Saturday April 9th, 2016

Clay

potterypost

I couldn’t give any other name to this blog post. It’s just clay and it is the most perfect material in the UNIVERSE.  Maybe it’s because it’s a natural material and that’s why I feel I understand it so good. Maybe I just found the most perfect teacher and she is the one who makes it all simple. Maybe my fellow students at pottery class are just amazing and give me inspiration. Or just maybe it’s all of the above combined.

Anyway, this post is not a “how to” but I can show you what I made. And I must admit that I am really proud! (so please, don’t judge to harshly!)

So, this box was actually an exercise for us to learn how to make clay joints.  Yes, the wheel is not the only way to make pottery (something like Ghost and stuff!). There ARE other ways! It’s like making pizza dough, you cut it at the pieces of your preference and then you stick them together.

This is how it looks before the oven.

pottery_box

After the oven (the lines are some tests I did, but I didn’t like it in the end) pottery_box1

And then, color! pottery_colors

pottery_box3

And a saucy detail!

pottery_box2

Now let’s see my plates! These were simpler, but the details are quite challenging.

pottery_plates1 pottery_plates2 pottery_plates3

And now the glazing with liquid glass remains. Anyway, it’s this glazing process that makes pottery OK to drink or eat from. Very impressive but you need to be precise and really know what you’re doing. When they are 100% ready I’ll photograph them again to show you.

PS. As you can figure, this is not air dry clay. It’s a totally different thing, harder, more interesting, with history and tradition (And Greece has a tremendous tradition in pottery!)

Sunday March 27th, 2016

Make a tre chic scratch post for your cat

onyxodromeio

It’s been a while since my last post. But I’ll try to be more consistent. Actually I have been taking pottery classes and I don’t even have time to write (I’ll tell you all about it though soon)! Anyway, I don’t want to blabber, last week I made this scratch post for Pritsini and Loukia (my cats).

You will need some rope, a piece of wood (mine was from an old bed slat that I cut), glue, screws, electric drill to put it on the wall and a lot of patience! Preety simple, right?

Let’s see

onyxodromeio1

Using a brush I glued the wood. Careful though, not to put too much glue otherwise the rope will get messy.

onyxodromeio2

With patience I wrapped the rope around the wood.

onyxodromeio3

And then, just for the cuteness of it, I added a little orange.

onyxodromeio4

onyxodromeio5

I drilled 4 holes in the wall and put it with screws.

onyxodromeio6

Cha ching!!! (Loukia is a bonus)

onyxodromeio7

So here it is, something easy, made by you for your cats! And even if they never use it (cause with cats there’s always this chance) it’s OK because it’s just tre chic!

 

Sunday January 17th, 2016

DIY wooden colour blocks for kids

color_blocks0

When making something for your unique, amazing, pretty little 2year old niece, you make it with excitement, energy and precision! The idea was not mine! I was looking online last week to find something to make for her, instead of buying something that would last for 3 days and I found this blog post. I copied the idea with some differences though.

And, since I am certain that you too want to make this amazing toy for your child/niece/nephew/godson etc, I’ll write it down for you with all the details.

You’ll need:

  • 2 beams, 3 meters long with a 4,5 cm side
  • Food coloring
  • Vinegar
  • Saw
  • Sander
  • Sanding paper (120)

The logic of the game is that it follows the shape of a pyramid. We begin with the highest blocks in the center and while moving outwards, we make the blocks shorter. The following sketch might help you a lot better.FullSizeRender

So, you cut the wood according to the sketch. The height lowers accordingly to the beam’s side size. What you want is for the smallest ones to be cubes. So from row to row the difference is 4,5 cm. I had the wood cut at the hardware store where I bought it, but they could only cut it up to 18cm, and no less. So, all the rest I had to cut myself. That took me around 45 minutes.

color_blocks1

Here are the 18cm ones.

color_blocks2

And here are the rest.

After I cut everything, I HAD to sand the corners in order for the blocks not to be dangerous. That’s one of the differences of my edition of the blocks. And that was the hardest part that took me 2,5 hours and gave me a temporary Parkinsons disease and a two hour loss of hearing!

color_blocks3

Wood, ready!

color_blocks4

And then, before the paint, I made this gif! 🙂 

xib3j

Finally, since the blocks are meant for little kids, they need to be as safe as possible. That’s why I painted it with food coloring that is non-toxic. Mix 2-3 drops of the food coloring with 1 tablespoon of water and 1 tablespoon of vinegar and start painting. You can experiment with the quantities and due to the wood that is very absorbing you can get many different shades. I experimented with the blue a lot.

color_blocks5

color_blocks6

This took me around 1 hour, and the result is very rewarding. And now I give you a lot of pictures of the final result because I am super happy and excited!

color_blocks7

color_blocks9

color_blocks10

color_blocks11

color_blocks12

color_blocks13

Oh, I almost forgot, you need to also make a tray to put them in. I suggest you make the blocks first, then measure and then make it. I used nails, nothing hard to do.

color_blocks8

For my next kids project, I am thinking about a wooden puzzle! Any other ideas?

Sunday January 10th, 2016

Before & After: The Über buffet

BUFFET

I don’t even know where to start with this post. When we first met, it was in a garage. I saw it, it saw me, we looked at each other and decided we were made for one another. But only when he came home, walked in to the hallway I realized our differences. It was too big, too tall and anyway my house had some objections. Imagine, it was about 15cm taller than the tallest furniture of the house and looked really mismatched. It was as if it’s real place were the entrance of a music hall or something.

buffett_before

Anyway, I had it at home for about a year and a half, not knowing what I would do with it. Until 3 weeks ago that I finally used my saw. I totally flipped and cut it’s legs!!!  Took me ten minutes and it was what I should have done from the start. I found a perfect place for it, under a window in the living room and then started the process of deciding on how to paint it.

It was a tough decision to make. When you have such a piece there are so many things to do. Anyway, I went for grey and gold because I wanted to decrease it’s rather big volume but also keep a little of the glam (pretty sure it had a lot it in the past 🙂 )

The procedure was rather tiring. The plywood was in very bad shape and I had to use a lot of putty in order to even the surface. The following pic gives a clear image of the putty use.

buffet_1

I had to prime it of course (2 coats)

buffet2

And then it was finally the time to paint it! 🙂 I wanted to have a matte – chalk like finish so I decided to make chalk paint. (Annie Sloan is so expensive :/ ) I found a recipe and went for it! I gave it 2 coats of the paint and let it dry. I used paper tape from one side to the other, in order to define the part that I wanted to make gold and then spray painted it. All handles and decor were removed and also spray painted. Final step was the waxing which you do to protect the wood, but the product I found was not so good so I need to do it again at some point.

Before I let you see all the pictures, I just wanted to tell you that I am very proud for this specific project. It was one of my biggest challenges yet, and for my taste I think it was the best thing I could do.buffet3buffet4buffet5buffet6buffet7buffet8

Thursday January 7th, 2016

The pinboard: TV, Netflix and decor

As many friends said on Facebook, “Netflix is here (Greece), Goodbye life”. So, if we are to become couch potatos, let’s do it in style. I have gathered for you tv furniture and in general wall units that include the “devil box”, also known as Television. No, it’s not that we’ll stop watching tv. We’ll be watching Netflix though, and this makes us less losers. 😛

1 – Ooohhh! Design furniture and all. I found it here, although it’s out of stock. If you are a DIYer though, you can try to make it.

tv1

tv2

2 – Half geek – Half intellectual.  2 in 1. Do you want to impress your friends? You shut the doors and say with pride “I don’t own a TV!”. Then your friends leave, your open the doors, you switch Netflix on FOREVER and never see your friends again. You send them a letter telling them you left for Machu Pichu and not to expect back soon. tv3

3 – Wood & Cement The basics. After that you need a tv, connection to the web, a couch, a fridge and an account for e-food. You don’t have any friends. 😛

tv4

4 – I really like wood as a back ground (with or without the TV). Let’s see some implementations

tv5

tv6

Source

5 – Ok, I only put this for fun because it’s really amazing but also really expensive! These rich guys from Copenhagen  do cool stuff like this. I am sure that these people don’t have Netflix. Most probably they call the actors at their place for live performances.

tv7

6 – Here the TV is appreciated as art apparently. I think it’s a little confusing, but nice. Source here

tv8

Cheers !