Ugly sweater-day

Driving home from work at the end of the afternoon there was an item on the radio that today, January 21, was officially declared as "ugly sweater-day". I'm not sure if it's just a thing here in the Netherlands or are there more countries that are familiar with this?

Personally I am really okay with any kind of sweater that someone likes to wear, but then I remembered this photo from the 'Knitting!' exhibition in the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden. How about the sweater on the right? ;) Or the "suit" on the left, haha..

More Harrekrammele

Two more items from the exibition 'Harrekrammele' by Machiel Braaksma, currently in the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden. As I mentioned yesterday, Braaksma takes all kinds of household objects to create new things. Isn't it amazing that a thermos, a spoon and spatula make a locomotive...

...and that a battery and safety-pins become a grashopper!

There's more about Machiel Braaksma HERE.

Harrekrammele

Another fun exhibition currently in the Leeuwarden Fries Museum is 'Harrekrammele', with works from Frisian artist Machiel Braaksma. He uses existing objects for his new creations and assemblages. Harrekrammele is an illustrated storybook in Frisian and Chinese for adults and children. The exhibition displays the book and some of the models he made for this project.
Note that the locomotive is created from an iron!

The train station 'Harrekrammele' is made from cardboard, with crackers as folding-doors...

.. and on the station platform a family is waiting in line..

More about the exhibition and the meaning of the word Harrekrammele HERE.

The start of multitasking?

At the exhibition 'Knitting!' in the Fries Museum there are several showcases telling about the history of knitting in the Netherlands. This particular display shows a number of knitted cakes and pies as well as a few magazines from 1934; the left one named 'praten & breien' or 'chatting & knitting'. Well, I am pretty sure 'multitasking' wasn't a word yet in the 1930s but is this how it began for the women in the Netherlands? ;)

Knitted art

Of the pieces from the exhibition ´Knitting!' in the Fries Museum this is one I liked very much: the knitted artwork created by Zoë Landau Konson, a London based artist and designer.

Doesn't this make you smile? :)

Lappions

Encouraged by the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden, nearly 2,500 primary school students started knitting last September. Until November 2015 each of them knitted a piece - or more, if they got hold of it. These so-called 'lappions' (a combination of the word 'lampion' and the Dutch word 'lap' or in English here: 'knitted work') show the marvellous result of their efforts.

Several lappions can be viewed in the Fries Museum now as a part of the current exhibition 'Knitting!'. Go see it if you can, it's fun!

The red chairs

When you take a seat in either one of these red chairs inside the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden, a mechanism in the "lamps" is activated; on the left a voice starts reading poetry ('fersen' in Friesian language), and on the right you can hear a song ('music' is 'musyk' in Friesian).

Oranjekoeken

Dutch photographer Tryntsje Nauta made this collection of 177 'Oranjekoeken' (Orange cakes), a typical Friesian delicacy. For this project she visited Friesian confectioners in the north of the Netherlands to view and photograph their Oranjekoeken, and even though they are all decorated and square shaped, it´s obvious that every single cake is unique!

The photo's were made in the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden.

lines

Looking down two floors inside the Fries Museum, Leeuwarden.

ditch water

Wanted: ditch water!
This is the water pavilion 'Stille Wetters' ('Silent Waters') that can be viewed now in the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden. The round sort of chamber is an 'aquatheque' and resting spot -you can step inside and sit on the bench-, created from about 1,000 bottles with (ditch)water from a great number of different locations in Friesland and other places in the Netherlands. Visitors are invited to bring ditchwater themselves (max 1 liter), which will then be added to the growing collection..

horizons

An impression from the exhibition 'Horizonnen' (Horizons), in the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden. 

weekend reflections

This photo shows glass shelves with old ceramic pots, seen from above with a reflection that seemed intensified by the many lights in this room of the Fries Museum.
And yes, I'm in the reflection too.. ;)


Linking to Weekend Reflections #224.

húskes

The meaning of the Frisian word "húskes", here on this door in the Fries museum, speaks for itself I think.

Enjoy more signs around the world at Lesley's blog signs, signs.

lines

.. going downstairs in the Fries Museum.

open atelier

Meet Wynolt Visser, a Dutch artist that I found working on the 3rd floor of the Fries Museum last Friday. Amongst many other things, Wynolt makes wonderful creations combining photographs with textile and colorful yarn. He told me he enjoyed working on this special location very much, and kindly agreed with a photo and a blogpost here.

Each third week of the month the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden invites (local) artists to come and stay for several days. Visitors to the museum can watch them while they are working, ask questions if they like, and learn how their art is created.

wannahaves

One of the current exhibitions in the Fries Museum is 'Oud Geld' (lit. 'Old Money', meaning inherited wealth), about the Friesian 'old boys network' in the Dutch Golden Age -the 17th century in

which Dutch trade, science, military and art were among the most acclaimed in the world.

'Oud Geld' shows old ánd new wannahaves..