Opening doors

 

One Door Closes Another Opens Fairy Door Necklace by WireNWhimsy

 

Hello everybody!

If anyone didn't noticed I moved from this lovely place that is blogspot to a more confortable web-site, all my own!
So if you enjoyed my little rubbish, please - OH! PLEASE! - come to visite me on my new, beautiful (can I say it myself?) and much updated corner!
Are you not curios? Not even a bit? Oh, come on, go ahead! ;)

www.makissima.com

I'll be waiting for you there! :D

 

Lots of love,

Chiara

 

June Busy Bee!

Hello everybody!
I've been missing from here for a while, but few things have happened lately and I’ve been quite busy for my standards!

At the end of may I was completely focused on the opening of my new store on Fondelifair, which is a brand new website dedicated to Irish or Ireland based crafty people. It’s a good chance to explore the local market and try to improve myself as a seller! At the moment I don’t have so many listings, but I tried however to diversify them from the offer I have on Etsy. I have black & white prints on Fondelifair now, a little bit more “serious” and “grown up” style compared to the coloured things listed in the other one (it’s funny though, they’re all about fairytales! XD).

Last week I packed few things and sent them to Limerick for the Etsy Ireland Pop-Up Shop which is an amazing but unfortunately temporary shop where quite few people from the Etsy Ireland Team are selling their lovely items. If you happen to be near the town try to go and have a look, the pictures taken on the spot until now are great! The place must be overwhelming with craftiness! AND I EVEN MANAGE TO SELL SOMETHING! I’m soooooo excited! Beyond belief!

Then I’ve been featured by *Stick Owlie* {o,o} in her blog, as June's Featured Artist!!!!! Yuppies!
Here is the link with the interview and some pictures! ;)
http://stickowlielove.blogspot.com/2011/06/junes-featured-artist-makissima.html

And finally…I’m going back home (in Italy, that is…) next week, not for holidays as someone could think, but to vote: it’s a very important popular vote happening June the 12th – 13th and I don’t want to miss it!
I’m dreading the heat I’ll be likely to find back there, since I’m not used to the average 30°C you can expect now (no, my Italian genes won’t help me at all, like they refused to do for the past years…) I don’t know what I will do!
My parents are already prepared to see me melting away on a sunny afternoon. Let’s say after lunch (everything is better with your belly full of delicious food)! LOL

So wish me good luck! Maybe I will be lucky enough to shot some nice pictures!
Seeeee youuuu soooon!
Maybe.... ;)

Featuring...

Hey-hooo everybody!
This is my first attempt writing about another artist, someone whose work I really like and enjoy, so have mercy on me and feel free to let me know if I did any mistake or how to improve a “spreading-the-voice-about-a-genius-aka-featuring”.

Her name is Francesca Quatraro and she is the answer to the question: “why wasting paper when we have white walls to use?”
She’s an Italian illustrator I found just by chance (internet is truly amazing sometimes!) and I love the combination of black and white with few coloured touches!

(I tried something similar lately, but it’s not as nicer…I still have to master it!)
But the most appealing feature, the very one that convinced me to write this brief post, is because…as far as I can see…she draws on the walls of her own house (and other’s)!
Isn’t it something that you just did when you where little, or something you still would love to do (That’s me! That’s me! But I don’t think my landlord would quite appreciate it, sigh…) but you don’t dare or don’t feel enough confident about?
She just does it, and it’s amazing!

Here, check her website with the gallery to have something to enjoy today (there is a blog also, but it’s in Italian…sorry folks!)
http://officinamezzaluna.weebly.com

From her bio:
“…To remind things of their own beauty.
Ugliness and bitterness are there, and I know that they are both part of our existence, but in my pictures I choose to tell something else… ”

Please note that all images are covered by copyright and belong to their author.

Haiku 4 Happiness

Hurray!
I got the mail notifying that the e-book I applied for with one of my works has finally come out!
And it’s now on sale!
…
Uhm, I think that that’s quite a confusing opening. Sorry!
I’ll take a step back and explain myself!

Something more than one month ago I happened to see on the internet a note about an e-book to help raising funds for Japan, interested I gave a better look and I discovered this great idea initiated by Stefania Fontecilla, a Spanish illustrator (Italian adopted - here it’s her blog: http://lapiccolaprincipessa.wordpress.com/ ), about asking people to participate with one drawing/painting/etc related to Japan to be posted in her blog handshelpjapan.blogspot.com and lately with the possibility to publish it in an e-book.
The e-book in question is called “Haiku 4 happiness” (for those who don’t know already, haiku is a short poem divided in 3 lines describing a particular moment, an event or an atmosphere, typical japanese) and has been on sale since few days ago at the much reasonable price of €3. The total amount of the sale is being donated to Save The Children Italia Onlus, one of the no profit organizations now helping in the reconstruction after the earthquake disaster .

I saw the great effort everybody on Etsy were putting to help the fund raising and I was feeling sad not to be able to help (I’ve been studying Japanese language and culture for many years so it’s particularly dear to me.) with the sale in my shop, still at zero…so I thought that was going to be my chance to be of some help!!!!!
Until I saw the deadline, which was the day after…ARGH!!!
I’m usually very slow when come up to submissions: I have to find a coherent idea…I have to like it…yes, usually I need to take my time, except there was no time to take at all!
Anyway, to make the long story short I was experimenting with some collage at that time (well, I’m still doing it) – did I already mention how much I love paper? :P – so I put the design together the same night and went for the paper, instead of my usual pencils and watercolours, which resulted to be quicker and I manage to post it on time. The result is the one you can see at the top, It’s called “Moon viewing” from the title of the haiku I was inspired from:

The storehouse burnt down,
There is nothing to obstruct
The moon view






And now it is on sale so I will finally have the satisfactory feeling to be of any use!
Unfortunately the editor website is in Italian and you have to sign up in order to buy it, but if you have any knowledge of Italian (or even Spanish…we’re cousins after all!) please, oh! please, try to purchase the book!
Because it’s actually filled with images so it’s not something that you would need to read.
If I can be of any help (with translations and step by step advises) feel more than free to contact me at any time.
Or if you can, spread the voice as much as you can, to help make the difference! :)

This is the link to the editor’s website Haiku Edizioni: http://www.edizionihaiku.com/haiku4happiness.php

Thank you very much!


Here some of my favourite images among the ones you can find in the e-book!

Giulia Adragna - giuliaadragna.blogspot.com

Daniela Di Gennaro - danieladigennaro.blogspot.com

Patricia Lopez Latour - patricialopezlatour.blogspot.com


Please note that all images belong to their respective authors.

Seal Maiden

The two images you can see here are actually something I was working on almost two years ago(!), on my first svisit to Ireland.
I lived in the deep south of Ireland for six month, in a lovely place called Killarney, in County Kerry and there, while minding two little rascals as au-pair, I fell in love with some traditional fairy-tales I have never heard about before.
For example, everybody is familiar with mermaids, but silkies and seals are not common in Italy, so we don’t have stories about them.

Among the others I had the chance to listen to this musical version of the story, half told half sung, by the beautiful voice of Karan Casey. I really love it, it’s smooth but strong at the same time, it gives atmosphere to the whole story, and in particular to the main protagonist’s songs.

The little seal disobeys her mother and lay on the beach when the thigh turns and so she looses her skin and becomes a seal maiden, trapped in a human body.
A fisherman finds her and helps her to get used to the new odd world. So the year passes and she grows lovely and gets the attention of the boys of the village for her beauty and her fine voice.
She eventually falls in love with one of them, Red Brian, and becomes his wife. The following spring the seal maiden gives birth to a boy, lightly wrapped in a seal skin which she soon hide before anybody can see it.
The baby grows to a fine seven years boy, but one day he accidentally finds his own seal skin, he try it on and for the first time, looking at the image in the mirror, recognises himself. After that he obeys his own nature and run for the waves. When the seal maiden realizes what happened it’s too late.
Red Brian thinks the boy is lost even after the seal maiden has explained to him about the seal skin.
One night the boy miraculously come back to his mother with her own skin and together they run back into the sea, where the seal maiden can finally rejoin her mother and allowing the boy to go back and forward to live with his father when he wants to.

I loved the idea behind the story and, for once, the happy ending is fair, not perfect, but “believable”.
My first idea was to make more images, a project for an eventual book which never saw the light.
As I told you before, I’m a lazy person and my concentration is not very strong either, so after a while I just drift off to something else and left the whole thing on its own.
But the love for the story remains and I’m actually quite satisfied with what came out of it…you never know what the future brings.

Lazyness

Lately I've been so lazy that almost scares me!
But, gladly enough I also had the chance to go and visit Galway. The weather wasn't one of the best, but the place is REALLY cute!
Especially the side on the sea, where you can see, and the coast all along.
If you've never happened to be there, give it a try, even if only for the atmosphere and the people in the pub playing trad until late! You won’t be disappointed!

Have a look at some of the pictures, while I try to figure out how to go back on track and produce something! :P

An Post

My present is arrived!!!

I purchased a small item (actually, two, in the end…ehm…) for myself as a Easter present few days ago, and today is here! I received the small package this very morning and kept looking at my little treasure all along breakfast, as you can see in the picture above!

I have to thank Fiona Leontis, from PatchworkDelight (please visit her shop, you won’t regret it!) for the speed and the cuteness of the owlie bag, it’s gorgeous!

I wrote about it not because I wanted to show off, and I’m sure you’re not very interested in my personal shopping, but how about the feelings that come with it?

You wouldn’t say I’m a shopaholic, but there are times that require something new and happy in your life, isn’t it?

Well, since I was a child I always loved to receive mail: I remember there was a time when I had more than 10 pen-friends just for the pleasure to write and then receive a letter back.

Thank God I don’t have those urgent needs anymore (I really wouldn’t have the time to handle it!), but the pleasure to find something for me in the post is the same.

So what’s better than marrying the fun of shopping with the excitement of waiting for the mail???

That’s why I love Etsy: I get all of this along with the certainty of having something beautiful and unique, made with passion, and helping the spread of craftiness and creativity.

Do you have anything better? ;)

Because 24h is not enough!

AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!
Too many thing to dooooooo!!!!
New projects come to my mind too easily, while I'm still struggling to finish the ones I have in my hands!
One day is never enough, not even when you're at home and not at work!
Especially if you spend so much time at the computer...ehm...
Speaking of which...give a look at this: http://www.theydrawandtravel.com/
It's a place where different artists have drawn their own map of places they like!
It's really interesting and some of those are just brilliant!
Now I want to try and do something like that too! It's a curse! ;D

Ok, I'll be back to my work/pleasure/hobby/curse....I mean, drawing!

Kisses,
Chiara

Paper

Did I ever mentioned that I’m a paper addicted?

I feel great just being in a shop that sells paper, any kind.

I’d like to say that this is for a professional reason, because of the experimenting different media on different paper…but it’s only part of the truth.

The real thing is that I just enjoy the feeling of holding a new piece in my hand, caressing the texture, testing the backlit colours and the smell.

Ah the smell! I started with books (I still do it) and moved on the paper itself.

I could stay in a shop and sniff all day!

Does it makes me a maniac?

…

Perhaps! :)

For now I still searching for the perfect place here in Dublin, so if anyone know a shop with great paper furniture please PLEASE! Let me know!

Those days

Yesterday ws one of those days.

For me is always during springtime. When the air is fresh and the sun is warm.

There is something in the atmosphere all around me that whisper softly to my ears.

Those days I wish I didn’t have a job, so I could just leave and travel.

Have you ever had one of those days?

It doesn’t matter WHERE you want to go, just put on your comfy clothes and go out into the world, to meet new people, taste different foods, make new experiences.

You’d love to be in a food market in India, under the nocturne sky of the Sahara Desert, on the streets of New Orleans or watching the sea from a terrace in Naples.

(By the way, I’ve never been in one of these places…ehm…they are still dreams for me! :D )

 If you’re wondering if I am one of the people who travels a lot my answer is no.

But sometimes I wake up too and dream to be in far away countries!

Sometimes I realize this urgent need of mine. Sometimes I don’t.

For example, if everything goes smoothly, maybe in the next months, I’d like to travel around Ireland for a while.

Where would YOU like to go?  :)

Embarassing presenting myself

So this I my third post and I thought that maybe, MAYBE, would be a good idea to talk about some of my work, crafty/art work, that is.

And present myself a little too.

The first thing that is good for you to know is that I am a stalker. An Internet stalker of beauties.

If I find an artist, a shop, a seller or an idea I like in I can easily get lost for hours.

Especially since I had the chance to discover the fabulous world of Etsy I got to know some very interesting people. Their works, their lives, their ideas even the places they live everything can be a starting point for inspiration! (I know this sounds creepy but I actually just follow their blog and read what they write about themselves!!! I’m no strange guy in a trench coat spying people from behind a newspaper…)

Mainly that’s why I started a blog in the first place.

I’m not so pretentious to think that my written words could be a source of ideas for anyone, but on the contrary I’d love to be even more in contact with amazing people out there.

An active inspiration if you want, not a passive one anymore (of course I’ll keep stalking my old friends, don’t you fear…uhuhuh!).

Exchanging opinions, putting brains together to create something, this is what would I like the most, or just for the sake of fun comments at the end of a post!

So on my part this is an official promise to write at the best of my (poor) possibilities something interesting and entertaining as often as I can.

And to start (yeah, I know this is not the initial post, apologies for that, but I’m a messy one!) I could say something about me, what do you think?

(rhetorical question, I’m going to say something anyway! :P)

I’m an Italian old girl, currently living in Dublin after spending all my life in Italy, nice and cozy at home.

One day I took my cardboard suitcase and said: “farewell my beloved family! I’ll search my fortune in the Emerald Island!”

(Ok, that’s not exactly how it went, but leave me the romantic scene for a moment!)

 I work in a Children Museum and even if it’s the strangest work I could have ever dreamt about it makes me quite happy.

But in my spare time I draw.

I’d love to say I’m an artist (you know, the ideal image you have when you hear it), but I’m too lazy for that so let’s just say I draw. And I do it for fun.

Because it’s something I’ve always done, since I can remember, back in my Granma’s kitchen or on the tea table of our sitting room.

I studied in an art high school, the best 5 years in my life, but then I tried to be all mature&grown up and to search for something useful for a future job so I chose Japanese. Never tried to be mature at eighteen…

As a result I found myself unoccupied, as the almost totality of my colleagues of the university.

Although I kept drawing around between an exam and the other (and during…argh!) I didn’t produce anything very good. Too busy memorizing ideograms.

After a few years working in my old summer job (and travelled in Tokyo and being an Au-pair, but those are other stories) I decided to find a real one abroad, since the situation was/is so bad in Italy.

That was until 2010.

The last year was different for some sort.

I moved for an internship in Dublin, hypothetically for four months but I’m still here and I have to say very happy to be.

Not long ago, as I said before, I discovered this beautiful world that is Etsy, and after drooling on few stuff I found there I started thinking if were possible to open one shop myself.

So I did (not before I had gone mad about taxes, print services available, post fees and similar…) started with PDF file for valentines cards.

They got few hearts, which made me feel very satisfied…stop with the adult crap, who am I kidding…I was actually flying around my room! (which believe me it’s not that easy!), but no one felt in love enough to purchase them.

Selling unfortunately is not in my destiny.

Yet.

I’ve realized I didn’t talk about my art process at all…should I…no…maybe next time!

God...such a long post...

Featured!

Uuuhh!
I've been featured in Louise's blog as part of the Etsy UK&Ireland Seller Support Team!!!
So exciting!
Have a look, she has a very nice blog all the way!
http://luisafelice.blogspot.com/

Coconut bits

I’m still a novice toward the idea of cafe chains scattered throughout Dublin: we don’t have them in Italy, so I haven’t tried all of them yet.

Two days ago I went to “Butlers Chocolate Cafè” for the first time.

Dear Lord…their chocolate, truffles and praline are just amazing!

But the real tragedy is that I tasted the coconut macaroon.

For those who don’t know what I’m talking about: it’s a ball made from a sweet egg dough and coconut, which I adore. Lots of coconut!

You take a bit and the taste spreads in your mouth filling every corner and then the coconut bits arrive and makes it all chewy chunky (I hope I can give you the idea….).

D E L I G H T F U L ! ! !

I am craving for another one ever since!

(No, I’m not being paid for the advertising)

Oh, and yes, I had coffee too! :)