20090611

amarettoplumsour

I forgot to take pictures of my plum jam before giving them away, thanked to Vita 's post, I borrowed 2 from her blog.

Before plum jam, I also made mulberry jam and tomato jam, and all of the ingredients were FREE! That’s the advantages of living here in Taitung!

This April, during Tomb-Sweeping Day weekend, I got a chance to visit an abandoned plum orchard of the mother-in-law of my friend, Guan. They showed me how to harvest plums with bamboo stick and shared with me different recipes for plum jam, plum wine, plum vinegar, and conserved plums…etc.

I couldn’t reveal how many bottles of jam I made because some friends of mine might get upset. Anyway, here comes the real point why I want to post these 2 pics: Can you see my paper-cut logo on the jam bottle? I kept the shape as simple as possible since I decided to cut each piece with scissor, not with knife.

Again, I enjoyed the process very much because every mouth and pair of eyes were a bit different. And the outer circle somewhat looked like raising arms holding together.

Can’t wait to make another kind of jam next time!

P.S.1 Vita had no cheap whisky that night, so she replaced with Bacardi, Absoult Vodka and Brandy. She also added some lime juice and fresh lemon juice.
P.S.2 My version of amaretto plum sour needs 1 part plum jam, 1 part whisky, 1 part amaretto and enough ice.


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20090526

我的剪紙日記

小氣鬼兼懶惰鬼09年的願望之一,就是要大大方方剪紙!剪一些大張的,剪剪不同的材質,想把故事剪出來。





第一次剪紙是因為一個鼻子很挺的朋友,還記得只要被她教過、脾氣又直率的孩子,往往直呼其大鼻子或巫婆鼻子。某年夏天,巫婆好聲騙我到汐止山上騙小孩。夜裡無聊,為取悅身邊幾個同樣覺得夏令營無聊又不肯睡覺的小傢伙,剪出一堆水果怪頭人,紙碎散了一地,換來心情大好。此後斷斷續續視心情動剪,並不認真。

說起來身邊朋友畫畫的不少,曾經耳濡目染試著拿筆卻是又塗又改,成就感不大,還是覺得拿剪刀比較輕鬆。紙張折疊之處便是展開時驚喜所在,有時手比眼快,剪出來的結果超出原本的造型經驗,帶來新的刺激。有時候覺得自己的剪紙看著看著好像有故事了,可惜往往只停在一個情節或一句話。

06年的旅行帶著剪刀出發,不像安徒生那把會刺傷背脊的大剪刀,我的小小的放在筆袋裡,每當要離開熱情招待我們住宿的網友家前夕,旅伴和我就會一起討論要剪些什麼當作謝禮。還記得為莫斯科新婚夫婦剪了張四手聯彈吉他、為聖彼得堡那個心理醫生的女兒剪了張盤腿抽水煙、為佛羅倫斯的龐克護士剪了張九貓圖、為里斯本音樂老師的好朋友剪了有蝙蝠和壽桃的生日賀卡…。

那是獨一無二的禮物,也是我們的剪紙日記。

說實話,旅伴的剪紙好過我的太多,因為我很容易掉進小氣巴拉的情緒裡,要不擔心沒剪好怕浪費紙,要不害怕剪大了難收拾,總之不夠大方。所以我這個小氣鬼兼懶惰鬼09年的願望之一,就是要大大方方剪紙!剪一些大張的,剪剪不同的材質,想把故事剪出來。

↗用PhotoScape做的魔術方塊,是從夾在九樓某本詩集好幾年的剪紙堆拼湊來的。


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20090525

innerchild


Last Friday I went to a free play titled Little Town of Tanshui. It was an adaption of Our Town (Thornton Wilder,1938) performed by Godot Theatre Company.
Most of the audience that night were students and teenagers due to the sponsorship of a new established foundation.

There was a scene describing a dead woman got her last chance to travel back to her childhood celebrating her 10 year-old birthday with her "young" parents. The actress chose tiptoe walking to imitate small children's movement and it reminded me of the doll on a music box.

According to my first draft(it was harder for me to draw so I could only visualized my paper cutting in my head..),it should have been like kind of mirror image, two standing figures connected by the part of the feet, up the girl, down the old lady. But as it always happened, the finished piece went far from the draft. Anyway, I liked the outcome better. More comforting.

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20090521

late mother's day present


This morning I went to mail this envelope, inside was 2 music CD for my mom.

The post office lady hesitated, I thought I know why, after 5 seconds or so she ask if I drew those things and for whom was it made? I didn't feel like talking too much, so I nodded my head slightly. Obviously she wasn't satisfied with my answer, she looked into my eyes and tried to say more....I quickly said I only helped to send it and left with the receipt in my hand.

In fact, I spent almost an hour cutting those figures because I needed something to cover the upper left corner. I pasted the green paper first, and a pink recycled piece as mountain shape, after that I was stuck. I practiced some kirigami to wait for the next idea. Finally there were 2 cats out of one folded paper. And here came the most interesting part, the mountain shape looked like cat paw instead after the final arrangement.

That's why I loved paper cutting so! Full of accidents and surprises!


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20090418

balletgirl


At first, I wanted to cut a dancing elephant....
In the end was an elephant foot girl dancing ballet. Not bad?


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flowertail


This idea came from a dream...but I didn't like the paws...


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6 stitches


Yuwen and I hosted many friends last summer and one of the reasons was for her exhibition.

Yj, Yuwen's cousin, wanted to leave as soon as she arrived Taitung because of the high temperature and the annoying mosquitoes. To solve this, Yuwen insisted showing Yj a wonderful butterfly valley to swim in.
The first thing happened when we got there, by the way, we rode two scooters there, the very first thing after almost an hour riding was that Yuwen got herself tripped and fell on the riverbank! She tried to control the bleeding, but failed, so we took her back to downtown for a simple suture. And all she was worrying about was that she couldn't go to beach the following day!
Unbelievable!
That's why I cut this smiling figure with her mother's warning in one ear and out the other and reaching hands for fun.


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