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Silk Screening Christmas Fragrant Sachets

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Na minha família não há muitos artistas muito embora todos sejamos pessoas criativas que não têm medo nenhum de colocar mãos à obra. Mas entre as mais variadas carreiras profissionais, eu tenho um tio que, durante praticamente toda a sua vida profissional, fez serigrafia.
O meu tio não tem filhos e não há mais ninguém na família que tenha trabalhado a arte dele… Seria uma pena ninguém ficar com o conhecimento para a posteridade. Aconselhei-me com ele e resolvi fazer um workshop.

 

Depois de estudar as várias possibilidades decidi fazer um workshop com a Ana Seixas.
Eu adoro o trabalho da Ana, tenho alguns dos seus trabalhos em casa e adorei o workshop!
Não posso dizer que a serigrafia seja uma técnica muito simples de fazer em casa apesar de haver uma série de formas de fazer serigrafia simples e em pequena escala. A Ana correspondeu às minha expectativas e satisfez toda a minha curiosidade, motivou-me a vir preparada para fazer muitas impressões e levar para casa um produto pensado, desenhado e impresso por mim e que pudesse ser transformado posteriormente. Tive oportunidade de fazer impressões em papel e tecido e, como estávamos perto do natal resolvi levar alguns cortes de tecido para fazer decorações e presentes.
As primeiras impressões a sair foram estes veados que imprimi em pequenos quadrados. Em casa usei-os para fazer saquetas que podem ser perfumadas com algumas gotas de óleo essencial de pinho e penduradas na árvore de natal.
Tenho de ser honesta! Fiquei incrivelmente surpreendida com os resultados, muito feliz por ter seguido os conselhos da Ana e me ter preparado tão bem para o workshop com ideias e materiais.

 

There aren’t a great number of artists in my family although we all are very creative people who are not afraid to use their hands. However, among the most varied professional careers, I have an uncle who did silk screening for practically all his professional life.
My uncle has no children and there is no one else in the family who has worked on his art… It would be a pity if noone in the family kept his art for posterity. I talked about it with him and took his advice of doing a workshop.

 

I looked for the several possibilities and ended up making this great workshop with Ana Seixas.
I love Ana’s work, I have some of her work at home and loved her workshop!
Regarding silk screen, I can not say that it’s a simple technique to do at home despite there are several ways to adress it in a small scale. Ana met all my expectations and curiosity, motivated me to come prepared to make many impressions during the workshop and then take home several products designed and printed by me that could be wisely transformed.
I had the opportunity to make prints on paper and fabric and, as we were close to Christmas I decided to take some fabric cuts, print them out and use them to make decorations and gifts.
My first silk screen impressions were these deer silhouettes that I printed in small squares of fabric. Back home I used them to make these little sachets that can be perfumed with a few drops of pine essential oil and hunged on the Christmas tree.
I must be honest! I was incredibly surprised by the result and very happy to have followed Ana’s advice to think ahead and prepar myself with lots of materials and ideas for the workshop.

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Christmas time on the blog: the most amazing projects!

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Eu sempre dedico o mês de Dezembro para fazer os presentes, as decorações, os postais e os embrulhos feitos à mão. Isto evita que me sinta esmagada pela confusão do Natal que considero adulterar por completo a essência da época. Quando olho para o blog compreendo que já fiz uma imensidão de projectos, alguns deles dedicados ao Natal. É assim que percebo os meus progressos, as coisas novas que aprendo e a minha capacidade para coisas, a cada dia, mais desafiantes. Deixo-vos com alguns dos meus posts favoritos entre decorações, presentes e outros projetos de Natal que eu adorei fazer!

 

I always dedicate the month of December to making gifts, decorations, postcards and handmade gift wrapping. This keeps me from feeling overwhelmed by the Christmas mess that I consider to completely corrupt the essence of this season. When I look back at blog arquives, I understand that I’ve done a lot of projects, some of them dedicated to Christmas. This is how I perceive my progress, the new things I learn, and my capacity for increasingly challenging new things. I leave you with some of my favorite posts among decorations, gifts and other Christmas projects I loved to make!
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Christmas Stocking

Saint Nicholas Catholic Church (Zanesville, Ohio) – stained glass, St. Nichola

 

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Recentemente ouvi num programa televisivo sobre o Natal no Porto a história da origem das meias de natal penduradas nas lareiras. Reza a lenda que, no séc. IV, S. Nicolau ajudou uma família pobre com três filhas que não tinham dote para casar. Secretamente fez cair pela chaminé três sacos de moedas que foram cair dentro das meias das donzelas que estavam à lareira a secar. Que descoberta maravilhosa! Nunca houve tradição de ter meias de Natal na lareira em minha casa mas a ternura da lenda encheu este objecto de significado.

 

Do curso de serigrafia resultaram uma série de produtos. Muitos deles tiveram como tema o Natal porque fiz o curso no Outono e quis aproveitar para fazer à mão algumas decorações para a minha casa. Já falei aqui das bandeirolas e das almofadas de cheiro para a árvore de natal. Mas para além disso, ainda fiz impressões para fazer as famosas “christmas stockings”, meias de natal para colocar na lareira e que fiz também para oferecer. Não foi fácil encontrar um bom modelo por isso acabei por combinar vários e fazer alguns aumentos e diminuições. Quando finalmente encontrei a medida ideal cortei o tecido à medida antes de as serigrafar a vermelho com um veado (semelhante ao que imprimi nas almofadas) e uma coroa de natal.
Fiz muitos exemplares porque não sabia se ia conseguir obter um bom resultado logo de início mas acabei por só fazer duas meias para a nossa casa e usei as restantes impressões para fazer presentes. Gosto da ideia de ter várias meias diferentes, por isso no futuro, quero acrescentar outros modelos para criar um conjunto variado!

 

Recently, I heard in a television program about Christmas in Porto the origin of Christmas Stockings. The legend says that, during the fourth century, St. Nicholas helped a poor family with three daughters who had no dowry to marry. He secretly dropped three bags of coins down the chimney that fell into their socks that were drying at the fireplace. What a wonderful discovery! I never had christmas stocking at my fireplace but the tenderness of the legend filled this common object with meaning and respect.

 

From the silk screen printing workshop I made a number of products, especially christmas decorations because I took the course in the fall and wanted to make some handmade decorations to my home. I’ve already mentioned here the banners and the fragrant sachets for the Christmas tree. But besides that, I made some prints to make the famous christmas stockings for my fireplace and to offer as christmas presents. It was not easy to find a good pattern so I ended up combining several and making some adjustments. When I finally got the ideal pattern, I cut the fabric to size before the workshop where I printed a deer (similar to what I printed on the sachets) and a Christmas wreath using red paint.
I made many copies because I did not know if I would get a good result at my first attempts. I used two prints to make two stockings for our fireplace and used the remaining prints to make gifts. I like the idea of ​having several different stockings so, in the future, I want to add other patterns and techniques to create a random set of christmas stockings in my fireplace!
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Gingerbread house for Christmas

gingerbread house
gingerbread house
gingerbread house
gingerbread house
gingerbread house

gingerbread house
gingerbread house
gingerbread house

This Christmas I decided to try out my first gingerbread house.

I’ve done so many Christmas projects! A pom-pom wreath for the door, the decorations for the Christmas tree, advent calendars, there are a series of handmade Christmas adventures on the blog that you can check out and try. Right now I don’t really need anything else for my home since we spent so much time inside doors this year, I really wanted a handmade adventure to bring me the Christmas spirit that I usually absorb from these projects.So this Christmas I decided to try out my very first gingerbread house.

The myths


My intention was to make a small house. But when I started making it, I realized that this will be a proper sized one!
To tell you the truth, this little experiment has dispelled many myths! The gingerbread house dough is very resistant and the gingerbread house icing, if done properly, is a very strong cement. It also is a decorative forgiving plaster that goes very well into the hands of an humble apprentice. Both make gingerbread houses much more resilient than you think!

Gingerbread house frosting


As I am not a fan of gingerbread houses full of candy and strong colors, I opted for the “basic” gingerbread house decorations. I just used icing that gives it a somewhat minimalist look. At least I did not want to venture into big juggling right on my first try … ah, but the maternal grandfather’s genetics that I preserve inside me (fantasy enthusiast) couldn’t resist adding at least a few windows glass using gelatin sheets… just to keep the cold outside!

Overall I am very proud if it and I assume that I will make more in the following years.

I wish you a different but merry Christmas, with the light that is missing in the streets emanating, this time, from the inside out.

gingerbread house
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