SUMMER ART CREATIONS

It's that time of the year where everything is blooming and looking very good. So with the beautiful spate of good weather I decided to do lots of stuff with a floral theme.

Barrels

Inspired by some barrels that I saw in Durrow last summer, I began hunting for empty plastic barrels to paint. The owner of River Spices (Indian takeaway) gave me 2 small chutney barrels. I wanted a bigger one so I went to the milk market to source for one but I didn't like what I saw.

When I visited my friend Catherine, I saw some blue barrels and it was so nice of Ned to give me one. He loaded it into my car boot - a perfect fit! So I've transformed the barrels into 2 planters and one water butt to catch the rain that runs down the gutter..

I like the saddleback pig because of its distint black and white markings. So I modelled the water butt after the piggy.

Path

I couldn't leave a path in its original state.   I had to give it a makeover.

and the original path below

Wigwams

I planted more climbing plants so there was a need for bamboo/willow wigwams.

Pallets

I saw how pallets were painted at the Bloom and Clare garden festivals last year and so I decided to try it out.

Cable wheel

I turned this cable reel into a small table.

Food Cover

And to keep the pesky flies away, this is a bee hive with a difference!

I spend much time in the garden and it's all very worth it....The roses are all blooming and there is also a bumper crop of vegetables

I bought a chimney pot from a Recycle Centre in Scariff and did mosaic work on it.

and decoupaged a plastic chair

                         ..............made two floral hair clips to match my dress

                                   gave 3 bedroom windows a new stained glass look...........

       and finally did mosaic work on the window sills which won a lot of admiration from passers-by .               ............

SUGAN TEACHING

When I learn something, I love to teach others.

A year ago I went to the Slieve Aughty mountains and stayed there and learnt how to weave a sugan chair. At that time I had sprained my ankle badly but nothing was stopping me from learning such a beautiful craft.( (11 May 2016 - Making a Sugan Chair
http://kreatifhands.blogspot.ie/2016/05/making-sugan-chair.html)

I also wrote an article about it in my column for the New Straits Times Malaysia. (A Chair by Any other Name would make a Great Seat - http://soo-livinglifeasitis.blogspot.ie/2016/08/a-chair-by-any-other-name-would-make.html )

A year later I contributed a sugan chair to the Scarriff Cooperative Cafe. When the director heard about it he contacted me and said there were several sugan chairs that needed repair and asked if I could teach?

I thought it would be a lovely thing to do and so the coop put up a notice. It was a free workshop for anyone interested. The only thing was the participants could not bring the chairs home.

I ordered the rope from Dublin and when the day came I had three eager participants. They were all fast learners and in two hours we wove new seats for 6 chairs.



One of the participants said it was very interesting that a Malaysian was teaching them an Irish craft. He also asked me about the history of the sugan chair and I readily shared whatever I knew. Then he asked whether I knew other traditional crafts. I said yes: willow basketry and limerick lace making. Then he  cheekily asked if they would be having Malaysian satay later. In fact, two of them had been to Malaysia before!

It was really great to teach those who are good with their hands and we had a wonderful time that Saturday morning.

MORE UPCYCLED CHAIRS

I have a connection with chairs. So I got myself a few more second-hand chairs and decided to transform them.

The first one is one that has Orla Kiely's trademark on it. I love Orla Kiely's stuff from dresses to accessories to shoes. So now that I have my own Orla chair to sit on, I must wear my orla outfit, shoes and brooch and sit on it.

This was the original chair

For the next chair, I painted and distressed the wood with chalk paint and made a sugan seat

Finally, I created another one with BEANO - my favourite comic book

Due to the good response to the photos I put up on social media, for the next month, I'll be busy holding workshops on furniture upcycling!

MAKING A SUGAN CHAIR

When I wrote to Slieve Aughty centre about a year ago (2015) and asked them when they would conduct a course on sugan chair making, I heard nothing from them. Then out of the blue in January 2016, they contacted me and told me about the Weekend in the Hills where traditional crafts would be taught. Strangely they had kept my email and decided to respond a year later. This is Ireland.

So I signed up for it and Michael and I made 2 trips just to check out the place, to be sure, to be sure. I'm perfect in the city but I get lost in the country. Slieve Aughty is nestled in Kylebrack, Co. Loughrea. The first time we drove there, we were going uphill and downhill and then we admitted that we were lost. So we pulled to the side and waited for a friendly face. Lo and behold a tractor came by.

I put on my puss in boots look and said, 'I am lost, can you help me?'. No one can resist that, not even myself. The farmer was very helpful and said, 'I will put your feet on the right path again!' He grinned and went over the directions twice. This again is Ireland.

When the day arrived, I was in no position to drive as I had sprained my ankle and tore some ligaments. It was wonderful that my friend Susan said she would take over the wheel. Such is the wonder of having a great friend. Susan had also signed up to do a different course.

At the reception counter, I asked whether I could use the lift. The lady in-charge said the lift was full of stuff and I had to climb the stairs with my crutches. I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. Anyway, the tasty organic food made up for it. The room was lovely too.

There were five of us - all ladies. We surrounded the master craftsman Sean Walshe and gave him no peace, We chose our logs and there was a lot of sawing and drilling.

I was completely hopeless when it came to the use of brute strength. I am no brute and I had no strength.

At the end of the day, Susan came by and helped me with the weaving of the seat. The result of four hands working on the seat was spectacular. The master was very pleased and so was I.

Junior Chairs and Senior Spectacle Cases

With the Irish summer getting colder and wetter by the day, I find myself spending more time indoors and therefore I have loads of hours and minutes to indulge in crafting. I embrace both the rain and the sun. I know my vegetables are happy with the rain. When the sun is out, we are normally on the road.

So, on one rare sunny day I acquired a Sugan chair.

The Sugan chair is a masterpiece in itself. The term Sugan is the Gaelic word for straw/straw rope used for chair seating. The sugan chair used to be a popular kitchen chair in county districts, particularly in the west and southwest of Ireland and they come in bespoke sizes. So, I  decided to give it a makeover.

The original Sugan chair before the makeover

When my young visitors came over for tea and cake, I brought out the sugan chair, the butler's table and the other stools that I had transformed earlier. There were smiles all round.

I then moved on to transform spectacle cases for senior eyes. We have purchased quite a number of reading glasses and left them in strategic places so we did not need to go searching for them whenever we wanted to read.

The original spectacle cases

Now that I've finished these projects, I'm looking forward to doing some other exciting stuff.