an interview with maria-thérèse of afiori

i stumbled onto maria-thérèse's etsy shop - afiori - long ago. from there, i was led to her blog (i love how she does all of her posts in both english and swedish). we've been exchanging comments and mails and facebook updates for sometime now and she feels like an old friend, even tho' we've never met in person. i sent her interview questions a few weeks ago and now, at last, i have her answers. i find them to be completely worth the wait and i hope you will too...(the pictures are all hers and many of them are available as different products in her etsy shop)

1. sometimes living a creative life (and not succumbing to mind-numbing corporate hell) is difficult, how do you make it work?

I have always been very creative. It's like this force inside me which can't be stopped. While I've never been in corporate hell, I did go to school and university for many years and also tried to work as a teacher, but I would incorporate creativity in my work and then create things for myself and for friends at night. If you are talking money, I don't find it a lot more difficult being a full-time artist than being the youngest and last employed substitute teacher in times of financial crisis. Starting www.afiori.com is one of the best things I've ever done for myself.

2. what do you do to relax when you get stressed out?

Nothing. I honestly don't know how to relax but I know I have to learn. One thing that helps is to watch action movies. The more explosions, the better. I suppose that when I see someone else being in an extremely stressful situation with explosions and car chases, I feel a little bit relaxed in comparison. Gosh, this sounds sad. Seriously, if someone could teach me how to relax I'd appreciate it.

3. you make the most fantastic photographic collages without using photoshop, can you share a little bit of your secret?

Why thank you! Well, photography is one thing and collage is another. I have always enjoyed working with my hands and with paper. To create this collage, Find Your Wings, I printed out a photograph I had taken of some pink flowers. I painted on the photograph using acrylics, scraped off the paint, printed out a vintage image as a transparency, hand coloured it a bit and stuck it to the paint, added real leaves, painted some more, scraped off paint and scanned it all in when it was finished. Many of my collages are from my own art journals and then I use them as covers for the journals I sell.

When it comes to photography, I had my own darkroom as a child and learnt traditional darkroom techniques, so I tend to think in terms of negatives instead of layers and I prefer the photography part – observing the light, the shadows and the vantage point – to doing too many things afterwards on the computer. There are so many creative ways to take photographs. My main reason for not getting Photoshop was that it's really expensive but now I feel that I'm a bit against it, simply because I wouldn't feel as creative if a programme helped me a lot. I am not saying that Photoshop is bad or that others shouldn't be using it, not at all, but I think it may be easy to become too reliant on Photoshop.

I do use other programmes to alter or merge photographs but very simple – and free - ones. One came with my scanner..! I also like to print out photographs like I said above and physically do things to them.

4. what's your ultimate dream camera (and money is no object)?

It would take huge photographs without noise and it would have an extremely flexible lense. It would be smaller and lighter than the camera I'm using now (which is supposed to be one of the world's smallest digital SLR:s but it's still heavy to carry and handle all day for two small hands); it would focus extremely quickly in auto mode and also never break. Oh, and it would have some sort of shell so you could change the colour of the camera. Maybe it could have wings as well and just fly next to me and at night we could watch violent movies together.

5. where is your favorite vacation destination?

Rome, London, Florence, Paris, a beach in France, my mum's house and having waffles outside my aunt's house on a hill.

6. explain the true meaning of fika.

Fika is a wonderful thing. Here in Sweden, you can ask a friend if they want to go and fika with you. It means you'll meet at a café, have something to drink and a piece of cake, cookies, something sweet to go with the drink and you'll talk and hang out for a while. You can also fika on your own. Fika is both a noun and a verb: fika is the things you are eating and drinking and also the word for what you are doing. Fika is a very important social thing and if someone comes to your house and you don't offer them fika they will think you are a little bit crazy or at least very rude.

7. what's your favorite part about being your own boss?

The world makes more sense to me now. I never really understood why someone else should be telling me what to do anyway.

8. what's hardest about being your own boss?

Let me tell you – my boss is crazy! She makes me work all the time without any vacation. Well, she let me go to Paris a while back but demanded I take nine hundred photographs and talk to galleries while I was there. Sure, she takes me out to fika sometimes and I can sleep until ten in the morning, but she expects me to do everything, even the bookkeeping. Still, I have to say I really like my job.

9. are you a night person or a morning person?

Night.

10. you've been doing a lot of photoshoots lately...is it fun to branch out into portraits or a bit scary?

Can you keep a secret? afiori is also branching out into photo jewellery! There will also be calendars very soon. I've actually done a lot of portrait photography before and think it's a lot of fun, but for some reason didn't think to include it in my business until recently when a bride-to-be asked if I could photograph a wedding. I am only scared of forests filled with murderers and bears. When it comes to work and creativity, I am fearless.

* * *

thank you, maria-thérèse!

this was totally worth waiting for!

so much inspiration here.

you make me want to embrace my creative self and just trust and believe in her.

an interview with stacey, creator of shoe per diem

so i was listening to a radio program the other day which was about the so-called generation Y - you know, that generation behind mine (generation X) - those youngsters who don't believe in anything and who drift from one cool new thing to the next (wait a minute, that's starting to sound like Gen X). since i know stacey is of generation Y, i just had to ask her about that, as well as about her cool blog (of which i am a sporatic contributor - i'm sorry, but the snow depressed me last winter) - shoe per diem.

1. generation Y has been accused of not really believing in anything...what do you believe in?

Nothing.

Ha ha, that was the first thought that came to my mind. Then I remembered me. I believe in me. And I believe that there are really really really ridiculously good people in the world and that I am lucky enough to know a great many of them.

2. what do you miss about discounderworld?

The people, and the possibilities.

3. can you give us a little preview of your next big thing?

It's about showing people you love and are thinking of them, no matter where you or them are... we are calling it paperkiss.me (the website isn't up yet, but I will be sure to let you know when it is! We are aiming for September/October this year :)

4. tell us a hilarious travel story...

God, where to start, I manage to get myself into the most ridiculous of situations, but I guess the one that holds the fondest memories for me goes with this picture (in which I am nearly wetting myself):

On the left is my friend Erica, she and I lived in Paris at the same time, and we used to have all these crazy adventures together mostly because of the fact that she lived in Montmarte on Rue des Martyrs and we would frequent the shady strip bars along Boulevard de Montmarte for the free entry and free champagne... after one night out we were eating breakfast (okay it was morning by then) and these two guys sat down at a tiny table so close that we couldn't not start talking to them. I remember I was eating chocolate cake and it was delicious and Erica for some godforsaken reason had chosen to order a salmon tart. Anyhoo, we started talking, and it turned out they were English and very soon after that, it turned out that they were quite boring, so me and Erica began to make our *stretch* *yawn* *must be time for bed* noises. Just before we left one of them asked what we were doing in Paris, and consequently we asked them... turned out they worked at Disneyland Paris... one was Sully from Monsters Inc, and the other was his keeper. They were on their way to work and said they could get take us if we wanted, and suddenly not tired anymore we found ourselves after a night of shady bars and drinking, at Disneyland at 8am, getting chased around by that big hairy monster and having the time of our lives!!

5. what made you want to track your shoes throughout 2010?

Hmm, I saw this flickr set of a girl who took pictures of her outfits everyday for a year and thought that was an awesome way to visual diary her year. Then I thought about what I would be comfortable doing and decided my feet would suffice. As you've probably noticed my shoes don't change that often... black jandals/bare feet in summer, brown boots in winter, but I think at the end of the year, it will be awesome to be able to look back and take note of all the things I did, and having others on the blog is just amazing, it's awesome getting to know people through their choice of shoes and things they do on a day-to-day basis. I think there's the premise for a book in there somewhere...

6. apropos of your brainchild, shoe per diem, what percentage of the year do you spend barefoot or in flip-flops?

Ha ha, so you noticed! I would easily say 60% of the year. In summer if I'm not wearing my jandals, I am either swimming, sleeping or dancing. And none of those require shoes.

7. the worst book you've read in the past year?

Oh shit, this is hard, I get heaps of books through work, and mostly they suck. Um, okay so, "Think of a Number" was the latest worst. It was one of those crime books which I would never read if I didn't have too, and it alluded all this suspense and mystery, but it was I the reader who was one step ahead of the dickhead detective in the book.

8. when you were 9 years old, what did you think you wanted to be when you grew up?

An Olympic swimmer, this continued till about 14 when I chose life.

9. have you ever tried being a vegetarian?

No, but if I don't have to cook for anyone else, I don't usually bother with meat.

10. do you go to tweet-ups?

Ha! I have been to some, maybe about four. But the last was over a year ago, and I just ended up talking to people I knew, I am a terrible small chat chick.

11. how has the internet changed your life?

I'm not sure changed would be the right word. It has kinda always been there, I guess when it wasn't I was young and doing things that didn't need the internet. I suppose google has meant that instead of looking things up in dictionaries or encyclopedias like I did when I did projects for school when I was young, I now just have to type into the search engine.

on the radio program they asked Danish Gen Y'ers whether they'd tried cocaine, downloaded music or films without paying or took a "morning after" pill...but i decided i didn't really want to go there. :-)

but stacey said, "Ha, ha, see to me and many people I know, none of those things seem very far out. But I personally have never done cocaine :)"

* * *

but do go check out stacey's fabulous shoe per diem - it's like cocaine for shoe lovers. 

but you probably will want to go shopping afterwards.

she's assembled an awesome group of women from around the world.

and their shoes.
and you might occasionally even see my shoes there. :-)
(just to remind us that it always comes back to me.)

an interview with sammi from two thousand miles from home

sammi. what can i tell you about her? i suppose it seems a little weird that a twenty-something girl from england regularly reads MPC and is my friend on twitter and facebook. but still, that's the beauty of the blogosphere. and i just know that if she comes to blog camp in berlin with us in september, we'll totally get up to some serious trouble (see jagermeister reference below)....go, read her blog now - not now, now, but right after you read this...

1. you recently drastically cut your hair.  freeing or frightening?

Freeing! It's the second time I've worn my hair so short, the first time I had it cut so short, it was much longer than this time when I decided to get it cut. The first time I still wore suits to work! I love having it short, but I seem to be one of those people who can never make my mind up; when its long, I want it short and when its short I want it long.

2.  you lived in spain for a time - what do you miss about it?

My friends, speaking Spanish with people, and Spanglish (there are certain words I still don't know the English equivilent for). Tomato frito, how on earth do you make a quick meal without it? It works for everything! Seeing the beach from my balcony, being able to go to the beach every day. Zara- Spanish prices are so much less than English!

3.  what do you want to be when you grow up?

A writer! I wrote a novel a few years ago, and never got around to editing it. Maybe one day I will. I'd like to go into travel writing, but I think I need to travel more regularly to do that. Right now, I really love my job, I work in a little village pub and I'm doing my NVQs and the people I work with are great, and I get on really well with my boss.

4.  if you were a car, what car would you be?

Maybe a Smart car, since I am so little...

5.  coffee or tea?

Tea. Milk, one sugar, thank you.

6.  what do you do/where do you go when you really need to relax and get away from it all?

Take my dog for a walk, usually to Bembury Lane, and through to Wyke

7.  camper or luxury hotel?

Camper, most likely on my budget!

8.  your most hilarious travel story.

Weaving through the streets of my friends home town in Gran Canaria in the early hours of the morning, we'd managed to get a taxi driver who didn't really know where he was going, so my friend told him to stop and we'd walk the rest... two hours later we were still out giggling to ourselves because we couldn't find his home, but it probably didn't help that we'd managed to stop in every bar along the road for a "chupito" of jagermeister!

* * *

thank you, sammi! i'd like a chupito of jagermeister, please...it's good for my cough, you know...but we'll get on that in berlin. :-)

energized or i should really get out more

self-portrait in really old mirror (i think i need a really old mirror)

i have had the most energizing couple of days, despite the fact that i didn't sleep enough. sometimes, it's just so energizing to be around other people. i went to a job interview that was very exciting (still in process, no news yet). afterwards, i drove down to visit elizabeth, who has has some  unexpected trouble with her eye - she explains it on her blog, so i won't go into it. talking about it kinda makes me have to lie down anyway.

i am amazed tho' at her beautiful attitude about having a blind spot right in the center of her right eye. she is quite accepting about the whole thing and already thinking of how to adapt her art and her life to live with it if it doesn't clear up. all i can say is that someone else will have to pour the tea. :-) i think if it was me, i would be so much more angry about it, but elizabeth doesn't seem angry at all, nor does she seem frightened at the prospect. so i learned a great deal from her quiet acceptance of what happened - completely without martyrdom or anger or even questioning. i kept asking "how did it happen," but there's really no answer for that, it could happen to any of us, a small burst blood vessel in the eye. i said to someone recently that elizabeth was my zen master, teaching me now to be more accepting and understanding of the world, and this just confirms that.

i had a really delightful evening, meeting her family and sitting up 'til the wee hours, drinking tea and chatting and looking at all of her beautiful art and the stones she's gathered and displayed around the house. her son has definitely caught her artistic bug and he made the most delightful little ceramic crocodile! he (the crocodile that is) tried to crawl into my camera bag when i left, but i made him stay there with his family.

elizabeth lives on an island, so while i was waiting for the ferry, i got out of the car to take some pictures of the softly-falling snow. there was a real old salt kind of a captain there in a small boat that was being loaded with loads of orange cables. he saw me taking pictures and came out to talk to me (i wish i'd asked him if i could take his picture, but  i was chicken it just didn't feel right to do so). he began to tell me about the ice. the ferry was keeping a path of ice clear, but he said that all of the ice around the dock had really formed overnight. he told me of his days of sailing the real icebreakers up in greenland and he was charming and interesting in that down-to-earth way that sea captains so often are.  his boat was taking a scientific crew out to lay cables for seismographic measurements that are being taken further north in the fjord. i asked if the ice would be a problem for his little boat, but he said it wouldn't, it wasn't that thick. when the ferry came and i had to go, i had a strong urge to give him a hug, but i restrained as i think he would have been quite surprised. it was an odd feeling since i'm not really a huggy person. he was just so real and authentic. one of those moments of perfect clarity that are so few, actually.

the only shot i got of his boat, as i was on the ferry and leaving.

i really wish i'd asked him if i could take his picture.

on my way home, i stopped at the marvelous koldinghus to see what was on display in their beautiful exhibition rooms. it was a limited and not very interesting exhibition about gaudi and la segrada familia (if you'd been to the real thing), but i enjoyed wandering the beautiful spaces there. it's just a wonderful castle and another of those examples of how the danes are so good at combining old and new architecture and at creating atmosphere. even on a large scale.  i would SO love to have a party in this room:

i made a stop at the fabric store before i got home and got some really, really exciting stuff that i'm going to work with in the coming days. think: leather. when i saw those rolls of hides, something wonderful popped into my head, fully formed and i'm so excited to get started making it!  more about that soon.

i got home just in time to dash out and pick up my iMac which is totally cured now by the doctors at the mac hospital (it got a new hard drive), pick up the child, make some dinner (salmon & leek tart) and then head for weaving. at weaving, the setup of the loom was finally finished (it takes a LONG time) and i got to actually start weaving my little 20cm x 20cm test swatches. i'm loving the colors i'm using and i already had a problem that i learned from--one of the shafts came apart and i didn't realize it until i got a few rows away and discovered it had skipped some stitches. but that's how we learn best, by making mistakes. you can see the row with the skipped stitches below. my teacher encouraged me to leave it, as a reminder of what it looks like when one of your shafts slips out of position, so i think i will.

other than that, i'm trying to get the hang of having my stitches evenly spaced. it's really not that easy! i do have a sense of wanting to be instantly good at it, but am trying to be patient. it will come and in the meantime, learning is a good thing.

* * *

a big thank you to everyone who's bought birds! there are a few left and i've added a few more, so do go check it out if you're interested! 

oh yay!!!

it's here!!! check out the beautiful new issue of the coolest online 'zine--discounderworld

flickr friends, do you recognize that ice cream on the cover?  it's a beautiful issue, well done stacey!! and if you haven't checked out discounderworld before, do check it out now, not for my sake, but because it's being done in the coolest tool for online viewing that i've seen, well, ever! and because mal of turning *turning is there too! lots of yummy inspiration of all sorts!

#50 and the prezzies

ASIDE: i can already tell a few things about how i will survive in the blogosphere and have a job. one, i will read and comment far less on my favorite blogs (not good). i will buy less on etsy (hasn't really manifested itself as of yet (thank you heather and margie)). i will have more posts consisting of random lists (i am trying hard to resist as we "speak," but i did start this paragraph with "one" so i'm not sure it's working). i will take a lot more of my signature self-portraits in hotel rooms. (i have to admit the one above has shot to the top of my favorites.)  but, enough navel gazing (i promised to stop that when the job started).

* * *

so i will move on to the 50 followers thing...da da da dah.....number 50 was the lovely amanda. amanda has been loyally reading my blog and chatting with me daily (ya gotta love gmail chat) for ages now, but never actually signed up as a formal follower. she was lucky strategic enough to be #50! and i know exactly what i'm going to make for her (and i shall try to do it before christmas). but since one prize didn't seem like enough, i turned to my lovely assistant to draw another name from among all of the other fabulous followers (i felt bad about calling you old, here in light of my own upcoming birthday). and she had so much fun that we decided she should draw two.

i neglected to photograph my lovely assistant actually drawing the names (and she may have been inappropriately dressed at the time in white short shorts, green leggings, a slightly too small blue and green top and fairy wings), so here is a shot of her after her recent haircut instead. but the names that she drew were:

lynne of wheatlands news 

and 

B of the recently consolidated into one blog cuttings on a blog 

i think my lovely assistant done good as we'd say back where i grew up. lynne is one of my beloved south african bloggers and writes very thought-provoking current events stuff, as well as posts that will make you want to get a job with her son on the really cool yacht he works on (just to butcher some grammar for fun). lynne, i have your email address, but you'll need to send me your snail mail. B and i met through the "year of reading dangerously." she's reading far more dangerously than i am at the moment, tho' i will surely burst out of the gates anytime now. she, like me, lives outside her home country and is occasionally bewildered and/or delighted by the culture in which she finds herself. B, please email me your snail mail as well (my email is in my profile) and in the not-so-distant future, you will receive a little something from me (i'm cooling on the eyeballs, so don't be afraid). ok, i'm not, but i'll restrain since i know that not everyone is as enamored as i am.  and the rest of you, please go read these two, they're awesome. :-)

and a big thank you to all of you who are following me. it really does mean more than i would ever have imagined it would. it's so nice to write into a void with faces and voices. :-) there is also a special "packse"(as sabin calls them) on its way to my very first follower, molly, which i'll kind of count as part of this, tho' i sent it in another context (she needed a little something to help with her year of creativity and they don't have ikea in south africa).

but seriously, i am constantly amazed at the connections i've made though this blog. i've found like souls, long-lost twin sisters, people after my own heart, some who are after my own shoes and so much more. and i really appreciate the inspiration and friendship and laughter you've all brought into my life. thank you!!