A Midsummer Night's Dream

I once took a seminar on scenography and theatrical costume. Although the seminar was far away from being a value-for-money case, I came to work on a scale model that I really enjoyed. The model depicted the set for Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" and we had no budget or technical constrains. The idea was to let our imagination run wild and come up with a set that would seem to us as the ideal for the specific play.  

My first thought was that "Midsummer Night's Dream" has a strong pagan flavor that could not be fully captured unless seen in a real forest! But then, if there are no budget constrains, why don't we move the forest to the city? I came up with the idea of a "forest circus"  that could be moved from place to place. When entering that circus the audience would have the feeling of being inside a real forest. My scale model looked like that:

    

Detail of the entrance:

Detail of the stage and the seats:

 

For the acts that were to take place within the palace, one of the central trees would transform into a red pillow throne. A red carpet and a focused light would complete the illusion of the throne room.

Last but not least, I'm adding a photo of myself leaning proudly above my creation. I'm in the last stage, correcting details and imperfections:

  

Unfortunately, my model became a nest for my cats... and part of it is ruined! Someday I might decide to refresh it and seal it in a plexiglass box, so as to transform it into a coffee-table!

The catbird seat of my bedroom!

I love animals! I have 8 cats at the moment and used to have a dog that I adored (Zori was his name and he passed away quite recently, leaving me completely brokenhearted).

Grace is my princess cat!! She is delicate and choosy, tender and strict! Well, in fact she is a typical lady; always getting what she wants using her charm and cuteness! Bottom line, I love her dearly! That's why I believe that she deserves a place of worship in my most sacred room: the bedroom! 

To shelter my beautiful photos of Grace's hugs I used two IKEA frames that I embellished with flowers that I made out of fabric. I added some rhinestones -to make them suitable for my little princess- and this is the end result... 

I came to like the process of making flowers out of fabric and since I always wanted to add a bird mobile to my bedroom I came up with the following...

The birds are made out of paper clay...

Cirque des etoiles

I love the circus! Circus is about fun, magic and childhood dreams! It's about bright colors and jolly sounds! A place where being different or imperfect seems to be a gift rather than a curse and acting impulsively is encouraged rather than forbidden!

These  blouses are hand-painted with fabric colors. They can be washed and ironed regularly.

Night of the Living...whatever...

The truth is that I never shared this admiration for horror movies! But this was a gift for a friend who loves to hate horrific, supernatural entities! Maybe I'm out of my league but I'm still proud of my polymer clay zombie puppet! After all, she's kind of cute in some weird way. So, meet my Zombie Lady! She is approximately 23cm long...  

  

Samothrace: the earthly paradise

I haven't been posting for a while since I've been away on vacation. For two weeks I was living in one of the most beautiful places on earth: a small Greek island called Samothrace. I came back with my mind filled with unforgettable memories and my heart full of joy! Oh, and with two new creations! 

Before posting these two creations I really would like to present to you all this amazing island. Since I'm not very good with words I will use images to take you away on an imaginary trip to this earthly paradise! 

So, these are some of the different magic ways in which this island captured my heart forever!

Inspired by Samothrace's beauty and uplifting power and with the petty means that I had available ( a box with watercolors and a sketchbook) I painted two fairy creatures that could probably be seen in the island's forests. 

So, this is my Samothrace paperdoll!

 

and my Samothrace Lady

The Sweet Wormth of Words

My friend Christina creates beautiful candles, using a technique that takes advantage of the design of napkins. Most of her candles are hollow inside in order to be reusable. To light them up you put a tea light on their central part and in this way you have the same effect with a common candle.

Christina also creates custom-made candles. When she does she usually asks me to draw on napkins whatever her customer wants. 

Her most successful custom-made candles are those with the Greek poems.  I'm posting here two of my favorite "poetic" candles. I wanted to quote the poems that are presented on these candles so as to show the relationship with their illustration. Unfortunately for each candle I was able to find an official translation only for one of the poems depicted. 

1st candle

BREAD
"An enormous loaf, a huge roll of freshly baked
bread had fallen from the sky into the street
a child with short green trousers and a knife
was cutting it and handing pieces to the crowd
but a small girl, a small white angel she,
with a knife was carving and sharing out
pieces of pure s k y
and everyone now ran to her, few turned to the bread,
everyone ran to the small angel who was handing out the s k y
Let us not hide it: we hunger for the sky!"
MILTOS SACHTOURIS

2nd candle

IF YOU WANT TO BE CALLED A MAN (EXTRACT)

If you want to be called a man
you'll never stop even for a single moment
to fight for peace and justice.
You get out on the street, you scream,
your lips will get bloody from yelling,
your face will get bloody from bullets,
but not a step behind.

TASOS LIVADITIS

If you want to see more of Christina's creations you can visit her blog http://chriscandles.blogspot.gr/