first attempt at vegetable dye

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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.

z

walking around parikia

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I love the island when its quiet. When the only people here are those that live here. The streets are quiet and its a pleasure to walk around town. Some shops are already being renovated for summer but only those that remain open all year round are open at this time.

Later on, Easter and afterwards, there will be more happening with store owners preparing to open for the season. At that time the island begins to come alive. Its an exciting time – Its spring, the weather is better, people who’ve been away for winter come back to open up their shops… As the weather warms the beach bars start to put out their umbrellas and sun beds. Its a nice time..

Till summer really hits. The island fills up with tourists and visitors. The ferries start backing up in the port spewing out black smoke waiting to disgorge the masses. Cars jam the roads, the traffic becomes unbearable. The quiet beaches are quiet now more with blarring music and packed bodies, parking becomes impossible and all I want to do is hide at home. Or better yet, leave for a quieter place. Last summer I wasn’t working full time and was able to escape to Denmark for 10 days. This year I won’t be so lucky.

I am not sure what I’ll be doing regarding work for this summer yet, I have a few irons in the fire. Let’s see what comes of them… Meanwhile enjoy some quiet little moments of Parikia in winter, before the spring spruce up.

I do love my chippy doors and rust. And I love the little plants which come up in cracks on doorsteps and in corners.

I’ve needed a bit of beauty this week. Its been one bad week. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Well, ok. I did have one good thing come along this week. I took Lainee in for a wellness check and she’s all good. Needs to lose weight, but all good otherwise.

As for the rest… I’ve had computer problems: I couldn’t log on to my email for a few days, then it came right somehow and I’m not sure what I did or didn’t do which fixed it. My keyboard stopped working. My monitor became disconnected somehow. It all got sorted, almost without me doing anything but it was like I was jinxed or something.

Banking was another issue. I was having trouble logging onto my bank, then when I did I found my account was frozen… cause I wasn’t in Australia to provide all the necessary documentation for identification. That took some sorting and a couple of phone conversations with them. Now thats sorted too thankfully.

I’ve had a dodgey front screen door since I moved in and it finally gave up the ghost at the beginning of the week by totally coming off its track and off the wall. No mending it this time. The back screen has had a rip in it for about a year so it was time to get that fixed too. I called a guy and he came round and gave me a quote. More than I wanted to spend on anything right now, but I need fly screens… He installed them today (really good quick service!) and I have lovely new screendoors. The front screendoor is now on the RIGHT way so that it now opens in the same direction as the front door making it so much easier to go in and out. Obviously this wasn’t the case before. What on earth was the person who installed the first one thinking? Anyway, the back screen was a pull down sash type, was replaced by a sliding one as well. Now I can go out and close it behind me! Thus not let the 1,000,023 mosquitos in the back patio into my bedroom every time I go out. Seriously. There are so many mosquitos in that area and they all just buzz around waiting for me to open the screen! I have a back patio I rarely used in summer due to my mosquito phobia.

The air conditioner control began playing up and only worked intermittently, just enough so that while randomly hitting buttons to wake it up I managed to change the mode to cold air and not be able to change it back. I put in new batteries and it made no difference. Next day I bought newer new batteries and it works fine now. Go figure.

I swear… it just wasn’t my week.

z

changed view

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The other day I woke up to find the council workers outside my place chopping away at the eucalyptus trees on the road.

I am a bit upset about it, I might admit. They really lopped them. I mean, I know eucalyptus trees have a tendency to drop branches and even fall over in strong winds, but this seems a bit drastic…

It feels a little naked around here without the trees. They were a barrier between our building and the busy road below. Now we’re more exposed to the noise and wind than we were before.

On the other hand, the view is better…

I no longer have to dodge leafy branches in order to see the sea (hahaha), which is probably a good thing… but I miss the trees. Its gonna be a lot hotter this summer without them blocking the late afternoon sun.

z

my new spice cabinet

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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!

z

pet hair removal – fail

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Have you seen these things advertised on FB and Instagram? They keep coming up on my feeds so one day I thought “why not?”

I groom dogs, and till its hot enough to wear shorts in summer, I groom in leggings which get covered in hair. Not to mention any long sleeve Tshirts I might wear… I figured these might be the answer to the problem of dog hair making its way onto everything I own!

Not.

I’ve only used them once only, to be fair, on a load of black and dark clothes, but the clothes came out just as hairy as they went in while the green ‘hair collectors’ remained as bald and sticky as a billiard ball rubbed in toffee.

So much for that.

z

framed photos – small things ticked off the list

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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.

z

lace curtain feline makeover…

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Remember the beautiful lace curtain I made during the first lockdown?

This is what it looks like now…

Yep. In tatters.

All that work… took me days to make it. A cat destroyed it in a couple of hours.

Did I mention kitten-gate? When a cat got locked in my house accidentally?

Well, it could have been way worse. It could have been locked in for days and I could have come home to a dead cat. Ugh. I think I should consider myself lucky the only casualty was the curtain. I have more doilies and lace. I can make another.

Lainee is quite relaxed about it. In fact she and her teddy bear are both taking it all in stride.

z

faith necklace

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Just quickly sharing a little textile necklace I made a couple of weeks ago for a friend. This was made in her favourite colours – pink and black – and the word faith which is what she wanted. She would have preferred a gold loop and cross but I had to use what I had – so I added this cute mother of pearl cross and a silver jump ring.

I used a piece of pale pink linen I had for the ‘body’ and added a scrap of vintage lace to the front and a bit black lace flower detail for a little punch.

The close up pics aren’t the best but I no longer have it to take better photos.

She loved it. That’s all that counts.

z

safety pin brooch and new shop

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I forgot to share this little baby when I made it. I was putting away my crafty sewy stuff in preparation for going back home to Paros and got side-tracked – as you do.

I found a few baby safety pins I had in my collection and suddenly got the urge to make a brooch out of one of them. I’m actually really pleased with the result.

I also spent some time the last few days trialling a new shop on ecwid. You can visit it here.

I’m only on the free plan to see how it goes and that only allows 10 products at a time so I concentrated on a Valentines theme, but the paid versions promise big things like linking the shop to instagram and FB. It sounds good, but I’m reluctant to pay for a shop I dont know will do well.

I still have my etsy shop here and my CafePress shop here but neither of those are setting the world on fire. With Etsy I pay a small amount per year to have the shop opened and a percentage on sales. The CafePress shop only gives me a commission on sales. Its been a long time since I updated or added new products to either store.

Over the years I’ve successfully sold on ebay but it just got too expensive and compicated (postage has always been my downfall!) – however they do have a huge audience so I may give it another go one day. When I lived in Tasmania I also sold a lot of stuff on the local FB buy/sell pages, here I’m not sure how well that would go. Then again, in Tasmania I did the occasional market and sold things there so there was always a bit of extra $$ coming in.

My problem (I think) is that I don’t stick to one thing and dedicate myself to that. I see people who paint and who dedicate themselves to doing that and do well. I see people who make jewellery and do well. Or macrame. Or crochet. They pick something they enjoy and are good at and work hard at it.

Me, on the other hand – I do a little bit of everything. I have ADHD when it comes to creativity. I’ll be inspired to make textile jewellery and will do that for a while. Then I’ll get bored and move on to fixing up a piece of furniture. Or painting. Or sewing little zombie dolls or monster critters. Or make a curtain out of doilies. I love variety. And I love trying new things.

In the end I think markets and selling online through local channels worked for me cause the stuff I made in Tasmania was something people were into there. Here, I haven’t quite yet found my ‘niche’ creatively speaking.

Since coming to Greece I have made and sold paintings on stone and marble, spring wreaths and other decor, pet portraits on commission, textile items… so it hasn’t been a complete failure, but its not quite ‘there’ for me yet.

I wish I could afford to open a shop of my own. A place to work and sell whatever it is I get inspired to create.

Ah dream on…

z

new soap from old soap – pinterest fail

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Since I’ve been treading water for the last week+ I decided to have a go at recycling old soap bars into new soap bars. I’ve wanted to try soap making for a few years but to be honest, I can’t really see myself doing the whole lye thing… at least not till I have a proper workshop to experiment in (as opposed to my kitchen).

I’ve seen plenty of posts on Pinterest about making soap from scraps so I thought I’d try that. I went with a microwave tutorial since I didn’t really want to use mom’s saucepans for this.

I got the small bits of soap and some small hotel soaps mom had and did what it said on the Pinterest post. I chopped the soaps up, put it all into a microwave safe bowl and started melting it.

Problem was, no matter how long I melted it, it remained lumpy. I had to take it out often while heating it up and mix it or it would bubble and overflow (the microwave was a mess after this!).

In the end I gave up trying to make it smooth, added some essential oil and some dry lavender mom had and called it good. I used a tray from a packet of biscuits to set it in.

I ‘cut’ the pieces and let it dry for a few days. Its probably the worst soap I’ve ever had… its lumpy and hard and doesn’t even foam up well.

So much for that!

Here’s a photo of Lainee on our first outing in the car after being snowed in for 5 days.

The snow was the deepest I’ve ever seen in a city anywhere before. Way more than Athens has gotten previously that I know of. And Athens is full of narrow streets, hills and millions of parked cars. Most councils only cleared the main roads, leaving everyone in the side streets to fend for themselves. Took 5 days for the road outside our house to be cleared – most was done by neighbours who tried to dig themselves safe paths. The snow has still not totally melted in areas where it was piled up or where people dont walk. Pretty incredible snowfall.

I’m still in Athens obviously. My first and second attempts to return home to Paros was foiled by the snow. Now mom is holding me here. She wants to come home (from her sister’s seaside home where she’s been almost the entire time I’ve been in Athens) and spend some time with me in Athens and would actually like it if I stayed all of February cause ‘what will you do on Paros?’… Um like… BE HOME!

Hopefully next time the sea is calm I can make my escape!

z