You know how I like to collect things… and how hard it is for me to resist picking up stuff people have thrown away when its obvious it can be made beautiful and useful again?
Well, a couple of weeks ago I went past the bins near here and saw this old lamp along with some old framed silk prints. I picked them up. The frames may be fixable, but the silk is beyond repair. I may be able to re-use the frames for something…
The lamp was rusty and the shade was ruined, but I had a shade at home I wasn’t using… providing the lamp worked, it was a great find.
So I brought it home and today, instead of dedicating all my time to preparing for our trip to Athens tomorrow, I spent some time fixing up the lamp. The pic above is after I’d sanded off all the loose rust and sprayed it black.
The pic below, shows it trying out its new shade.
When not sure what to paint on a shade, stick with the familiar… octopus… inspired by the broken lamp I ‘mended’ for a friend a year or so ago. Only this time the octopus is on the shade, not the lamp itself.
The only problem I found was that the paint bled a bit into the shade. Eh. Nothing handmade is perfect! Plus I added colour and re-worked it so the bleed wasn’t so obvious.
Here is the finished product from various angles. I need a ring thingy so the lamp shade sits inside properly, but for now its drying in the corner.
So, although I’m on a ‘holiday from my usual life’, I have done a little bit of creative work.
First was a big fail. I had some old sheets given to me, very stiff, thick sheets, no longer usable cause they were ripped or worn. I had planned to make shopping bags out of them, stamp them with Junk4Joy and other designs and just have fun with them, giving them as gifts to people who bought my art.
Unfortunately, it ain’t happening. The fabric is way too stiff to work on my sewing machine. I was having all kinds of problems with it so I did what any other self respecting crafter/artist would do – I gave up. It’s not worth the effort and frustration.
And since my thing is recycling, I refuse to buy fabric to make bags. If I’m going to BUY anything, I may as well buy readymade bags! I mean why the hassle of sewing when I can just buy and stamp/paint? Well, cost for one thing. I have to look at the cost of plain cotton bags I can get in Greece. Then decide if it’s worth it.
So I just went on with the other project I brought up to the dog sitting job to work on: sculpture.
I had started these figures months ago. Months and months ago when I was really into sculpture. (I go through phases as anyone who knows me knows.)
I had begun two cats, one sitting and one walking. When they’re finished I can share the start of the project, but for now this is where they’re at currently.
Of course, there have to be naked ladies. I really do love my ‘nekkid’ ladies.
If you remember, the naked ladies are made from recycled dishwashing liquid bottles. The cats, like the dogs, are made from toilet roll or hand roll cardboard, wire, foil and whatever I need to create the shape. They are then built up with a homemade papier mâché pulp and finished off with air dry clay.
They take a long time to make as I have to do one layer at a time allow for drying in between. But I do love getting my hands dirty! I majored in Printmaking at Art School… Inky black hands were the go for years.
Between working on the sculptures and failing at the sewing project, I spend time cuddling with the dogs, taking them out for short walks on the hill around the house, soak in the view, and, for the last couple of days, hiding inside from the cold STRONG wind. sheesh. Its windy out there. This morning I had to search and rescue outdoor furniture from the hillside.
Since its Greek Easter tomorrow and I’m joining the family for lunch, I’ve made a trifle as my contribution. Its currently cooling and soaking up the mastiha liqueur I put in it. Yum. A slightly alcoholic dessert, nothing like the one I made one Christmas in Tasmania where I soaked the cake in Cointreau, then added some in the jelly… Whoa.
Other than that, I’ve been thinking about/stressing over my plans and prioritizing what I have to do moving into the future.
I don’t recommend it.
In fact, I escaped into watching some Queer Eye for the Straight Guy episodes last night. Something easy to watch, not demanding at all!
Monday the homeowners return and I can go back to my own home and hectic life.
I was tidying up stuff on my WordPress drafts folder and found this post I’dnever finished, so I thought I’d share it now, more for the sculptures than anything else.
What do you do with old dishwashing bottles once they’re empty?
Well, if you’re like me and see womenly shapes, you make sculptures of naked ladies out of them.
Each naked lady has her own shape, just like women do. I made these to look like broken greek statues… I mean, when in Greece…
I made these using dishwashing liquid bottles as the base, then built up the shapes using home made papier pulp and air dry clay. They’re all a little rough, with natural looking textures, and they vary in size according to the bottles I started with.
I love my naked ladies. Most of them have been placed in my cousin Zefi’s air b’n’b as decor for the time being. There’s only so much room at home for me to display stuff, and so far I haven’t been able to find the right venue to sell them.
As you know, I’m working on that… whether I should continue trying to open a FB/Instagram shop, or whether I should just try to sell through FB and Instagram in a more casual way – I’m having so much trouble with setting up a shop that I’m seriously leaning towards just starting to post stuff with dimensions, descriptions and a price and see what happens…
Maybe I should have ‘ZefiArt/Junk4Joy parties’ at home and display and sell stuff that way… It would mean I’d have to move almost everything into my bedroom temporarily so that I can display stuff all over the living room and kitchen, on the bookshelves, kitchen table, the couch, coffee tables and side tables… every inch of wall space…
When I first got back from Athens, I admit I fell into a kind of lethargy reserved only for the laziest among us. I spent an entire week doing as little as possible. But then, slowly, I began to get the itch again. The creative itch. Not just to paint, but to make over something useful, to MAKE something. Since the itch struck, I’ve been in and out of the zone, starting 7 projects and almost finishing 4 of them.
Not bad. If I wasn’t going to Athens I’d be doing more, but not much time left. Perhaps I’ll be able to work on a couple more works-in-progress, but doubt I’ll finish anything more till I get back. I will share a bit more on those projects meanwhile however, so stay tuned.
A good friend has been clearing out her house of things she doesn’t need, and I was lucky enough to get these two large trays from her. They’re the kind used in taverna’s here in Greece, the biggest one is quite large, often wielded by muscley-armed waiters, holding lots of dishes at once.
Of course, hers were in almost new raw timber condition. Not an oil stain to be seen on them!
I wanted to make them into something I can sell, something islandy, something people can use but also display in their homes. This is the first tray, the smaller of the two:
I ‘ve never painted the sea before so it was a challenge. I’m still not sure if I like the effect I achieved, but it’s not terrible… However, it did need something more, a focal point, hence the starfish. I like the starfish.
This tray is all acrylic paint, and before its ready to sell, it will have a coat or two of polyurethane to seal it so it can be used as intended.
My second attempt is a mix of acrylic paint and pastels. I wanted this one to be a little more fluid, but again, it needed a focal point, hence the shell. To be honest, I’m much happier with this type of blended colour background. It’s the sort of background I’m comfortable with and use very often in my work, whether its watercolour, acrylic of pastel.
In the close up of the shell, you can see the pastel, though I have worked over it with acrylic paint in places, to give it extra depth.
This will also get a coat of polyurethane to seal it and protect the artwork.
The weather has finally come good again after about 2 weeks of freezing cold winds and rain or hail. It’s great to be able to take Lainee for a walk on the beach without being blasted into the middle of next week.
This is the sea I love… flat as an oil slick. I’m not a wave kinda person. And today the sun feels almost warm enough to swim. If I was braver I probably would… but I’m not that brave.
Instead of swimming I came home and began tidying up in preparation to return to Athens and face the ongoing renovations there. All I can do right now is hope that it’s moving along since I left. I doubt there will be much change except the destruction of the old bathroom, as mom witnessed that in the form of noise that lasted a few days. The bad weather kept the workmen away for at least one whole week.
I’d never have believed it possible, but this is my third renovation in Greece. I’d renovated 3 houses in Australia, now I’m even in Greece. Who knew I’d survive that with my mind intact and only the occasional bout of despair, desperation and hair pulling?
Somewhere among all the angst which is my life, I figured I’d share a little ray of sunshine….
My good friend Valerie bought me this maimed ceramic piggy bank when we were looking at secondhand furniture at a shop nearby. I fell in love with his cute little face and the fact that, without ears) he looked more like an aardvark than a pig.
Originally, I intended to sand off his ear ‘stumps’ to make him look more aardvark-like but opted to leave them in place… they kinda make him look surprised.
I kept him as he was for a long time, then one day, while I had the chalkpaint out for another project, I gave him a once over.
I love the result…. after all, everything looks better with a bit of paint!
I began this guy back in the first lockdown but got sidetracked with other projects. He did take a long time to make, but it didn’t have to be two years!
He began as bits of scrunched up newspaper, lots of masking tape and cardboard. Then came home-made paper pulp (with drying time) and air dry clay (more drying time). Then came the paint (yet more drying time). Then came the seaweed scales which meant collecting seaweed from the beach, washing it, drying it (still more drying time), cutting it into scale size and finally gluing them on one at a time with hot glue (at the cost of a few fingerprints).
Lastly came the base.
That was a hard one. Originally I wanted him on a block of wood but didn’t have anything suitable. Then I decided to hang him on the wall where he spent a while, not looking quite right.
Then one day while walking Lainee on the beach, I found the perfect piece of driftwood! Complete with nails and bits of paint. Perfect.
(Lesson 1: walk Lainee on the beach more often. Lesson 2: never leave behind anything which might come in useful one day.)
I already had some rusty bits of rebar (I mean, who doesn’t?) which became the official fish ‘holder uppers’. A bit of drilling, a bit more gluing et voila! Done.
I’m calling him ‘Mitso’. A good greek name. Mitso the fish is now sitting in Cecelia’s Art Gallery in Parikia, along with some of my painted marble. He’s waiting for his forever home if anyone is interested!
I must say, I feel a sense of accomplishment having finally finished him and moved him off my kitchen table!
Perhaps not entirely my first attempt to dye something using natural dyes, but I’m thinking dyeing poodle ears with beetroot juice doesn’t really count…
I’ve also done heaps with tea and coffee, but again, I’ve always considered those more of a stain than a dye.
This time I got it into my head to try to make my own re-usable shopping bags out of the millions of vintage plain linen sheets I’ve been collecting from mom and my aunts. Great fabric, but not great as sheets any more cause most of them were made for shorter beds than we have now.
Anyway, I had the sheets so I cut one up and made 2 shopping bags in the most simple way I could (ie no side gusset). The whole point was to make something I could carry with me easily.
I also wanted the bags to be pretty so I needed colour – using natural dyes and stamps. Hence the Junk4Joy stamps I made. Fiddly for a first attempt at linocut in years.
I wanted to brand the bags obviously. I even added a wonky recycled logo to the name.
I did a lot of reading about natural vegetable dyes online and decided to go with purple cabbage to start with as I liked the colour. Plus I’d just made some rice paper rolls and had purple cabbage on hand.
Following the instructions, I boiled the cabbage, then strained it into a bowl. I added salt as a mordant (cause I have no idea where or how to get pot ash) and got to dyeing.
I wanted an ombre look so I wet the bags and hand dipped them a few times, then let them hang in the solution overnight.
The resulting colour is very soft. Maybe I needed more cabbage and less water, who knows. Still, its quite pretty for my first attempt.
After they dried, I ironed them then got out the fabric printing ink I’d bought with the linocut supplies and stamped on the logo. Last I added a button and some elastic so the bags can be rolled up and put in a handbag.
Pretty cute I’d say.
To be honest I’m not sure I’ll bother trying to make bags to sell… I had a long conversation with myself lately and the upshot of it was that I do too much. I spread myself too thin with all the creative projects I do. I’m better off to stick to what I’m best at and that is painting. I’m an artist AND a creative person with unlimited interests, but I am better off concentrating on the work that I’m best at in order to earn some money from it.
My pet portraits on commission and my marble and rock paintings sell. It makes sense to concentrate on that.
Making bags or critters from recycled fabric or baskets from found ropes etc are all lovely and fun. So are my art from trash dog and bust sculptures. But most of those things take a lot of time and space and so far haven’t sold. The aim is to sell stuff.
I have tried selling online a lot over the years, but postage has always been an issue. I’m not saying I won’t try ebay or my esty shop again, or even Facebook, just that it seems selling something for under 10-20e with postage of over 15e seems ridiculous.
Anyway, there’s always so much to do and so little time.
Thought I’d share a little project I finished recently. Of course there are no ‘before’ photos. I didn’t even think of taking one till I had already given the little cabinet 2 coats of paint!
Dad had bought this little spice cabinet way back in the late 70s. It was all dark wood and contained 12 glass bottles and labels so you could organise your spices nicely.
I was once the kind of person who would do that – put all my spices into clear glass uniform jars and label them lovingly… Now I’m more of a ‘just buy the stuff and stick it in the cabinet’ kind of person.
It has sat, unused, for years in mom’s kitchen – most bottles empty and some with very sad, old spices still in them. While I was sorting out stuff in mom’s house in Athens I mostly ignored it, then at the last minute I tossed it into my car to bring to Paros. I’m rather glad I did. I had some leftover chalk paint which I tinted into a darker version of my favourite green – and voila! New spice cabinet for me.
Sure, it might take up a bit of bench space, but it frees up space in one of the upper cupboards and makes it easier to find the spices I want.
Luckily, most of the spice jars I own fit inside and the taller ones fit on top. For now it also holds vanilla essence and a few non spice items. Eh. Its my spice cabinet and I can put anything in it I want!
A few years ago (…quite a few years ago…) I began this photo display of my dad and his friend as youngsters, dressed up as cowboys for the carnival. I love the photo. I had a lot of old vinyl at the time and decided one of the inner sleeves would make a great mat for it. This is far as I got. (Lumpy and bumpy, I didn’t quite have decoupage under control back then.)
Today I was inspired to get a few things ticked off my arm-long to do list (and out of the way since I tend to leave things that need doing soon on every surface of my small house) so I decided to use a frame I owned and finally get it on the wall and off the bookcase. Of course I didn’t have a frame for the entire thing so had to cut it down, but I’m quite happy with it anyway. It looks nice in my tiny hall.
The frame was a cheapie I’d bought a few months ago, with a light timber look, so I gave it a single coat of chalk paint to let some of the wood show through. The white dot on the picture is a reflection.
I also had this vintage frame that belonged to my aunt. I’d given it a coat of white paint and wax while I was in Athens. I decided this would hold photos of my mom before she met dad.
I chose two photos I really liked, trimmed them to fit in the frame together and used a vintage music sheet from my collection as background.
Since I’m always rearranging things I don’t know if this is its forever home, but I love the look of it over the very chippy shelf/coat rack I was gifted.
Other than that I haven’t done a whole lot of creative stuff. I’ve been more concerned about what job I’ll find to get me through the season and how I can spread the little savings I have to achieve the things I want to achieve… It’s a challenge. I need a whole lot more money than I have to build the house and studio/workshop I dream of… sigh… And I was so excited to make that my goal this year: to start on that project. I can already see me in my new home and studio… getting there is the hard part.
junk4joy 