Dutch online platform Milledoni is all about gifts.
Gifts for anyone, for any occasion and any budget.

We're super happy one of their scouts spotted our Helios and added it to their guide of gifts!

Remember this website: The next time you have no idea what to get your friend or colleague, visit Milledoni for the best ideas.
Good to know: all featured products link back to the original webshops where you can make your purchase

When launching our Poma/Olera series during the last Dutch Design Week (read all about it here) we had a lovely chat with journalist Jasmijn Missler of Dutch newspaper Trouw. 
Although this hasn't boiled down to a 'real' article in the newspaper yet, we're happy to get a little mention in this piece about food waste. 
Check it out here:

In the article the Poma/Olera is mentioned briefly and described as a fruit bowl making it possible to keep different kinds of fruit and vegetables in separate compartments to avoid them being subject to the ethylene gas emitted by ripening fruits like apples and bananas.
Which is, of course, very true.
​
But the Poma/Olera series has more dimensions than just separating different fruits.

The fruitbowl also has multiple presentation platters for fruits that should be eaten first, while also serving as a lid  keeping the stock below in a dark and slightly cooler (due to evaporation cooling) space.

Also part of the series is ripening bowl Patera Maturus which uses ethylene gas emitted by certain fruits to speed up the ripening process of other varieties like avocado or mango.

The reason we're expanding a little on the subject, is because later on the article mentions a couple of things you can do to keep fruit and vegetables fresh for longer and Poma/Olera pretty much covers them all.

Happy to know our extensive homework during the research phase paid off ;-).

<Read all about Poma/Olera>

Super happy and proud to have our new Helios Constellation featured in the Holiday gift guide of Volkskrant Magazine last Weekend.

It's only a tiny mention, but judging by the extra webshop orders, people are definitely noticing :-)
Also, we're joined by a pretty decent collection of other great-to-gift goodies, so if you can use some inspiration, make sure to check out the full gift guide in November 23rd Volkskrant Magazine!

Find more about the Helios Constellation here
or
Order Helios in our webshop

The 'Grote Nederlandse Kunstkalender' or 'Big Dutch Art Calender' is a beast of a calendar: weighing more than three (3!) Kilograms, the calender features a new piece of Dutch Art every day of the year.

A mix of fine arts, photography, illustration, product design, architecture and graphic design, the selection consists of work by upcoming talents as well as from big names in the Dutch world of art and design.

Or go ahead and get the calender for your significant other so you can enjoy a full year of Dutch Art together. 

The Grote Nederlandse Kunstkalender can be bought for €34,95 (ex. shipping) via Trichis.

//Read more about the calender here//

Sublime is a Dutch radio station all about soul, funk and jazz. Aside from music, they feature a super cool side step into sustainable and social progress every hour called 'Nieuws van de vooruitgang' (news of progress).

Listen to the (Dutch) piece here >
Sander and Francis zoom in on the Dutch Design Week fairly quick, and the Poma Olera series is the first project  discussed.

More can be found on Sublimes website.

For more information about the Poma/Olera, click here.

Since we first launched the Flower Constellations, we've been lucky enough to be featured in quite a few publications, both on the web as well as in print.

Because we're super proud of these mentions, we've dedicated a webpage to them -an online cutting file, so you will-, on which we've made an overview of all Flower Constellations publications we could find.

= Check it out here =

Sisters Astrid and Linda, both creative minds, have put their love for all things beautiful and special to digital paper with their blog 'No Ordinary Tales'. 
On it, they share DIY's, recipes and all creative things they come up with. Once every while, they share the work of a fellow creative entrepreneur or creative hotspots to visit.

We're super excited Linda and Astrid wrote a lovely piece about our Flower Constellations last week. Thank you so much for sharing!
You can read the full post here.
It's in Dutch, but even if you don't speak the language, their photographs are worth your click!

Rarely did we get so many friends telling us they saw our Flower Constellations in a magazine as we did with this mention in Flow magazine. :-)

We're super excited to be in the gorgeous publication since we love the quality and feel of the magazine. 
It should still be in stores now, and comes with a super nice notebook (that i'm actually using at this moment). 

Thank you Flow, for the spotlight!

Super happy with this full page publication of our Flower Constellation in Happinez magazine earlier this spring.

Happinez is really one of those magazines that people take with them on a relaxing vacation.
​Proof: our sister-in-law took this Happinez with her to the other side of the world, and was happily surprised (and a little proud ;-)) to find us in there.

We participated in the MKB Export Award 2018 and are part of the Top 9!

The MKB Export Award is organised for the 6th year in a row by TNT Netherlands, The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO.nl) and Royal Organisation MKB-Nederland.
Of the more than 100 contestants, the Jury nominated us and 8 other companies. 
​
The winner will be revealed during the event 'Klaar voor de start? Export! ("Ready? Get set! Export!) on Tuesday March 19th 2019.

Who knows, we might be succeeding last years' winner Anne Pleun van Eijsden of 'On the Rocks' and go home with the prize: amongst others a transport cheque and business partner scan!

It all started with our participation in the Paris fair Maison&Objet last September, for which we applied for an Export Mission Voucher.

After the fair we got invited to join the MKB Export Award, and since we really think we can conquer the world with our Flower Constellations and can use a little boost to get us going, we applied.

In January we received a phonecall from the organization surprising us with the news we're on the shortlist!
Early February we got to show a small part of the jury around House of Thol headquarters, and tell them all about our designs, projects and plans for the future.
We had a lovely chat, as i'm sure they had with all other eight nominees.

Now all that's left to do is wait..... With our fingers crossed...
We'll keep you posted!

Only 1 (ONE) week to go before our presentation at Object Rotterdam should be ready to roll.
We're about to be starting prep on lighting and stands in just a minute.
Still quite a few final decisions to be made, i'm afraid.
But i'm sure we'll  make it work.

Before we head to our workshop however, i wanted to celebrate the Object PR-department for getting the expo out there.
We're super happy with our designs being part of some of the online press-coverage of Object Rotterdam.

Architectuur.nl wrote a lovely piece about Object and used a photograph of our reCabinet in their article.

Read the whole piece here (in Dutch)

Studio Perspective zoomed in on all sustainable designers at Object. 
We're ever so happy to be part of this list.

Check out their selection here (also: in Dutch)
​(ps. added bonus: you can win two tickets for the fair!)

​Alright now, time to get ourselves in the workshop and get things ready for Object.
Will we see you there?

We always try to keep track of whenever a design is mentioned in a magazine, so we can get our hands on a copy and be proud about it at the time the issue is actually in the stores.
But sometimes we miss the memo, and a magazine is already out the stores before we can catch on and get our hands on a copy.

We were a little late to the news the Flower Constellations were featured in 2018' last issue of magazine Buitenleven.
Although we don't actually have a hard copy in our possession, luckily we did receive a pdf of the piece (which you can find below).

Super happy with the spotlight. Thank you Buitenleven! 

Fleur Magazine is the Belgian professional florists journal and is packed with great advice for anyone running a florist shop as well as pages filled with inspiration, new designs and background information about plants and flowers.

Personally i was pretty impressed with the overall look of the magazine and the articles, that are fun and interesting to read, even for non-florist me.
​
I love how the magazine provides the floral entrepreneurs with hooks and stories that can help sell more flowers and plants.

We are over the moon to be featured in this lovely publication with not only one, but two products. Check it out!
When clicked, the images should enlarge in a lightbox so you can read the actual (Dutch) text. 

Blogger Sarah Militello-Wilson (based in Los Angeles) wrote this lovely piece about our Flower Constellations back in June on her blog Milk & Flowers.
​
Impressed by how she took the time to write a piece of original content about our design, i thought we shouldn't let the feature just disappear in the archives without an extra mention.

​What i love is that Sarah mentions flower frogs in her post about the Flower Constellations, which is in fact a flowertool used in Ikebana, and something we looked at while developing our design.
​
I also really like how she went into ways you can source your flowers. For example: "If you’ll be using wildflowers, you can leave more out in nature for others to enjoy."

<Read the full blogpost here on Milk & Flowers>

​Thank you for sharing Sarah!

If it wasn't for our sweet friend and creative colleague Meike pointing this out to us, we would have completely missed this lovely post by Designcrushblog from back in September.

Here's what blogger Kelly from Pitsburgh wrote about the Flower Constellations (which she catalogued under 'Create / Grand Design'):
"I love having fresh flowers in my home and will pare down a bouquet as it wilts until only a few blooms remain. Flower Constellations make floral arranging using only a few stems super easy thanks to a flat brass disk with openings that can expand and contract to fit a variety of vases."

<Read the full piece here on designcrushblog>

Thank you for sharing Kelly, and thank you for pointing us towards the post Meike!

Jonathan Lo launched his blog 'Happy Mundane'. back in 2006, and -in his own words- it's all about "Celebrating the ordinary and the extraordinary, good design of any kind, and taking a moment to appreciate some things that get overlooked in the everyday."

Jonathan about the Flower Constellations:
"Speaking of plants, do you ever find when you have a bouquet of flowers, some flowers die out faster than others? The creative team at House of Thol have come up with a solution. They’ve made a “flower constellation” metal disk that sits over your vase to provide a way to display single stems. The best part is the arrangement of the holes is based of astrological sign! A great gift idea!"

<Check out the full gift guide here>

We've been so insanely busy in the months of September and October that even in late November we're still working through the pile of work that was 'put aside for a moment'. 

For example, we never got to tell you about our Volkskrant magazine publication in October.
We are so happy to be featured in the magazine, and in the Design special no less!

At the time, we were actually at the VT Wonen & Design beurs. We had a blast there, but it pretty much consumed all our time and definitely all our energy.

Anyway, here it is, maybe you spotted it back in October already?
It might be more than a month ago, we're too proud of the publication not to mention it!

Last weeks' Libelle (#49) featured the Flower Constellations!
Did you spot them?

We were just in time to get a copy ourselves and are very happy to be part of the 'Groene Vingers' (Green fingers) segment. 

​Thank you for featuring our design Libelle!