a broken plate

Posted on September 25, 2013 by zefiart

This is a project I worked on in conjunction with a participant at Cosmos, where I work. Someone had broken a plate into 2 very nice large pieces and I thought it’d be perfect to try something I’d wanted to try for ages…

Somewhere on one of my Pinterest browsing days I came across this image and it stuck with me.

The raised, obvious mending on a broken plate, using gold. Gorgeous.

I gave the biggest of the two pieces to a lady at work who does the most intricate pen drawings and asked her to fill the plate with whatever she felt like. I then took it home and tried to create a similar look without the benefit of a kintsugi repair kit (cause I could find them nowhere on ebay).

On the way home I managed to break it into smaller pieces… but thats ok. It still works!

I used some glue I had on hand which said it would bond glass, and when it was tacky I sprinkled it with gold leaf.

Its not quite the same, but I still think its a good effect. This is one of the pieces we entered at the Art from Trash competition. Hopefully it will sell. The artist will be thrilled!

back at art school (sort of)

Posted on September 21, 2013 by zefiart

Wayne and I are back at art school!

A few weeks ago we started a course on Art From Trash at the Tasmanian College of the Arts.

Till I went into the art school I had no idea just how much I’ve missed being in a space like that. The smell of oil paint and ink, the messy, creative, interesting, fun and just plain wierdness of an art school…

Ah. Memories.

The course has been great fun. Its about changing the way we look at things and how we express them through our art. Its about experimenting with our own work and not being afraid to step outside our comfort zone.

I’m loving being back in a creative space like that, where art is all around you. The art school is in a beautiful old building on the waterfront in Hobart, one of my favourite places in Tasmania.

This week we had to present a minimum of 3 pieces of work and our journals to be evaluated. Next we have to give a presentation on our work and we’re finished. I have to tell you, I was really stressed about what work I would do for the course and was blocked because of my depression due to my hands being sore.

In the end I stuck with my recycling and re-purposing theme, but with a slight twist. To make it ‘arty-er’ of course! I made my pieces from trash but I also made them slightly autobiographical.

When the course started we were asked to pick three words which relate to our work and our interests. My words were Everyday, Surprising, and Remade. My interest always being in taking common objects and remaking them into something functional in a fun way.

In order to step outside my comfort zone however, I had to take my words and step a bit further into the ‘art’ abyss. I’m not sure I quite succeeded, but I tried to make things which had no real function, rather made a statement.

The Dead Art Basket was one piece, and really, it failed in the no function department. It was born out of frustration and gloominess about my work. Its a basket made using ruined brushes, an old pie tin as a base, plastic rings off molasses buckets and wire. Inside the basket I tore up pieces of my work which I never finished because I hated.

This is how I presented the basket at the gallery for evaluation.

Next cab off the rank was something which is a big part of my life: dogs. I made a dog figure using wire, dog hair which I felted, some possum fur I found in the woodshed and some dryer lint to add different texture and colour. I called this Hair of the Dog.

I decided to leave the wire exposed in places to show the structure of the dog instead of making him more realistic. He’s kind of the Frankenstein of dogs isn’t he? His tail wags too.

This is him in the gallery. On a dirty plinth.

Last is That Won’t Hold Water, a humorous little piece composed of an old water bag and a retro net shopping bag. The old water bag was in the garage and I saw the net bag in a tip shop and couldn’t pass it by. I had no idea what to do with it at the time.

There’s meaning to this piece as well… I mean there’s a connection to the piece and my life at the moment.

Here it is in the gallery. Ignore the sticky tape attachment to the wall. Its not a REAL exhibition, just an exercise in setting out our work in order to showcase it and convey a message so I didn’t want to punch holes in the wall.

My three pieces were all presented simply and rather starkly on white. I kept it simple. The common thread with mine was that everything except the wire and glue was rescued from, or destined for, the trash. Plus a bit of whimsy.

I’ll share Wayne’s creations another time. He was a smarty pants. He presented FIVE pieces.

Teachers pet!

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revamped footstool

Posted on August 30, 2013 by zefiart

Yes, yes. I know its been a long time between posts. To be honest I’ve just been too wrapped up in my own little world to want to get online, much less blog.

But here I am… sharing a project from work.

Some of you already know I work as a disability support worker as my ‘real job’ to support my art habit. I’m lucky enough to be able to do some creative work in that role with some of the guys I work with.

For instance, this repurposed footstool is a project I’ve been working on with some young men in one of those programs.

The aim of the program is to find, fix up and revamp items found in tip shops in order to develop the guy’s skills and produce something which can be sold to buy materials for the next project.

This footstool had been hanging around in the store room for a long time. It was just crying out to be reborn into something pretty…

We went looking for bits of dowel, finials and knobs. We drilled holes, attached knobs and stained dowel. We painted it a nice light blue colour, then sanded, repainted and re-sanded…

The lowly footstool was reborn into a cute, handy little kitchen shelf.

Or bathroom shelf.

Or craftroom shelf.

I took it home to dress it up and photograph it cause the guys really do want to sell it. They’re proud of it and rightly so. I think it looks terrific!

The rods come out so you can put rolls of paper on them instead of hanging tea towels or pots and pans. Its both useful and pretty.

We’ve entered it in the Kingborough Salvaged Art competition and I’m posting it on Facebook. It is definitely for sale. We’ll be selling it through a silent auction.

If you’re interested in buying this one-of-a-kind piece of recycled art, please contact me on zefiart@gmail.com and put in your bid. I’ll be keeping track of all bids and at the end of the competition, on October 6th, I’ll announce the winner on Facebook and by private email.

The money raised through the sale of this masterpiece will be used to create MORE masterpieces in the future!

Go on! Make a bid!

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art from trash – my new bag

Posted on August 16, 2013 by zefiart

I am never happy with bags.

Handbags are just too small.

Or they hold too much and become too heavy.

I used to use backpacks. They make sense… After all its better to carry the weight of your life on your back than on one shoulder. With the amount of crap I carry in my bag its amazing I don’t lean to one side permanently.

But somewhere along the line I decided I needed to start using handbags. Or rather, shoulder bags.

Then I got my big diary…

It wouldn’t fit into any of my handbags/shoulder bags so I started using canvas shopping bags as my work bags.

They’re ok, but they have no pockets, no inner dividers, nothing to hold things in place… I was constantly losing pens, car keys and my mobile phone.

I was sick and tired of it.

So I made my own shoulder bag.

I got this bee in my bonnet about it one night last week. I looked through the cupboard in my office, found some upholstery fabric samples which might work then started thinking of ways I could use the fabric to make a bag.

I was limited by the size of the samples. I didn’t want to make a patchwork carpetbag looking thing so I didn’t want to mix and match too many fabrics.

In the end I only used one sample for the body of the bag, though I turned the fabric inside out on the sides just for contrast.

I’d never done this before but it wasn’t that hard. I just had to work out the size and design, then cut.

Or cut and then make it work.

The living room was back to normal again.

Normal means a coffee table full of crafting stuff. That’s more normal than clean and tidy round here.

One thing I wanted was a pocket to hold things securely. I wanted a divider inside the bag so that I could put the diary in that part and it wouldn’t fall and lean..

I cut one piece of fabric which I stitched in when I put the bag together, it forms a divider ‘pocket’ at the back of the bag for the diary. I added a couple of fabric loops to hold pens inside that pocket too!

I re-used one of my canvas bags for the strap, flap and inner pocket. I just cut or picked off the bits I wanted from the old bag. I put the small zipped pocket inside on the divider, and put the straps on the sides of the bag.

I reinforced the sides where the straps join and I put in some stiff fabric under the bottom of the bag to help it hold its shape.

Lastly I needed to pretty up the flap/front of the bag…

I was inspired by this image on Pinterest:

I used scaps of burlap and another fabric (using both sides) and some blue cotton yarn for the stitches. I opted to leave out the beads. Knowing me they’d be flying off left, right and center.

Ok, it looks nothing like my inspiration, but I still think its pretty ok. And it’ll hold my diary and TWO pens!

I’ve decided to enter it into the Salvaged Art Competition being held in Kingston next month. Why not? Its all recycled!

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my big diary

Posted on August 16, 2013 by zefiart

This year I decided I needed a bigger diary than I’ve had for the last 100 years.

Up till now I’ve had a Filofax and various variations on the good ol’ A5 sized 6 ring binder diary. It fits into a handbag, its easy to flip through, its portable.

But there are only 2 choices: week at a glance where the amount of space you get for each day is tiny enough that if you could fit everything you needed to do in a day in there, then you really don’t need a diary. Or you can go with day to a page which is better, but if you’re like me and need to be able to picture the whole week ahead of you so you can stress, then flipping pages back and forth just ain’t gonna cut it.

So this year I bought myself a plain, boring A4 diary. Nothing fancy. Just the diary. No pen holders, no business card holders, nothing.

I bought a compendium and put the diary inside – then I had a big bulky heavy briefcase of a diary to carry around, but I had a place to put a notepad, business cards, even a zippered section for money. No pen holder though….

The compendium wouldn’t fit into any of my ‘handbags’ so I started using canvas shopping bags as my work bags. Not ideal.

After I got back from Greece I decided it was time for the compendium to go. I was tired of carrying such a huge thing around… I would manage with just the diary. The plain boring old blue cover diary…

No I wouldn’t. I would fix the diary so it wouldn’t be plain and boring! I did a decoupage kind of thing on it. I used dictionary pages with images printed on them, wrapping paper of different types, some scrapbooking embellishments I had for some reason, and some printed out definitions. These were all leftover bits from previous decoupage projects.

I added a ribbon to it as a ‘closer’ but I didn’t make it long enough so its almost totally useless. I think I’ll go and add a velcro closer as I did to one of my notebooks. That’s working great.

It still lacks a pen loop, but I’ve made up an elastic circle I slip over the diary to keep it closed. It has a little loop in it which holds a pen so it works for now.

Maybe I’ll think of something better for next year.

one last paros project – shabby photo frame

Posted on August 4, 2013 by zefiart

This is one of the smaller projects I worked on while on holiday in Greece. I had a huge collection of old buttons (I really wish I had them here!), a large collection of old doilies, ribbons, lace…

Then there were the other odds and ends my aunt Marisa found for me. One of which was this little heart shaped basket.

She said “Do you want this? Can you do something with it?”

I said, “Sure, I can do something with it.”

My standard reply.

Never say no to ‘stuff’… it will always come in handy one day.

In order to prevent becoming a hoarder featured on one of those awful reality tv shows “Buried Under A Ton Of Crap” however, you have to actually USE the stuff you’re given/collect to make more stuff which you can either sell, give away or display prominently in places like your kitchen, toilet or garage.

I decided the little basket would make the best photo frame for Marouso’s bedroom… she has a little alcove in there which is bare and desperately needed something pretty. So between working on the light fitting for Zefi and some small hearts like these for my aunt, I started putting together this little baby.

I used some old buttons, some still on the card, some old curtain lace, a bit of rusty wire and a bead… plus a little bow and icon pin from a christening. You can’t see it well, but at greek christenings they hand these little pins out as a memorial. My aunt had (of course) a collection of them.

Zefi, I’m sure you’re reading this… you promised you’ll collect me some!

Next step was a photo… Marouso had a few really nice ones she’d taken with her kitten, and I had a great one I’d taken of her and her ‘titini’… a bodyless stuffed toy cat which she’s had since she was a baby. Its sort of like Linus’ security blanket. No one knows what ‘titini’ actually means, its what she called it back when she couldn’t talk. For all we know it means “Get that stupid cat toy out of my cot right now!”

Marouso and her ‘titini’.

I had a play with the photos on picmonkey.com – I don’t have Photoshop on the netbook so I had no other way of altering the images. I wanted to go with an old fashioned black and white look but when I got them printed I decided to go with the photo above.

Great photos though. I love the one above where the kitty is all eyes.

I slotted the photo in behind the buttons where I’d left a ‘photo tucking’ gap, tied a ribbon to it for hanging and voila. Done.

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making do and interesting things

Posted on July 24, 2013 by zefiart

My cousin Zefi’s house in the commune that’s known as ‘Souvlia’ used to be the boat shed and garage. It was built on a slope so the front is a couple of steps down. As a result its darker than most of the houses on Souvlia, but no cooler. In fact, being at the back of the block, with other buildings as windbreaks, it doesn’t get the full force of the wind – great when you want to sit on the porch for a drink, terrible if you want a cool breeze to cool down.

Despite that, Zefi has made it into a gorgeous place. Thanks to her mom’s fossicking, her husband’s good taste and Zefi’s practical mind, the place is pretty, traditional and totally user friendly.

I love her old island couches. I’ve tried to find this type of couch in Australia as its the ideal outdoor couch. Its not so comfy as a living room couch, but so pretty.

I love the big dresser as well, in the traditional dark timber. Zefi’s grandfather on her mom’s side used to be a carpenter and he made some beautiful pieces.

I love the lace on the shelves inside the glass cabinets. My aunt Dora has it in her kitchen in her house as well.

One thing I love to do when I’m here (or anywhere for that matter) is look at shops. I love looking at shops. Sometimes I see things I want to buy, something I see things which inspire me. Whatever. I love to look at shops.

In the market street in Parikia there’s a traditional old homeware/grocery store. Its been there as long as I can remember. They now sell more stuff to tourists than to locals I’m sure, but its the only place I saw one of these:

Its apparently a dough bowl of some sort. You put the bread dough in it to rise. I find myself needing one of these… I never make bread, but I’m sure I’ll find a good use for it.

I also love these things:

Sieves of all sizes with all different wire thicknesses… from flour sieves to lentil and bean sieves. Pretty cute.

At the other end of the shopping scale are the home decorator stores… not very different to the type of stuff I see in Australia. Still pretty displays and colours though.

Colourful outdoor cushions with jute and bling tassels and fish, naturally.

Burlap mini cushions and a jute string bowl on a lace table runner.

A beautiful simple white bowl.

A rope and sailcloth lamp.

Table centre piece of sea urchins minus spikes, shells and starfish.

I found an antique/second hand shop which has some beautiful things in it but this one was right up my alley: old windows with photos in them.

I even found a shop which sells marble things. Like a marble sink… why have a ceramic butler sink when you can have the real thing? And this slab of carved marble which you can put in your garden and run a tap through.

A tap like this! Isn’t this a beauty?

Or, if you prefer, you can buy marble columns. Cause no house is complete without marble columns.

Of course, there are tons of places which are done up beautifully whether they’re shops or cafes or restaurants. Sometimes its something simple like these fish at a taverna by the sea:

Sometimes its way more elaborate, like the boat/couch at this bar in Parikia.

And these door coffee tables.

There just aren’t enough door or window signs though, like this one on a closed antique shop.

And I love this sign on a cafe.

I haven’t been inside many hotels, but the couple I have been into have some interesting items in their lobbies and bars. Like this lamp …

This wooden trough is now a frame for a wooden boat.

Obviously made by the same artist, this boat wall clock at the Paros Bay Hotel.

And a ton of these fishing boats.

This is my favourite. I love the humour in the little paper sailboats.

A couple of little shops in Naoussa, a small town on the other side of Paros, have gorgeous displays. Right up my alley.

Closer to home, I found some interesting ways to deal with the small issues life throws at you. This is my uncle’s solution to the wind taking his umbrella along with the small table.

It might take up a bit of table space, but it works.

My fish bowl has a new spot among the shell collection in my aunt Flora’s kitchen.

The oven in the main house has a dodgey door, so the kokones (a name we call the aunts) have found a simple solution.

Aunt Marisa has found a cute way to cover the electricity panel in the hallway using a hand woven mat.

In her house a little down the road, my aunt Dora has a small corner where she keeps her ancient sewing maching, which she still uses, and a few items from her mother’s house.

You can always tell a greek house, cause there is always an icon somewhere in it. I now have my own icon, my very first. My aunt Xeni gave it to me. I’ll have to find a spot in my home for it when I get back. My decor will be shabby-greek…

Love the old irons with the big base to hold hot coals.

shabby on paros

Posted on July 18, 2013 by zefiart

As you know, my thia Marouso (aunt Marisa) is a collector (little Zef would call her a hoarder). Ever since I got here she’s been lamenting that I’m not in Athens where her ‘stash’ is. However, she’s done quite well despite that.

One of the things she found for me was this old spool. “I’m sure you can make something out of this,” she said.

Of course I can.

A photo holder. Though ideally you need the right photos to display. Something like that one of my great grandmother…

Or like the ones I’m taking with me when I go back to Australia… photos of mom and dad when they were young, old black and whites with crinkly edges.

Forgive the blurry photos. I don’t have my lightbox and have to make do. I’ll just say its artistic, the blurry effect makes the photo more nostalgic and romantic.

Yep. That’s what I’ll say.

And btw, just so you know, I’ve managed to extract a promise that thia Marouso will leave me her collection of goodies when she turns up her toes.

Not a hard thing to do as it turned out – little Zef is more than happy to unload it on someone else. Of course, the women in this family are long-lived… I’ll be too old to do anything with it by the time I get it.

Still, I’ve seen a sample of the kind of things my aunt collects. She’s got things in unopened boxes from the early 60s. She has embroideries and doilies made by her grandmother…

Of course, she has all these things locked away in chests and drawers. To keep them safe.

I say, what’s the point of that when you want to see and enjoy them… I love the whole repurposing thing, to me an object from the past is good cause you can use it to create something that you can enjoy now.

I’ve been making my aunt a lampshade for her bedroom. She’s seen people make light fittings out of lace and doilies and wanted something like that for herself.

Terrific. Yes, I can make it for you.

Just give me the doilies and lace.

So she brings out a stack, unfolds them and shows them to me:

This is an old curtain your grandmother gave me.

This is a doily given to my by and aunt.

My mother made these laces etc.

You can use these, would they work?

Oh, but don’t cut them.

And don’t use glue. I don’t want them ruined.

Umm, I don’t want it too lacey. I like it stretched tight.

I’ll help you sew cause I don’t want to tire you.

That’s too tight. I can’t sew it tight like you can.

Did you make that rusty wire heart? Its so cute.

You can’t put that on the lamp shade. It’ll rust the lace.

You know, don’t use that doily on there. I don’t want to ruin it.

And don’t use that one either. Its part of a set and I’d rather you made something out of those four together so you don’t separate them.

Cause I bought them in Griffith in 1965.

Oh, I like that. Aren’t you clever?

But… what if we did it this way?

You know, I was thinking you’d make it like this…

Look what I found! Another doily!

But you can’t use that on this. You can use this one on Zefi’s light fitting.

How are you going to do Zefi’s light fitting?

Sieves?

Are you sure?

Well, you’re the artist. You do it your way. I won’t talk.

Hmmm, that’ll be nice.

But I was thinking it’d be like this…

Oh ok. You do it your way. I’m sure it’ll be nice.

Are you going to use these doilies on Zefi’s light fitting?

Don’t cut them! I don’t want them ruined.

How did you cut the lace for the lamp shade?

Can you give me the pattern?

How did you make the pattern?

Can you cut me the panels and I’ll sew them.

Here, I’ve ironed all the doilies for you.

You can use this, this and this.

And this.

But not this. I’ll keep this one.

And this one.

Actually, I’ll keep this one too.

You can cut up the old curtains for her light fitting.

Sure, thia, it can be a doily light fitting without doilies.

Sure.

Whatever you say.

Your doilies, your lace.

No, I’m not offended at all. Its your lamp shade. You can have it however you want.

Its fine. I can work with curtains and not doilies.

Yeah, whatever you want.

No I’m not upset. I’m just reading FB and not paying too much attention to you.

Sure. I’ll do it.

Leave it there and I’ll fix it.

Yes, you can use the same pattern for a smaller lamp with the same shape, just don’t add extra for seams.

Not a problem, I love doing things for you.

Yep. I can do that.

Sure thing thia.

And it goes on and on.

She’s not my mother and I yet I still want to strangle her at times.

At least my mother doesn’t ask me to make her something creative and then dictate how to create.

She just asks me to hang out washing, bring in washing, move furniture and likes to point out the same landmarks and houses every single time we go past and tell me what they are and who they belong to, despite the fact that, not only have I heard the story 500,321 times, but I lived here. I grew up spending every summer on Paros.

sigh.

Just last night she was giving directions to little Zef:

You go up the road toward Aliki. At the Monastery intersection you turn left, then first left again. The road goes up past my cousins Mitso’s place on the right and his brother Dimitri’s place on the left. You come to a crossroads. The right leads to Giorgo, Dimitri’s son’s, house, the one to the left goes to my nephew Kosta’s place, he’s built a beautiful house there. On the other side of the road my entire family has property…

Thia, I just need to know which road to take. I don’t need to know who lives where!

Ok, ok, you go past the intersection and you get to a big house, build by Spiro, my mother’s godfather, of course he’s long dead, he left it to his daughter Eleftheria and her husband Niko and their 2 children, of course they’re grown up and married now. Each with their own family… Well, at the end of that property is a small church that my great grandfather’s uncle built….

You get the picture.

Ah the joys of family.

a real softie

Posted on June 16, 2013 by zefiart

Last night I finished this little fellow. He’s an echidna. He doesn’t have a name yet and ‘Spike’ just seems too obvious. He’s bigger than the blue teddy, but not as big as Elmer or Kangarat. He’s basically the size of my hand but taller and spikier.

I just had the itch. You know the one which says “I really want to make something”…? After making the blue teddy the other day I just felt (no pun intended) that I just had to make another felt animal. I considered a wombat – too easy…. They’re just a long roundish lump. Cute but rather uninteresting. Though I do love them in all their lumpy if-you-hit-me-I’ll-break-your-car-ness.

I considered an eastern quoll or a bandicoot. I even went as far as printing out images of those for reference.

In the end the echidna won. I’ve always loved the little guys. I used to have one that made a yearly trek past my house in Fentonbury. It drove the dogs absolutely crazy to see him walk along our fenceline, impervious to their scare tactics.

It took ages to do the spikes… I needle felted each individually. It’d have been easier and faster if I’d wet felted those, but then where would the challenge be in that?

I think I’ll hold onto young Spike here and enter him in the next Spindle Tree competition.

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blue felt teddy

Posted on June 11, 2013 by zefiart

I did it again.

I got bored and I created something.

Maybe I should be bored more often.

This little blue teddy is something I whipped up this afternoon. I’ve done needle felting before but this time I worked with a single needle and smaller.