Walking down our street, late at night a few weeks ago we were surprised by an old carton box, discarded outside an apartment building. Apart from the old books (sci fi and black gay fiction) the most interesting content was this very old stuff monkey. I love this type of stuff. Obviously very old, stuffed with straw! And, at least in the past, very loved – having been repaired in different areas in more than one occasion. I discovered from a bit of reading (on a forum for teddy bear fanatics) that its an old Hermann monkey, made in Germany. I guess this one dates from the 1930 or 1940’s but I can’t really be sure. We’ve given it a place of honour on the shop floor at We Are All Made of Stuff, but unless someone very interested and willing to restore it approaches us, its reserved for the Museum der Dinge (the Museum of Things), a great little design museum nearby in Kreuzberg, where the head curator has expressed an interest in adding it to their collection.

In other news, I’m heading back to Australia next week to begin my Phd at the College of Fine Arts. To say farewell, we’re having a drinks party this Friday night, 6th of August, at the shop, see more details on the facebook page. We’ll have some of jewellery on exhibit until 10pm, with discounts available, so I hope you can make it.

Its sad to leave Berlin and We Are All Made of Stuff, though Kyo and Anneliese will look after the shop until the end of summer. In the meantime, I’m quite keen to minimise some of the things I’m taking back to Australia, such as this doll’s house. I co-built it at the Design Academy in response to a brief about energy consumption in the Netherlands; its designed as a way to introduce kids to ideas of energy and sustainability. It’s has been attracting a lot of attention in our shop window, but really its time for it to go to a family with children (or adults) who will enjoy it, so get in touch if you are interested.

We have a dozen other special things on exhibit at our shop, Kyoko is building new jewellery prototypes everyday and I’m making a mess on the floor, working on a new Smash Repair project. I have less than week to make prototypes before they either go in the bin or get sent to my co-designer Martijn Dijkhuizen. I’m even thinking about flogging my DAE Masters graduation necklace designed by Studio Job. Its big, beautiful, metallic and heavy; quite unsuited for trans-oceanic travel. But it’s not personalised, but dated. So with a bit of sandy and scratchy it might be suitable for those students wanting to get the fuck out of Eindhoven before they die of boredom (from the city) or stress (from the Academy), but want to hide their early departure from the family back home.

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