Siepie en Takkie

Recently, a young girl inspired me to incorporate dogs and cats into a pendant. To my surprise, my zoo collection of vintage stamps didn’t have a ‘domesticated’ cat and dog.

Instead, Jip en Janneke came to the rescue. This book was a staple in our household, with me being Janneke and my brother as Jip.

Jip and Janneke are young children (pre-schoolers) living next door to each other and who have all kinds of adventures. Takkie is Jip’s Dachshund, and Siepie is Janneke’s cat, who are often part (sometimes forcibly) of Jip and Janneke’s games.

They were created in 1952 by famed children’s writer Annie M.G. Schmidt and the iconic illustrations were created by Fiep Westendorp. We listened to the records (langspeelplaten) recounting Jip en Janneke’s adventures, and even today their stories are quite relatable.

So I fiddled with the rubber stamps issued by Hema to create a pendant that would be fun for a young lady.

It took a few tries to get the stamp to print well.

Then I wrapped the waxed paper into wire.

Unfortunately I am unable to locate information about the ‘angel policies’ of Hema-issued stamps, so for now this shall be the one and only pendant I’ll create with Jip en Janneke illustrations. I’d love to make more though, they are so cute!

For young cat lovers I highly recommend Annie M.G. Schmidt’s story Miss Minoes (or also Minnie), about a cat who turns into a lady after “eating something from the garbage tin”.

The movie is also charming, and sometimes turns up on Netflix.

What’s your favorite childhood book?