So feminine...

...but not girly.
Earthy and yet elegant without pushing the Bling-bling-button.

1. art card, the green leaves by mapetitepapeterie
2. Rustic Wedding Boutonniere by Fairyfolk
3. Green leaf earrings by BeautySpot
4. Terrarium Print by amberalexander
5. Rustic Vase Birch Bark by jadenrainspired
6. ruffled collar dress by Ananya
7. Woodland wedding dish by LaNiqueHOME

I thought I'll give 'moodboarding' another chance.

A collection of things that will rock your style all year long, but got particularly well together.

   1) Holla iphone 4 Cover Case

   2) Hey Fun Calling Cards

   3) mobile hand-painted on ceramic tiles

   4) Enchantment Dress

   5) Birch bark cuff bracelet

   6) Blue geo drop earrings

   7) Tom Sawyer's Chair

Enjoy....and share if you liked this!

Minimalism in January

Clear lines.
Pure white.
A glint of gold.
A passionate splash of red.
An elegant foundation of navy blue.

>>>All of these wonderful products can be found on Etsy.com under: http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MTU4NDY5OTV8MTkwNzE3MDMwOQ/minimalism-jan12?index=0

Finding home...in France. Part 1: Finding a place to stay.

After having lived in so many different English speaking countries I have arrived this year in France.
As in any country where you don't speak the language, the most ordinary his in your daily live can become an almost insuperable obstacle.
So here what I learned along the way in this past year in France.

Part 1: Finding a place to stay.

Without an income (and I mean a really good income) it is almost impossible to get a flat for yourself in Paris. A one bedroom flat of 33m² for 1300€, excluding all bills, is standard. We therefore decided to go for a shared flat or house where my boyfriend and I would share a room but would be able to 'escape' each other in the common areas.
And yes we found one. The greatest one there was, so much in advance, but the way to get there was rather  complicated in comparison to my experiences in the UK.

There is several websites specialised in flat-sharing or "colocation" as they say in France. I was a bit shocked that you have to pay in order to get the contact details. But that's the way it is here. The real estate market is one of the biggest hotspots in Paris so in order to have just truly interested people according to the conditions stated: you have to pay. Depending on the site it's something like 2€/day or ~25€ for 10days.
We went with appartager.com and found what we were looking for. After viewing dozens of ads and just as many phone calls, we got selected for interviews and got lucky in the end to be chosen by the flatmates.

The landlord required us to give absolute disclosure about our income revenue and on top to produce a warrantor who would sign and commit to pay in case we wouldn't. We chose to go with my boyfriends dad, just because it was easier than producing all documents in French instead of having to translate German ones.

Mix of cultures.

To be found under: 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/83775919/preppy-porcelain-ornament-check-pattern

http://www.etsy.com/listing/83775919/preppy-porcelain-ornament-check-pattern

http://tinyurl.com/676vp57 

Blue, yellow, turquoise>white

http://tinyurl.com/5tujbru

http://tinyurl.com/5tujbru

What do you see when you look at this ornament? 
A folk inspired colors? maybe indios, Maya?

Or maybe Norwegian style pattern and design?

Does it look a bit preppy? The 90's with united colors of Bennetton, Ralph Lauren...

I love getting inspired by all kinds of styles and periods and then mix them all up. 
Now, I can see this ornament fanhing from a very unconventional Christmas tree, but also as a colorful window decoration.....actually they are so much fun, you could wear it as a pendant from a necklace.

Whatever you feel like - Enjoy it!

And make sure to have a look in my shop to see my different designs.
www.LaNiqueHome.etsy.com

They are all unique, as I decide spontaneously, just as inspiration hits me, how each piece should look like. Sometimes this is a process over hours as I lay it by side thinking it's ready....but looking later at it I feel like extending the design. 
Well, it also happens that I am not happy at all and decide to polish it all off and start over again.

Not only the paint, but also the disc itself is handmade by me.

ETSY October trends.

I personally like products that tell you a story. May it be that they are vintage and have "history", or a photograph that captures a fragment of a tale. Or the ones that make you come up with new fantastic stories and ideas.

After having been featured so many times these last days, it is time to give so gratitude to all those brilliant curators. So here is my tribute to ETSY October trends 2011

LaNiqueHOME treasury @ETSY

The making of: star ornaments.

I have been working now for a while on my range of porcelain ornaments and after getting some real great feedback on my snowflake edition I have been looking for a while to find more interesting motifs to create a new series. Et voila - on one of my treasure hunts I came across some vintage lace pieces that inspired me to make 'une collection franc̨aise' and I am looking forward to see what people will say about it.

But I have also been thinking about producing a very minimalistic version. No snowflakes. No lace. Only pure form. But it is a very thin line between beautiful purism and plain old uninteresting nakedness of things. I decided to go for a rather simple shape, a star, and make it light and delicate. I started to test how thin I could go with my raw porcelain.
I came down to almost 1mm.

Atelier work @LaNiqueHome

Now as you can imagine the minimised thickness bares a very increased fragility. Working with soft porcelain at this stage becomes a work of precision and very, very slow moves. 

The 'casualties' are high on this road of success. Many stars tear when not handles carefully enough during the production. Others crack if I haven't worked the material well enough or I dry then too quickly. And even when all this went well, the polishing stages and too much pressure can finish the last bit. I think it is safe to say that only about 1/5 of my stars make it in the end. But those that do - the are so gorgeous! 

And as you can see in the picture above, it becomes impossible to make those ornaments flat. Giving them a parabolic shape increases the stiffness of the final product. And once painted nicely in a pearl color on the inner side, the delicate light reflections are simply like in a fairytale.

Thinking now in business terms I came to realize that I would have to charge a tiny fortune because the manufacturing time simply takes sooo long. And how would I ship them to my customers?

I keep thinking of taking an egg carton and and bed the stars in soft, white, fluffy cotton. As "shabby-chic" as this solution is: I think it would convey just perfectly how delicate the actual really product is.