Jane got busy with her craftwork again, to create a mirror for our friends Kyriakos and Maia, who married shortly before we left Cyprus.
Reflective
Influenced by Greek styles and colours, the mirror includes the curvy glass that Jane is currently experimenting with, and butterflies – Maia’s ‘signature’ image.
Tiles from the Marshes - Jane painting her new Greek-inspired carriage lamp design
It began with mirrors, moved on to bookshelves and serving trays … and now carriage lamps. Jane’s mosaic ingenuity is growing, and so is the range of things she wants to work on.
The lamp is an Ikea special, now topped with tiles we brought with us from Nairobi, but in a delightful colour pattern inspired by traditional Greek Mediterranean styles.
Jane also seems to be becoming a consultant to other ladies of Nicosia who want to develop their own artistic talents. Super, though she finds it all a bit alarming.
Jane continues to go from strength to strength producing 3D decoupage cards (which sell well among friends) and, in the last year, mosaic furniture.
She’s just finished another mirror, her second, this one for the girls’ bathroom. It features seashells picked up from the Mombasa beach (no living marine creatures were harmed in the prosecution of this hobby …) and mosaic tiles hand-carried from Canada.
This importation of heavy materials was quite an exercise. Our friend Marie drove Nigel round for a day in Toronto to find a the warehouse specialising in the tiles. They come in small squares stuck to a large sheet, looking for all the world like stamp collector sheets for big people (or at least, after you’ve got a dozen sheets, for people with big biceps, because they start to get heavy very quickly.
Nigel brought one load back in his suitcase. Two other accomplices, Paul and Robert, were roped in by Marie to carry another lot, accompanying the lads on a difficult working trip round remote locations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo before being dropped off with us on their way home.
Thanks Marie, Robert and Paul – here’s a picture of Jane reflecting on your hard work to help her!
To see the mirror with shells, take a look at our homepage, www.talesfromthemarshes.com.
