new lino Mad Men Joan

made a new lino today, of Joan, the voluptuous executive secretary at Mad Men, a television series about an add agency in the 60s that I love for the styling and the way they portray the 60s.  the way people treat each other in the series... it's not that long ago, but a lot has changed, women are a lot more independent now (aren't we?)

metropolis at the pleinbioscoop in rotterdam

saw Metropolis at the pleinbioscoop in rotterdam yesterday, with live music that added a lot of fun to the silent movie. some dramatic scenes were accompanied by funny slapstickmusic...
acting classes in the early 1900's included a lot of fist clenching and manic looks, very entertaining to look at!

never seen it and you have the opportunity: don't miss it.

new lino of pigeons feeding

when I went to the movies last week with a few girlfriends we noticed a pigeons nest right behind the board where they advertise the movies. there were spikes there to prevent pigeons from sitting, but they built the nest so high that these were no problem. almost grown pigeons being fed by their parent always look so funny...

Gun lino

made a fresh gun lino cutting today.

Phantom Tail

my sister told me how her cat still caresses you with his tail, that he lost last year in a nasty accident.
we talked about this phantom tail for a while, and I loved the word, so it inspired me to transform it into images: a few drawings and a lino cutting all about a cat with a missing tail...

making sugar free blackberry jam

Near our workshop there are huge blackberry bushes, and yesterday I picked a pan full of ripe ones to try and make jam without sugar.
I am experimenting with stevia, which is a good replacement for sugar.
I cooked the blackberries with a small peeled apple and some lemon juice, and instead of a mountain of sugar I put a teaspoon of stevia in it and 4 grams of agar agar to thicken the jam, and cooked it down a while.

Taste is very good, now I am curious if it will preserve as well as with sugar...

Update: Stevia does not preserve like sugar does, I suggest putting stevia-based jam in the freezer in ice-cube trays and to only defrost the portions you need. The benefits of not eating lots of sugar are, in my opinion, still worth the effort!

tomato plants and the way to treat them

may I introduce you to my tomato plant, that I planted hanging upside-down in a bucket in my back garden.




may I then introduce you to the tomato plant of my father in law, that he planted in his garden, after I gave it to him hanging upside-down in a bucket.



Although he was amused by my concept, after a while he felt sorry for his tomato plant, and released it from its hanging position and planted it the way you are supposed to. His plant thanked him with an abundance of tomatoes, while my plant has so far grown 3.1 tomatoes (the one in the top is today just the size of a pinhead, so that doesn't count for much)

maybe when you tease a plant for a while and then you let it relax, this is what happens? I wonder...

Etsy

last week I set up a shop at Etsy, as I have been wanting to do for a long time.
Posted my hairy bag on it, a zipper pouch with a gunprint and a sleepmask that I thought of when I was in bed the week before with a migraine.
Last weekend I checked my shop and wondered why there were only two items featured instead of the three I posted. It took me a little time before I realised I sold my first item!
Now I had to work out how Paypal works (very easy) registered there and received my first payment. The zipper pouch is now in the mail to its new owner.
Still spending a lot of time on Etsy reading about experiences of others and figuring out how everything works. But hey, I sold something, so far I'm impressed!