Colorful balls or planets kept careful in children hands or hanging on winter branches were my first encounter with plasticaplanet. Eva is crafting with her 3 daughters and her blog is a diary full of wonderful stuff. In her Instagram-account between (crafting) one sees glimpses of Barcelona and details of the festivities there. I would like to introduce you to Eva and asked her a few questions about her blog and crafting:
The name of your blog and IG-account is plasticaplanet: Your favorite material to work with?
Because I'm a crafty person I have bond with my daughters so easy on that space of fun and making, I call it our crafty time.
Crafty time has been a way of learning so many things in our family, we have learned to share, to think, to experiment, to play, to wait, to recycle, we have learned to enjoy colors and nature, to create by our self imagination, and all those things have been attached to our daily activities, learning process, family celebrations, all in a very healthy way.
PLASTICA in Catalan, my language, is a word used to name crafts.
PLANET because I like nature and science, and also describes an ecosystem that works perfectly when my daughters and I make crafts together.
The image that I use in IG is one of a craft we made one Christmas and enjoy it every year with family, it's like a planet hanging from an earth tree and matches the description of that physical and mental crafty space.
I don't have a favorite material. I would say that what I like to work with “connections” between everyday happenings and natural things. Materials help us to make the perfect match to each connection between those things. It's when the crafty intention becomes a making process that the materials come on the line. Being aware of our everyday "entourage", and enjoying nature is the best way to stay creative.
You started you're blog back in November 2015 as a place were you could keep all activities from your crafty family. Is blogging like you thought at the beginning?
This blog was a though I had in mind so many years before it came real. Mainly because of work I couldn’t dedicate time to that blog idea although I keep pictures of the crafty activities with my daughters, my husband, who is in to science research has been always a very supportive of this way of raising our children. I must say he sometimes was quite nervous with the mess we could end up doing in our small city flat.
Nowadays our daughters are teens and they enjoy time with friends and have other activities outside the family, so I started to organize all the pictures, so I could finally start a blog were any of us could find all the creative stuff we enjoyed all those unplugged years.
What happened was that because creativity doesn't stop and runs with small things in our everyday life. Crafty moments happened to be there so often that I decided o start an Instagram account, so I could keep up with the little things that configure a creative process. The IG is more like the laboratory, were experiments happens, as my husband would say, and the blog is a way of keeping things like in a library.
You wrote"Unplugged with natural glitter" on top of your account. What is natural glitter made of?
Unplugged is because we decided to rise our children without TV. We had a computer with a big screen since I'm a graphic designer, on there, we would watch movies from time to time, but they had to be creative a 100% of their time. Children books have been a great way of enriching and enchanting life all those years.
Three years ago we bought a TV and it was a great surprise for them and good decision, we enjoy some programs and have a good big screen to enjoy movies.
Natural glitter is because nature has so many vibrant and glittery ways of brighten our mind and inspire connections. Natural glitter would be the water drops that stay still on the leaves and work as a prism of light. Life must be bright. And we should keep that in mind and I feel as a mother I must empower my girls to be positive and brighten their everyday life no matter what.
What is your favorite tutorial from last month?
That One would be Easter Eggs. What started as an experiment ended up being so colorful and a great treat for easter hunting. We went to the La Boqueria Market (place to visit if you ever come to our city) and enjoyed the view of so many different types of eggs, big ones, small ones, white ones...
We bought some and emptied them, cleaned and painted them with ear sticks and coloring liquid food. They came out so colorful and different.
Because we craft at home and with no pressure we still have to finish another crafts that came to our minds as a connection! A mobile, we want to build. A mobile with birds that would match the colors and patterns of each egg. Maybe in summer we'll have time to enjoy that making and the idea is to give it as a present to their little cousin, who is going to be born in September.
Have you got a advice for us, what works for 3 siblings from range 8 age-12age to get started with crafting?
The best advice is to be sure of yourself and that you want to spend quality time no matter how the craft you dream to do will work out or not.
With children things grow so rapidly so you must have a joyful spirit to be able to have them engaged with any activity it evolves from the initial invitation. You must be aware that the end of the craft can be close to your first idea or just something different. Time is an issue too, some days the crafty time can last more or less of the time you planned.
So even thought there are tutorials you must do yourself first, you must be open to what ever develops from the initial invitation.
With small children the invitation should be with not so many options, but I love invitations that have things that could connect these three things building painting and usefulness.
As children grow they start to know better how materials work together and what crafts they want to do, so they need to know about tools. Tools will give them more creative and emphasize ideas.
Later on if they like that mental creative space you have help them to know, they will find time to be in there and create.
You'll see them crafting with and intention and a meaning, for friends and family, making clever connections after all. Making life more fun and bright.
I've got Barcelona in mind.... How does the culture, climate and nature influence your work?
Barcelona is a very versatile city with so many cultural things that catch your eyes and spirit and because of the weather it has so many the pedestrian streets and that gives such a cultural view an aesthetic infusion to any one who has a curious eye.
You can enjoy the beach at the seashore of the Mediterranean sea so close to the center of the city and that for sure gives you a beautiful blue horizon.
If you go there with kids you can rent a bike and enjoy a ride in front of the beach to the El Museu Blau, the museum of natural science on a modern building in front of the mediterranean and the seashore sand.
Barcelona has also the smooth range of Collserola behind, and that gives fresh unpolluted air to the cosmopolitan city. From up there you appreciate the growth and design of the city and the magnitude of things can really be transformed. Up there there is an Amuseum parck Tibidabo but what I really like is the Carretera de les Aigues and the Collserola Parc,it's easy to go up there by public transportation and I truly love the view.
Close to that area there is the Science museum CosmoCaixa. A place I highly recommend to go with kids.
Barcelona is the capital of Catalunya, and has been the city of important painters, like Joan Miró, architects like Antoni Gaudí, musics like Jordi Savall and poets like J.V Foix. Catalunya is an historical and cultural territory with it's own language and traditions; open to any one who cares to appreciate the beauty of it's place and it's culture, language, heritage and people.
From children to adults there are so many options to enjoy walks around villages that have become neighborhoods of the city. Like Gràcia, Sarrià and so many others.
Dear Natalie I have happened to know you trough Instagram, there my eye was catch by your beautiful gallery. It was a snow flake so tinny and so perfect that got me to follow your account. I'm so glad I meet you there. You are such a caring creative spirit, you find the cutest beautiful nature things and appreciate the potential inspiration that those give us.
Blogging and joining IG is something that I made just for fun, I keep it open because I believe in the benefits of sharing information. Thank you so much for this interview. I had a great time thinking about your questions. Hope to meet you in real life some day. Best regards from Barcelona and beautiful urban safaris ahead
Eva Morell Farrús
..........................................................................
