Maria Larsson for Uniqlo

September 27, 2019

To see my Circus pattern produced by Uniqlo for their fall -19 collection is a thrill to say the least. It has been hard keeping it a secret for so long but now when it hit the shelves online and in selected stores, I can finally share the good news!… Read more

Maison & Objet – from a Swedish perspective

March 10, 2018

This year started with discoveries of the huge trade shows for design in Paris. I had decided to visit the two most interesting ones in January, Maison et Objet and Playtime Paris. The first one a huge fair for mostly the interior and lifestyle design market and the second for… Read more

Formex Nordic Space 2017

formex stockholm 2017 – from lindberg to littlephant

August 29, 2017

Formex Stockholm is the largest trade show for interior and design in Scandinavia. With 900 exhibitors and 23000 visitors in a space of 114 000 sqm you can easily get overwhelmed. It was a long time since I visited, in fact I didn’t go since I worked as a ceramist… Read more

Cloth Lullaby by Isabelle Arsenault and Amy Novesky

beauty will save the world – isabelle arsenault

August 5, 2017

  ISABELLE ARSENAULT FINALLY, I got my hands on this book that I wanted for so long, by Amy Novesky and one of my favourite illustrators, Isabelle Arsenault, ABOUT another artist I admire hugely – Louise Bourgeois! Great combination to make me love everything about it! Each of these artists… Read more

Kaffe Fassett Oriental for Free Spirit

beauty will save the world – kaffe fassett

March 13, 2017

KAFFE FASSETT     To describe the influence of this man and the central place he holds in British textile and design history wouldn’t be possible in a single blog post as this one… It’s not an exaggeration to claim that he started a revolution in the world of handicraft… Read more

songbirds by Holly Ward Bimba

beauty will save the world – a new year

February 6, 2017

  One of the things I enjoy the most is to share my sources of inspiration with you! I’ve been featuring one favourite artist a month since I started this blog and I would love to continue doing so because I constantly fall in love with new ones! You can find all… Read more

dot oddity redesigned!

January 27, 2017

  As you might have noticed there has been a lot of activity going on here in January! Page by page we have redesigned the website to reflect the aesthetics and ideals that influenced Dot Oddity in 2016 and will be more pronounced in 2017. It has been an intense process and planning period, but somehow… Read more

new year new beginnings…

January 14, 2017

Half way into the first month of the year already!!! Time is flying and I really have to get serious about my resolutions… Still, January is a month when I try not to stress too much and enjoy the extended New Year period, tuning in with my inner voice to… Read more

Ingela P Arrhenius for Omm design

beauty will save the world – ingela p arrhenius

November 4, 2016

INGELA P ARRHENIUS The amazing artist of this month, is deeply connected with some of my favourites covered earlier on this blog, and I find it so cool to put her work forward as a brilliant example of the perfect, I mean PERFECT, blend of everything I love: 50’s design,… Read more

Rörstrand's Mon Amie illustration by Maria Larsson

mon amie – the iconic flower of marianne westman

October 23, 2016

This is a pattern loved by generations of Swedes since it was released by Rörstrand in the 50’s! I have so many memories seeing Mon Amie (My Friend) on countless tables of family and friends from my childhood until this day. It’s a reference for everything related to outstanding pattern… Read more

dot oddity 1 year!

September 27, 2016

Dot Oddity 1 year today! To be very precise, this is the day where Dot Oddity’s domain name was registered, one year ago. That was such a special day for me. I had been searching names for my dream project for about ten months (at least!), knowing that it had to be a… Read more

The Penguin Great Food Collection by Coralie Bickford-Smith

beauty will save the world – coralie bickford-smith

September 4, 2016

CORALIE BICKFORD-SMITH   The other day, this gem landed in my mailbox! It’s just one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever seen since Tove Jansson’s “Who will comfort Toffle” from 1960. From the textile cover to the end paper, the design is thoughtful and well crafted – each spread… Read more

Melissa Castrillón FORBIDDEN GARDEN

beauty will save the world – melissa castrillón

August 5, 2016

MELISSA CASTRILLÓN   First Friday of the month and time for a new favourite artist in my series “Beauty will save the world”! Meet Melissa Castrillón! Encountering her work first time was a serious WOW! experience… I was completely speechless and amazed by the exquisite skills and the imagination of… Read more

Illustrated quote by Maria Larsson

the art of being yourself

June 11, 2016

  the idea of fame… The perception of what makes a person a “real” artist is connected with the myth of the “lonely genius”, which emerged when craftsmen first strove to become respected members of an elite. At the dawn of renaissance the concept of the individual began to emerge in Western Europe… Read more

beauty will save the world – clare caulfield

June 4, 2016

CLARE CAULFIELD Could it have been this one… or one of Paris… or was it that one of a busy street corner in New York?… I don’t know which one first caught my eye from this fantastic artist, but since then I’m in love with everything Clare Caulfield does! It’s… Read more

Perssons kryddhylla by Astrid Sampe

four female forerunners of swedish pattern design

May 21, 2016

Luckily, there are many strong role models for Swedish female designers and artists. Here are four women that completely changed the road map of Swedish textile design! I encountered their names early on in my art education as their influence on what we consider typically “Swedish” is groundbreaking. Back then,… Read more

Designing Patterns by Lotta Kühlhorn Photo Gestalten Verlag

beauty will save the world – lotta kühlhorn

May 14, 2016

LOTTA KÜHLHORN The artist Lotta Kühlhorn could almost be featured under next week’s subject, pattern pioneers, as well… Since her début in the ’80s, she has worked her consistent colourful retro style into the very hearts of the Swedish people and now holds the place as the Queen of graphic… Read more

Textiles from the market

to sew or not to sew…

April 23, 2016

  happy sewing… I will admit one of my greatest defeats up to this day… I’m fairly stubborn when I set my mind on something but there is one area where I feel utterly hopeless. The other week I got a very nice message from another textile designer ending “…Happy sewing!”. I’ve always had… Read more

Cover from book by Salka Hallström Bornold

mah-jong : fashion for rebellion

April 16, 2016

rebellious design for an equal world Talking about pattern pioneers this post just had to be written! I couldn’t possibly miss introducing one of the most iconic brands of the Swedish ’70s – MAH-JONG! I love to share this because Mah-jong is not well known abroad although it belongs to the classics of Swedish fashion and… Read more

Pencils photo Maria Larsson

to make things happen you have to make things

April 8, 2016

don’t let your ideas get confiscated One of the greatest obstacles when we want to create something is the transition from the idea we have in our mind into a visible and tangible object outside our head… Somewhere in between, most thoughts get caught in the customs asked if they have anything… Read more

Birds boreal nest by Holly Ward Bimba

beauty will save the world – golly bard

April 1, 2016

HOLLY WARD BIMBA aka GOLLY BARD It’s time for another part in the series “Beauty will save the world” (read about this quote and the man behind it HERE). In these posts I want to share the artwork of some artists that have had a big influence on my desire to reconnect with… Read more

Green Birds by Josef Frank

the austrian designer who became the synonym of swedish modern – Josef Frank

March 18, 2016

  In 1933 the 48 year old architect and designer Josef Frank (1885-1967) fled to Stockholm from Vienna in the dawn of the growing National Socialism. He was of Jewish ancestry and as so many others feared to remain in his native country. Given his wife was born in Finland but raised in Stockholm,… Read more

brushes

my creative journey

March 12, 2016

  Two things were rather obvious when I was a child – my passions for drawing and for writing. Looking back one could have thought that this kid would become an illustrator or a writer – in both cases you didn’t have to move too much (I was not the sporty… Read more

Communication Jeunesse, affiche 2013 Manon Gauthier

beauty will save the world – manon gauthier

March 4, 2016

MANON GAUTHIER Browsing children’s illustration online, I stumbled over the work of Manon Gauthier time and time again. She instantly caught my attention with her compelling and childlike collage style. Yet her subjects are anything but childlike. In her images she captures the important matters of childhood, addressing love, belonging, loneliness, loss, happiness,… Read more

The Parakeet and the Mermaid Henri Matisse 1952

every end is a new beginning

February 26, 2016

To create – a painting, a piece of music, a novel; to make art in short – is often more about overcoming obstacles than anything else. From the moment your idea is born you are the guardian sweeping the way for this idea to make its way into the world.… Read more

Stig Lindberg, book by Anna Larsdotter

the man behind the green leaf – Stig Lindberg

February 19, 2016

  There are few patterns in Scandinavian design history as iconic as the famous stem of green leaves by the Swedish designer Stig Lindberg (1916-1982). As one of the most influential post-war designers in Sweden he worked with ceramic, glass, tableware, textile prints and more during his long and successful career with… Read more

Handlettering by Lisa Congdon

it’s never too late to begin again

February 12, 2016

Finding the right road Only a few of us have the road mapped out from early years, and even if we have, not many stick to it through life. A lot of people put their dreams on a back burner for decades when life demands something different from them, before getting the… Read more

Macaron by Lucile Prache

beauty will save the world – lucile prache

February 5, 2016

LUCILE PRACHE Valentine’s Day is getting close so I thought this image would suit this Friday post! This illustrated recipe showed up by chance on a Google search when browsing pictures of delicious cakes a couple of years ago (I was translating food recipes for a food database at the time and needed to compare… Read more

Think like an artist: Will Gompertz

creativity takes courage

January 29, 2016

Since I’ve started this blog and tried to be more present with my work in the online community, using social media and connecting with others, I’m kind of swept of my feet by all the gorgeousness I see every day, the beautiful things people post and share, the creativity that is… Read more

poppies by Maria Larsson

this will make your dots stand out in the crowd

January 22, 2016

Finding your own style as an artist is as important as finding your voice being an author. Actually I don’t like the word “style”. Style describes the surface of things, unlike the “voice” that originate from within. You can’t have a deep, inner “style”… What you do want to find is your… Read more

Ten Swedish Designers with Uniqlo fall/winter 2013

swedish design: 10-gruppen

January 16, 2016

When our neighbours in Finland take pride in one of the most famous design houses of the world – Marimekko (previous post HERE) – we love our own take on this type of bold, colourful, graphic textile design in Sweden: 10-gruppen, known as Ten Swedish Designers abroad. They were founded in 1970 by… Read more

pull your brain out before painting roses

January 8, 2016

In high school I had an exceptional teacher in art class. She was an eccentric woman in her late middle age with her long hair tied in a bun and floating wide dresses, always black in my recollection. The odd thing is that I remember the name of my professors in… Read more

Jessica Swift print

beauty will save the world – jessica swift

January 1, 2016

JESSICA SWIFT Some years ago I started dreaming of creating art and crafts again, but not the way I used to, which was mostly painting and pottery. No, I had discovered a new field – surface pattern design! Actually this was something I also did a lot as a potter, but now I really… Read more

The CoffeeShop blog

how Rita’s CoffeeShop blog turns your pictures into poems

December 18, 2015

Many artists settle down in Berlin because life is quite affordable here compared to many other capitals of Europe. Leaving my full time work in Stockholm to pursue my dream of a creative life, where I could develop my ideas of design and illustration, I found myself in this amazing city with its… Read more

Little dresses by Maria Larsson

why you shouldn’t like pretty things – and why we do

December 11, 2015

Art? Craft? What’s the difference? My professor of design in art school used to say, somewhat jokingly, that a teapot is a craft object until you put a cork in the spout – then it suddenly becomes a piece of art… I always found that very interesting. There are so… Read more

Saffron, watercolour Maria Larsson

swedish lucia saffron bread

December 9, 2015

In medieval times when the Julian calendar was still used in Sweden and Finland, the night of the 13 December was the longest of the year, the winter solstice. This is when the pagan Scandinavian and Germanic peoples celebrated a midwinter holiday called Yule, which is the word we even now use… Read more

La cucina dolce: Larissa Bertonasco

beauty will save the world – larissa bertonasco

December 4, 2015

LARISSA BERTONASCO A couple of years ago, I happened to see an illustrated cook book, on the shelf of a close friend in Berlin, that immediately blew my mind! I love cook books, that’s a fact. But this encounter gave me a whole new perspective on illustration and the fantastic opportunity the… Read more

get off the beaten track

November 27, 2015

  The path of the artist is always a path of uncertainty and doubt. It is never clearly visible in front of you, you always have to guess a little and trust that the next step will bring you closer to your goal. You can’t follow the footsteps of somebody else, because… Read more

Unikko by Maija Isola, photo by Marimekko

marimekko – a love story

November 20, 2015

I got a lovely little parcel on my birthday earlier this week. The dots is of course a MOST suitable pattern for the founder of this blog, but the flower also reveals a sweet spot of mine called – Marimekko. Marimekko is the synonym of nordic, contemporary design at its best. Founded… Read more

beauty will save the world

November 5, 2015

  Beauty will save the world. Those are the words of Fyodor Dostoyevsky from one of my favourite novels of all times, “The Idiot” from 1869. The protagonist, Prince Myshkin, who makes this claim in the novel, is a portrait of a “completely beautiful human being” as the author himself… Read more

why a pyjamas makes miracles for your creative flow

why a pyjamas makes miracles for your creative flow

November 2, 2015

This will totally go against the ruling opinion, but something urges me to voice myself for those of us who do our most creative work in the pyjamas! And I mean literally in the pyjamas, or any other outfit you feel most comfy in, as opposed to dressing up to meet the… Read more

how to cherish your limitations and start a creative blog

October 29, 2015

I started to build my blog and portfolio about one month ago. So, as you can tell, I’m as much of a beginner as you can POSSIBLY be! Before I bought my domain name and signed up for a webhotel service I had spent at least a couple of months… Read more

why we love getting behind the scenes

October 23, 2015

I love behind-the-scenes, be it the extraordinary writing habits of my favourite author, which brand of ink my favourite illustrator uses or, of course, the making-of my favourite movies. We are all fascinated by the process that leads up to the finished result. And why is that? I think there are… Read more

two questions you should ask yourself as an artist

October 19, 2015

What do you love? What makes you want to play? Take a minute to think about that. Maybe ask yourself what makes you stop and watch something as for the very first time? When do you see the colours more vivid, notice the details crisper, and being more mindful about the… Read more

Sketches

how to start rowing a boat before finding a pair of oars

October 9, 2015

There’s a famous traditional song that everyone learn already as a child in Sweden. The lyrics go like this: “Who can sail without the wind? Who can row without oars? Who can leave behind a friend, without just one tear to pour? I can sail without the wind, I can… Read more

Colourful pencils

dot oddity is here!

September 29, 2015

I am happy and thrilled beyond everything I expected to announce the opening of this website and to write this very first blogpost! You, yes, YOU! are an important part of this creative adventure, because as much as I do this due to my love for drawing, making patterns, photographing, handlettering and writing,… Read more