Llamas' Valley

December 2012

Creative spaces

la Famiglia Maria Cavali

Carina Gibson

Augis Narmontas

Photographer

Photographer

Photographer

Sandra Kliukaite

Kornelija Cesonyte

Eligijus Ramanauskas

Editor

Art critic, editor

Art director/interactive design

Cover image: Photographer Milda Bendoraityte

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Table of contents

Milda Bendoraityte

Egle Ma

Photographer

Photographer

Barbora Adamonyte

Olga Lempert

Stylist, designer

Proof editor

Design

Eero Aarnio Maria in Flux

Designer Lilian Driessen Breathtaking

Laura De Wilde

Paradoxes

A flower from paradise

Carolina Raquel Antich

Jewellery design

In the lofts on New York On the edge of the possible

Studio Snowpuppe

Editor’s letter

Alge Ramanauskiene Editor-in-Chief Llamas’ Valley

I have the odd habit of watching the lives of people I don’t know through windows. Walking the narrow lanes of the town, I glance furtively through every window that is not covered by curtains. The images I see last mere fractions of a second, until I take the next step. But they fill my imagination like a cozy, homey fog. Steamy cups and rustling newspapers in the morning; sizzling pans, cleaning housewives, and clanging knives and forks at lunchtime. But my favorite time to peek through windows is at nightfall, when lights go on in the houses and the picture is clearest. Warm dinners at large tables and bachelor snacks on tiny kitchen stools.

Noisy children. A lazy cat sprawled out on a windowsill, behind it a flickering television, warm steam and home cooking smells bursting out.

Sock-knitting grannies and embracing couples…

When I had no home of my own, I used to soak up these “homey” moments to help myself imagine what my own place would look like one day. For many years, I was building up that vision like a jigsaw. And I still am. This is how Llamas’ Valley was born – with me and my husband sitting on a windowsill and dreaming of a perfect place to live in and collect moments of interesting life every day.

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Although today I already have my own place, yet every day I still discover in some corner of the world something more beautiful than what I saw yesterday. And so my vision of the perfect home changes as well. There are only a few things that are certain.

I’d like my home to have more light than shade. I’d like a wide sill to sit on reading magazines and watching small mundane dramas developing outside.

I’d like a large table and long dinners with fascinating conversations seasoned with delicious home smells.

Another thing I want in my house is room for creativity. This is why we open this journey on the subject of Creative Spaces and offer you a glimpse at the stories of some unbelievably creative people.

Fall, like no other season, inspires us to create and share our little discoveries. The unique interactivity of this magazine enabled us to make our heroes’ stories visually attractive and realistic. So why don’t you curl up on that wide windowsill or in your favorite chair, boil yourself a cup of tea, and experience what we did as we made this issue of Llamas’ Valley.

Enjoy!

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Eero Aarnio

Finnish interior designer Innovator of modern furniture design Text and photography: Carina Gibson (Eero Aarnio’s granddaughter)

When you walk into Eero Aarnio’s home on the outskirts of Helsinki, the immediate essence of Scandinavian design radiates from every wall, corner and crevice. White tile covers the multi-tiered floor plan, and the west-facing walls comprise floor to ceiling windows overlooking a lake. Aarnio’s house is filled with his brightly colored fiberglass and plastic creations and they strike an elegant contrast against the birch trees, glistening lake, and traditional smoke sauna surrounding the home’s exterior. Through the work of Aarnio and other like-minded designers, such a contrast between whimsical pop and natural Finnish beauty has become a hallmark of Scandinavian design.

- Grandfather, have you created anything new recently?

- Oh, I have so many firms I am creating for! I’m designing so many products.

- When did you start doing design work?

- I graduated from school in 1967, and in ‘68 I was in the army for eleven months. After the army, I returned to the work I started while I was in school. I was working for two different companies – for Finland’s best interior design firms. After that I needed factory experience, so I went to work at the Asko factory and was there for a year and nine months.

I had started as a freelancer in ‘62, and I started designing different products. My most well known product was the Ball Chair, of course, which I designed in ’63 – the drawing is dated January 11th.

After that I made a prototype.

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Text and photography: Egle Ma

Helsingør. A stone’s throw from Sweden’s foggy shore. Here looms the castle of Kronborg where William Shakespeare placed Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Here, in the old part of a red-roofed little town, a small family cake sanctuary called Cake Lady has been open for a while. The owners prefer to call their bakery “a place as cozy as home”, and baking here is Lithuanian Ieva Dan who found her happiness in Denmark six years ago. As for making coffee and entertaining the guests with conversation – this is Ieva’s husband Carsten’s responsibility.

They rise early four days a week to have the café open by 9 am. At this hour, the town is sleepy and bleary-eyed, but Ieva and Carsten are well into their day.

The first visitors are met with an idyllic sight.

The café, in an old, crooked-walled house, is cozy and warm. Old candle chandeliers hang from the ceiling, and candles are lit in the windows as well.

The smell is of crushed cardamom and coffee. She is baking cakes. He is making coffee. She reigns over a 3-meter-long kitchen. He talks to the guests who have come for cake and coffee, and keeps the books.

When asked why she chose Denmark as her happy destination, Ieva replies that even the Moon would be pleasant with a loved one. In all honesty, she never chose Denmark – the country of Vikings and the happiest people in Europe, and the cozy medieval town chose her.

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Breathtaking

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Laura de Wilde

Visual artist Living and creating in Amsterdam, Netherlands

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Photography: Maria Cavali Text and photography: Alge Ramanauskiene

- Laura, do you remember the last time you looked at a starry sky?

- Yes, I do actually. It must have been early or mid August and we were traveling in California when the weather forecast predicted a fascinating meteor shower. We never did see any showers, but it was definitely a starry night. I love watching the sky at night, but in Holland it is difficult to find a spot that is clear of other lights.

- What were you thinking about at that moment?

- Two things; admiring the beauty, but also blaming myself for still not being able to point out the different constellations. In our beach house I actually have a map so that we can spot and identify them. Should try harder‌ - When are you most creative – in the morning or maybe late at night?

- Late at night! When I am not at the studio, unfortunately. At daytime I find it more difficult to let go and relax. There is always something to be done or to remember, not to mention distractions like the paper, FB, Pinterest, etc. At night I feel more relaxed and that helps me get inspired, to come up with new ideas or with solutions when stuck in my work. If I were on my own, no family, children, etc., I am sure I would quickly switch day and night.

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A flower

from Paradise

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Carolina Raquel Antich

Artist Born in Rosario, Argentina Lives and creates in Venice, Italy

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Photography: Milda Bendoraityte Text: Alge Ramanauskiene

- Carolina, what was your road to Venice like?

- I landed on the Giudecca by chance, then stayed.

- Guidecca island is probably a bit different than Venice, right?

- We came to Italy from Argentina, and we fell in love with this ungraspable green space: a microcosm. The Giudecca still has a human neighborhood scale in which you can separate yourself from Venice. For me, an island within an island is a really fascinating image.

- Venice is full of great events. Which ones do you find most interesting and closest to your heart?

- The Art Biennale because it brings together a lot of artist-friends.

- I’ve read that kids are the best inspiration source for you. How many children do you have and how do they inspire you?

- I have a daughter, Lola, but there is no real relationship between what she is and what she means to me and my work. What happens in her life is just like any other material, subject to various distortions. I’ve always been curious about the world in which children live, how they look at it, and what they think about it. For me, the narrative of growing up is so brilliant that it’s become an object of analysis and curiosity.

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Nellianna van den Baard Kenneth Veenenbos

Founders of Studio Snowpuppe Living and creating in Hague, the Netherlands

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Photography: Maria Cavali Text: Alge Ramanauskiene

- Nellianna, Kenneth, how did you fall in love with paper design?

- We are still figuring out whether we are a Netherlands light studio specializing in paper or a paper studio specializing in lampshades... We are definitely in love with the combination of paper and light coming together. We really like creating a beautiful structure out of a simple piece of paper. In nature almost everything evolves from basic geometrical patterns. We use this as a starting point for our designs.

- And how did you fall in love with each other?

- It was love at first sight…

- Why – Studio Snowpuppe? I bet you love winter!

- The bottom of our first model looked like a snowman! We are inspired with the material scarcity at the Arctic and the creative solutions that people over there can come up with while using the few materials that are available there. Also wintertime is when people need some warm light while drinking a cup of hot chocolate.

- Your creation work has a lot in common with the Japanese art of origami. How did you come up with the idea of creating origami lamps?

- (Nellianna) My father taught me the beauty of paper folding. It is because of his perseverance that I am patient enough to work on a piece.

Creativity for us is always a mix of thinking and handiwork. Every lampshade is like a puzzle; when we start we can’t stop until we finish the puzzle.

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