Jurianne Matter Paper Sculptures

Jurianne Matter is a creative stationery designer. With a background that involved working for IKEA as a stylist, it’s no surprise that we find her work, stylish and beautifully designed.

She says “As a little girl I was already sure that I wanted to become an Inventor of Beautiful Things. I was decorating, drawing, constructing machines, cutting paper, making music all day long… I attended one of the first Waldorf Schools in Holland, where nature, art and spirituality were important values. At home, in our large medieval house, everything was allowed as long as it was creative. Covering one of the toilets completely in golden foil paper? No problem at all. Painting furniture white, refurnishing rooms, all fine with my artistic parents!”

“And then something horrible happened. A dear friend and her mother died in the tsunami, Christmas 2004. We had been friends for over 20 years. A difficult year started. The next year, when everyone was ‘together’ in memorials in Thailand or on tv, we were in our house in the mountains in the South of France. I wanted to DO something, make a ritual that made me let go of the horror of the tsunami and just keep the beautiful memories of their lives. My sons said immediately: let’s fold boats and put them on the river! We drew the papers, wrote down beautiful memories, their names, and on the morning of the 26th of December we let them go on the beautiful, clear little river near our house. The sun was shining, and there they went, our little wishboats. We stood there silently, everyone with his own thoughts. In the two years after that– I left IKEA and worked as a stylist-journalist – I designed little paperboats in my spare time, for almost every private occasion. They sailed out to celebrate weddings, new born babies, new jobs, birthdays, anniversaries or sometimes even as treasure ships (with candies). So I started my own label and a wholesale business with my Little Wishboats. They turned out to be a huge success ! The Paper Angels followed, then the Lanterns and now Blom and Little Tree and more have been born.”

“My main sources of inspiration are my childhood, almost forgotten folkloric traditions and rituals, nature, fabric and paper design. I notice that often it is a combination of colours that somehow attracts my attention, wakes me up and inspires me. That can be in the garden, in the supermarket, in any detail of life, if you just focus. I do have a preference for northern european design, colours and shapes. I am deeply rooted in my Northern European culture. I tend to be nostalgic, so I often go back to midcentury modern times. I can feel so happy looking at simple every-day life stuff (candy-wrappers, retro ceramics, notebooks, textiles), but I also get inspired by artists like Anish Kapoor, James Turrell, Johan Sebastian Bach and the 14th century artist Giotto. In the past few years I took great leaps in my development, both artistically, businesswise and personally too. I would like more and more to focus on design and less on doing business. I love the (international) contacts, I love doing PR, but I don’t like export regulations, taxes and that kind of stuff. I would rather sit down and design! That’s what makes me breathe. All my products are made in Holland and are completely eco-friendly. The paper carries the FSC-logo, and is acid- and chlorine-free. The Vega-Fast ink is a Dutch developed printing ink based on vegetable oils. The plastic-looking bags are actually made from cornflour and are bio-degradable.”

Jurianne showed her brand new ‘Circles’ range of paper goods at the ‘Maison & Objet’ trade fair in Paris in September. I bet the orders are flying out !

You can see more of Jurianne’s ideas on her blogpost here.