This is a flip through of the first half of this year in my daily journal.
Flea market finds
We went to the flea market this Sunday and it was a very relaxing and successful trip. I have found lots of my favorite things, old brooches, vintage art supplies. I was the most excited about these wax crayons made in Germany by a company named Stockmar. I looked it up and these crayons are still produced and they are used especially in connection with Waldorf schools (this is how they were developed also). I tried to find them in this specific packaging but with no luck. I think these are from the fifties or early sixties judging from the graphics and the font. They are not vegan, ad they are made out of pure wax, but I make an exception for something so old. There are also some Staedler crayons that are from the nineties, I think and some astra watercolor crayons that Icouldnțt find anything about, but they also seem quite old. The Stockmar ones are very good quality and they have beautiful colors, I will most definitely use them in my drawings.
I have also found some small objects.
The most intriguing to me are the two metal brooches with the round holes in them. I have found them in a box full of similar objects, things that looked like oversized pendants that used to hold gems of cameos, a ring that I regret not buying, broken brooches, everything in this dark metal with the same round holes. The tube hinge and the C clasp of the brooches made me think they are antique, si I picked up these two, thar were the most interesting to me. I tried researching them but with no luck so far.
My friend showed me this tiny metal brooch that I picked up mostly because it seemed like an useful thing to wear sometimes. At home, I noticed it has a logo on the back. It is actually a Mellerio daisy brooch, that I found listed as being from the twenties, thirties or forties. I was very glad with my find!
I have also found these sweet metal brooches, that I think are quite old, too. The flower one has a missing rhinestone, but I don’t mind it.
I will definitely wear these large earrings from the eighties.
And lastly, I found a new addition to my vintage thread collection.
Six months of daily drawings
I have started this year to draw daily in this A6 notebook. It is a 5 years journal and I have a small space for each year, perfect for a few moments of drawing. When I have the time, I use the right page too, but I have 5 years to fill out all the pages. I draw more than this most of the days, but it is very relaxing to have such a small task to do every day. I hope to keep up with it for the next five years.
Damascene bracelet and a clip
These are the two random finds from my last flea market find. The bracelet is too big for me, but I couldn’t leave it behind. i think it’s from the sixties and I liked the dragon motif. The clip is very useful to keep my sketchbooks open.
Film photography
It used to be such an important thing for me to take film photos. Such a comfort to use something that was part of my past, something so unpredictable and also so “real”. At some point, this interest started to slowly fade for me, never completely, but the time that it took to finish a roll of film was longer and longer. I was thinking these days that it will come a time when I won’t be able to process my films any longer and that this is not so far in the future. I really want to use this sunset time, to shoot more film, while I still can. Here are some photos from the last two years, some of them taken with my Welta Weltix and some with Diana Mini.
During the first lockdowns, in 2020, when the city seemed such a distant place, full of regret and longing, one of the many things that I was worried about was that the place where I process my films will never reopen.
Trying this again
I realised that I really miss this space. It coudn’t be the same as when I started it, with all the interactions and social aspects of it, but this blog is an useful archive for me, an account of my hobbies, my collections and some of my thoughts. So, I decided to try to update it again, from time to time. It is a nice way to show my friends what I am up to and also a way to memory keep for myself.
It’s summer, always a season of mixed feelings for me. Hydrangeas are beautiful this year.
January 2021
I’m back here, after a long time. But I have missed this place and I like looking back at my posts sometimes. So, I’ll try to post here again this year, mainly because I like having these random fragments of my life logged here. I’ll start with this video of some of my daily journaling in January.
2019 drawings
I come back to this space again, after a very long time. In the global dystopian atmosphere of this last year, seems strange to me to post here about happy and serene things. But anyway, here we go, these are the drawings I did in 2019 to document the streets of my city, the places I walk by everyday. These drawings are a diary, a compulsion, a daily habit, a way to alleviate anxiety and to keep my hands busy, a place to hide in, a safe space.
Cat
There are two purposes to this post. I wanted to document a shirt I sew a couple of months ago already, but mainly I wanted to present our cat Hibou. She is with us since November, a stray kitten my friend Rodica found on the street freezing and being sick and hungry. We wanted to get her well and find her a home, but in the end, she is staying with us. She gets along ok with the dogs and she is quite independent and easy going.
About the shirt, I had a see-trough fabric with cats since a long time now and never knew what to do with it. I remembered I had this second hand store bought fabric with polka dots that I got for a quilt but never used it. I am quite happy with how the two fabrics layered, the prints on them complement each other nicely and the texture of the layered fabric is just perfect.
Hibou was really helpful while I sew my shirt (she was significantly smaller in these first photos).
Spring
This peaceful saturday afternoon, my friend planted in our urban garden the spring flowers that kids in school gifted us for 8th of March. We are three teachers in the house, so there were lots of flowers :).