Author Archives: zefiart

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About zefiart

Blogger, DIY-er, poodle lover, graphic designer, dog groomer, recycler, artist, wonder woman in my spare time.

here’s something i prepared earlier

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While doing some ‘filing’ on my computer I came across some images of things I never got around to sharing on here.

Both are paintings on larger pieces of marble.

I’m having a blogger crisis.

Sometimes I wonder if I want to continue with the blog as a lot of time I don’t feel like I have much to share or anything to say that anyone would be interested in hearing. I know it’s a great way to share my work, hopefully get people interested in it, hopefully drive sales from my shops, but to be honest, I’m not sure it’s working. At all.

In the past I’ve had success with my CafePress shop, Ebay and my Etsy shop… but it seems to go in cycles. I’ll go through a period where I sell stuff and get commissions, and then for months and months nothing. Its kinda depressing really.

So I just continue to share things now and then, not as often as I used to, cause I’m busy doing stuff which I either don’t want to share or is just too boring for words. I mean, who wants to know what I’m watching on Netflix or hear about me doing the laundry or washing dishes? I certainly don’t want to know about it and I’m the one doing it. Or not. As the case may be.

Life goes on for all of us. Sometimes its creative, and sometimes its socializing, and sometimes its hibernating.

What I’ve been doing lately is mostly needle felting, with a bit of painting on the side – so many paintings unfinished – and organising workshops.

I posted my needle felted critters and some people were interested in learning to needle felt, so I decided to offer a couple of beginner workshops, adding more advanced ones later on as needed.

So far its looking promising. I have booked out the first series with some participants for the second round of beginner’s workshops.

It takes a lot of time to organise things like that cause my brain is not made for logistics… and all the different ways to spread the word and get in touch and communicate means I am posting on FB, Instagram, sending messages in Messenger, Messages, Viber and WhatsApp and then I have to keep track of who wants to do which workshop and WAAAAHHHH.

Makes me wanna sit in a corner rock backwards and forwards.

But I do love doing workshops. I love meeting new people (like I do with my sculpture workshops (you can see those on my website www.zefiart.com * and find them on TripAdvisor and Viator). And I love sharing my knowledge and skills with people who want to learn them.

* For some reason on this computer I keep getting error/unsecure site messages when I visit my website but it seems to work on the mobile and other places. I have no idea why. I’ve tried just about everything… Deleting cookies, emptying the cache, chatting with customer service at my website host. Computers confound me despite the fact that I can do a lot on them… some things are too confusing.

Anyway… I’m looking forward to a few workshops coming up, various social events I’m going to, and I’m enjoying the gorgeous weather we’ve been having on and off between bouts of rain and wind. Today is one of the glorious days it’s hard to believe isn’t spring. Oh, and I’m joining a theatre group here on Paros. I’ve always loved theatre and, although secretly I would love to act, I’m being realistic that I will probably freeze on stage, so I’m limiting my involvement to building sets and painting backdrops! That should be great fun.

Who said there’s nothing to do on Paros in winter? I think it’s very busy! Just quieter on the roads and less places to eat out. And that’s fine with me!

z

busy with my etsy shop

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Etsy sale for the month of January 2025.

I have been absent but that seems to be the way I roll lately.

I roll out of bed, walk Vincent, have coffee, get online, do minimal housework, walk Vincent, do some errands, roll onto the couch…

However, despite my seemingly endless nothingness, I have been busy needle felting. The couch has become my new workstation. As you saw in my last post, I have been infected with the needle felting bug again.

I have been spending almost every single evening with a pointy weapon in hand, stabbing at innocent balls of wool with wild abandon.

And experimenting.

So far, here is the first lot which I have managed to put up for sale in my store:

They look so cute in a group.
Bird lover and bird watcher fox.
A fisherman Jack Russell terrier.
Shy, tea drinking hedgehog.
A rabbit with his morning coffee and newspaper.
Shy teddy bear with his bunny rabbit.
And of course you’ve already met the little rat with his heart in his hands.

You can see more pics and details of each of these guys in my store.

My store has been very quiet lately, so it was time to put selected items on sale and promote it more, so please visit and share it with friends. I offer commissioned work – paintings, remade dolls – wall art for a nursery, felted and papier mache sculptures… all kinds of things.

This is a hard but wonderful time of year. I have the time to create, but no regular income. I’m loving the time at home and being able to experiment and play, but having to juggle bills sucks. Luckily, I have tons of art and craft materials on hand thanks to my inability to stop buying it! I think I have enough to keep me busy for MONTHS.

z

needle felting once more

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Its been years since I picked up a felting needle and wool, but recently I’d been seeing a ton of posts on FB of needle felted animals created by some talented people and it brought back the memory and joy of needle felting. You can see some of my past projects here, here, here and here.

I had the supplies in the basement, so soon as I returned from my trip to Athens to visit mom I went down and brought up two boxes of wool and tools.

Unfortunately, most of my felting needles had rusted and/or broken, but I still had 5 that worked, so I began to think about what I’d create. I wanted to make something with a wire armature so it would be moveable unlike anything I’d ever done before, and I knew I didn’t want it to be realistic. I wanted to make anthropomorphic critters cause I think they’re so cute.

The first one I made was this little mouse. He’s about 15cm high (about 6inches). I began by sketching the shape and making an armature out of some (probably too thick) aluminium wire I had on hand, making sure to curve the ends so as to not have wires sticking out of the ends.

The coarsest wool I had was a dark burgundy colour (why on earth would I have bought dark burgundy???) so I began by felting the body with that, then adding the coloured layer on top.

Once i made the head, I joined it to the body (sorry no pics of the process) and decided to make him a heart to hold. I added whiskers (bristles off a house painting brush) and eyes. I had some small and tiny eyes in my collection of ‘stuff I will use one day’.

Here he is before I stitched on the nose and mouth.

I decided his feet needed something and I was about to make him slippers when a voice suggested bunny slippers. Perfect!

I also made him a colourful vest cause he seemed incomplete without a stitch of clothing. I made it using a pair of socks I had and never wore. It seems I’m always cutting up my clothing items when I need to make something… hm… What does that say about me?

I used a small bead as a button to keep the vest in place. I liked the curling edges so left that as it was, opting not to iron the vest.

His tail was made by wet felting – using hot water and soap to felt onto a piece of wire so he could be balanced and stand.

And here he is, finished.

For now he’s sitting on my bookcase watching me work. He’s for sale, but for now I’m not sure where I’ll put him up for sale – Facebook, Etsy, Tedooo? I just joined Tedooo and haven’t quite worked it out. I’m really not so good at all the social media stuff…

But there he is. Ready for his new home!!

In the new year I’ll be organising some needle felting workshops. I really am looking forward to that!

z

why does it have to be so complicated?

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Oh boy. I’ve been through a lot of crap again. It seems to be the life just IS in Greece.

Mom’s landline wasn’t working about a week ago. We’d had a hellova thunderstorm the night before and it had tripped our power board master switch. Easy to fix, but the phone wasn’t getting a dial tone in the morning, even after unplugging and plugging it in again.

So I tried to find a number to call the telephone company. Ha. Good luck with that. I got a number which was answered by a robot called Tobi. I went a few rounds with that moron, ‘the wanted info about my ‘press x for internet connection or xx for mobile connection’, no option for a landline. He kept asking me if I’d tried unplugging the modem. We don’t have a modem.

I hung up on him.

I went onto the website thinking there might be a number for service issues, there was, but it was just a chat with Tobi.

When did PEOPLE disappear from the world?

So I tried to chat with Tobi and ended up yelling at him ‘ITS ABOUT MY LANDLINE’ and I was finally put through to another guy ON CHAT. ha. He told me if I wanted to talk to an actual person on an actual call, I had to start over, so I stuck with it.

He wanted my name and tax file number so they knew it was my line I was enquiring about.

I gave him mom’s name and went looking for her TFN, then remembered the phone is in my brother’s name and I have his TFN somewhere but …???

Why do I need to jump through hoops when all I want is to report a problem, find out if there is a problem with OUR phone only, or if its a general issue…

So I told the guy about it being my brother’s line, then yelled again that WHY ON EARTH DO THEY NEED TO KNOW TFNS (and crap) WHEN ALL I WANT TO KNOW IS IF THERE IS AN ISSUE WITH THE LINE?

A moment of silence, and he did some checking, said it was a problem in our area and would pass the info on to the relevant team.

Great. Thanks. He said they would be in touch by December 10 to let me know the outcome of the issue.

I got updates that our ‘issue’ was being dealt with. Apparently random guys were spotted at the phone box on the corner scratching their heads.

They came, they stuffed up lines in the entire neighbourhood and left.

Now our neighbours hate us…

They called yesterday to tell mom that they hadn’t sorted the issue yet and that they would not charge her for the time she was without a phone, and today, they said they would divert the home phone to her mobile free of charge till it was sorted.

I’m not sure it will ever be sorted… I suspect this part of a larger plot to get her to change her plan, put in wifi or fibre… who knows? I’ve never been a conspiracy nut, but I do wonder…

z

new sweaters for vincent

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‘These are MY sweaters’, says Vincent.

Well, after buying 3 different sweaters on Temu and not a single one of them fitting Vincent, despite me having measured and double checked the measurements… I finally decided to make him a sweater myself from a couple of polar fleece throws I had at home.

I generally buy these thin throws to make cat bed covers, filling them with old pillow stuffing, or making covers for dog beds which are removable and washable. I’ve done this for years since I’ve always had multiple dogs with dirty feet, using any sort of fabric I can find – old sheets, old doona covers, throws, scarves etc.

I had two throws this time. One I’d bought to make a cushion for Vincent’s crate and one I bought to put over my white bed linen in summer to protect it from dirty feet coming in from outside and jumping straight onto the bed (not just Vincent, but almost all grooming customers since they have to go through my bedroom to the grooming area. Nope. My setup is not ideal.)

I made two sweaters (you know, one to wear and one to wash…) I used the blue throw for the outside and lined the inside with the pale striped one to give it a bit of extra warmth and contrast.

Vincent modelling the longer one… a bit too long…

This is one of the two I made. One is smaller than the other, both were made the way I usually make stuff – without a proper pattern, just sketching a shape out on paper, what I think the shape should be, measuring using my fingers, hand sewing cause I couldn’t be bothered moving furniture to get to my sewing machine.

The difference in back length.

I love blanket stitch!

The baby doll version of his sweater.

I used velcro on one side for the tummy flap so its adjustable, and used bottons on one to decorate the sweater.

The added bib in front makes this sweater much longer so it hangs out over his tail.

The other simply has stitches, but I though the neck needed more room so I extended it with a contrasting bib in front.

Despite my woeful sewing skill, they worked out pretty well. Not perfectly… one is a bit longer than necessary. The other one is a bit shorter than necessary.

I belong to the school of ‘close enough is good enough’.

As I always say, ‘do as I say, dont do as I do’.

z

christmas stones

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So, there I was, sitting at the kitchen table, a mess of art and craft stuff all around me, wondering what on earth I should do. I didn’t feel like putting the last strokes on the large painting… Afraid to finish it? Afraid to start a new one? No idea why, but there I was…

I had a pile of stones remaining from the project I made for a hotel this summer among the things I needed to sort, pack up or get rid of, and thought ‘why not make some Christmas stones?’… I had the gift bags, so why not?

I made two types – some with Christmas designs and colours, and some with silver and gold foil.

I’ve been going a little crazy with the foil lately. I’d never worked with it before so it’s been fun to experiment. Stones aren’t the ideal items to foil as they aren’t at all absorbent and the glue takes forever to dry… however, I’m really pleased with the way they look.

I even tried the foil on one of my little air-dry clay bowls and it came up nicely.

For the little bags, I created a stamp for the foil stone bags, stamped them and added a touch of gold foil which makes them really pop. For the more Christmas themed stones I used stencils to decorate the bags.

I think the presentation of these stones is really up there. I hope they sell as stocking fillers or small gifts this Christmas.

z

stitches and driftwood

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I have always loved stitches where you don’t expect them – in wood, on paper, etc. When I found this bit of wood on the beach, with the big crack down the middle, I thought it would make a great project to ‘stitch up’.

After giving it a thorough clean, I drilled tiny holes for the wire as well as using some of the old nail holes to create the stitches. I added some raffia, a rusty heart and some dried lavender. It might not be a statement piece, but its sweet and I love it.

I love making something out of things I find on my walks and using bits and pieces I collect, finally giving them a purpose.

This was one of those quick and easy, ‘don’t think, just do’ projects I love cause they come out of the blue and are finished in no time at all, yet still give me that feeling of having achieved something special.

z

painting #1

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I’ve begun working on a series of paintings for the exhibition I am planning next summer. I thought I’d share the first one to whet your appetite.

This is the painting which gave me the inspiration for the series. I love old buildings, the falling down, crumbling walls, the rotting wood, the paint chipped doors and windows. The whole abandoned feel of them. It’s something I photograph every time I walk the small streets of the islands (or Athens, to be honest).

I’ve always been drawn to the juxtaposition of the old and the new in its ugly forms – beautiful decaying buildings for instance, with modern day graffiti on them is one of my favourites.

Or, as in this case, the beautiful patina of the old door and cracked walls with the discarded cola can and cigarette butt.

In an experimental mood, I added a little silver foil to the tin can make it stand out a little more. Not the neatest job, but its rubbish anyway, right?

I love this piece and hope others do too. I’m excited about this series of paintings that show the beauty of days gone by against the ugliness of today – the effects of too many people and not enough care about the beautiful places we live in.

And, as usual, this is painted on a recycled canvas.

z

two shiny schnauzers

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Another commission to share today, one which took me forever to do. I mean, I started them fine, back before summer… but then it was summer. Busy with grooming and mom being sick and visitors and all sorts of busy summer things.

Up to that point I had only done the structure of them, ie cardboard, masking tape and wire so I needed to move onto the clay or papier mâché part. Since the buyer didn’t want these finished in fabric, I decided to use air dry clay for the whole thing.

And I’m glad I did cause I love the way they turned out.

Given the brief for these guys was ‘something easy to dust’ I opted to spray them with white gloss paint, something I’d never done before as a finish for my work. But I’m really happy with the result.

What do you think?

z

a quickie experimental work

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Thought I’d share a quickie work I framed the other day. I say ‘quickie’ even though it was weeks in the making… mainly cause I had no idea what I was going to do.

Firstly, I glued an old, yellowed book page from a stack of throw away books I’d collected to a sheet of cartridge paper to create a background to work on like I did here, then I left it for ages, sitting on the kitchen table among the hundreds of things I was going to get to ‘soon’…

While working on one of my large paintings I decided to experiment with the texture building paste I’d bought, so I mixed up some paint and applied it to the paper, thinking I would do a small painting of a wall and stairs. I let it dry and as I looked at it, I felt totally uninspired to continue, so I let it sit and think about its sins a little longer.

Thing was, the more I looked at it. the more I liked the simplicity of the colours on the background and didn’t want to make it into anything other than a background.

Sometime during that period, I saw a FB post about a guy who created art by doing backgrounds then whacking paint covered sticks and branches onto his canvases. Hm… This was only small so I couldn’t go whacking the hell out of it… but I could try pressing something onto it… that might work.

And that’s what I did. Since it was a neutral background, I wanted to do something to bring it to life. I had some of those fuzzy dried flower arrangement things from other projects, so I chose my colours, et viola!

I used the same ‘flower’ to print the image in 3 different colours and I liked it. It’s like nothing I’ve ever done before, but I was pleased.

I had a small frame that fit the work, and I had flat white spray paint, so I sprayed the frame, gave it a bit of rub in spots where the paint hadn’t gone on well, and there it is.

At this point comes the warning/disclaimer. When doing spray painting at home, don’t pull the cap off the spray paint with a vice grip and the determination of a fat man going after the last chip at the family dinner table. I pulled it off (they do like to make them almost impossible to pull off!) and pulled off the spray nozzle at the same time. Putting the nozzle back on caused all kinds of grief as you can see.

But hey, it’s pretty normal for me to have paint all over my hands, my clothes, my shoes… no one expects anything less.

You might notice a bandage on one finger…? I got that while rummaging through a toolbox to find a screwdriver. Instead, I found a razor paint scraper (the kind you use on glass) without its protective cover.

Let that be a lesson as well.

z