Have I told you about Falling Whistles?

I think I might have, but it's definitely worth mentioning again. Falling Whistles is an organization working for peace in Kongo.

The whistle is a symbol for child soldiers, who were kidnapped and forced to battle. The children too young to carry guns was given a whistle and sent to the frontline.

I'm not very fond of wearing jewelry at all, but this necklace is the most worn piece of jewelry that I have. It goes with all outfits - speaks up for it self - and makes a difference in the world. So, visit Falling Whistles website and buy one or two or three. (It's the perfect christmasgift too!) All profit goes to rehabilitate and advocate for those affected by war.

Oh and for you Stockholmers - Tomorrow Falling Whistles Sweden are uncovering an art installation at Haberdash on Upplandsgatan 50. If I were near, I would go and I think you should to.

Wood board

Since five minutes after I moved in to this new showroom and found out that there was a small storage filled with old safe room stuff, I've been wanting to drag these things out and use for photography. It's mostly old steel containers from the 40's that probably contain some kind of air filter for the safe room. But also, there was some wooden boards to use as walls in the safe room if war struck and all of the people in the house needed to take shelter for a couple of days. I guess the walls would serve as some kind of toilet walls, so that using the toilets bins wouldn't have to be so.. unprivate.

To get the wooden walls out of the tiny door, I had to (well, first of all I checked with the landlord that it was ok for me to use them) empty the whole storage and rearrange. Good morning workout I can tell you!

Sweaty and dirty (Noone has touched these thinks since the house was build in the 1940's) I finally got them out and they were just as ugly as I had hoped! Perfect for photo background.

After draging out some nasty nails that kept them together, they came in place and - Voila! No more boring white backdrop! (for now)

I love the dirtyness and time marks on the wood. Works perfect both in color and black/white.

On the road - Visiting Cloo Collection retailers

It has been an intense couple of days! This week started with a great trip to Stockholm for a visit to our resellers and starting some new collaborations.

Uni is one of our resellers in Stockholm, with two stores (Odengatan and Åsögatan). I deeply love their concept of organic, unisex clothes and toys for kids. They seem to be just as passionate about those values as I am. 

And there, among other really cool items hangs the small amount of Cloo Collection pieces they still have left. So of course, it's time to send some more!

The work of a Web Shop

And now, all of the new pictures are in place in the SHOP. Phew! It takes time to replace everything and making things work. I have to do all the changes on both the swedish site and the english, so that's double work. But, now it looks great!

Looking through the english version of the site also made me realize that it needs tons of work before everything is translated correctly.

Forgot one!

Love this one. Can you se her pointing straight into the camera? Such a superstar.

Photoshooting Cloo Collection - one year later

Last year, at the 1st of October, we had the very first photo shoot for Cloo Collection. At that time, our models had just turned one year and now, this weekend, we had another photo shoot. With the same kids and the same collection. Now they're two years old (the kids that is) and I just love the thought of following their growth along with the growth of Cloo.

So now, we're presenting new pictures of our loved collection!

The Morning Project Backdrop

This saturday it's time to do a new photoshoot and that requires some preparation.

Crazy Jumper

I figured that the evil hard shadows that I couldn't get rid of came from my own cameras ugly flash (since my camera has no sync connection, the built in flash can be used to trigger the other flashes). But, that problem is solved after a trip to the local photo gear store. A little cubical to put between the flash sender and the camera costed 99 SEK and now only the soft shadows from the studio flashes falls on the wall.

I tried my best to look as cute as my kids while jumping, but I'm sorry to say that's impossible.

Playing with flashes #1

Today I got to try the photo equipment on my kids after I picked them up from day care. I think I got the white balance this time, but there's still SO much to learn about this stuff. And kids (my kids at least) think being photographed is fun for.. about.. 30 seconds. So I guess you'll be seeing some more test photos of Moi after this. ;)

Morning eyes

In a few minutes I'm going to get in the car and go to Borås for the autumn version of Nordic Fabric Fair. Since my daughter thought it was a good idea to "sleep" next to her parents at three or four o'clock this night, this is what I look like this morning:

Studio Flash

Finally I got the photo studio equipment that I ordered. Last week they sent me broken flashes, and I wasn't that excited.. ;)
But, today I got the replacements and started to figure out how to use these things. I have never even turned on an extern flash before, so there's probably a lot to learn before the pictures turns out well.

After an hour the result looked like this (I have no backdrop yet, so it had to be the wall):

No shadows on the wall, but WHAT about the colors? I look like a yellow... I don't know.

Oh, on the picture you se my big size Bulldog Scarf that I made for myself this morning. I accidentally cut out two of them, so of course I sewed another one to. You want it? I'm thinking 350 SEK and you can email me at info@cloo.se.