Porcelain paiting - Tinga-tinga technique

Here is some of my artwork I did, I started during our Porcelain Days in late July. I was helped by the other participans as it was my big painting and I woul like to thanks in particular Mai Kolossova, our porcelain painting teacher who came earlier on saturday last week to help me.

Dinner's Ready!!!!

    A few days after I arrived in Estonia, I was invited to a cooking class for a dinner with a south-african Chef working in Tallinn, Paul Senosi. Uudo told me then I had to see how he was doing since I would need to do the same sometime in the future. When I was what Paul did, I was a bit worried of what I would have to do as we had a feast that night. I ended up with all the rest of food in doggy bag since nobody wanted it. I had enough food for one week!! Some months passed without notice about this until Uudo asked me to think about what I would do for a training he will have a few weeks later. So I had to think about one or two dishes to do for around 25 people.

   He advertised very soon about the French and Macedonian cooking classes as he knew since October last year. The people divided themselves like 2/3 for French cuisine and 1/3 for Macedonian cuisine. As we expected nice weather for that day, I had to prepare something really French, easy and cheap for a barbecue. That BBQ part was the most difficult one. I couldn’t think about something we are doing especially for bbq. Uudo went to France last year and he told me he really enjoyed the brochettes he had there. When he told me that, I thought it would be a good idea to do it since in Estonia, they don’t really have it the way we do in France. 

    I didn’t want to use pork in my recipe as I had enough and beef was a bit too expensive for so many people. So I choose marinated chicken as it was easier and I finally had an occasion to try it. I went online to find good recipes, mixed them somehow and ended up with something I like. I decided to try it a few days before just in case I had to change it. I used Provence Herbs and this proved to be quite successful. All participants took it in picture to try to find it in Estonia. I was sorry to break it but this mix of herbs is hard to find outside France. It is used for BBQ mainly but it is not imported in Estonia where BBQ is like a national sport in summer. Everybody participated more or less actively in cutting the chicken, the peppers, press the lemon and lime, pour the olive oil and leave it to rest for one hour at least. Then we prepared the brochettes before grilling them. It was actually the longest part of the whole day since everybody eat it in a snap!!

Minu Eestimaa - L'estonie et moi

    Now, I'm in the final month of my European Voluntary Service in Nooruse Maja. So I have to think about how to arrange things to go back to France and how I can leave a footprint here. The latter being of course exceptional because I will do it. XD

   When I arrived here in Estonia, my tutor Uudo told about an exhibition we should do by the end of our EVS with Katerina. He told us to think about this when we are travelling around the country to take some very good quality pictures to be used for this exhibition.

   And now have come the time to do it. We agreed on the dates (Sept 8th-19th), the preview (Sept 8th, same day as our open door afternoon). I selected about 19 pictures from which I should only take half since I have to share the frames with Katerina. I also asked for some help from Hana, the new volunteer from Czech Republic who will take our place. She did a really great job for the photo montage I kindly request her to do for the exhibition. You can see it on the poster i made today. It is a montage made of pictures I took, except one I must say (thanks Daire ;) to recreate a map of Estonia and its provinces. 

   I'm trully happy with this work. The montage also shows the effort of dissemination and collaboration between EVS, the handover of our work here to the new person volunteering in our organisation. During my EVS, I had to help Uudo about reports for projects he took part in and lots of times we had the question how we could do follow-up and dissemination. Having Hana preparing this with my pictures can be also a good presention of her skills. 

    So if you want to join us for this exhibition, please come in Nooruse Maja, roheline 1b, Pärnu 80036 from Saturday Sept 8th to 19th and enjoy our pictures and arts about how we see Estonia, the places we visited. I haven't thought much about it, but if there are some pictures you like, it might be possible to make a reproduction so you can get it back home for a fair price.

Estonian LineDance Festival - Pärnu, Aug 4&5th

    We had a great time this week-end with all the participants of the linedande Festival in Pärnu. thanks to some our volunteers, we could have this video. One more is coming and I'll post it when I will receive the link.

Just a little bit more...

Hello dear readers,

    Just a reminder about our Linedance Festival. I've juct checked and we should have a normal weather, not so hot but not rainy. So please come and join us. 

    Not only we will have this record attemps but also a nice concert on sunday in Vaalikaar. Our visitors will be able to buy food and drinks from Kaia and her kitchen. I've been here 6 months and not a single time she disappointed me with the food she made for us in the organisation. 

    So please come, better if you register before but not necessary. Check our facebook page to know the latest updates.

A little help for my friend Gaia

Hello dear readers,

Today I bring you the video of my friend Gaia, an italian volunteer in Tartu. Her project is to make videos of NGOs, organisations, youth centers, etc, etc to make them visible. I asked for her help to shoot the video of our linedance festival and in particular of our Guiness world record attempt. She kindly accepted to do it so I return the favor for her project.

Please people of Estonia, share it, like it or sleep on it if you like but Help her. She needs our help.

The Porcelain Days (July 27-29th, Parnu, Nooruse Maja)

    In my early days in Nooruse Maja, I was doing some porcelain painting with a very nice lady who came earlier to the office to teach us some porcelain painting. At first I was ok, let’s do it once. But she kept on coming back. We did a few things like a tea mug, some plates and one jewelry case. The latter was proposed by her since I did something for my mum for her birthday. Mai, the porcelain teacher told me I had to do it. We did over a few weeks as it needed different layers of paint. I was a bit afraid it would continue too long as I would like to take everything back home when I will get back to France. 

    The main event for her is the porcelain days we are organising in Nooruse Maja. During days, people can come have some classes on different styles, techniques from teachers coming from other countries and Estonia. We even had a few years ago, a teacher from Japan. They made some calligraphy on porcelain and it was so beautiful. A Shame I wasn’t already here because I would have participated in this workshop. 

    Now, the porcelain days are just in a few days. People will have the chance to study how to paint nostalgic country houses, small animals and the tinga tinga technique or how to paint berries. Visitors can enjoy an exhibition of the items painted during those workshops, arts brought by people from our winter classes. The exhibition is free so you can come and enjoy a nice drink.