Plumbago Auriculata : Blue Plumbago

I didn't write about the plumbago until now, whereas actually, it was the first indigenous plant i planted in our new home.
 When i went to Jenny's indigenous nursery (link below) for the first time, i saw these lovely flowers in bloom. They are all over our neighbourhood, but more often than not people very conservatively trim them into a strict hedge, so they just look like another hedge. Shame really, considering how beautiful the flowers are. Makes me think of an exotic "hortensia".
 Anyway, the next day i told Greg to come with me pick up the plants, and check if he's happy with them. After all, he's got his say about the garden too (Well...). The first thing he said about the blue plumbago was : "What? You like that weed???" And so my love for them was born. I discovered that you can eat the flowers : just remove the sticky bit at the bottom of the flowers, sprinkle a few on a salad and voilà a beautiful dish. The sticky bits help with propagation (and they're not as prickly as the black jacks!). Fifi and Gabbi play at sticking them on their arms, their clothes etc... In no time the Blue Plumbago necklace was born!

So here is the work in progress. Believe it or not i made the neck mannequin out of plastic bottles and a bit of papier mâché... Upcycle!

Sticky plumbago flowers on my neck!

The finished necklace

Links:

Jenny Dean Wildflower Nursery :

http://www.jennydeanwildflowers.co.za/

Plumbago Auriculata info :

http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantnop/plumbago.htm

Website where the flower image comes from :

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977754918

Embo-craft in South Africa

Last thursday at Embo-craft i taught the ladies how to crochet the Nimbostratus earrings. It was a great success! They loved it to bits, at last i presented them with a project they can complete in one three hour course!

Embo-craft is a charity on Botha's Hill (basically the hill just across us) and teaches all sorts of crafts (you didn't guess!) to the people of the surroundings thanks to volunteering and donations of crafts materials. They make beautiful screen-printed tee-shirts, felted jewelry, lots of sewn items too, dolls. The most striking pieces of all are the patchworks. The crafters depict their life like in a comic with different fabric skills like drawing, embroidering, dyeing…etc. (Link on the right hand-side and below)

Here is a photo of the Indabuko project (link below), i love those tees, hand dyed and screen printed with all local materials (More info on the Embo craft website). My favourite is the tree with its root outlining Africa. It also makes me think of a human heart. Yeah that's somebody's Xmas present!

I came across the centre one day by chance, i bought a few things, and i volunteered. I really liked the idea that we would give them a skill. It is the old “give a man a fish and he eats for a day but teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime”. Also any yarn nuts like me would love the storage room where they keep all the donations of yarn in all forms, wool, beads…  A dream for a creative mind. (We need crochet cotton though! Mail me if you have some to spare!)

I have been teaching the women five times so far, every Thursday, and the number of “students” in the class is growing! I teach crochet for now, but they are all very keen to learn knitting. I will wait a little for that because, i explained, crochet can be done anywhere easily. Just take your crochet out of your handbag and go. Knitting in a taxi, well… that wouldn’t be that easy!

So far i had put the emphasis on how to make simple squares and learning stitches. A bit repetitive, for sure, but i had to find out who could and who couldn’t crochet with a regular tension. Then i taught them how to read a pattern and a chart, and i presented them the “puff stitch beret” by creativeyarn (link to her pattern below). They loved it! It taught them how to crochet in concentric circles (rather than shongololo/spiral style) and how to increase and decrease. It was a fairly long project though, so i had to find something quicker, but as challenging. Another thing was that eventually some of their projects must go in the shop to raise funds. So i went into the storage room, well, rather Ali Baba’s cavern, and i found earring hooks. Nimbostratus earrings was my next lesson!

All the ladies are very skilled, and some of them, like Xesibile (pictured above) and Thuli, easily customize the patterns into their own creations. I really have to teach them how to write their own charts so they can make up patterns. Last time was a good one. I’ m starting to grab more Zulu too, so i’m not completely lost when they talk. Not that i could speak, but i’m getting there!

I have plenty great pics in store, watch this space!

Links:

Puff stitch beret

http://creativeyarn.blogspot.com/2008/02/puff-stitch-crochet-beret-with-bow.html

Embo craft

http://www.embocraft.co.za/

The Coral Tree : Erythrina Lysistemon

That tree is the most beautiful of all, well, to me anyway.

It embodies Africa, to me still.

It loses its leaves in winter while its flamboyant red flowers are still in bloom. You’d have to drive down an alley planted with those trees to feel the beauty of it. Sometimes they stand alone, bright patches of red on the yellowing dry winter grassland. Better still, i have this image of a Coral Tree against the veld fires. Those fires are controlled (and sometimes out of control), the people/farmers …etc set it to the grassland to get rid of the high grass and manage habitat, grazing and so on. Those fires would occur naturally and they would be beneficial if only humans would let Nature take care of itself. Anyway to the point : i was in the car, heading to the Drakensberg and there it was, the coral tree, with only three or four blooms, standing against the dark grey of the smoking ashes. I wish i has a camera implanted in my head (or rather, a telepathy gift) so i could show you this picture from another world. If you are familiar with Kirikou (French film about a tale of West Africa, link below), you’ll remember  the alley of the flamboyants (which is, i think, a different tree), and the picture i saw that day was very similar, vermillion, bluish greys and charcoal. A poem.

I have been wanting to catch that beauty into my work, but to no avail so far. I have only been able to use the colour combination of it.

Here is a picture of coral tree blooms, and below a link that will give you further info on that wonderful natural…. wonder!

Here is the necklace that has been stuck in my head for so long! I hope you enjoy!

 

Links:

About the Coral Tree :
http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantefg/erythrinlysist.htm

Kirikou et la sorcière (Kirikou and the sorceress) :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirikou_and_the_Sorceress

About veld fires in SA :
http://www2.dwaf.gov.za/webapp/Documents/ForestFire/192.168.10.11/nvffa.nsf/037495e53fc3007e42256dde0043eebd/64a7c7f6bea728c942256dff003131a502ec.html?OpenDocument 

The pic comes from : http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/

 

Underwater

Yesterday i was at a baby shower for a friend. I am rather new to baby showers since it is not a tradition in France (mind you it's like Halloween, it's on its way).We rather celebrate the baby and the mom when the baby is born. Safer, if you ask me. Anyway, it's a lovely celebration. The spoilt future mum was smiling so much she had to massage her cheeks!

Here are the booties i made for her baby (don't know yet if it's a boy or a girl) , from a pattern (modified) of MonPetitViolon's "Daisy Baby booties".
I called them "Underwater".

Dream house

Fifi and i started to paint the wendy house the other day. I painted the branch while she was busy with something else and i made a stencil for the flowers. Here she paints the finishing touches of white.

Bravo my little Picasso! Three sides to go!

Asystasia Aqua

Since the day i came to South Africa to live i have never ceased to be amazed by the luxurious display of its flora. It became a never ending source of inspiration for my restless hands.
Here is the first design that i submitted to the public. In fact it got me into the 30 runners -up of the south-african magazine IDEAS (same as the french Marie-Claire-Idées, except it's not featuring "La droguerie" at every page, those who know will understand). I will know in september if i am the big winner (4 days in Knysna!). But i am not deluded, i think the winner will have used mixed medias, and not a simple crocheted necklace!
Enough words, images will speak so much better than me!