Fabric Yardage

I am very excited to share my fabrics finally printed on a yard.  The yellow, Big Five Dots, and the green, Big Five Babies on Clothesline were created to coordinate.  I orginally created Big Five Babies for the Project Selvage competion.  The pink design, Protea Petals Pink, is one of the ideas I have for floral based patterns.  I will be using this fabric to test some diaper cover designs.  I also will be adding some fabric squares to a quilt.

New Napkins

I have been using cloth menstrual pads for a while now.  They are more comfortable, environmentally friendlier and more economical in the long run that disposable.  The ones I own are great but I was still relying on disposable for overnight because I had not yet purchased any of that size.  Well, instead of buying, I decided to make my own.
I looked at flannel at the store but realized I already have plenty at home.  I have some old flannel receiving blankets that even my baby girl has outgrown.  The great thing about using these is that I would have probably thrown them away thinking no one would likely want old spit-up stained blankets. Additionally, they are very soft from use and washing.  My inserts are made of old toweling and even my template is cut from recycled cardboard.  (The cardboard was narrow and that's why the 'wing's need to be extended out.)

For heavy overnight conditions, I drafted an extra long pad.  My template utilizes the 'wings' design to hold the pad in place.  When I was satisfied with the dimensions, I traced template on the wrong side of folded flannel, taking care to extend and round out the 'wings' and cut out the pieces. ( I would recommend extending the 'wings' so they would cross the entire width of the pad.) The slit for the pad insert should only be traced on one of the 2 flannel pieces.  I first sewed around the stuffing slit and then sewed the two pieces, wrong sides together using a zigzag stitch, although it might be easier to sew the pattern and then cut out the pieces.  A serger would be very handing sewing these if you have one.  I then used a straigh stitch on the wings.  I used conventional snaps on the wings (not pictured.)  I placed them by experimenting with the fabric in hand.
The insert is just toweling cut out in a square about an inch shorter than your pad.  I then folded the outsides right and left edges 1/2 way to the middle and then folded it in again making a long rectangle as seen above.  I then zigzag stitched around the open edges. 
The free pattern is at the end of this blog entry.  
If the idea is interesting but you are not ready to sew your own; Glad Rags is a fine company to purchase ready made napkins.

Life & Death

Life and Death.  OK, so really this post is not so dramatic as that, those just happen to be the themes of today's ATCs.  The top card is "My Favorite Perfume" which is based on Garden Path with Chickens from The Salon, Exhibit II series of perfumes, which is my favorite BPAL (Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab) scent.  I love their perfumes.  Some of my favorite are Hetairae, Jezirat al Tennyn, and ITASÔ KANSEI NENKAN JORÔ NO FÛZOKU.  They have many traditional kinds of perfume and many which are not.  All of there perfumes have literary or artistic allusions.  I also love their t-shirts.   Back to the card, the base is commerially painted bronze paper that I painted metallic green leaves on to give depth.  I then created a composition with paper flowers, focusing on the jewel tones.  I drew and glued on a little sexy fairy to roll around in the garden.  Garden Path with Chickens is a green, floral perfume with a salty, sexy smell.  Mmmmmm.
The death images were created for a Day of the Dead swap.  The skull on the black background was the original card I sent to my swap partners.  Sadly, those cards were never received--true for about half of the items I mailed through the South African postal system.  The cards with the red border were the replacements.  The black original background and the new red border are both flocked (velvet) paper.  The new card has a black commercial paper layered over.  The skulls are hand drawn and cut out.  I then stamped them and added further embellishments with rhinestones and colored pencils.

One Year Later

View of downtown with Jacarundas in bloom

So, here we are, the first anniversary of my arrival in South Africa.  It seems time to write down some of my observations about this country.

Pretoria (Tswane) is a town with many different peoples.  There are the locals plus the very large diplomatic community.  Still, Pretoria’s white population is largely Afrikaans.  The Afrikaners have been very friendly to my husband and me.  They are quite helpful and also very free with their opinions.  It is always insightful to hear what they have to say.

My husband and I do not get much contact with black South Africans.  Most of our interactions are formal and work related.  I have found out that it is very important to spend a couple of minutes asking how the person is and about their family before conducting business. Even on the telephone with a customer service person.  Anything else is considered rude.  Aside from these pleasantries, in my experience, most black South Africans do not like to share.  Other black Africans are talkative and tell me all about their culture, customs and opinions.  I am wondering if this is one of the legacies of Apartheid.

American entertainment is worldwide.   And people believe it is real.  Hey, it must be true if it is on a reality program, right?  How about those talk shows? Luckily, there are enough Americans here that I can point out that we are not all like that.  Jersey Shore is very popular here; I get asked about it frequently.  I hear Jerry Springer mentioned a lot too.  And everyone believes Americans are all rich.  I think that is a worldwide myth.

South Africans like babies.  I realize a lot of the world does but my little girl gets fawned on everyday by all kinds of people.  Many Americans act like they would rather not see or hear about your baby unless they have one themselves.

South Africans do not put up good signage.  They seem to think everyone already knows where everything is.  If you are going to an event you are lucky to get an address.  Even festivals may not have signs—or if they do, it might not be near the entrance, turn-off, etc.

You can get most things here that are available in the States.  You will pay, though.  About twice as much for toys.  Maybe 50% more for clothes.  Cosmetics and toiletries are also almost double the price.  Automobiles and gas are crazy expensive.  Restaurants and services are generally cheaper.  Private medical care is excellent and cheaper than what you would pay in America.

South Africans are proud.  And they should be.  They have accomplished a lot and they have a beautiful country with an excellent climate.  They are beginning to be environmentally conscious.  The wine here is very good.  We have met many, many entrepreneurs.  They are also realistic about their challenges.  There is still incredibly high unemployment.  Crime is violent.  There is a lot of theft.  But the mood of the country is mostly optimistic.

Speaking like a local:

American                            South African (English)

Trunk (of a car)                   Boot

Crazy                                     Boss

Sweet or nice                       Lekker

Cart                                       Trolley

Elevator                                Lift

Soccer                                   Football

Aaaw! or Cute!                    Shame!

Really?                                  Is it?

Gas                                        Petrol

Truck                                     Bakkie

Sneakers/Tennis Shoes     Tekkies/Tackies                               

Sheesh! or Geez!                Eish!

Barbeque                             Braai     

Ganster or Hoodlum          Tsotsi                   

In a while                             Just Now

In a minute/Soon               Now Now

Traffic Light                         Robot

Jewelry Making with the kids

My boys and I embarked on another art project.  Most of the projects we do really have to take no more than a couple of hours or they loose interest.  Jewelry making can be a very satisfying short term project.  In this case we decided to make birthday presents for my sister.  My seven year old boy came up with the idea.  He loves any excuse to visit the bead shop.  
At the bead shop, he and I collected our beads while my oldest ran interference with the baby.  I was selecting beads to make a bracelet similar to one I 've made before that is much complimented.  My boy just knew he wanted to make a long, blue necklace.
After dinner, we settled down to make the jewelry and my nine year old boy decides he wants to make something too.  We dig around my stash and he decides to create earrings.  (I have never made them before.)  I am quite proud of the boys.  Hope my sister enjoys her new jewelry.



Strength

I have been working on two art dolls with polymer clay faces.  The first of these dolls that I have completed is titled, ‘ Strength.’  I tried to approach the theme on many levels.  Her torso is hand printed Kona cotton, from my gelatin printing session.  I have embroidered the rune, strength, on her abdomen and have sewn garnet and agate beads, historically aligned with physical strength along the base of the torso.  I speculate that garnet and agate were symbolic for physical strength based on their likeness to blood and bone.  Her limbs are created from a stick pruned from one of the trees here.  I used the tree to represent the rooted quality and flexibility of a tree despite strong winds and rains.  The stick also doubles for her backbone.  A strong backbone is crucial for any character of strength.  I used a beaded fringe around her lower leg with green hearts for growth, love and compassion; all additional ingredients for strength. 

The figure’s face and feet are sculpted of rose colored clay and painted with opaque and translucent acrylic paints.  Her eyes and lips were then painted with high gloss varnish.  I felt the feet were a very important feature, not only to serve as a base for the doll to stand by but also as an expression of strength.  Feet are muscular, they connect directly to the earth and move us through life.  Feet do a lot of work and so are very representational of strength to me.  Strength’s hair is handspun wool that I picked up in Virginia at a fiber shop that is sadly now out of business. 

I really enjoyed creating this figure.  She is much more abstract than most of my art dolls. 

Family Life Update

I haven't posted for a long time because the neighborhood telephone cable was stolen.  I had no local phone line and no Internet for two months.  The timing was really unfortunate since it coincided with the end of the school year for the children.  I had plans for them on the Internet!  As people say, this is Africa and sometimes these things happen.

What has happened in the last two months?  We went back to America and visited some of our cousins on my husband's side.  We got to meet our newest baby cousin, who was only nine months old. We visited Cape Cod and hung out in Boston.  There was a real heat wave with a heat index topping out at 105 F.  In South Africa, it was topping out around 50 F.  Even with the body melting weather, the cousins really loved seeing each other.  I wish I could have seen my side of the family as well but they live no where near Massachusetts.  Next year.

While in America we ate great volumes of junk food that we missed like: Chinese chicken nuggets (aka General Tso's chicken,) Dunkin Donuts Boston Creme donuts, bagels with cream cheese, Cape Cod fudge (from the Fudge Factory in Providence Town- best place on the Cape,)  pizza, burritos, Tostitos and ice cream.  I think we all gained a few pounds.

Back home in South Africa, the children and I kept ourselves busy at the zoo, playing, and visiting parks.  One of our favorite parks here is Moreleta Kloof Nature Reserve.  It is near our home and has a lot of wildlife. We usually see ostrich, zebra, blesbok and springbok strolling about every time we visit.  You don't even have to go to a game park to get some great wildlife views here. 

We are looking forward to spring and hopefully some visitors in October and December.