For two days we – Alexis Poline, Mathieu Julien, Obisk and I – metro’ed to Saint Ouen, suburb of Paris, to paint the walls of Henri Groues (homeless shelter)’s communal space. From outside, you would never guess what is on the other side of the wall – a cosy enclosed hang out space with flowers and a vegetable garden. I hope we gave a little more color and happiness to the space : )
,
Here are the hand painted linen tea towels I’ve been working on. I’ve been occupied cutting, sewing, washing and painting these 33 tea towels for a while now. Now that I decided that the first series is finished, I taped them up and took some photos. I call them the first series, because I hope to revisit this project in the future and do more series.
Each of them is a functional, one-of-a-kind hand painted tea towel with a cotton hook sewed in the corner. But of course they can be hung or framed on the wall : )
Now that these are finished, I’m going to fully concentrate on the scripts I’ve been writing for several short film ideas. I’m a director, but I’ve been painting way more than filming last few months. It’s been a nice break, but I’m itching (‘dying’ would be more fitting perhaps) to get back to moving image. Time to go back home : )
I’ve painted tiny paintings on my nails. There was a time when I was pretty into painting on my nails. But I haven’t done them for many many long months. Yesterday, I didn’t want to do anything I had to do, so instead I painted my nails. Good excuse not to do anything. Otherwise I’d ruin my nails! ;^)
I feel a little under the weather. I wish it would rain again tonight, I wish I had a dog by my side, and I wish I had Krispy Kreme in front of me. None of these are happening to me now, so I should go put some lotion on my hands. They look so dry.
My weekend was calm and productive – a bit of yoga, a bit of painting and a bit of crocheting. I finished painting on all the linen tea towels I’ve made. Now, I’d like to hang all of them on a giant wall to take a photo all together, but I don’t know any place with a giant wall. I have to see what I can find. But I hope I can take some photos and show them to you soon.
I wanted a small basket in my bathroom to hold some miscellaneous things . So I decided to make one by crocheting a rope. Since I’ve never done this before, I first turned to few Youtube video tutorials. All of them were strict about following patterns, such as the number of stitches, the number of increase, when to increase, marking the start of the row, etc. I tried to follow the pattern and count my stitches in the beginning, but soon I got distracted and lost my count, and the bobby pin marking the beginning of the stitch fell out. So I decided to improvise, which is my specialty ; ) Well, I had to improvise anyways because my hook was way too small for the rope. While crocheting, I hung out with my plants : ) I’ve planted the seeds of basil, rosemary, thyme and tomato a few months ago (for the first time!), and they’ve grown so much since! They are overcrowded as I later found out that I scattered too many seeds in each pot. Soon I have to separate them, but they look so fragile and I’m afraid I’ll just hurt them. If you have any tips, please share!
So it is proudly hanging in my bathroom now. Not bad at all : ) How was your weekend?
Finally I’m making my tea towels! If you had known that I started talking about this project two years ago, you’d be as excited as me. Finally! Is it just me or every project seems to have a need to hibernate in me for a long while until I become too full of it that I have to let it out. Well, the project was simple. I wanted to make a series of hand painted linen tea towels. Simple enough. Then why did it take this long to actually do it? Fear I suppose. Well, let me explain. There are a few reasons why I came up with this project. One, I like handsome tea towels. Oh I really do. They make me feel like I live in a cosy farm house. Two, I like linen. I’m drawn to its texture and how it gets softer with every wash. Three, I wanted to start painting again.
I painted throughout high school. Then I gradually stopped painting in university as I focused on digital media. That was many many years ago. Recently, I wanted to paint again, but the idea of painting on a blank canvas scared me. The permanence of a canvas is darn scary (complete contrary to painting on walls, which will be covered by others in a day or less if the sun’s out). So I decided to paint on tea towels. It is not a precious thing which belongs on a wall, but rather a functional thing which must be used. This somehow takes the pressure off. This might seem insignificant, but for this very reason, this is a milestone for me to actually realize this project.
For about a week now, I’ve been busy with meters of natural linen in different weights. I pre-washed them, cut them, hemmed the edges, painted, iron-pressed for the paint to set, then washed to make them soft again – while listening to Stuff You Should Know podcast none stop (the only podcast I listen to, which is awesomely funny and interesting). I still have a few more to make, but I wanted to share some photos with you : )
Some digital sketches.
I also sewed the cotton loops for easy hanging. What’s a tea towel without a loop?! ; )