Painted T-shirt with folkloric motif

So, I've been having these fabric paints since more than a year now, but never gave them a try. Until now, when I had to paint some T-shirts for a friends' pre-wedding  party. Before getting to the actual work, I thought I'd try first on one of my plain t-shirts. And I got this:

I must admit, I gost this idea from my artist fellows on FB. I was amazed myself. Cross stitch looks so good in paint you can't even tell the difference from far away. In the same time, the result is much neater, easier to take care of and way much easier to obtain :D (although I spent a couple of hours for this particular design - a folkloric motif from my natal region, Dobrogea).

The photos were taken in the Natural Parc of Comana in Romania, a protected area and the second one as biodiversity after the Danube Delta.

Fetița care locuiește într-un ceainic / The girl who lives in a teapot

↓ SCROLL DOWN FOR ENGLISH VERSION ↓

- Laura, aș vrea să te ajut și eu, aș putea să croșetez o jucărie, poți să alegi tu ce să fie...
- Ioooooi, ce drăguuuuț, oare l-ai putea face pe Tic? :D
- Eram sigură că l-ai vrea pe TIC :D
- Doamne, dar toate jucăriile sunt frumoase! Uuuu, o fetițăăă! Hai să facem o fetițăăăă! Poți?
- Fac ce vrei tu, cum am zis :D
- Mvaaai, o fetiță!... Și o putem face cu părul șaten ca al meu? ^^
- Am înțeles, vrei să semene cu tine :P se aranjează!
-  N-am îndrăznit să zic așa :))) cu mine, cea din poveste, da!

...și ăsta a fost începutul. Laura Baban, o tânără scriitoare contemporană inspirată de cățelul ei, de iubitul ei, care este fotograf, și de călătoriilor lor prin lume, strângea fonduri pentru publicarea celei de-a doua cărți. Doar că m-am lungit într-atât cu făuritul păpușii încât nu ar mai fi fost timp ca Laura să apuce să o și valorifice, prin vânzare. Așa că am hotărât să o termin la timp pentru lansarea Domnului Tic II de la București și am contactat-o pentru a o anunța asta și a-i cere detalii în legătură cu vestimentația și coafura pe care urma să le poarte în ziua cu pricina. Laura a găsit prin gospodăria bunicii niște materiale care păreau potrivite pentru ca viitoarea rochiță a păpușii să semene întru totul cu rochia în mărime naturală. Mi le-a trimis prin poștă împreună cu o meșă de păpușă căpătată prin călătoriile ei. Meșa s-a dovedit a fi prea mică, dar ne-am amuzat un pic de look-ul de franțuzoiacă pe care ar fi putut să-l aibă păpușa (dar atunci n-ar mai fi semănat cu fata noastră, adică Laura).

Ce să fac, cum să fac?! Am pornit într-o doară spre Obor pentru a cumpăra fire de culoarea corpului păpușii, și astfel am aflat că de la lot la lot culorile pot diferi, așa se face că una dintre palmele păpușii și picioarele au o nuanță ușor diferită de restul corpului (oare Laura o fi observat? :)) ) Dar tot la Obor mi-a venit și ideea salvatoare, pentru că am descoperit firele de mătase naturală, moi, catifelate și ușor lucioase, care parcă mă așteptau pregătite să devină podoaba capilară a micii Laura. Încântată, m-am apucat de cum am ajuns acasă de înfipt răbdătoare fir cu fir în căpușorul acesteia. Și acum mă mir cum de m-a ținut atâtea ore acea încântare, căci la mintea de acum, parcă n-aș mai repeta experiența cu plantatul firelor de păr, mai ales că la sfârșit a fost nevoie și de un fel de tuns pe sub șuvițe, căci ajunsese să aibă codițe mult mai groase decât ale mele :)


Când a venit vremea realizării rochiței, am întors ștergarul sau ce-o fi fost la vremea ei cârpa primită de la Laura pe toate părțile, am băgat-o plină de speranță chiar și la mașina de spălat și tot mi se părea că n-aș putea s-o folosesc pentru o păpușă atât de delicată cum se anunța a fi mica Laura! Nu, în nici un caz, și i-am spus asta chiar și Laurei. Părea prea soioasă, pătată și neglijent utilizată, în ciuda faptului că fusese brodată de mână. Nu-nțelegeam nici cum de o lăsase bunica să îmi trimită așa ceva prin poștă. Păi de unde era eu să știu că ștergarul ăsta avea mai bine de o jumătate de secol la activ? :) Noroc că m-am gandit, în sinea mea, că cine sunt eu să discut gusturile altora? Păi dacă Laurei i-a plăcut, trebuie măcar să încerc să salvez un colț de broderie pentru rochița păpușii, de dragul ei și-a amintirilor pe care acesta i le trezește. Și bine am făcut. Am rămas uimită eu însămi de puterea transformării! Am împodobit apoi rochița cu trei năsturei colorați ce-nchipuiau numele lui TIC.
 

Pe lângă năstureii de la rochiță, am adăugat câte unul și botoșeilor, fiecare dintre ei fiind inscripționat cu inițiala celorlalte două personaje principale ale poveștilor Laurei: L și A. Iar în seara dinaintea lansării păpușica a avut parte de prima ei ședință foto. După ce m-am supărat pe Tumbi, pisoiul meu, că mă tot necăjea și o dărâma pe mica Laura înainte să apuc să-i fac poza în cea mai cool poziție în care reușisem s-o așez (!), ba chiar am și plâns din cauza asta (?!), mi-am dat seama că nu o dădusem cu blush în obrăjori :)) Dar nu mai era timp s-o iau de la capăt.

Păpușa a ajuns în cea mai bună formă a ei în brațele Laurei în ziua primei lansări, într-o după-amiază caldă de mai. Fata a vărsat câteva lacrimi la vederea ei, iar bunica a râs amuzată de transformarea șorțului soios într-o rochiță cochetă. Dar vai! Laura purta o rochie albastră, și nu verde, cum mă informase! I se spusese că nu va exista contrast cu decorul, că nu vor ieși pozele bine! Dar până la urmă, era vorba despre îngemănarea celor două Laure, de asemănarea lor izbitoare, care ar fi impresionat publicul, iar nu despre potrivirea acestora în peisaj. Dar în ce peisaj nu s-ar fi potrivit ele?! Laura s-a schimbat repede iar în ziua aceea s-a scris o poveste verde, aceasta fiind culoarea poveștii Laurei și a iubitului ei. Voi știați că așa au și ajuns împreună? Totul a început în clipa în care Laura i-a dat add pe facebook unui băiat arătos, lucru care nu s-ar fi întâmplat dacă acesta nu ar fi purtat un tricou verde!

Am asistat emoționată la lansare, recunosc că mi-au curs și mie câteva lacrimi la un moment dat, dar am surprins în acea zi imagini foarte frumoase, care au făcut înconjorul internetului și au fost difuzate chiar și la TV! M-am simțit mândră și un pic mai împlinită să văd reacțiile oamenilor la vederea păpușii în realitate și, mai târziu, în mediul virtual. Am așteptat cu sufletul la gură ca Laura să scrie despre acea zi, neînchipuindu-mi că va avea așa un impact aproape instant (am primit multe like-uri la pagină, și mai multe cereri de prietenie și chiar comenzi pentru noi păpuși minunate!).

În final, îi mulțumesc Laurei pentru așa o oportunitate de a-mi manifesta talente pe care nici măcar nu mi-aș fi închipuit că le am (cine ar fi crezut că aș putea face o păpușă care să semene cu o persoană?). Mi-a părut bine mai ales să aflu că aceasta avea să fie prima ei păpușă numai a ei - căci în copilărie împărțea toate jucăriile cu sora ei mai mare. Le mulțumesc celor care au apreciat păpușa și celor care și-au exprimat dorința de a avea și ei una. Și sper ca și de acum înainte să am ocazia de a mai spune povești atât de complexe cum a fost aceasta pe care tocmai ați citit-o!

ENGLISH VERSION:

LONG STORY SHORT - This is the doll that I made for a young writer in order to help her raise the money for printing her second volume of a story about a girl, a boy, a dog and their adventures in a big world. Nevertheless, she never thought about giving the doll away after seeing her. She looked like her, she was her first doll (in the childhood she had to share all toys with her sister), and she weared a piece of her grandmother's hand-embroidered table cover. Actually, using the table cover was the tricky part of making this doll, as it was very old, very used and full of oil stains. The part with making the doll wig wasn't easier, either. In fact, this is something that I wouldn't do again.

The FREE TUTORIAL that I followed for making the doll's body and face can be found here.

Faux leather bag with cross stitch rose

Recently, I tried my sewing skills on leather. It didn't seem very difficult, but it was surely time consuming. I made a bag inspired by some other crafts I collect on Pinterest. It didn't turned out perfect, but it is one of  a kind. I received a lot of compliments for it. 

Anyway, it all started from the rose. If any of you remember, this is the same rose from the Lalylala spring bunny. It seems that I fell in love with the design and I wanted to give myself the chance to wear it too.

The following photographs featuring my newest handmade bag were taken the last evening of Street Delivery manifestation in Bucharest.

Mucize - The Miracle - Movie review

Well, it's not going to be an actual review. It's more like a reminder to never forget what a powerful movie this is. We found about it during our trip in Istanbul, for the new year celebration. It had been released there the first day of the year. You could see everywhere advertising for this movie. Judging by some of the characters appearance, the movie seemed to be more like a comedy. We didn't know by the time that it was so much more. We were tempted to go see it in their theathers, but we didn't know any turkish at all and were afraid that we will lose the funny scenes. Anyway, it was a good thing that we didn't spoil our feelings that way, even if I am 100% sure that I would have cried anyway. I just watched it for the second time and I cry still. It has something truly powerful, this movie. The actors really gave their best to play in it, too. Even the horse was very genuine in feelings, and gestures. I just translated the subtitles from english to romanian, as I plan to watch it again with my parents.

The main idea of the movie is that love can make miracles. When it is real love :)

Again about plagiarism, copying and faking - it's in the blood of every artist

OK, so I found this truly inspiring book called "Steal like an artist". It is as if I read myself. I feel so connected to everything the author states, because I still wander around searching for a meaning of what I'm doing, I still feel ashamed that I didn't come up with something truly original yet, I still fear that everyone I inspire (or better said, "copy" from) would find me one day and sue me, put me on the ground for "stealing" their work. 

But this books really makes all this fear disappear. It's nothing wrong with copying, the author says, it's not similar to the plagiarism - in fact, "plagiarism" is only when you take someone else's work and pretend it to be yours. As for me, I always add links to the original work of art for my own creation. It's not like I didn't make it with my own hands, I just took someone else's idea and made my own (almost identical) version. And it's because I liked to make it, I liked the way it looked or I liked the colors. That means it was worth stealing!

One of the main ideas of the book is "only steal what you feel is worth stealing". That will help you define your style later. In fact, it's already written even in the Bible, the oldest book in the world: "Nothing new under the sun". Everything has been done before, everything has been said, but there wasn't anybody there to hear it and see it. That's why it needs to be said and done again. And again, and again. Just like in photography - you take people to photograph the same place, the same landscape, the same person, and each and every one of them will come up with something different. The images will be similar, but different in essence. (I'll insert here the link to a great documentary trailer about a famous photographer - The salt of the Earth). It's the same in art.

This book also helped me understand why I collect a lot of images and links and patterns and tutorials of things I like. Because it would take me more than two lives to make all of them, if I were to make them. I collect them because they inspire me. They create my style.

But I'll stop here. I haven't finished the book yet, but I already feel more released. It's great to know people empathize with you on this matter. I invite anyone to read this great book too. On one hand, maybe artists that already found their way and style will understand why other people copy their work, but in the same time maybe they'll admit to themselves that they aren't as original as they think they are. On the other hand, maybe it will encourage young artists like me to continue their works, even if they think it's not worth it, because it's not much originality in what they do. Originality will come, eventually.

Rita the bunny- Lalylala doll making

I finished Rita a few days ago and I wanted to present her to you together with her male bunny friend that I was gonna do right after. Well, I just couldn't help myself not to show her to you before and, well, I don't even know if there's gonna be a boy version of Rita after all (that rose is harder  to embroider on her body than I imagined - I had to improvise a little bit more than Lydia from Lalylala suggested, so that took me hell of a lot of time! Anyway, I went a little further for her face, as I like my toys to have personality, and actually it's the first time when I use safety eyes, and I'm very happy about the result!
So, this is Rita, presenting you her tiny bunny heart! Tell me, how do you love her? <3 p="">

Dancing cats around the plagiarism problem

I made this sewing dancing cats a while ago, and I already had them all gone away. They were super cute but hey, I also need some place for myself in my tiny home, don't I? :)

My inspiration was an Etsy shopper creation, which I had saved in my computer a long time ago:

The problem that I was gonna raise is that, although it didn't happen yet (hey, I'm just not that popular yet! :P ), I might have been accused that, by making this toy, I have stolen someone's intellectual property. In my opinion, as long as I don't claim that it is an original design, I give credits to the original creator or link to the inspiration site, the toy that I came up with is entirely mine and I have the right to do whatever I want with it! In the very end, we can't even say that they are exactly alike, because I used different materials, I painted the details (instead of embroider them) and I added that little love-note idea!

That's why, I hardly keep myself away from entering discussions when I see artisan fellows (especially the girls that are working with FIMO) complaining that someone else has stolen their creations and ideas, making identical items that they sell on their own websites. Of course, I agree it's not a kind thing to do, especially when you are not mentioning anything about your inspiration resources, but hey, it is a free (virtual) world and you assume some risks when posting photos of your original designs. No need to get so much upset when others don't feel the pleasure to promote you or maybe they feel too ashamed to do so (because maybe their entire work is based on copying other artisans). But hey, maybe they're just repeating after you, which should make you so much proud! (NOTE: if you still don't feel like this, you should really get to know Sarah from Repeat (Cr)After Me, she is an awesome creative being, and MOM, who doesn't get upset not a tiny bit on anyone who copies her, but she encourages creative copying! I simply admire her!)

I myself didn't hack in my life just that dancing cat that you can see above, but also crochet patterns and tatting patterns that didn't came up with instructions. Is that so much wrong? Anyway, as I cover quite a broad area of interests on my blog, I don't feel like I could come up with something 100% original right now. Maybe later, when I will learn enough things about crochet, or about sewing, to do so. Till then, happy creatively repeating after... all of you! ^^

Still about LOGO-s

It's been a long time since last posting, but I'm still struggling  between what I am supposed to do, what I like to do and what I am actually doing every moment of the day. And that's a harsh battle, believe me. Anyway, since the first logo that I came up with, I found myself on the edge of an identity crisis, I was about to start a new blog only in Romanian, meant to promote romanian artisans and, eventually, myself in this artisan world, but I managed somehow not to abandon this very blog that is more than perfect for my needs. And I understand now that writing in english is not just a way to reach out artisans and artists all over the world (and defintitely is not a fake way to express myself, as english is not my native tongue), but it is also a choice that I made a long time ago and that defines me as a person.

I thought, therefore, of coming up with a logo that better describes me, and it stroke me once I thought about why did I choose that photo of me holding a leaf in front of my mouth and face, leaving only the eyes and hair revealed, to be my profile photo on the blog. That photo could be explained in many ways, but most important is that it emphasize my eyes, the eyes which are the mirror of my soul. No wonder I like it so much!

Almost two years ago, someone painted that photo of me for a swap. Since then, it hangs above my night bed. I often watch that painted eyes and seek for something that I know is inside me, only it's so hard to reach. It could be determination, it could be fulfillment... Any case, I know it's something good, and better than I am myself right now. I just hope it won't be a never-ending battle :)

So I turned the painting into a sketch, I enhanced it using Paint (I'm still that basic!) and then I added the name of the blog, using a free font from the web (it's called "Sverige Script", if anyone wishes to know). I still feel like I could better it, but I am satisfied with the result. After all, I am that Papillon en Papier, not any P, or butterfly, or cat. Hmmm, do you know what just crossed my mind? That this name seems like the names of american indians... :) (I already see the next logo coming up :))

My first LOGO

I wanted so much to have a personalized LOGO, but I always thought that it would be such a difficult thing to do, that I almost gave up... Eventually, I hired a professional to do this for me, but I just couldn't wait until she was able to think about it, so I came up with this in an intense moment of procastination. I used.... (see if you can guess) PAINT! That's right, the Windows Paint program! :) I even turned it into a watermark using Gimp. What do you think? I'm very proud of myself, I must admit!

Now, let's see how I convince my professional that I no longer need a personalized logo... but more urgent things from her! ^^

Notes: For creating the watermark, I used this tutorial. To watermark the photos with my own logo, I use this site.