so…… I am making again

I know that most of you will understand what it means when I say I can’t keep my hands still. When I was packing my bag for the trip to Indonesia I had to pack wisely for 6 months and so I divided the weight allowance into 40% sports gear, 40% tools and drawing kit and 20% everything else. It took just over one month and my hands got restless. It is also that in this period of time I have seen enough to be inspired and want to make!

There are two topics I wold like to discuss through my work this time. First one is rather heavy and therefore, I will share it with you when I will be able to provide also some visual background related to the issue. The second topic is pollution. This issue bothers me here a lot and so it is important for me to communicate that in a way I know the best…..making.

Place where I source my materials is a local beach. You can find there anything, literally. Tons of rubbish is washed out on to the beaches and back to the sea every day. It is, therefore, no wander that there are many people searching piles of garbage on the beach for something reusable. Most frequent item on our beech is flip flop, then plastic balls and toys.  Interestingly, it is organic material though that gets picked! Beach wood, bamboo, whole wooden logs, coconuts and etc seems to hold a value. This material is then used for building beach shacks, resold or used as firewood.

As I am trying to adapt local ways of doing things, I too, selected my main material to be organic, to be more specific I am using washed out coconut shells in combination with recycled plastics. So for past week I have been going to the beach every day to collect coconut shells which I then clean by filling and sanding and cut into shapes. This process is taking bit longer than anticipated. It is simply due to luck of efficient working environment I am used to.

Not having my working bench and tools I am used to makes big difference.  One can me flexible and innovative, for example using kitchen utensils for measuring and marking, yet trying to file or sand on my knee makes my skin bruise, cutting on glass garden table freaks me out as it can be damaged easily and not having with me rite selection of tools is the biggest problem.  When I was packing my tool kit for Indonesia I had to be selective and I didn’t know what I would be making…… I even attempted to buy wood file and sand paper here and that was not that straight forward! First hardware store I went to send me to a stationary shop when I asked for sand paper and file. You can guess what they thought I was after.

I still don’t have the right file as it seems that whole Bali sold out all files. By the way, name for hand file in Bahasa Indonesia is KIKIR, just in case you are interested to know.

This is all I am going to share with you today. I will keep you updated on how is my making going; however, I will not reveal the design until the exhibition.