I’ve had shorts periods in my life where in addition to dancing and painting, I’ve also gotten busy with handicrafts. Nothing special. Just a momentary fascination in something. Or a pure desire/need to fix something, mold something for my vision or make something that is missing. Of course, there was more time for this before giving birth to my daughters. The ideas are familiar to everything, but the handwriting different and maybe gives a spark to someone to start creating themselves.
Angels
While clay molding with my children, the first angel came to be to protect my home. After that a couple angels were made as gifts for my friends and then over 20 of them as thank you angels for the supporters of my project at Hooandja.
Bags
After finishing the Dance and Ballet School of Vanemuine, when I still had one year to go to get my diploma, I gave up going to work for the theatre and suddenly found myself having a lot of free time. To suppress my longing for dancing, I started making handbags. Mostly for myself, but then getting orders for them also.
The first bag got made at Pallas University of Applied Sciences as part of the free course (leather art) during my third year. Under those machines a couple other bags got made also.
Bags made out of an old sealskin coat, which was not wearable any longer.
A leather bag with embroided pearls and an image cut from an old sweatshirt
A leather bag with an embroidered Indian pattern, for which I learned the method of applying the Estonian folk art embroidery pattern to the fabric.
While the first bag was made for myself from green felt strips, the classmates realized they wanted to own something similar.
When I became an owner of a pair of golden shoes, of course I needed a golden bag to go with them and I wasn’t afraid to use old coffee bags to sew it.
The bamboo handles inspired me to sow an old coat into a new bag. It was very easy, because the pockets and buttonholes (in front of the coat to close the bag) and the cuffs with buttons (which made into really cool sides) were already there. Just a little tweaking and cutting.
A bag made of my great-grandmother’s (read: Mamma’s) old pillow cases. How do you throw away handicrafted pieces like that when every strip had probably its very own personal story for her.
A portable icon(bag), painted on a used wine box in egg tempera.
My sister asked me to make her a bag out of a sigar box. After some reproductions of Eduard Wiiralt’s “Women with Cylinders” and “Cabaret”, a few layers of lacquer and a wooden pearl fork, a recycling and a unique bag were formed.
A bag made out of an old sweater with a frilly backside.
Shoes
When my dog decided to maul away at the sealskin of the shoes, I decided to cover them in a cool fabric instead and therefore these shoes became one of my favorites and also the recipients of many compliments.
Another cool story of shoes and my dog.
I bought a pair of shoes. Had nothing to wear with them. Sowed a dress, but didn’t have a bag to go with them. Still couldn’t weat them. By the time I sowed a matching bag myself, the dog had bit off parts of the shoes that I had to replace in order to finally wear the whole set.
Decided to replace a pattern that wasn’t speaking to me with beads and lace and therefore a pair of shoes with my handwriting were born.
When the original buckles of the shoes got lost and my mother-in-law gifted me a necklace of amber, the new “buckles” were born.
When a pair of shoes needs something to excentuate the pink, it’s easily achievable with a couple fake roses.
For a long time I was craving colorful summer-y pair of shoes, but they never found a way to me. But then I noticed a pair of black shoes in a second hand store. Regardless of their height, they were really comfortable and I decided then and there to paint them colorful by myself.
Peinetas and earrings
How to make flamenco peinetas that won’t break when you accidentally hit them while dancing or when you forget you’re wearing one when entering your car? For that you need empty ketchup, shampoo or mayonnaise bottles made out of plastic, a couple design drafts and a sharp knife.
Or how do earring with clasps stay in your ear while performing when you don’t have earring holes? The answer is double-sided tape. To this day I still make most of the earrings to my costumes. Before I got the clasps for them from second-hand stores and made the pendant myself. Now the variety of clasps is bigger and makes the whole process a lot easier.
