November 19, 2013
What do we see in certain things? One of my favourite objects in my studio is just a piece of crushed wrapping paper. It came to me as the padding around a book sent by mail in a box,… Read more
October 8, 2013
Constructions of the mind Could it be that ‘it’ was in the air? That we walk around with themes that unconsciously develop in our head until they are ‘ripe’ to be triggered? This morning my eye was caught… Read more
July 30, 2013
Building blocks No time to write long blog posts: I am in the process of giving birth to a book! But my eye continues to travel and this is what I have collected rcently. The brick walls of a… Read more
April 30, 2013
Ferns Karl Blossfeldt, Adiantum Pedatum (maidenhair fern) My walk today was meant to be a break from nineteenth century steel. It led me unexpectedly to early twentieth century wrought iron. After a long winter the ferns are unfurling from a sea… Read more
April 6, 2013
Brickwork… and the use of iron in architecture These days I’m reading about the use of iron in early architecture, especially since a group of researchers has found a way to reveal the DNA of ancient pieces of… Read more
March 16, 2013
Ancient metallurgy I’m plunged in the early days of iron production about which lots of research have been done over the past twenty years. Iron is generally not the most admired of metals and when I called a Dutch… Read more
January 18, 2013
The quality of a line What is the difference between a line – and certainly characters – drawn by hand and in print? How come that in the first case there is an unmistakable warmth which is hard to… Read more
October 26, 2012
Rebar Hidden from view inside a park not too far from my home is a large building site. Contrary to most construction sites around us these days the entrance gate is never closed and, apart from the builders, hardly… Read more
October 8, 2012
Inspiration: the small scale We’re often being taught to expand, to research new things, to think big. But what about remaining true, at least for a while, to the small scale? The painter Giorgio Morandi found repeated inspiration (and fame)… Read more
August 16, 2012
Vagabondage Here is another quotation in the same spirit as in last week’s blog post from an inspiring little book, ‘What is history’ by E. H. Carr: ‘…as soon as I have got going on a few of what I… Read more