Girls’ Easter

Easter in Greece has always been quite grand, combining religious traditions with family and friends’ gatherings and unique culinary experiences.
As I spent this year’s Easter with beloved friends, I thought of crafting some personalised gifts for them. For my girls, something pretty and practical is always the best idea, so I sat down to make their Easter candles (or ‘λαμπάδες’, the ones we hold on Holy Saturday). The guys were a different story, see the ‘Surprise Eggs’ post!
First stop, making the candles. A bit tricky, as I’m only starting to learn – thankfully my brilliant mum was there for assistance – but got through with only a few burns. Following the immersion technique (I’ll blog on that soon) I made 38 cm paraffin candles with vanilla scent.
For their décor, I chose individual items and materials to match each girl’s tastes willow branches, hemp string, wax cord, silk ribbon, copper and pewter leaves, ceramic beads, soft wire.
‘Gianna’ and ‘Flora’ (pictures 1 and 2) are simple and classy, a branch with appropriate colour buds and matching silk ribbon tied to the candle.

Tip: use a bit of glue before you make the knot to keep the bow in place.

Making ‘Naomi’ and ‘C’ was a bit more time consuming, because of the flower and butterfly ornaments, but still quite easy. For both of them, I used double-sided adhesive tape on the candle and twirled hemp string around it.

Flower: I used a copper leaf; I cut and shaped it properly and with a pin I pierced a hole in the middle. Using a wax cord I passed a green ceramic bead through the flower and with the remaining cord I tied it around the candle. I added a bright orange wax cord for extra colour (picture 3).

Butterfly: I used a pewter leaf; I cut, shaped and varnished it and put some soft wire and red ceramic beads as finishing touches. Using red and beige wax cords I tied the butterfly to the candle, along with a little glue to help keep it in place (pictures 5 and 6).

Tip: Spray glue is a lot more practical for these crafts and you can get it at most craft shops.

1-"Gianna"

2-"Flora"

3-"Naomi"

4-"C"

5-"C" detail

green and great

Side-entrance to one of the few parks of central Athens (Galatsi area) and a treasured place for walks in spring and autumn.

As pink as you like…

Looks a bit like smoke, doesn’t it? They’re actually afternoon clouds in the Athens sky

Worries_1.0

For the past couple of years I’ve put myself in the students’ shoes. Hours of re-studying theories, going through surveys and outcomes of conferences and my all-time favourite: reading again and again my copies of Freud, Horney, Erikson and Bandura (I suppose S. de Beauvoir feels a bit left out, but just has to cope with it). Jolly good time I’d say, if only I hadn’t once again stumbled upon the usual revelation: found guilty (in absentia) of illegitimate equal opportunities, bleeding to reach my own high standards and forcing criticism upon myself for all my inexplicable failures and dead-ends. I’m just sat wondering, at the end of it, what on earth is going on? In a world which constantly degrades us as humans and citizens and in a country that does so laughing in our face, how could I be different? My biggest worry I guess is that I can’t find one particular person to blame for this, or perhaps that I refuse to blame myself. Hmmm…I’ll try some self-assessment and come back to this.