Örnsbergsauktionen is the name of an artist operated auction house for studio produced, independent design and craft. Its creators, Fredrik Paulsen, Simon Klenell and Kristoffer Sundin, were missing a platform for contemporary, unique design in Stockholm so they initiated the first Örnsbergsauktionen during Stockholm Design Week 2012. The idea of the auction is to open up the process between idea and finished product and to reduce the distance between designer and client. Now time has come for the second edition – until February, 8th you can check out and bid on a range of beautiful and somewhat crazy objects, bypassing the commercial demands of mass production!

Sculpture by Sara Lundkvist | Glasses by Silo Studio |  Tray by August Sörenson | Necklace by Maria E Harrysson

Images: Viktor Sjödin

This funny sign is a winner – Bäckmans shoe repair in Stockholm, established in 1922.

»Monki!«, I’d say if you asked me for a fashion brand that uses a strong and unique visual language in its communication. Just think of their website, magazine, store interiors… And once more the Swedes show us how to maximize corporate consistency designwise: Stockholm based architect studio Electric Dreams recently completed the project »Fabricville«, which is the name of Monki’s (and Weekday’s) headquarter in Gothenburg. The corridors were transformed into a busy village street and the meeting rooms are colorful little cottages. You get carried away to Monki world, when you look at the pictures, don’t you? I really like the playful approach and story-telling of Monki’s creatives, but I was also relieved when I read that the people’s work places have »basic, neutral colour schemes«…

Photos: Electric Dreams

I didn’t see the Gregory Crewdson exhibit in Germany (it’s not so often I visit Baden-Baden…) but when I entered Stockholm’s Kul-turhuset this weekend I was lucky to discover that they had a big Gregory Crewdson show on display. Especially the images in his precisely choreographed and elaborately staged “Beneath the Roses” series were impressive. Additional images from the production process provided an insight into how much planning and orchestration is needed to achieve the final results.

Hurry, hurry, until Saturday, January 15th, you can watch the Valentino documentary on Swedish public service online channel SVT Play (that means if you can tolerate that the parts in Italian language are subtitled in Swedish, only). Besides insights into the crazy world of fashion, the documentary offers entertainment, tension & supense and a lot of emotions exchanged between Valentino and his partner and companion Giancarlo Giammetti.

The Bonniers Cook Book from 1960 is the Swedish Holy Grail of cooking – everybody’s granny had it. It is a culinary and visual treasure and you can spend a lot of time learning how to modernize your kitchen (to a middle of the 20th century standard), interpreting diagrams about how to blend sauces and admiring table decorations. I even discovered a piece of Rörstrand chinaware I have at home! The cover art is by Bo Lassen, unfortunately I do not know other works by him.

After this years holiday in Sweden I was obsessed with making my own crispbread. And to my surprise it is neither complicated nor do you need a special oven to get a nice and crunchy result. Try with different seasonings like anise, dill seeds, caraway, fennel seeds, sesame…

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You need:
25g fresh yeast
2,5 dl lukewarm water (37°C)
0,5 tsp salt
1 tsp honey
1,5 tsp dill seeds (or other seasoning)
2 dl graham flour
3,5 dl coarse rye flour
coarse salt
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Crumble the yeast into a bowl and add some of the water. Stir until the yeast is dissolved, then add the rest of the water, and all other ingredients (except the coarse salt). Mix by hand or with a machine until the dough starts to form. Add extra rye flour if it’s too sticky. You don’t have to knead it much, just enough to get a proper dough that holds together. Remove the dough to a clean bowl, cover and leave to rise for 40 minutes.
Put dough onto a floured surface and work in more rye flour in case it is too sticky. Divide dough into four equal portions. Roll out into rectangles using a lot of flour so it won’t stick. Roll it as thinly as you can (the crisper it will be!). Lightly sprinkle with dill seeds and coarse salt. Cut into pieces, approximately 15×3 cm. Place directly on a floured baking sheet and bake at 175°C for 10 minutes or until crisp and lightly browned. Enjoy with salted butter!