Tulip vases


vazen2In the 17th century, tulips were at the height of fashion. So much so; that in the 1730’s, bulbs were often sold for what was at least ten times the annual salary of a skilled craftsman. This period in Dutch golden age history is often referred to as Tulip Mania. Nowadays, the term “tulip mania” is often used metaphorically to refer to any large economic bubble. Tulips however, have never lost their charm and are in style pretty much always. New types being introduced all the time, often named after famous people. They can be bought pretty much year round and can be found all over the world. No matter what your taste is, or what rocks your boat; there’s a tulip to match.

 

Tulips look great in a simple glass vase. Yet in recent years, the classic tulip vase has seen a revival. Design shops stock them again, in all shapes and forms. They can be glass, plastic, metal or porcelain, and come in symmetrical or anything but symmetrical shapes. A selection:

Pol's Potten white porcelain tulip vase

Pol's Potten white porcelain tulip vase

Dutch interior shop Pol’s Potten stocks this white porcelain number. It’s design is inspired on corals, according to designer Norman Trapmann. Norman might be the guy responsible for the come-back of the tulip vase actually. He designed many of the currently popular ones. He makes use of classical shapes, and pagoda style layers, or simply stacks existing shapes on top of each other to create new ones. Most of his designs are sold through Pol’s Potten but he has a website where you can find some of his work too.
 
Silver coated tulip vase, also by Norman Trapmann

Silver coated tulip vase, also by Norman Trapmann

I REALLY love his work actually, so an article on him coming up shortly!
Flat Flowers 

Flat Flowers

 
This classical vase is actually a flat window adhesive/sticker. Do you remember those bright coloured figures and letters you could stick to the window in your parent’s car?  This is how that works.  You just stick the adhesive to your window. It looks great if you have a table with one end facing a window. From  distance it looks very real. Dutch online shop Bijzonder Mooi sells them in different colours and styles.
 
Another Dutch design shop online, Lilian’s House, stocks a few tulip vases. Smaller modern ones, and larger ones inspired by the classical tulip vase as seen in the Golden Age.
Lilian's House selection
Lilian’s House selection

The website is a design nightmare (hence the crappy images, size was useless), and it’s mainly a resell website, but they do have some pretty cool items.

 

 

Dutch Design: Maarten Baas


Dutch design is hot. Real trend savvy readers out there will likely go: “duh” now, but I thought I’d emphasize on it again. Dutch design is, after all, hot. Still is, and will be for a while to come yet if you ask my humble opinion. Another “duh” is likely on the way as I am going to share with you work created in 2002.

Maarten Baas is one of quite a few Dutch designers whose work involve human intervention or customizing existing pieces of furniture or materials rather than creating new ones on a production line based on a single design drawn up in someones studio.  Baas uses found wooden objects, usually furniture with a distinct antique look and feel, to create his work. He adds his signature with a technique that involves singeing them with a blowtorch.

Smoke Chair; Maarten Baas

Smoke Chair; Maarten Baas

Baas first came up with the idea of burning furniture, a line soon aptly called ‘Smoke’, for his graduation show at the Design Academy in Eindhoven in 2002. He was interested to find out what certain types of damage would do to wooden objects. He tried soaking them, throwing them of buildings and scratching the wood with various objects before he found out that burning them in a certain way kept their shape intact, yet created a certain new surface and colour because of the charring of the wood. 

Smoke Chest; Maarten Baas

Smoke Chest; Maarten Baas

Baas preserves the newly created fragile charcoal surface with epoxy layers. This also accounts for the almost lacqer-like sheen his work is known for.  His work was adopted by Dutch manufacturer Moooi pretty much immediately after his first show. They put several of his chairs and a chandelier into production which became instant design classics. Most of his work is now produced in Indonesia where craftsmen first reproduce the original item and then burn them. Luckily Baas still creates one-off pieces by burning design classics or antiques for shows or in commission.

Rietveld Chair

Rietveld Chair

Jumbo Jet Hotel


Talking about recycling! Swedish Airport Arlanda now offers guests the possibility to sleep in an old airplane.

The airplane, a decommissioned model 747-200 jumbo jet built in 1976, was last operated by Transjet, a Swedish airline that went bankrupt in 2002. It was originally built for Singapore Airlines and later served with legendary Pan Am. This according to the website of the Jumbo Hostel

Cockpit suite

Cockpit suite

The current owner got a permit to turn the jet into a Hostel at the entrance of Arlanda airport. There are 85 beds in total in a total of 25 rooms. Most of the rooms contain 3 bunk beds each except for the cockpit which was transformed into a luxury suite. One of the wings boasts an observation deck and there is a cafe and bar where once sat many coach flying passengers. The rates start at around $40 for the bunks to $350 a night for the suite. Both include breakfast.

Jumbo Hostel Cafe

Jumbo Hostel Cafe

Financial crisis hitting celebrity home owners too


No need to feel sorry for them just yet, but the current market is hitting our celebrity friends too. Here a few famous peeps selling with a loss.

23 year old pop singer Avril Lavigne had to bring down the  asking price on her five-bedroom, six-bath house in Beverly Hills from $6.9 million to $5.8 million. It looks she might have actually sold it now.

Lavigne's pad sold after a $1,1 million price reduction

Lavigne's pad sold after a $1,1 million price reduction

That 70’s Show star Wilmer Valderrama had to accept $200,000 less for his five-bedroom home when he got an offer for $1,75 million. He originally intended to sell his house in the relatively unfashionable and anything but des resValley neighborhood of Tarzana for $1,95 million.
Everybody Loves Raymond big guy Brad Garret reduced the price of his massive 10.000 sq ft mansion from $9,75 million to a measly $8,8 million…. He put it on the market in 2006 but has yet to sell the place.
$8,8 million and it's yours!

$8,8 million and it's yours!

Long haired rock guitarist Slash of former pop/rock band Guns N’ Roses feels he was screwed paying $6,2 million in January 2006 for his Spanish-style Hollywood Hills home.  He sold it last December for $5.7 million claiming it was neither as big nor as private as his estate agent claimed. He is suing the guy and the case is ongoing.
Denise Richards lost $200.000 on the sale of her white home in Hidden Hills, just north of La La Land. She sold it for $3,8 million, originally accepting offers nearer to the $4,5 million range. She bought it in June 2006 for $4 million.
Hidden Hills, how romantic a name....

Hidden Hills, how romantic a name....

Like I said; no need to feel sorry as the money going back and forth still over shadows any sum I will likely ever make, but still, it’s must be hard to loose half a million on a house, even if you’re Slash.