Make

December 6 – Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it?

There are so many things that I want to make, I keep listing them down so that I dont forget but I hardly ever look at that list again. No object on that list got removed out because I did it. I am thinking hard, what was the last thing I made? I think I made nothing new in very long time. I have not cooked a new recipe, I have really not tried something new. Strange. ohhh there is one silly thing that I could write about. In my early days in Amsterdam, must be October 2009, I turned a little egg packaging box (those paper boxes in which eggs are sold in the supermarkets) into a box for my earrings. My creativity ended there. I could see a potential use in that particular packing and I used it to serve my purpose. I did not decorate it, paint it, put some little starts on it.. no , i did nothing. It was all about fulfilling a function, thats all.. no fun intended, no aesthetic sense involved. Will that be counted in 'making'? The other silly thing I did around the same time last year was to use a nice circular paper which I think came as a base for a cake that we bought for someone's birthday to write down my dreams and wish list. I wrote it all at one go on that little oily paper, I was just so happy with that paper and I pasted it above my study table. I still remember many of the things on that circular wish list.

I have a keen eye on seeing utility in things which generally get thrown away. Different shapes, colors and textures attach my attention. I love collecting little glass bottles in different shapes, initially it was the jam, pesto bottles, these days I am really getting fascinated by the different kind of bottles used by liquor industry. Just two days ago, I saw a bottle of 'Tatratea', a Slovakian liquor, this bottle without a neck was so beautiful. The other day at Magritte museum, I saw two painted wine bottles on display and I wondered if I could try something similar. It may not be as famous as those by Magritte but I can try it out.

I want to learn how to make beads using clay. One of my friends makes such beautiful pieces of jewelery using hand made beads.. some years ago, an american friend on her trip to Indonesia bought some lovely necklaces with colorful glass beads, very cheap and affordable but extremely beautiful and unique. It turned out that there is a woman's group in Indonesia who collect glass bottles of different colors, including wine bottles, melt it down and mix these different colored molten glass together to make those beads. I was so inspired to learn the technique. This afternoon, Leen gave me some children's candies. I forgot the dutch/Belgian name for it. The candies were little elongated, almost egg shaped but a bit flat.. but the color was perfect Turquoise. I did not want to eat them. I wanted to put a string through them and make a necklace from it and it would have looked perfect against Leen's skin tone.

I am fascinated with the idea that at some time in my life I am going to learn making mud pottery traditional way. I want to learn how to make lace, I think that inspiration comes from seeing stores here selling Belgian lace which is so expensive for my 'student' pocket. Same thing happens when I go to toy stores. The variety of toys and children's books, their touch and textures, the colours and sounds.. it is whole new world there that I want to have it all but I can barely afford any of it. My heart almost sinks to accept that I cant afford it and knowing fully well that I dont need these toys but how do children accept this hard reality. I feel toys and books should be available for children at an affordable price. but i know millions of children in this world do not have either of these. Some day I want to make these things available to all the children of this world. I dont know how I will do it but I will for sure.

I really want to develop my creative skills as I feel extremely satisfied if I can make something useful and beautiful using my senses and with magic touch of my fingers... the desire is there but i dont know the means.. there is some thinking that is needed here.