Odi et amo. Valentine's Day special creations!

In the era of consumerism, also love becomes a merchandise. And every year for the Valentine's day, the most stupid and weak version of love, packed with a lot of sickly sweet banalities, is very often palmed off to us.

But I'm convinced that the true love is anything but a simple and linear sentiment. I guess that the love is rather a troubled and thwarted feeling that rives the hearth with a sensation of continuos changeableness that swings between the highest satisfaction and the most stabbing pain.

Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris.

Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.

(I hate or I love. For what reason do I do this, maybe you ask.

I know not, but I feel it happening to me and I am tortured)

Catullus, Carmina 85

The contrast in feelings that love provokes is one of the most common subjects of today's world literature. One could cite hundreds of authors who express the same idea of love. But what I find particularly interesting in these few verses of Catullus, is that the drama of trouble is exacerbated by the sad realization that this trouble arises independently of the human will. The poet has perhaps no choice but to take note of the situation and suffer terribly.

These my felt brooches, in their own way "tragic", want to propose an idea nontrivial of love... an idea that can turn into a sweet gift to share (each set if formed by two brooches: you choose which is the character you fell closer) with your beloved during the Valentine's day but not only ...

Here's the tragic adventures of a little tooth too greedy who just cannot give up the beloved and sugary ice-cream even if it is harmful for him...

On sale on my etsy shop.

And here's the history of a capricious floret, too convenced of his beauty, that do the dumb with a little bee...

On sale on my etsy shop.

The Little Red Riding Hood Remake

Some time ago I confided you my distrust concerning this tale... I remember that, when I was child, it had the awful power to not leave me to sleep peaceful; I was able to spend whole nights minding and imaging about shreds of flesh and coat of that poor animal left as a warning on the floor of the grandma's house.

With this my revisited version of the Little Red Riding Hood, I want to come to Mr. Wolf's defence, all along presented as an aggressive, ruthless and harsh creature. From the shepherds' bugbear to children's terror, from eater of harmless lambs to devourer of tender of young boy and girls, Mr. Wolf is always presented as a hellish beast with bristly coat, with a wild and lonely character, and, above all, with famished jaws.

Here, instead, Mr. Wolf looks rather nice and he's not obliged to dress the uncomfortable and unjust part of the evil... but I would start, indeed, to suspect of the character of the Little Red Riding Hood that, on closer inspection, does not seem so innocent....

Using these hand carved rubber stamps I've made a t-shirt featuring my version of the tale...

If you like this t-shirt, I can arrange to do it for you for € 20: let me know with an email your size (S, M, L, and XL) and I will make it in a little delay!

And I've also done this set of felt broches...

this set of set of felt brooches is now on sale on my etsy!

Finally, here's an other felt broches done using an Otogicco's stamp set, which I love very much!

L'imagination au pouvoir!

Here in Paris I can breathe creativity all around and I love it very much. Also the political struggle can become art, as it was in May 1968. During that time Paris was literally covered by slogans that, booming out from barricades, became artistic posters that revolutionized the visual way to communicate social requests. In the universities and in the factories as well, imagination ruled!

In a strict France controlled by an antiquated De Gaulle, the students' rebellion pushed a wind of striking creativity. It was as if young persons abstained themselves for too much time from lay claim for their expectations, from cry aloud their dreams, from yell their wishes. And, in the course of few days, a whole generation of girls and boys started to struggle against the reactionary forces of society, trying to shatter the huge severity that imprisoned human relationships of just new consumer society in which the value of money and trade became the center of social life.

The weapons of these young fighters? Not only stones, but also and especially the importance of words and the efficacy of images. This could seems derisive against the force of police's truncheons and tear gases... but their strength was explosive to the extend that some slogans of Mai 1968 are still now used and permanently written in the people consciences.

Their power keeps pace with the wish of a radical transformation of the life and of the world. A hope of change that, even if today seems quite asleep, in reality rests latent in all of us. Because now as then we are in front of that old slogan "Be Realistic, Demand the Impossible", which remembers us that this necessity of justice is not dead yet. It is a strong request that survives to everything, even to the growth of more and more crazy individualism, to the indifference and to break-up, to the boredom and to the cutthroat competition of capitalistic system. This hope of change survives because was born from a deep necessity, and that's why the power is worried about. The power knows that, albeit tries to bottle it up by any means, this hope exists and it is ready to boom again because it represents an authentic need; the need to dream a different freedom from the American one, different also from such dirty thing that we're continuing to call democracy. It's the requirement that does not allow us to feel alive and happy if all the others cannot feel the same. It's that spur that we-all have in ourselves toward something new, toward the need of a different morality. And, I want to dedicate this post to that spur, to that impetus, to that dream, to that desire to change the world... and for doing this I've produced a hand carved rubber stamp featuring one of the most knows posters of this Mai 1968:

and this is my comrade who find the way to wear this ideas using the rubber stamp that I've created!

If you like this t-shirt, I can arrange to do it for you for € 20: let me know with an email your size (S, M, L, and XL) and I will make it in a little delay!

Petits écoliers

By now, I guess it's a self-evident truth that I love to hand carve my rubber stamps... but not everybody knows that I love as much as or maybe even more to find the right way to use them! For this reason, I created this wonderful pencil case in raw cotton and vichy cotton that looks very well with these tiny Matryoshkas...

Who did never dream once at least to come back, even only for a day, on the school desk? I remember that, when I was at the primary school, the revolting fashion of using those enormous and ugly cases featuring the cartoons characters was just boomed... I was the only little girl who paraded her little fabric retro pencil case around, very similar to the one I've created today! It's unnecessary to say that, even if there was no TV heros represented, my case was the more envied of the whole classroom! If you want to offer to your children a timeless accessory or you want simply to have the school of other times comes to life again, this cute and nostalgic little case is the good one for you...

I hope you like it!

Ps. Inside you can find also a practical pocket in which you can put a little notebook, as the little Moleskine used in the photos!

This pencil case is now on sale on ALM!

How to make hand-carved rubber stamps: my tutorial!

Rubber Stamps are for me an authentic passion; I collect them since I was a little lady and I have to admit that it’s never enough for me! The discovery that’s possible to hand-make my own stamps represented for me a great turn: now I can do all stamps I want! I can choose not only the subject, but also the dimension and the thickness of the line in order to be able to adapt the stamp to all my needs... I guess that hand-carved rubber stamps are really genial because of their great versatility; with them you can decorate not only papers but they could also give a touch of originality to everything! I love, for instance, use them on fabric, but you can find also special inks purpose-made for all surfaces: from wood to plastic, from metals to leather or porcelain.

The tutorial is formed by two parts: in the first one, I list all the tools you need and all the steps that will lead you to be able to create your hand-carved rubber stamps. In the second part, I gathered a wide range of very cute drawings that you can use as patterns to train you and learn... I’m sure that, with a little practice, you will be able to create perfect stamps. At that time, your imagination will have no more brakes and will be free to create everything!

I hope you will enjoy it!

This tutorial is on sale as a .pdf file on my e-shops: On Esty for customers who prefers to pay in dollars ($) and on Dawanda for whom prefers to pay in Euros (€).

Le Petit Prince Remake: hand carved rubber stamps set

In last September I had posted for the first time a Petit Prince Rubber Stamps Set and I like it insomuch as, after having sold it, I enjoyed to remake it. Differences from the first one are really imperceptible but the love I put in carving it was the same...

Breakfast remake: my old-new favourite safety pin!

Last September I had posted this item for the first time and, after having stated a certain liking, I took decision to make another Breakfast safety pin and to show you in a new Kitchen style setting. Voilà some photos...

Voilà, la Galette des Rois!

Walking around Paris in this period, you can find that every boulangerie, more than usual delicacies, is actually showing in the shop window a round and golden cake with a paper crown on its top... It is the "Galette des Rois"! This cake is usually eaten the 6th january, for the Epiphany, but French people starts to make it (and eat it) since the starting of Xmas holidays...

The Galette is a golden pastry cake filled with an almond cream called frangipane, but what's original about it is that the baker put a small china called la fève. Back in the day, a dry fava bean was used instead of a figurine. The fève is baked into the cake, and the person who finds it in his slice becomes King or Queen for the day and His or Her majesty has to dress the paper crown!! What a honour, but pay attention to your teeth....

As I find it, more than delicious, very cute, I took decision to make me too a Galette but in felt and without forgetting to put inside an authentic fève... voilà!

This cute Galette is now on sale, not in your favourite bakery, but on my dawanda shop!