Getting out the color of wheat

Waiting for the reopening of my etsy shop the 25th Sept., I would like to write a special post for these two custom stamp sets that I have recently done. They are both stamps related to the Little Price, which is, above all, my favorite tale! The first is a stamp set for Anna, representing the Little Price who is flying away with a cloud of birds, the second is The Little Prince with almost all the characters of the story, i.e. the Fox, the Planets, the Sheep...

What I love in the Little Prince is especially the chapter in which he meets the Fox, who explains him the significance to "be tamed". You can find the full text of this chapter here. After Fox's explanation, the Little Prince is confused because "to be tamed" has a big downside: we suffer when our beloved go away to such extend that, according with the Little Prince, we can wonder if it is really a good thing to tame and to be tamed. Yes, the Fox explains, because it is this process of taming that, in spite of its hardness and the energy that demands, makes our existence unique and special. 

However, I have found an English version of the story, and I have to admit that I am quite disappointed. After having explained his doubts about the sufferance generated by the taming process, the Little Prince asked frankly to the Fox "Alors, tu n'y gagnes rien!" (literally, "So, you don't get out anything of it!" but in the official version is "Then it has done you no good at all!"). And the Fox replies, "J'y gagne à cause du coleur du blé" (literally, "I get out of it the color of wheat" or "I earn the color of wheat" but in the official version is "It has done me good because of the color of the wheat fields"). I thing that the meaning behind this sentence is quite hidden in the official version.

Actually, the Fox gets out of the hard process of taming, not only a new friend, but also a new significance for the color of the wheat and, each time that the Fox will look at a field of wheat, she will remember her dear Little Prince! The wheat ends up with being simple wheat and became intrinsically tied up to the blond hairs of the beloved kid. This is for me the significances of true relationships, to establish unique and special ties.

Customized Hand Carved Rubber Stamps

Finally I booked my travel back home to Paris. Since the 25th September, stamps and accessories will be available again after this long summer pause. And also all readers that asked me for customized hand carved rubber stamps during the summer now could go ahead their projects. If you would like to commit me your personal hand carved rubber stamp, do not hesitate, it is sufficient to fill up this form and to send it back to me for having an estimate of the cost!

In this post I gathered some special customized stamps that I have done before the summer... such as the "Check it out" here on the top of the post that I have made for Michelle... Or this marine knot above ordered by Fabienne...

Or the logo of Soyogic, a cute website about the yoga world, ordered by Claire.

Or also these "best wishes" made for the Julie. Thanks a lot to all of you, I was very glad to carve your new unique stamps!

And the pirate is...

And the lucky winner for this ARR stamps set inspired to the world of pirates is Rosita! Randomiser in fact has chosen the comment n.4 and Rosita, with the beautiful beach of Nida in Lithuania - see some pics here - is the winner of the giveaway! Rosita, please contact me with an email message in order to provide me your details for the delivery of the stamp set. Congrats!

Pirates are coming! SPECIAL GIVEAWAY

Since today, the sea hides another insidious creature, which is undermining the security of unaware swimmers and tourists. More than jellyfishes and urchins, sharks and giant squids, Fifi the pirate with her gloomy air sailing ship is the new danger that people have already started to fear... This shaggy pirate with neither fears nor qualms is ready to lap every unfortunate that come too close to her and even to wag her tail to the ones that stay aways from her...

To honor this merciless lapping pirate - I took decision to craft a new stamp set inspired to the world of pirates, ARR! And to organize a giveaway for it. Rules to participate and try to win this stamp set are easy:

Write a comment from now to the September, the 2nd at 13h00 (Rome, Paris etc. hour) in which you have to indicate which is your favorite seaside place: the mine is Lerici, in Liguria - Italy, where these pics have been takes. You can indicate either places in which you have been or ones in which you dream to come... If you'd like to add other details (if it is for instance a specific beach, when you have been there, why you like it etc), they are very welcome. To each comment I will assign a ascending number (1,2,3, and so forth) and randomizer will find out the lucky winner!  good luck, crew!

Patching up everything

Before leaving Paris I got a lot of repair patches of Macon&Lesquoy, two amazing French designers that produce, amongst other things, these embroidered patches with which to customize and to embellish all wears. They do also fantastic embroidered broaches as this cute golden wretch above. By the way, even an anonymous t-shirt can become unique and original!

 

 

The design of these cute patches is fantastic: simply, ironic and chic. There's plenty of cute design, able to satisfy each one tastes. In the pics around this post, you can see my selection: a rainbow (of course), a cloud, a smocking gun, a pint of beer, a bigfoot and also the Beatles in their yellow-submarine version. If before knowing Macon&Lesquoy, to have a hole in my wears was a little drama, now it is a chance! Check their creations at www.maconetlesquoy.com!

Ice creams to share with our dogs!

What's more refreshing, for instance in a hot summer afternoon, than ice creams? I think nothing, yet it is too sad for me to see Fifi's expression while I'm eating my ice cream without sharing it with her... Indeed dogs should not eat ice creams because many of their ingredients are not healthy for our beloved companions! For that, after a quick research on the net, I find out a receipt that, after few adaptations, I've tried out and I'd like to share with you! The proof of the pudding of my experiment with ice creams is the way in which Fifi's was enjoying her ice cream this afternoon....

How to do a perfect ice cream for dogs: use simply nature yogurt and fresh fruits. Put into a mixer a banana, 125 grammes of blueberry, 200 grammes of strawberries and 2 cups of nature white yogurt (the one without sugar). Mix the ingredients for few seconds, afterward put it into some shapes (for instance the same containers of the yogurt) and place in the middle of the compound also a wooden stint, useful to handle it when you will be eating it. After freezing it for some hours into the freezer, eat it without moderation! It is delicious for dogs and for also for us! Try to believe it!!!

Happiest summer!

Tomorrow is August and the summer break is officially starting! This is a quick post simply to wish you the happiest summer! For me, it is already started, as soon as I was back to my dear home town: it is not Paris, but here there's a wonderful sea that was waiting for me and for Fifi!

During a while my etsy shop will be quite empty: only pdf and tutorial will be on-line until I will be back to my atelier. For whom would like to buy some stamps before, I can suggest you to take a look to this website, where some creations of mine are still on. Check them out here....

happy summer!

My favorite illustrators # 10 Beatrice Mallet

During my researches for writing my last post about Le Petit Bateau, I discovered the amazing work of Beatrice Mallet, to which I am glad here to write a personal tribute as my 10th issue of posts dedicate to my favorite illustrators.

Born as Beatrice Fox in 1896 in the Island of Long Eaton in England, she became Beatrice Mallet after having married in 1919 Hervé Mallet. Her family worked as lace-makers at Long Eaton: she met Hervé there, when he was sent by her parents that they were traders of laces in Paris. They both were passioned for the art of drawing, also Hervé was, indeed, an illustrator. They move together to Paris, where she started a quick career as illustrator for advertising ; one of her first work was for the Galleries Lafayette...

Yet one of her best work, for me, and the reason why I have the chance to met her, was to create in 1924 a new advertising for Le Petit Bateau: this firm was at that time changing its scopes from being a producer of hosiery for adults to be an enterprises focused on the children world. For instance, in 1918 the first underwear "without legs" for children was created and soon afterward the name "Petit Bateau" was trade marked. As soon as in 1924, during this industrial conversion, Petit Bateau met on its road Beatrice, whose childish style and dreamy irony became the perfect symbol for this change: Marinette, the mascot of Petit Bateau during this glorious period of its history, was born during 1920s from the genius of Beatrice Mallet!

Differently to the other old illustrators that I was glad to present previously (such for instance Hervé Morvan), Beatrice Mallet is nowadays not very known, in spite of her huge talent of illustrator and his former first class reputation in France where, more than being the "pencil" of Galleries Lafayette and of Le Petit Bateau, she was also the author of many spellings-books and of a lot of satiric illustrations. Many information about her work and her life have been hopefully gathered by this website, which suggest you to visit also for the great collection of Beatrice's draws exposed. I hope that this writing could help to not forget the talent of this great woman, and this hand carved rubber stamp is my personal tribute to her. I hope you like it!

timeless vintage logo #10 Petit Bateau

For this new issue of my posts about evergreen vintage logos, I am going to present you one of most French brand: Petit Bateau! This summer I left Paris for coming back in Italy - as usual - with a new Petit Bateau lined swimwear: I always dreamed to have it but the rainy weather of Paris always frustrated my desires considering silly to buy a swimwear with 15°C outside... and when the summer suddenly came, it was always out of stocks in the shops! This time I took decision to not risk again and in March I have already secured one for me! And while I was waiting for wearing it, I made a special stamp with which I decorated a cotton bag for my dreamed swimwear...

I always considered Petit Bateau a classic of the French style but I was not aware of its age and achievements. I discovered indeed that this brand has a long history beyond it. It was founded by Pierre Valton in 1893 under the name of Valton & Fils in Troyes and it was originally a producer of hosiery. In 1918 Valton had the idea to create a new kind of underwear: until then, all underpants were long and  included legs; the innovative idea of Valton was to cut off legs and to produce, by this way, the first modern pants. The second big innovation of this brand was to create a new working method to produce the typical lined jersey, which nowadays is associated with marine style, able to resist to high temperature washes.

A curious story is linked with the adoption of the name of Petit Bateau. According with the corporate story of this firm, the idea to produce pants without legs pop up in the head of Valton while singing an old French song that says "Maman les p'tits bateaux, qui vont sur l'eau ont-ils des jambes?" (Mammy, have the little boats, which go on the water, they too their legs?). Since than, a little boat became the logo and the name of one of most famous producers of hosiery and underwear in the world, almost a French flag internationally recognized.

For long-time Petit Bateau was chiefly a brand for little ones. The fortune of this firm was indeed built focusing progressively their products on the market for kids and babies, after the starting as adult hosiery producers at the end of XIX century. Only recently, Petit Bateau extended its wears to adults, but it curiously kept sizes as given for children. For instance, an XS corresponds to 12 years, S to 14 years, M to 16 years and so forth up to 20 years that means XL /as shown below). Funny, by this way I still consider to be only 14 years old!