Art in soap stone

Another thing I made in rehab. The sculpture is made from soap stone, which looks a grey boring colour at first,  but after polishing it it becomes a vibrant green in this case. It took me quite a few hours to make this little thing, but I think in the end it was worth it...

Drawing apples makes hungry

Yesterday I took part in a drawing class, here are the results:

Playing with fire

Two weeks ago, I finally "opened" my Christmas present from mum: A working-with-glass workshop at Flo Glassblowing in Ottawa. I had already blown a Christmas ornament there in December, and wanted to learn and do more this time. So I signed up for the most basic course: Making your own paperweight. It was quite amazing, and a lot of fun. I will collect my finished product today, and will of course publish the pictures on here.

The hot glass is taken from the oven. The pipe on which it is amassed has to be turned continuously, which needs quite some getting used to.

The glass is rolled over coloured glass pieces.

Then it is twirled to get a nice spiral in the finished paperweight.

With a big piece of wood, the glass is formed into a ball shape.

This almost looks like a paperweight now. Soon after, the big ball of glass is separated from the pipe. It then has to cool for 24 hours in another oven. Afterwards it's polished a little, and then, voilà, it's ready.

All the tools needed for working with glass

Some of the finished pieces that are sold in the shop.

The finished paperweight - unfortunately, my camera made a mess of this picture.  Imagine a purple-green galaxy imprisoned in the glass...

Indian Henna tattoos

My lovely flatmate made me these beautiful henna tattoos. First she put on some henna paste, and after it dried for almost an hour, I washed it off and put some cream on it. Now the colour has changed, I love how the colours are different on the hands and on the wrists. My flatmate says, they will stay for the next 2-3 weeks.

First the Paste looks all dark and wet

But after washing it off, the true colour can be seen