every toy is a story

These are the images for my new business magnets
Printed out three, to go along with every purchase and working on some more for cards and so on
Its a lot of fun painting the toys and making them into illustrations. it opens out a whole world
Illustration is basically my oldest tool and I got so much into sewing these past years that i have put it aside
I am truly exited from the possibility of combining these two worlds of toys and illustration and it seems so natural.
Its beautiful how it goes both ways, every toy is a story anyhow, it just needs to be told, and every illustration has the potential of coming into life.

life is a stage

i just love these surreal situations
I just finished making this renaissance clown costume and asked Guy , our partner to try it on
just had to document the funny moment
I made this whole outfit from a bunch of old curtains . they have been lying in our fabric collection for a long time and every once in a while i would conspire to trash them as the fabric was so old fashioned and unattractive.
just proves that you should never ever throw away fabric, because you never know.

childrens delight indoor play house

One of the best features in our house is this indoor" tree house" that Amir has made.
The wooden house is perched in a corner of our living room, making the children and their play a part of everything.
The lower floor is the creation corner , there is a table ,stools and lots of materials for making stuff. this is basically girls domain as its just very crafty and doll house like.
The curtain is made from a quilt a friend got on eBay and passed it on to me for being not perfect. its perfect to me and also happens to be the material from which my Vla mice are happily made.
the upper part is for pirates, Toma used to sleep there but now its just men territory and used when he is not home.. and for him and friends as a control post over the entire house.
The brave ones jump from up there to our living room "couch" which is a very noisy and messy business, but i guess that's what kids are about...
anyhow, highly recommended for all of you crafty fathers with some imagination and some logs.

Holiday spirit against all odds...

The most tragic thing about not having Christmas ( except from the presents of course...) is the fact that we don't have wreaths. its really such a pity as i adore them and can't live with out a proper wreath in the house.
At this season The amazing fruits of what we call the "pepper tree" are ripe and good for harvesting and drying. the colors vary from off white to pink and red and they dry so well.
could'nt resist making our own holiday wreath and this is the process and result.

Theater work - the unicorn

Many people who sees our ETSY avatar ask about the unicorn icon.
some people commented that we should put a photo of one of our dolls in our avatar. well, it is one of our dolls...
The unicorn is a life size stilt costume that we have made for the "Balbalu street theater company", its one of our favorite creations and I sure hope the pictures convey its beauty and magic.
The unicorn is mostly Amirs hand work, he was sculpted from dense foam and than covered tightly with cloth. its a highly accurate and demanding process and it was very exiting to see this one come to life in the workshop.
The actor stands on stilts in the hollow unicorn, on the saddle there are fake legs so it looks as if the elf is actually riding the unicorn.
The unicorn is so realistic that it creates the exact effect that i am looking for in everything i do, it balances between realities, not here and not there, enigmatic and unreal - the stuff that dreams are made of.

our family

Our eldest Toma, he is eight and a half now but sometimes we feel like he is more our flat mate than our child, he is highly independent, home schooled but won't take much schooling and instead is schooling us on the true meaning of letting go...
Toma is constantly teaching me that children are whole and wise people, they are not be treated as less than that as they know what they need and usually follow their hearts on things if we let them. I am definitely doing my best to protect him from dangers and letting him know my opinion, but he makes most of the calls, and its not an easy task to allow it as a parent.
watching children grow is like putting a seed in the ground that you have no knowledge about, you wait to see what will flower there.
its really such a beautiful and mysterious process.

this is our Aalya, she is six and a half and as you see a cheerful little elf.
she is a constant inspiration as she can't stop making something, she is beading and painting and building and gluing and cutting and sculpting and singing and dancing, she is the muse of the arts...
she reminds me so much of myself as a child and she eve looks like me as a child
its a very strange and fascinating mirror.
sitting at my sewing table she is sure to arrive asking to sew something as well so i find myself developing many ideas with her and learning from her simple free approach to colors and combination.
in the photo she is with her own greenmanshop Olka rabbit and angel wings.

This is our youngest girl Shaya, almost five years old.
being last she is still our baby and oh so sweet.
Toma and Shaya were born in India and they share a certain wild quality that i can't entirely pin point, they are both non conformist and stubborn and find their own special way of doing things.
Shaya and Aalya are best friends and they complete each other in their energy and character.
Shaya has such a sweet tooth that I am obliged to do a certain amount of baking if I don't want her to go around the village begging for candies, so we have a lot of fun in the kitchen together.

When I am creating toys I sometimes wonder what influences my creation more, my own childhood or my children's.

I still have a very strong sense of being a child, I definitely create from this place ,making my dreams come to life for myself , my children, and than seeing this magic spreads out, touching peoples hearts at the same spot.

I take this notion to all fields of creation, In theater in painting, in toy design, always aiming at looking at things from my child point of view, making it meaningful for the child and not to the self aware adult.

The flower garden

thought of starting with were we live as it is our own little magical kingdom.

we live in the north of Israel in one of the Galilee mountains, in a small village of 60 families.

We bought our house basically for its beautiful and already grown garden, it was in a very bad state when we bought it three years ago and we have put a lot of work into making it the lush colorful hide out that it is now.

The garden goes into so many changes over the year, in every picture it looks completely different, these are some pics from various seasons.

My name is orianne,
I have been making things for as long as i remember.
I find beauty and inspiration in everything I encounter.
This blog is for all of you devout customers and friends who follow our work, and want to know more about our life and work process.
we are involved in so many creative enterprises that i thought it would be right to somehow tie them all together, at least virtually...
so I plan to offer a peek in to some of these worlds and maybe if possible in to my own inner world.