out of the frame: jajce

Showing posts with label jajce. Show all posts

Street Art brightens up the day!

I can't believe I haven't blogged since March! Well, I have a kind of excuse - I've been very busy running this street art project for young people. The project had it's grand finale on Sunday when all the art work was displayed on the street. Here's a video so you can see some of the highlights of the day. And here's a facebook link so you can see the photos. Hopefully I'll have a bit more time now to get back into blogging! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the video.

New adventures with socks

Last year I taught a lot of people how to make sock monkeys! It seemed to be very popular and as I'm planning art club activities for this term I've been thinking about variations on that theme. After looking at pictures on google images I decided to go for an elephant. I found a tutorial on Fretta and Friend's blog and I mixed that with how I make the monkeys and this is what I came up with!

I added the scarf as his neck was a bit scrawny looking. I'm not totally happy with the dimensions of it. I think the arms and trunk are too fat and the head is a bit too small but for a first go it's ok. I'm looking forward to seeing what the young people at Novi Most Jajce come up with when we make them at art club.

Summer fun continued...

Some of the finished articles from this week's creative workshops at Novi Most Jajce.

International Yarn Bombing Day 2012

It's International Yarn Bombing Day today, and this is what the main street in Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina looks like. If you look closely you'll see that each street light has a stripey jumper!

Avant-Garde Jajce 2012

We did it! The art project for young people that I've been talking about on and off for the last month or so has finished.

It was certainly a day to remember. It started at 03:30am with an armed robbery in the centre of town, about 2 minutes from our house. At 05:00am we left our house as planned to meet up with the others to put up the exhibition around the town but we were stopped before we even left our street by a policeman telling us to go back into our house as there was a gunman on the loose and the town centre was on lock down. At 06:30am a SWAT team turned up with guns at the ready and searched all around the area around our house as we watched out of the windows. By 07:30am the coast seemed to be clear and one of the policemen gave us permission to start putting the exhibition up. I had to go to a friend's house to pick up some of the stuff as she hadn't been able to get into the town due to the lock down. I should add that we live in an old walled town so there are only a couple of ways in and out. When I got back to the town gate, the policeman there wouldn't let me back in and he got pretty angry when I tried to explain that I live in the town and needed to go home and to set up our exhibition. After and hour of waiting outside the town gate he let me in and we started to put the exhibition up! You can watch us doing it in the video above.

As if we hadn't had enough to deal with already, there were two big thunder storms in the afternoon right when the young people were supposed to be performing outside! You can see some dancing in the rain on this second video which is of the performances.

And the waiting is over...

After our workshop on Monday the army of babushkas in my living room now have faces :)

Waiting for Faces

There's a slowly growing army of faceless babushka dolls in my living room! Preparing for next week's workshops...

Projekat Avant-Guarde Jajce 2012

The art project for young people, which I mentioned a week or so ago, is now well underway.

There are lots of different workshops going on over the next few weeks leading up to the big day on 3rd May.

Yesterday we enjoyed the sun while painting wooden dolls.

These dolls will be left around town on the big day as part of an 'Art Drop'.

Each doll has a message attached to it letting the public know that they are free to take and wishing them a nice day.

flowers in the wilderness

Something cute I saw in town today.

Maybe a sign that spring is on it's way...

A bit of colour in a greyish world.

Not the skull, just the pitcher and other stories...

Today's theme for Fresh Stitches Design Week is 'Trouble Spots'. Yesterday I told you that I am trying to make an amigurumi version of this picture for the current Plush Team challenge. I showed you how I'd done the skull and ended by saying 'next step - the pitcher'.

The pitcher is definitely a trouble spot! It's such a weird shape, it is going to be really hard to make it in 3d. Here's a sketch where I've tried to imagine it flattened out. I've only drawn 2 sides - the third side will be even harder!

I've decided to start with the base as an equilateral triangle and build it up from there, making each side separately. Does anyone have any better ideas or other advice to give?

And in today's other news, the circus is in town! If you look carefully you can see a black blob to the right of the first megaphone - that is the backside of a monkey! Yes, a real monkey, tied to the roof of the van as it goes through town advertising the circus. I took the photo quickly with my phone as it drove by which is why I managed to miss getting all of the monkey. Some things only happen in BiH! (well probably other places too, but not any places I've been too.)

This blog post is for Day 5 of Fresh Stitches Design Week.

Youth Art Month

I just found out that this month is Youth Art Month in the USA. The goal of it is to emphasize the value of participating in art for children and young people. There are national, state and local events to celebrate it. Sounds like a great idea. Here in BiH at Novi Most Jajce, every month is Youth Art Month in one way, as we are always doing new art projects with young people. But it would be great to have some bigger events to celebrate the work they are doing and the value of young people having creative opportunities. In fact,we have a plan brewing, not for this month, but maybe the next...Keep your eyes open to see how it all unfolds. The photo above is from our art session last night.

I love getting parcels!

I love getting parcels, and this one made my day! Those of you who have been following my blog will know that the pipes in our house have been frozen for almost 2 weeks now, and as a result we have been without a toilet and shower and all those other things that need water! As you can imagine this has been quite annoying, so getting this parcel today was even better than getting it on any normal kind of day.

What is it? Who is it from? you ask. This parcel is from the wonderful Abbydid who drew my name in the Plush Team leap year plush swap! When I saw her name on the outside of the box I was already excited about what would be inside... was I about to become the proud owner of a Wibbly Woo?

Yes! What is a Wibbly Woo? According to verified sources, the Wibbly Woo is a legendary creature located in the peat bogs of Northern England. Harmless, happy, helpful little scamps, they make excellent companions (especially at bedtime). Wibbly Woos have large, soft mouths perfect for safeguarding treasures.

So I opened the bag and inside was not just a Wibbly Woo in my favourite colours - but also a little box...

And inside the box was all my favourite food! Wibbly Woo was hungry from the journey (it's a long way from Cincinnati to Bosnia and Herzegovina) so I let him tuck in.

There were also some very lovely promotional materials from Abbydid.

And two bags of fabric scraps which have arrived just in time for our Craft Party on Monday! Thank you so much Abby :)

And on the water front - we got a new toilet put in today (the old one had cracked because the water froze in it :/) and although we still don't have any water in the bathroom, we can use the toilet and use the bucket of water method to flush it! Today has been a good day.

Making hamsters

Some of the Hamsters we made last night at Novi Most Jajce. The pattern can be found in MollieMakes magazine issue 5 or here on the MollieMakes website.

Snow makes everything look beautiful.

Seen for the first time...

Anyone who knows me from when I lived in the UK will know that I love salt and vinegar crisps, (or chips if you're American!) and that I especially love sea salt and balsamic vinegar kettle chips. When we moved to Bosnia and Herzegovina I was surprised and saddend to find that there exists a country where there are no salt and vinegar crisps! They have peanut flavour, which is totally weird, and no salt and vinegar. BUT... that all changed today. I found salt and vinegar crisps in our local supermarket, and I ate them! I can report that they are fairly average salt and vinegar crips flavour - nothing like kettle chips, but good all the same, and especially good when you haven't had any for a very long time. The problem is that on the front of the packet it says 'The taste of summer'. Summer was over a few months ago and this is confirmed by the fact that the best before date is 01.12.2011 - next week! So who knows where these crisps have been hiding all summer, but I know they haven't been in the shops, and who knows if after next week there will be anymore! But I'll enjoy them while they are here and hope that some local people enjoy them too and that it catches on :) Here's to the future of salt and vinegar crisps in Bosnia and Herzegovina!

Jajce Craft Party #2

We enjoyed our Etsy Craft Party in June so much that we decided to do it again last week. As you can see, we had a great time. Craft Party #3 is coming - just need to choose a date...