leila hamaya

this year i am doing candles and wax melts. i was just going to do candles, and ordered a lot of soy wax and a bit of beeswax to blend, but apparently my mom has a thing for wax melts now, so going to make a big batch for her and candles for everyone else.

i make crafts for a living so everyone on my short christmas list is used to getting handmade presents. i switch it up every year
i keep making my mom baskets ! she loves them. but by now i have run through like every gift basket theme i got, it feels a bit repetitive to keep sending her a gift basket every year.
but she really likes my baskets so i am sure i will make her some more later.
many years i do default to as above - food and booze =) homemade fudge, thats one i have done maybe too often...but i put it in like reusable pyrex containers...and thats a big hit.
i like to give booze too - feels like thats one thats always appreciated. =)

in my art school days in the city -- i went through a large "garbage art" phase -- its easier in a bigger city area, but certain times of year theres oddles of art supplies in the garbage pick up days for dumpster thriving. boston where i went to art school, is particularly good for this being the hugest college town and lots of students moving out always and leaving whatever behind.

besides just actual recognizable art supplies proper, you can find all sorts of freegan stuff. mirrors, wood boards, random metal bits, etc...i used to go out gathering and hauling my trash scores quite a lot.

James Landreth wrote:

May Lotito wrote:Foe hand sewing, do you need a special needle? I have made coon hat before and used the strongest needle that came in the regular needle pack. It worked most of the time but had a hard time piercing through the skin behind the neck.

There are needles that are designed for it. They are thicker, and some are sharp, and others not. Sometimes people use an awl to pierce the hide then sew through the holes

yes its enormously helpful to pre make each hole with an awl. you can get faster at it as you go, but you can pre mark them and measure in one step, then make all the hole in another, then actually sew it together. i guess its harder on fur, not sure how you could mark it to see, but possible on the backside? you can just skip the measuring....and go straight to punching out holes in a resonably straight ish line, probably would work ok as fur would sort of fill in any slight measurement and alignment mistakes.

it's been a weird year or two for me, as i have been doing a lot of traveling and moving back and forth from left coast to the east....and so have started some new ventures and experimental sort of new directions creatively-- doing made to order printed on demand items.
i am maybe still at the throw everything out there and see what sticks stage with it - but its been a new creative outlet for me to put my time into creating digital art, designing all sorts of interesting things to be printed on demand, and much more designing than actual making.
i have created a line of blank art greeting cards, experimented with funky shoe designs and found some limited success - designing things like jackets and clothing, although a slow start to doing this new direction.

so alongside my long time handmade store where i sell handmade creations and also craft supplies -- https://leilahamaya.etsy.com
i started a new store and brand under the name zaluna studio-- https://zalunastudio.etsy.com

it is helpful for me, when i am travelling, to have something to sell in my ecommerce stores, that can be printed and shipped to order - to not be tied down to my inventory on either coast.
perhaps you all will enjoy the different stuff i have on offer there.
*edited to add some pictures, these are some of my favorite designs i have done earlier this year....

maybe this is a - most of the great poets and artists are dead - phase -
also been listening to and thinking about the loss of this special one

been in a nostalgic mood for music, i really miss the 90s still....love the stuff thats still great today....

these guys have aged well - too bad michael did not, maybe too beautiful for this world --


this was such a great album start to finish --

nice, i also like weedy feral edibles. red clover, "cheese" aka wild mallow / malva neglecta, miner's lettuce, violas and violets, sheep sorrel and lamb's quarters are some of my favorites for eating, as well as the different varieties of wild onions/leeks/garlic.  and of course the beautiful wild rose, wild strawberry, and even invasive blackberry, as much of a pain as it can be to manage, love a good good black berry patch.

Jay Angler wrote:

Burra Maluca wrote:
And look what showed up - SEZAM  cast iron stove plate with 3 holes, 68 x 52 cm

Just for anyone who doesn't know how these are supposed to work:
For some purposes, the closer the pot is to the flame, the faster things will heat up. The different sized rings are so you can choose a size that most perfectly fits your pot. This would work awesome for plane steel or cast iron woks as the pot would sit down into the size hole you chose.  

Wheaton Labs has a special name which I've forgotten, for a pot that fits part way down below the surface of the stove - they built one. You get heating on the sides as well as the bottom, so cooking happens faster.

However, I agree that these aren't going to seal as perfectly as "no holes". So long as people are aware of that and monitor their CO (Carbon Monoxide) levels, this type of stove top has been used for a very long time (a version made of cob, for centuries in Japan) and so I doubt it was actively killing too many people.

I recall seeing a special tool that fits the little hole visible in the pictures, allowing you to safely remove circles when they're already hot.

That's an awesome find Burra and Austen - the stove looks awesome!

yes, this is what i was going to say - and add - depending on how you burn wood, it can be a bit tricky to master woodstove cooking. it takes a really long time to get something to boil and you have to feed a lot of wood, and a lot of the right type of wood (nice dry hardwood for instance) to get it hot enough to like boil water or keep a consistant temperature.
i tend to burn sketchy scrappy whatever i can get my hands on stuff, that makes it harder, but you can get the result with chopping all your pieces quite small to get that extra heat for a quicker boil.

some recipes can be tricky if you need a long time to boil for instance, and equally tricky on the other side if you want something that is a "low" setting on a regular stove.
for that you can get rise ups, sort of the ooposite effect as the holes, to lift the pots above the top, just a metal plate  (some times ceramics or ceramics can be used as well, especially in a pinch)
held up an inch or two and then you can set the pots on that to stimulate a "low" setting and slow cook something or keep it warm.
anywho those removable metal holes make it a lot easier because you put the pot right inside the holes and this will make it infinitely easier if you dfo intend to use it for real cooking. glass probably works better, too, so those holes will come in handy. of course its your build, so depending on how much you want it to function for cooking, but i would seriously recommend leaving them usable and able to be removed if you do want to cook on it on a regular basis.

one last note you can use regular clay, and not have to source the refined clay.  if you dont have any in your subsoil around...maybe try to check by a river if you know of one...as clay is often found in the banks of a river...being that it travels down the rivers and tends to deposit the clay. if all else fails maybe try to find a local potter, if they arent willing to part with any maybe they can give you the right idea.

Ryan Grossenbacher wrote:I've seen Jamaican Cottage Shop stuff before and it seems like they make some cool stuff. Thanks for confirming that they're a solid choice.

i do think they are making some of the best ones in this tiny shed pre cut kit realm. i am just guessing but i think they are also milling their own lumber.

i think the most valuable things in any kind of nightmare situ being discussed -- the most important things are not things, but internal circumstances.
inner strength, true empowerment -- power with, not power over -- focussing on the good for the whole, instead of oneself, a sense of inner security and inner peace, acceptance of even the most difficult things and willingness to keep on pushing through that.
also knowledge - all the sorts of things we talk about here - how to fish, how to build, how to forage, how to farm, etc etc theres a lot to know in this space. but this sort of stuff can lead to the above.
but this kind of knowledge is infinitely more valuable in these zombie apocalypse/SHTF/ EOTWAWKI  scenarios, than a huge list of material things and supplies

also theres a weird kind of strength that comes from having lived through a bunch of sh!t and gotten through it. its not some....idealistic sense of strength, a naive type of strength, its much darker than that. its i got through all this sh!t -so bring it on universe - kinda of real strength.

in growing awareness -- there is a big shift i think that can happen for a person when they become more aware to what i will call "real reality" - and this can quickly spin a person into being really freaked out. we are spinning around in space on spaceship earth, a tumultuous super organism with immense beauty and power, and darkness and loss,life and death and the fear of losing your only bones. its both amazingly beautiful and terrifyingly horrible.
ah idk i just see thats part of the prepper phases people go through - i think it is set off by a growing in awareness. and that awareness brings up all the uncertainty and fear and really sinks in just how precarious this whole thing really is. especially for those who have lived very sheltered lives, they grow somewhat blind to certain realities, having not experienced them themselves, and just not being able to break out of whatever confines and comfort zones are presented, say if you grow up in the relative comfort of first world abundance and affluence especially.
so i try to have compassion for those who may be in those types of phases, because ultimately they are the ones being conned, IMO obviously, they are being wronged, being force fed all sort of harmful and regressive ideologies and dont question it. they parrot their brainwashing and dont question their privilege, and how acclimated they are as tame pets.
ok i may be on the verge of ruffling some feathers here, but this is how i see things. people are taught wrong, with bad programming,
society values the wrong things, and turns people into borderline sociopaths, and thats all been normalized with so many false narratives. theres a bug in the code of eurocentric civilations, the ideaologies which have been handed down to us, the default operating system of the collective culture!

breaking free from that stuff, if you start hacking the code, hacking your own brain! i think this leads to growing awareness, and though not all lessons need to come from pain and loss and being without, there are very valuable and harsh lessons that can bring greater and greater awareness, and this about where youre average prepper is at- in their expanding awareness, they go through a huge fear response to this....seeing beyond the comfy confines of being sheltered and indoctrinated into these unhealthy cultures.

but the trick is to keep growing through that -- to get beyond that where youve sort of accepted it, as much as it can be accepted -- that all sorts of crazy difficult things can and will happen and theres very little you can do about it as tiny little speck of beingness-  -- just try to do the best you can in your little way, inch along and gain skills, be good family to the extended family of not just the human community even with all of its dysfunction and darkness, but the greater super organism and all the beings that make up that super organism.