Le carré Nathalie Lété

Ce petit foulard en coton est frais et coloré juste comme il faut pour le printemps. C'est l'illustratrice Nathalie Lété qui signe le dessin aux petits oiseaux. Cette artiste française m'enthousiasme toujours par son trait généreux et populaire (lire ici un article du blog sur son travail). Le foulard est à découvrir également dans sa version bleue chez Little Home.
This little cotton scarf is fresh and colorful just right for the coming Spring. Nathalie Lété is the illustrator who signed that design with the small birds. I am still enthusiastic about this French artist, her drawings are always generous and folk (read here a blog post on her work). The scarf is also available in his blue version at Little Home.
LITTLE HOME Rue du Perron, 27 - 1204 Genève - map
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Saturday 10h30-17h30

Nathalie Lété brims over

At what point can you say that you're fan ? Am I a fan of Nathalie Lété ? I'm starting to think I am.

Nathalie Lété is a well-known French artist who works in a variety of mediums: the embroidery, the ceramic, weaving, textile design, painting, and illustration. Her designs are ubiquitous in France, appearing on Designers Guild textiles, the Issey Miyaké's shawls, she designed some tourist postcards, chocolates, hand-tufted rugs, magnet, children’s and graphic’s books, knitted and stuffed toys, glass pictures, patterned dishes, but also ceramic sculptures, silkscreen printed t-shirts, jewels in limited edition, ... She produces both for herself and for commissions.

I'd like to define her style as an inspired mix of Art naïf and Art Brut, very whimsical, sometimes exuberant with a light-hearted childish edge. Her world is nurtured by popular and folk art. Her art is quite unconventional and I admire her freedom to paint outside the lines and her nerve to impose her style for kid's stuff.

Two of her wool carpets are available at Little Home.

Also available at Little Home: the bucket, the magnets, the memory game, the dinette.

The ball christmas cardboard are from Si le roi savait ça.

Le petit chaperon rouge book, special edition Au Chien Bleu.

AU CHIEN BLEU Rue Leschot, 11 - 1205 Genève - map

LITTLE HOME Rue du perron, 27 - 1204 Genève - map

Wild life on my fridge

I've been looking for nice and educational magnets to put on our fridge for Colette to play with. I had in mind the leafs and flowers ones drawn by Nathalie Lété (edited by Vilac) that I loved but I finally choose the Wild animals that I discovered then. The magnets are made out of wood and they come in a box (7 different themes available). The editor Editions Piccolia, created in 1991, are part of the Bonnier AB media group based in Sweden and they specialised in publishing children’s books but also offer a wide range of activity books that are not my favorites. Nevertheless, the quality of the magnet illustration is great and the details very lively and realistics: you'll find the lion quietly lying with its baby, the panda casualy eating bamboo, ... Available at King Jouet.

Along my way, I found out that Nathalie Lété created some "Fridge jewelry" that happened to be exquisite magnetic illustrations ! Available at the online shop Les Fleurs while the Leaf and flower set is now at Little Home, Geneva.

Illustrations from the 70's

One of my great pleasures when visiting my parents, comes from random objects that suddenly recall bits of my childhood. Here I had the chance to find these Nathan loto and dominoes games edited in 1979 ! You know how conforting it is to see again images that surrounded your child world. Then I realised that you cannot find such nice pictures game anymore. How come we don't have high quality illustrations for kid's game anymore ? They were so simple, refreshing and yet amusing. This being said, I have to mention that Vilac do feature the cool illustrator Nathalie Lété on a selection of their games.