Christmas in Sloten

As promised more photos of my living environment. On the shelves you see part of my earthenware collection. Not only lovely to look at but I also use them as objects for my still life paintings.

Many years ago when Jacob was still living in Sloten we hand painted these christmas tree ornaments. I still find them beautiful and use the ornaments every year.

These photos are taken in candlelight. I love the soft, magical touch that candles bring to a room, in this case my living room.

The final three photos are taken in my studio. I am currently working on different projects. Some dolls are finished but these three have to wait until the holidays are over. It is now time to celebrate!

I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas!

Geertruida

Christmas in York

While mum's been preparing the house in the Netherlands I've worked on some small projects to get the house ready for Christmas as well.

One corner in our living room - you can see the cushions I've finished a few days ago. I bought several samples of fabric this year in India and didn't have a purpose for it until now.

We got this desk off a friend who was moving house a few years back. It's very simple, but works really well now it's painted all white. The bowls at the bottom I bought several years back in The Netherlands - they were picked up from the wreck of an old trade ship and never reached their destination. I love the decayed floral pattern.
The Paloma lamp I picked up from Habitat, and have recently given it a little make-over. The cross stitch sampler I'll add to my etsy shop soon.

I'm collecting little antique earth-ware objects such as these here. I'm really happy with the pudding mould I found in York a few months back. I do use it sometimes, and the puddings look absolutely lovely! I painted the pale blue duck eggs on the right hand side with traditional Japanese patterns in white paint.

We've got two cats in York: Neko and Mira, the latter posing for this photo here. She's such a pretty little cat!

I bought Herbert Krenchel's Krenit bowls a few years ago when I was on holiday in Denmark. The thin black bowls with the bright red enamel are so beautiful, and I've never regretted buying them.

These little red shoes were lost by a little girl in a shop I worked, and after having been stuck in lost property for months they were about to be thrown away. Linens I bought from The French House in York. They used to have a wonderful shop on Micklegate in the city centre, but have unfortunately moved out of the city center.

And speaking of linen: as I was looking for things to decorate the house I came across a long-lost bag of linens yesterday! I'm really excited as it has some beautiful Belgian portrait linen, some course embroidery linen and a few other pieces. On one piece I had made a cross stitch border pattern - a traditional pattern found on embroidery from Marken.

More photos later!

- Jacob

Christmas

This week I've been decorating my house for Christmas. I decided to keep it simple and natural and I am quite happy with the result. The photos below are taken in my kitchen.

I love the delicious smell of pine scent coming from this branch.

More photos will follow soon, so stay tuned :)


- Geertruida

New doll

Can I introduce you to Liv - one of my latest cloth dolls.

 

I first modelled the head of clay, over which I stretched cotton fabric. This allows me to make a series of dolls from the same head. Each face is different as I slightly adjust the fabric and change the way I paint the faces. Liv's face is painted with water colours.

 

Her clothes are sewn out of antique fabrics. I believe the fabric is from Hindeloopen, one of the 11 cities, famous for its traditional costume (see link). Although I'm not sure of the origins, I do know it's both beautiful and very old.

The shoes are modeled out of paperclay, which allows her to stand on her own. 

I hope you will like her as much as I do!

Geertruida

Sampler Pattern

It's been a busy month, and I've done a lot of designing and stitching! Below one of the samplers I've recently finished. It's a red-work sampler, based on cross-stitch samplers from the Americas and Denmark. I loved the little crowns so much I found on one sampler that I wanted to use them in this sampler.

Over the coming days I'll be adding a few more patterns to JacobCounts.etsy.com . Right now I'm going to do a little designing again!

- Jacob