October 4th was the opening of the Culture Cult Exhibition. It is wonderfully organized by Nadja Schreurs, coordinator of the D&A platform of the Hotel, which has the aim to promote diverse designers and artist through exhibitions in the hotel’s
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Many people have been asking me when the multicultural souvenirs will be available on the market for purchase. I admit, I would love to see the new Dutch Kissing Couples and the Stroopwafels on the market somewhere. It would be
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Dutch Design Week 2018. It’s already been one year! It all goes so fast! A year ago, To Kiss or Not to Kiss participated in this design event in collaboration with the Innovation Networks Lectorate from The Hague University of
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Dutch Design Week is busy. We all know that. But that we would be stormed by people with questions, remarks and suggestions in this way is something we didn’t see coming. And we loved it. The months of hard work
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This post about ‘ Kissing” is a contribution from Allison Heidrich. Allison studies International Communication Management at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. She’s been supporting the project with the external communication and social media about our participation in Work
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The richness of cultural diversity can be expressed in different types of souvenirs. As an opportunity to expand this idea, Aliana Bertolo one of my students at IDE/Open Innovator took the challenge to explore how she could express multiculturalism through
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The project is expanding in interesting directions. Through the co-creation sessions I met Anja Overdiek who works as a senior researcher at the Innovation Networks Lectorate of The Hague University of Applied Sciences. After a couple of inspiring conversations Anja
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While the Chinese kissing couple was in the glazing process, I thought it would be a valuable opportunity to involve a multidisciplinary and multicultural group of students in the project. In agreement with the IDE-Open Innovator program managers I organized
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It has been a while since the last time I posted something about this project. Apart from being busy with work and my own education, my approach to this project has been to take it one step at a time
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In July I signed up to a course at Dutch Molds to start with the first steps towards making complex plaster molds. Piet van der Sluis is the owner of Dutch Molds in Amsterdam. He has been making molds for
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In the past few weeks I continued with my quest to search for production alternatives of plaster molds to make the kissing couples in The Netherlands. The purpose is to reduce initial production costs as much as possible. I already
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…said Musab
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…said Jenny Ho, whom I was fortunate to meet a few weeks ago. Jenny is a sociologist and co-founder of the China town Amsterdam Foundation. During our conversation I felt like a knew her for a long time. I enjoyed
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As we all know 3D printing has been growing and progressing in leaps and bounds in the past years. I was curious to find if it would be an option to 3D print this souvenir in porcelain at the famous
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Next to exploring stories about cultural similarities or differences in the multicultural Holland, finding out about the design – and the production process for it – has been challenging. One of the main purposes of this project is that the
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Working on the ‘Chinese Kissing couple’ has been a journey that is making me learn many aspects of this country and Chinese people. What I find most relevant are the small things that during different conversations have slapped my assumptions
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The Embassy of Mexico in the Netherlands published an article of the To Kiss or Not to Kiss project on page 7 of their monthly bulletin. A click on the picture will lead you to the bulletin.
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I went to visit the new Exhibition at Textile Research Center -Leiden “Decorated with Gold and Silver”. I recommend to visit it and to dive into the fascinating world of Silver and Gold embroidery and garment accessories. Here you can
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This project has made me pay more attention to concepts such as multiculturalism, integration, inclusion and social cohesion. I met with Dr. Daniela Vicherat Mattar who is Assistant Professor in Sociology in the Global Challenges Program of Leiden University College to
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This project has its own pace and a mindful decision making process. Many proposals and ideas for the ‘making of ’ possibilities have agitated my creative mind up to the point of wanting to make this pieces of 180 cms
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I have been working on the Chinese female. The shape is almost ready and I have started to create the Chinese male so I will have the first couple ready soon. I will combine this process with a visit to
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Jokaland Inspirations (Hemang and Suive) is a Photography and video company who have kindly put their time and knowledge on the creation of the introduction video to this project. We brainstormed and discussed about all ideas in a few sessions. I
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It is time to start the design production of the larger pieces. The new models of the couples will be 35 cms high. This is a size that works well for me and easy transport too. I am using plastiline
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As I mentioned in a previous post, visiting TRC-Leiden has been like finding the Holy Grail. Thanks to Dr. Gillian Vogelsand- Eastwood I met with Christopher Ng, who is a collector of Chinese and South East Asian textiles and garments.
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When I visited the National Museum of Ethnology, I discovered that my next visit should be the Textile Research Center in Leiden. A few weeks later I visited this amazing place which to me has been very valuable for the
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