Bazart 2014

An initiative taken by a young creative father to promote the arts and crafts in this part of Sicily.

An effort to recycle, re-use and involve children and adults alike in creating a new, cleaner and craftier city (or world, if you like).

A gathering of artists and artisans, activists and like-minded individuals to point out our mistakes as citizens and try to reinvent our lifestyle.

A mix of mostly-free workshops (the sharing of knowledge and skills like homemade soap making or Bach flower remedies), traditional song singing or African dancing lessons, recycled toy making for children, DJ's, live traditional music with a strong African influence and strange instruments and lots of really talented artisans showcasing their one-of-a-kind items, together with a vegetarian local food stall and some simple drinks at the Bar(zart)

 The use of an unused community space against an incredibly beautiful backdrop of a mountainous landscape in the old historic part of Ragusa, called Ibla.

The efforts of a university student group to make everyone aware of the lack of public spaces for youngsters to be in and their signature gathering to present a project to the authorities.

Child entertainers, art exhibitions, friendly people and a sense of community...

All this sounds good to you?

Then why on earth, in a city with a population of about 70,000 people, we only had a maximum of 50 people at any given time, coming to check out the (free!!) event?

Why on earth does this city look deserted when you walk about the gorgeous historic center? (and why is the shopping center full on Sunday evening, why?)

Why on earth does this city not offer more facilities to the tourists checking out what their citizens seem to not appreciate at all?

So many questions, so little time. I really don't understand it here. All I know is there's so much to learn about supporting this kind of initiatives that only benefit the locals and they need it so much...what a disappointment...

By the way, I had a stall at the event and I only made enough in 5 days to cover the rent, which wasn't expensive at all. So did the rest of the artisans.

On the plus side, I have two potential stockists for the near future and a lot of left over material in the shop, go check it out.

 AND, we had a really good time dancing to the drums and the wicked bands :-)

Nautical knot bracelets

Have a good week everyone!

Bright nautical knot bracelets - tutorial.

I had a bit of trouble taking pictures on my own...

 Good morning, morning.

It's been a bit of a hectic week with 2 new English students ( not sure how full-time teachers do it to prepare their lessons? ), the Saturday evening restaurant job, the 'organic farming' course we're taking, all the regular weekly tasks and the extra flyer-ing job we had this week. It's been coming and going to the city every day; lucky for us, Ragusa is only 20min away.

To be honest, I've always preferred to have different little jobs rather than a full-time one at the same place, same time, same people, every day one but I do feel my head spinning with so many different things in it, sometimes. I always have a few homemade projects on the go at the same time too and this week I've only managed to finish this one...and run out of materials. Daaah!

See the recycled little charms? Got a bag full of jewelery scraps...

 I made my first nautical knot bracelet for my best friend's wedding a few years back but never thought anything of it and then last year I started to see them everywhere...I made that first one without any guidance, I'm a fisherman's daughter at the end of the day...

I bought the embroidery thread in a market in Guatemala

For this ones, I used a tutorial  that I found on Etsy

We went to this DIY - hardware shop the other day to do this 'flyer-ing' job for Roberto (we love the owner and he loves us back) and as usual I had a little walk around looking for possible materials. He took the piss out of me saying whether I was going to make my children's stuff with the coolest bright coloured synthetic cords that he had but so far I had a very positive response from lots of adults around me, so there you go...I'm off to the shop to get some more cord. See ya!

p.s. I tweaked the blog a bit so you can now share, subscribe and all of those things. I still don't know how to add pics of my shop, only managed to add a link...ideas anyone?

SPRING springs to mind...on the seaside

YESTERDAY

We've just had a couple of days of really warm weather so we decided to finally do something different on a Sunday. We set off nice and relatively early (meaning midday) after we all got together at ours, had coffee, said hello to the in-laws, etc. etc. all very Italian.

We got some traditional freshly made 'focaccia' and some beers and went to one of the countless beautiful beaches along the South coast to find that the sand had disappeared during the winter months, so we chose the alternative to the rocks and jumped the fence that separated us from an unused 'chalet'.

Luxury sailboats at Marina di Ragusa

Fruit vendor

Traditional Sicilian 'focacce'

                                                      

 These structures are full of life (some of them oh so trendy!, you have to be seen there) during the summer months but suffer from an state of abandon in colder periods, only to be re-structured again come May-June...well I guess it was lucky for us, we had a lovely day relaxing right by the sea, surrounded by friends and food and we left the place 'better than it was before', a non-written code of the 'good squatter' ;-)

Run-down ceiling

'Squatting' an unused deck by the sea...

 

Relaxing Sunday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But that was yesterday; today was another story.                                                                       I've been meaning to put this unique spring-y African wax print handbags up in the shop since Friday and haven't been able to find a suitable zip for them, what a mission! I've visited 3 different shops, one of them didn't have the colour I wanted (very hard to find brass, only gold and silver, agh!), another one was closed this morning (shops are closed Monday morning!) and by the time I finally managed to finish one of the two clutches I was planning to make, it was too late to take pics with natural light, so it's going to have to wait till tomorrow, again. PATIENCE and BREATH OUT.