to make it interesting for an intern to come help us out.

Do you love materials and experiments and aren't you afraid of getting your hands dirty?

Send us an e-mail with your resume and portfolio and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Happy Confetti Plant wishing you a great 2016

Happy New Year everybody!

I know, it's halfway through the week already so this might come a bit late, but that's for a good reason:
We're kicking off 2016 with a fresh calendar that's completely full with both new and ongoing projects, interesting collaborations and exciting adventures. We love what we do, and right now we could use more hours in a day to do it...

Coming up, for example: We'll be in Köln during the Furniture Fair IMM later this month, where we hope to showcase a renewed version of our 'In the Clouds' tableware. 

Expect more about the exhibition soon.

Also, this is the last month the exhibition Ceramix is running in the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht, so if you have the chance, make this month a bit less blue by visiting the city in the south and its museum (don't forget the gift shop).

Did you receive the newsletter we sent out earlier this week? 

Missed it? No worries. Click here to read it online (or here for the Dutch version).

We're all for making this the best year yet! Are you in?

Not to miss: Ceramix @ Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht

Ceramix - Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht until January 31st

Last Weekend i got to flip through the catalogue of the beautiful exhibition 'Ceramix' that's currently on show at the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht.
Looking through the book made me realise i almost forgot to mention that House of Thol is a tiny bit part of the show: For the duration of the Ceramix exhibition, our porcelain tableware 'In the Clouds' is part of the collection of the gift shop of the Bonnefantenmuseum.

Ceramix exhibition at the Bonnefantenmuseum, with work by Ai Wei Wei
photograph by Jeroen van der Wielen

Sadly we didn't have a chance to visit the exhibition ourselves yet, but i hope to be able to schedule a trip to Maastricht somewhere in the next weeks.

With the catalogue in mind i'd advice anyone with a love for ceramics and art to visit Ceramix before the end of this month.
The exhibition will travel to France later this year: first to Paris this spring, and after that to Sevres.

Bita Fayyazi, Cockroaches, 1998-1999
By courtesy of Isabelle van den Eynde Gallery, Dubai

Thomas Schutte, Basler Maske, 2014

In the Clouds tableware - temporarily part of the collection of the Bonnefantenmuseum gift shop