Sometime in May 2017, when Mattie and I visited friends in Angers, France.
me
Gsulf
Cor21
Quentin
Hyota
Soir
Gsulf
We went picnic’ing, we swam at a lake, I met a giant dog, it was a good time : )
Sadly the picture doesn’t show the real size of this dog, it was huge!
We are planning to go to Angers end of this month, can’t wait : )
On my birthday last year.
Matti
Quentin
Gsulf
Soir
Gsulf and Matti
Sebastien Touache wirh my birthday cake ; )
What we painted on May 3 of last year.
Gsulf
Obisk
Christ
Soir
Staying on the same thread as the last post, this was second flower I painted soon after the first, sometime in spring 2017. At the time when I painted this, I didn’t know where I was going with this, but I was simply happy I have found new shapes. That being said, even now, I don’t know if I went anywhere with it, but at least I went with it.
Friends I painted with on this sunny spring day –
Gsulf
Christ
And baby ducks! They must be all grown up now : )
Today I thought to myself, when was the last time I shared mine and my friends paintings on walls?
Umm, I just checked, and it was June 29, 2017 September 30, 2017 (corrected)! So I went digging in my photo archive and found many from the past.
Here’s one. I believe this was from March 2017, so I’m more than a year late sharing this.
There’s a little backstory to this. This is the very first flower form I painted on a wall, and it is special to me. I remember feeling quite stuck around this time, and this painting sort of ‘unstuck’ me. Since this day, I continued painting more flower forms and led me to do other projects like RUE DES BELLES FEUILLES.
The flowers sure evolved since this painting, and I feel that I’m coming to the end of this chapter (or not). All in all, it is nice looking back to the beginning which brought me to where I am now.
Here are paintings of friends whom I painted with on this day.
Gsulf
Obisk
Well, it turns out it is not a bad idea to post something a year late ; )
We had many walks during our time at La Patronne. Many little paths passed next to the stone house where we lived for two weeks, and we would take different paths each time, discovering amazing views perfect for water coloring, for taking photos, for exploring or for simply nature watching.
One day, we came across natural clay! Mattie, who is the king of experimentation, took some clay.
Day One. He added water and filtered the red earth of many rocks and pebbles, dried it to what we thought was a good consistency and added some dry grass.
Day Two. We shaped the clay on top of some dried leaves we put on a pottery wheel Mattie fabricated with a log and a nail. Yes, we looked real pro at this point ; ) I formed a little pot, which laid next to the fireplace to dry over night.
Day Three. The next day, we fired the dried pot in the fireplace throughout the entire day and left it in the ash to cool over night (orange skins on top of burning logs were another experiment by Guigui, and fyi, this didn’t smell like oranges).
Day Four. The day after, Mattie and I cracked an empty glass jar and grind it down as fine as we can with a pestle. We mixed it with water and brushed it onto the fired pot. We emptied a candy tin (locally made candy from the area which was super good but I can’t remember the name!), poked some holes under, and caged the pot inside. We placed the tin inside the fireplace for an entire day again. For those who are confused at this point, this is our attempt to glaze the pot.
Day Five. We opened the tin the morning after and there was the “glazed” pot. It almost felt magic to hold a pot which was only red earth on our path five days ago.
Kombucha <3
This whole process was a complete experiment as Mattie and I only have basic pottery knowledge at most, and the process was rather brute. But this is precisely why I’m so proud of this pot which sits next to me as I’m writing this post : )
Now I have a tiny pottery bug in me, and I wish I could find natural clay near my house in Paris. Missing the sunny La Patronne.
At La Patronne, two-week winter residency I attended a month ago, I worked little bit on every project I have at the moment. One of them is to make a series of drapes (I first called them ponchos but I don’t like the word ‘poncho’ so now I call them ‘drapes.’), which initially were doodles with friends at home, then the doodle continued at a bar, then grew in a project.
During the residency, I sketched them digitally, testing colors and made some mini mock-ups.
I imagine (‘imagine’ is the keyword as it only lives in my head at the moment) that the real pieces will be oversized drapes which are made from hand dyed fabrics. I would also like to hand sew them, but that would require enormous patient, which I lack enormously. So let’s see ; )
My first attempt to grow an avocado plant ended when nothing happened. When the pit was half dunked under water for a month and I saw no sign of anything happening, I thought I’ve done something wrong or something was wrong with the avocado pit, and it went into trash. Turns out, I had to wait longer. Way longer. I found this out when my second attempt started rooting only after perhaps four months or when I actually forgot about it.
Now I have several in different stages, one making baby leaves, some rooting, one just starting to split in the middle where the root begins.
: – )
Last November, I also collected some tangerine seeds which I de-skinned and germinated. Now they are planted in soil and starting to grow baby leaves.
They are all happily chilling in front of the window : )
It is magical to me to grow plants from seeds in my food, which actually should be so normal and natural, but sadly lost in our times. Let me know if you also plant seeds from your food ; )
I’m a little shy asking people to buy my tea towels, so I opened an Instagram account @RUEDESBELLESFEUILLES to speak about it without feeling ashamed ; )
It is a new account with only a few posts so far, but surprisingly this account feels more personal than my main account. Something about not having many followers somehow gives me freedom to speak and post more freely and personally.
If you are curious, follow along. I’d be happy to see you there : )
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@ruedesbellesfeuilles
ruedesbellesfeuilles.tictail.com
Our Moderne Jazz exhibition finished two weeks ago. Fun time exhibiting with Moderne Jazz friends. Thanks again for those who came out for vernissage, finissage and in between : ) Here is my piece I made for the exhibition in movement. Perhaps the shadow looks better than the actual piece.
Something about mobile that is so zen. Hope you have a zen week : )