I figure its time to get back to sharing art and creations. This is one I did while I was in Athens last.
Its taken me a while to get back into the mood to post…
The house still feels empty without Lainee next to me and I can’t remember how many nights I slept with the door unlocked cause it was always the last thing I did before bedtime: walk Lainee and lock the door when I came in. Without her to walk, I’d just go to bed and forget the door. So now I try to lock the door as soon as it gets dark.
I’ve been busy. I did what I said I’d do: I made my home into an art studio/gallery. I’ve had a couple of open studio days and they went well. I’m grooming. And when I have free time, I am as creative as I can… Most of the time. I still have lazy days. Thats life.
Now I have to organise myself and decide what days I’ll be ‘open’ and what workshops I want to offer… It seems like an easy decision but I have a mental block. I can’t decide…
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 also added a bougainvillea to the painting I did yesterday.
They’re so greek islandy. I love them. I especially love the pink ones and the red ones. I like the white though they don’t stand out like the other colours, but dislike the orange, and I’m over the wild bougainvillea in the purpley shade. Mind you, they’re the ones that grow best.
The red one I bought for my back patio is struggling. People say bougainvillea’s like to be mistreated. Not sure that applies to mine… It flowers (very few flowers) at odd times of the year and just looks plain scraggly the rest of the time.
I really hope that when I finally have a studio on our land and put it in the ground, that it decides to live and bloom like a normal one!
I actually have a collection of plants which I’ve been nurturing for that very day.
ONE day.
Once I get the upstairs apartment no. 1 finished and rented. And find the money to begin the build project on Paros.
Of course, there’s still upstairs apartment no. 2 to do…
I wonder if there is any pirate treasure buried on Paros…?
Its late. I didn’t get started till after 9pm today and its now past my bedtime. Today’s contribution is unfinished, but its finished enough for tonight.
It will have to do!
Time just flew by today and I feel like I hardly did anything, but I did. I organised a guy to come and clean the fireplace and chimney. Done and ready now. Went to the doctor with mom. Took Lainee for a long walk with one of her friends. Went upstairs to check progress a few times. Organised what I need to buy from the hardware store tomorrow…
Doesn’t sound like much, but it took most of the day!
I wasn’t done with the prickly pears. Here is the 3rd for the series.
Now I have to organise frames. I took measurements of matboards I need for the ready-made frames I bought for some of my paintings, but these long narrow ones won’t fit into standard frames, so I’ll ask my friend to make me some frames for them.
I really should stop working on that size since I can’t frame them myself with ready-made frames.
I have a good matboard cutter, but I’m not sure I want to get into that either… matboard is very expensive and only comes in huge sheets. I really don’t want to get that involved in framing. I’ve done it before and it’s a hassle.
The weather took a dramatic change – from 22 degrees C yesterday to freezing cold, windy and wet today. Brr.
I’ll post the reno update in a separate post cause I’m trying to be organised. It doesn’t always work, but what the heck.
Back to ‘real life’ and daily art. Another prickly pear, on pink this time.
It was a lovely and very long day today. Would you believe we spent 5 hours in Ikea?
Easy to do. There is so much to see. I spent more money than I’d planned, but I got a few handy things (as you always do) and bought all the handles for the wardrobes and cupboards in the apartment being renovated.
I haven’t seen the apartment yet as the new security door has been put in and I don’t have the key for it yet. However, the crew will be here in the morning, and I asked them to call me soon as they get here (around 7.15am) so I can go up and see how its going.
I know there will still be a lot to do, but I am hoping against hope that its finally close to being finished.
Here’s another painting I prepared earlier… Tomorrow its back to actually painting every day.
I had such great comments about the other ‘doorway into the light’ painting that I thought I’d try another. This one was harder, but I think it works.
Meanwhile we are having a nice time relaxing and enjoying the busy lifestyle of Pasalimani.
Last night we had sushi for dinner and it was wonderful! I think I can say it was the best sushi I’ve had since moving to Greece.
Lainee has been enjoying the park and has made lots of new friends, both human and canine.
Tomorrow is back to our ‘real life’, back home to mom’s place, our not nearly as popular or crowded area, my art supplies and the house renovations.
But before we go back to reality, we’ll be going for a lovely visit to Ikea. I love Ikea. That and Bunnings in Australia are/were my happy places. I could spend days in those stores… and sometimes I did.
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…
junk4joy 