Last Friday was the opening of Minishop Confetti on the Meent 133 in Rotterdam. Minishop Confetti is a temporary pop-up shop in the center of Rotterdam. The shop has various handmade products (scarfs, bowls, jewellery, clothing and more) from different designers such as Iefke de Roos, Twinklebird, Lennebelle, Miga de Pan, Mae Engelgeer, Mari(e), Elke van den Berg and others.

It was a lovely evening with very nice people. I shot some photos with my Leica to document this event. However, I still have some exposures left on my roll so I can’t show you those right now. What I can show are a couple digital photos of the shop interior I took this weekend.

Hiroyuki Hamada is a great artist from Tokyo, Japan. He lives in East Hampton, New York and amazes me with his work made of rubbing resins, wax, and pigment into smoothed and sanded layers of plaster.

His work bridges the contrasting conceptions of the industrial and the organic through his minimal yet highly complex process of painting, digging and drilling.

Hamada’s palate choice balances the intricate and mathematical repetition with noninvasive earth tones, that allow the viewer to examine each piece time and time again, perhaps reaching a different end each time. And that’s exactly the hardest part of art. Therefore I love it.

Go see.  

This Gitman Vintage collection of mine is getting out of control. New to the stack of Gitman fabrics is the amazing Gitman Vintage Japanese Stripe shirt.

This blue with white horizontal striped shirt is made of lightweight and soft 100% Japanese cotton and features a three button collar, full buttoned front placket and locker hanger loop at yoke. It has a curved hem and single button cuff.

The Gitman Vintage Japanese Stripe shirt is just perfect for upcoming summer.

Available at End, Nitty Gritty and Tres Bien Shop.

Jeff Depner is a photographer and painting artist who lives and works in Vancouver, Canada. I would like to highlight his ‘Reconfigured Grid Paintings’. These are geometric abstractions, a formal analysis of the interrelationship between form, colour and space. A significant influence on his highly independent formal language can be found within architecture. Build up by using flat colors.

The lines might draw the center of the attention but his expressive, clearly hand-made painting style with seemingly inadvertent paint drippings, scratches and traces of brush strokes claim the spot.

See some of his Reconfigured Grid Paintings in the full post.

One day… Google believes technology should work for you — to be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don’t.

A team within Google[x] group started Project Glass to build this kind of technology, one that helps you explore and share your world, putting you back in the moment.

Project Glass is wearable augmented reality technology. A visor that puts all relevant information in front of you. I’m not a big AR fan so far but I’m sure down for this kind of tech. Let’s hope Tom Ford hooks up to produce some stylish glasses.

This is an amazing app. Paper by FiftyThree is a for those who have an iPad and some drawing skills.

Paper is a free app for the iPad that allows you to write, sketch, and color beautiful images in digital Moleskine like notebooks. Paper looks absolutely stunning on the New iPad since it supports Retina display. The best part of the app is the rewind feature, which lets you playback what you just created. The watercolors are also pretty nicely rendered.

Download Paper from the App Store and experience it yourself. Get the whole set of tools and unleash all your creativity. See the video in the full post.

Alberto Seveso is an illustration and photography artist from Milan, Italy. His work is well known for various projects. His latest project called ‘A Due Colori’ really blowed up on the internet last week.

Just by looking at these photos makes you wonder if it’s some kind of scary beast from the deep. But in fact it’s Ink captured underwater in a very nice way.

See the photos in the full post to see what I mean.

Yeah! The Analog Photo Collective had it’s first meetup of this year. A big welcome to Erik Richters and Mario Sol who joined the APC meetup for the first time. Hope you enjoyed it.

This meetup was organized by Hanke. She picked the Rotterdam market and wanted us to capture the romance of this place where thousands stroll to buy fresh products and find bargains. Funny because we had the same program in mind for the 1st APC edition but that one got a bit wet.

Although we did shoot this time. I don’t think we really captured it’s romantic side. At least I didn’t managed to. The place is very photogenic but it’s so hard to capture those moments. The moment they are in front of you and the next they’re vanished. It’s a constant moving scene.

Minishop Confetti is a project by my own Lenneke Kooijman from Lennebelle and A Little Hamster. Minishop Confetti is a mini ‘pop-up’ and online shop in Rotterdam.

Minishop Confetti will support small local as well as international designers and will have handmade products from Iefke de Roos, Elke van den Berg, Lennebelle, Irma, Miga de Pan, De Draad, Niche and more.

Both store and online shop will open on April 13 on Meent 133, Rotterdam. You might want to save up some cash because the shop will have some serious cool design products. Have a sneak peek in the full post.

Keen for updates? Follow Minishop Confetti on Facebook.  

Just in. A fresh pair of Vans Vault Priz Laced LX in Mink. I spotted these at End Clothing but eventually got these at Frisco.

The Vans Priz LX is a new addition to the Limited Edition Vans Vault range. A quick look at these show a simply styled shoe – taking its design cues from vintage tennis and skate shoes. They are made from soft premium grain textured leather with subtle detailing, such as contrast canvas toe box and welt. The Vans Vault Priz LX comes with tonal waxed laces and an alternate set of contrasting rolled waxed laces.

From my experience so far the sole feels softer and less stable than my other Vault shoes. So I think they wont last that long. But hey, they sure look damn good.

Photo Bliss is a recurring set of awesome photos found on Tumblr.

Tumbr is my daily retreat from common things. It’s a great joy to scroll through my Tumblr dashboard. I’m posting Photo Blisses for a bit over a year now and they are gaining more and more attention which certainly is a very nice thing.

Here’s photo set no.24. Enjoy!

Nice goodie in the mail. Frisco Store was kind enough to add some goodies to my latest Vans Vault order.

The package also featured a Twelve postcards set by Greg Hunt. Greg Hunt is a photographer / filmmaker who is known for his work in the skate scene. He teamed up with Vans Syndicate for this Twelve postcards project.

Makes me want to shoot more film to be able to pull this one off myself one day. Oh well, who can I send a postcard?

German-born, Brooklyn based artist Markus Linnenbrink sure knows how to handle color. His work has been featured in tons of exhibitions and is a great source of inspiration for many.

Take the Photodrips for instance made of epoxy resin on wood. A perfect piece of art.

Fun fact. Markus Linnenbrink used to work just only with black and white and greyscale. Good for all he discovered color.

Go see his Photodrips work.  

With Queensday in sight people start planning things to do that day. If you’re in Rotterdam you’ll probably end up at Oranjebitter. If you have tickets that is. The 2012 edition of Oranjebitter Rotterdam is announced and will be held on the 30th of April on the Parklaan In Rotterdam. Tickets are available at your local selling point Level, Picknick, SHPPR and No Boys Allowed.

Oranjebitter Rotterdam is a place to dance to the beats of local and national artists from the festival scene. You can also pimp your t-shirt, jump in a photo booth or participate in traditional Dutch games. Or grab a typical Rotterdam kapsalon at the Sticky Fingers Truck.

Remember Oranjebitter Rotterdam 2011? Go see the video.  

Berlin, a city which is getting nicer with each visit. This city trip was my Christmas gift from Len. She bought me a flight ticket, booked me a bed in the nice Michelberger Hotel and also wanted to accompany me for that weekend.

First thing we did was to arrange ourselves some bikes. After that we went straight into Kreuzberg to explore the Oranienstrasse and Hamburgerstrasse area. Great contemporary concept shops like Voo and lots of spots to hang out and enjoy a drink or two. That evening we just had to stop by Das Hotel, a bar you would like to have in your home town. Yet, things aren’t alike in your home town. People might not be as friendly, creative and accessible like those in Berlin. We completely are in love with Berlin.