NL

APRIL SPOTLIGHT

Free the nipple

and the booty too! When Group Partner founder Isaac Nichols dreamt of designing something fun, he just got naked. 

‘With spring in full form, the time is now to give your greens all the love and care they need. And thanks to the New York based ceramics brand Group Partner, this involves some of my favorite things in the world too: booties, boobies and tanlines! Even before I had started Nomad Objects, I knew these funny and rebellious plant potters by Isaac Nichols would once feature in my future online shop.

While the rest of the world surfed the wave of new minimalist ceramics in 2013, Nichols one day started experimenting with clay wanting to “just have fun”. One look at the result and it’s no surprise that his designs would rise to instant cult fame when he launched his self made pottery career. By hand, and without any formal training, Nichols sculpted clay plant pots, adorned with the most realistic boobies and booties he could imagine, sometimes covered in hand painted swimwear, adorned with of summer reminiscing tan lines or just left naked. His first batch pots sold out right away. Nichols kept producing everything by hand, until the demand just grew too big. After years in an inconspicuous Brooklyn atelier, nowadays the Group Partner boobies are still NY-designed but produced in Portugal, cradle of European ceramics. The production site is family run and painting is still done by hand, in that way still respecting Group Partner’s small scale origins and craftsmanship. So, enjoy the sun and don’t forget to get your booties/booties out!’

WITH LOVE

Julie

NL

NOMAD EXPLORES

A premiere:

Nomad Objects at ‘Temporary House of Home Design Fair’ Rotterdam

I’m very excited to share that on Sunday May 1st, Nomad Objects will partake in its very first Design Fair in Rotterdam in The Netherlands. Not only is this a fun way to discover new products and people, this temporary offline version of Nomad Objects tickles all my deco, interior and organizing interests too. 

The Design Fair will be part of an ongoing exhibition at Rotterdam’s Het Nieuwe Instituut. ‘Temporary House of Home’ explores meaning, symbols and history of our most personal space: the home. If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s the importance and permanent role that our home has in our life: safe haven, working space, place of isolating or finally of long awaited socializing?

On Sunday the first of May ‘The Design Fair’ will function as an epilogue to the show. The vast spaces between columns supporting the agora of ‘Het Nieuwe Instituut’ will be transformed by stores, designers and studio’s into their idea of a home, and I’ll be one of them.

That’s why I’ve spent the last weeks hunting and collecting exactly the right set dressing to transport you to my world. (Spoiler: it involves lots of color, form and optimism, and all the objects presented will all be for sale too!) Other interesting neighbors for the day will be Dutch brands such as the inspiring vintage design of Rotterdam gallery Fundamente or Cor Unum, a modern design house that empowers employees with socially challenging backgrounds. 

So, do feel free to come over, to discover Nomad Objects vases, candles and much more and to have a good time. Or follow the fair through the stories that I promise I’ll post online along the way! 

Looking forward to meeting you!

Julie

https://tijdelijkhuisvanthuis.hetnieuweinstituut.nl/en/activities

@_whereisthecool_magazine is a magazine by Parisian creative @Laurent.Laporte. The Instagram account, as much as the actual magazine, is aesthetic nostalgia made into perfection!

@wilderantwerp is my favorite local flower shop that brings local to a new level. Only flowers that are in season decorate their shelves. Winter brings dried bouquets, spring brings fresh florals.

Look again, because you won’t believe that what you’re seeing is unreal. @teaaalexis is the co-founder and creative director of Color C Studio, possibly one of the most surreal and aesthetic 3D-drawing studios out there right now.

MARCH SPOTLIGHT

NL

ChecK!

I’d like to introduce you to ‘Boujaad’, a Moroccan rug and a favorite statement piece of mine that maximalists and minimalists are guaranteed to love.

However, to be honest, this story almost did not unfold, if it weren’t for my local contact in Morocco since day one. I initially wasn’t that interested when he proposed to present me a more modern style of Berber rugs of which he had some examples in his atelier - we’d had a very satisfying collaboration on more traditional rugs, so why change? That was, until he unveiled this selection of checkered rugs with a fringed finish in his terracotta toned atelier. That warm winter day, my heart just skipped a beat. 

Knotted with traditional techniques by the experienced hands of the artisan women in the central Moroccan city of Boujad, these rugs are an example of how tradition - it can take up to six weeks to produce one rug - and modernity smoothly blend together in an exquisite cocktail of modern deco and design. With its contrasting color game and checkered pattern, this rug is a joyous jolt of fun and an instant statement that says ‘I’m more fun than vichy, tartan or plain striped rug too!’

And that’s how my mind was instantly made up and the carpets rolled up and ready to go!