Let's Get Crafty!

While living with my family I have made the effort to pick up some of the crafty skills of my family while living here. This to some degree may be a bit selfish of me, but I cannot deny that I want to obtain these skills and use them for years to come. Who wouldn’t want to be able to make beautiful earrings for all their friends and learn to paint all these wonderful birds and frogs that will probably one day take over the walls of my home?

I have already made my first pair of earrings out of seeds. The pretty seed at the bottom is from a tree called Corotu. It is my favorite seed and I arrived in Membrillo right in time to collect a bunch before the rainy season arrived. Although my first pair of earrings is complete, I have a lot to learn. They know so many cool tricks, where as I just get frustrated that I can’t get any thread through the seed.

First pair of parrot earrings also complete. These were even more of a learning process.

Fir

st I carved out my two tiny parrots out of wood. I learned, that tiny does not mean less work. On the contrary, it is more work and significantly more tedious because it becomes quite difficult to carve out all the little details. I am quite proud of myself because I didn’t have anyone demonstrate to me how to carve out the little guys, instead I just picked up a little one that was already carved out and decided to give it a shot. Luckily the wood did not go to waste.

Then I had to use sandpaper to get rid of all the little ridges. 

After this I had to put a layer of some sort of substance on them that Jadira says allows the paint that will be later applied to dry a lot quicker. It was after this substance was applied that they appeared best to me. I really like the look of the natural wood, even though they were two different colors.

However I decided to do things they way they are done here and complete the earrings. The next step was softly sand papering the earrings after the substance was applied. At this point I was so ready to paint! But I learned that I must apply the same substance on again. This time it took longer to dry. I then had to sand paper the excess of. Of course at this point I was dying of anticipation to grab the paint brush and go at it. But as you may have guessed, one more layer and a final time of sanding it down. My little parrots looked sad at this point, a little beaten up, but I had to have faith in the process. After inserting a little metal piece on top where they were ready to be painted. At this point Jadira and I sat down and I basically attempted to imitate her every stroke with the paint brush. It is at this point that I deeply regretted becoming a perfectionist somewhere along the past 23 years. With hands as shaky as mine I knew my parrot would be far from “perfect” and so the two parrots look very different from one another. But then again isn’t that truly perfectionism as defined by nature. No two things in nature look exactly alike, always differentiated by their little flaws, more accurately described as little sparkles of individualism.

Any guesses on which one I painted? :)