Art & Wild Nature Foundation Children's Recycling Workshop

Saturday afternoon saw a busy crowd at the studio: two projects were on the go. The children and their accompanying adults were busy covering stones with mosaic from broken ceramic tiles, and building a papier mache turtle from an old enamel bowl, some chicken wire, and discarded newspapers.








The turtle is as yet unfinished -- she needs more covering and a coat or two of paint. But when she's finished, either next Saturday or the one following, look out for her in the garden!



















Come and join us at Turtle and Moon next Saturday at three in the afternoon for another Art and Wild Nature Foundation Trash to Treasure Children's Recycling workshop.

Autumn Recycling Workshop for Children

The theme of our Children’s Recycling Workshop on Saturday October 31 was autumn, and in celebration of the change in the weather the children made a banner wall hanging. Using a large sheet of white fabric and decorating it with paint, markers, and fabric off-cuts donated by a local shop the children created an autumn scene complete with swirling leaves, raindrops, and umbrellas. Wishful thinking? Maybe… the first rains have already fallen in parts of the Paphos area, and we are hoping for more to replenish dams and wash the dust from wilting foliage.

Workshops for children will take place every Saturday for the next two months at Turtle and Moon from 3-5 p.m. Join us in turning trash to treasure!

Second Fabric Design Workshop

The second t-shirt decorating workshop was a success at Turtle and Moon on Wednesday afternoon. All the children designed their shirts in advance, then using textile paints, markers, or fabric pens went to work on the real thing. Several adults helped out, drawing rabbits, aeroplanes, or trucks, and the shirts were last seen hanging to dry from every available space in the courtyard.

Unfortunately the afternoon was marred by an accident: while playing around after finishing his shirt, little Marios fell and fractured his arm. We all wish him a speedy recovery and hope to see him at the workshops next week

Children's Fabric Design Workshop

T-shirt tie dieing was the afternoon workshop at Turtle and Moon on Monday. Lise and various adults showed the older children how to twist their t-shirts and tie them tightly, and helped the younger ones whose smaller fingers weren’t quite up to the task. There were four colour options: black, dark blue, light blue, and pink, and everyone had a choice.

Smiles all around when the knots were cuts, the strings unwound, and the t-shirts revealed their surprising patterns.

Lise will be running another children’s fabric design workshop this coming Wednesday from 4.00-5.30 at turtle and Moon. Come and join the fun!

Project Greenhouse

Amargeti village is beautiful as spring turns to summer. Cool enough to be pleasant still at three in the afternoon, it is quiet and peaceful up there where the grass is still green and the trees still blossom.

The old school was bursting with life on Sunday afternoon. The young crowd surrounded Lise on the wide staircase, covering canes with different colours of acrylic paint, and the seminar room hosted those that could be better trusted with craft knives: Project Greenhouse has begun.

After she saw the plans for construction of a greenhouse from recycled bottles, Doerte Ioannou, director of the Art & Wild Nature Foundation, decided that a greenhouse would be the 2010 project for the Foundation. Last year’s project – a playground (including climbing frame, bench, and pond) of recycled tyres weathered the winter beautifully, and provides a colourful backdrop to the

timber frame of the greenhouse-to-be.

Construction should take ten or twelve weeks, and workshops will be weekly. So if you want to be part of an exciting recycling project and spend your Saturday afternoons in a peaceful hill village, be sure to join us next week!

Turtle and Moon in the Community

Lise Constantinou Briggs, the driving force behind Turtle and Moon has been working her magic out in the wider community, involving children, inspiring parents and teachers, and decorating the bland surfaces of local schools.



Already well known and respected by the headteacher at Trimithousa Elementary School who seized the chance to paint a mural with the theme of water-saving on the school cistern, Lise was invited out to Pegeia Elementary to transform a blank concrete wall into a colourful ideal of respect and diversity.

Children, parents, and administrators participated in and enjoyed the projects, and Lise is hoping for more opportunities to work out in the community in the near future.

Bottle Cap Collections

The last of the Children’s Recycling Workshops on Saturday was dedicated to turning junked containers into collection boxes for bottle caps. We decorated old paint buckets and cardboard boxes with foil, bottle tops, and paint and gave them a new lease on life. Several parents took home containers with promises to place them in schools and nurseries, and of course we are keeping at least one here at the studio.




Please keep your bottle caps – ANY bottle caps. We need metal and plastic, large and small; caps from soft drinks, from shampoos, from water and milk bottles -- for a future project. If you see a collection point in the community, please use it; if not, bring your caps to the studio – or make a container yourself for use at home. As you can see from the pictures, creating them is a lot of fun!

Summer Seeds and Quirky Containers

Thanks to Rebecca for the great photos!

The gardening group was a little bigger this time, as we included two babies and a grandmother this month! We began the workshop discussing what we did last month and comparing successes and failures.

Clement had experimented with sprouting lentils having seen the green manure last time which led naturally over to the outside wall of the garden where Lise’s lentils are now a flourishing patch.

Rachael explained about legumes as green manure and the group discussed the planting of peas, beans, clovers, broad beans and lentils, how to let them grow, slash them, allow them to begin to flower, then chop them into the soil as a means of fixing nitrogen and adding organic bulk matter to the soil.

We looked at all the flourishing weeds and discussed weed control, then moved back ‘within the walls’ to discuss what Rachael considers her less-than-successful garden. “It needs soil!” was the verdict. And short of importing some, or double digging to improve what there is, Rachael has decided to sheet mulch it.

We looked at the different plants and discussed pests such as snails and aphids and what to do about them, dug up an almost-ready garlic bulb, and talked about collecting seeds from the flowering rocket and coriander. Sheet muching the 25 square metre plot will be the bulk of next-month’s workshop and Rachael and Lise are working on gathering the materials – thick cardboard, manure, topsoil/compost mix, and straw.

Coffee-break came next and we all had a sample of Allie’s bagels and look at the books and magazines that Rachael had brought. She discussed resources: how most of the literature written in English is not applicable to Cyprus’ growing season, but that the newly re-vamped Department of Agriculture is now a resource to be reckoned with and recommended.

The practical half of the workshop involved planting up containers of flats of summer veg. People looked through the selection of seed packets, considered what might work in their own garden, and under Rachael’s supervision planted up their own flats to take home. Several people also did large containers with rocket, coriander, and lettuce, as well as trying Rachael’s experiment for Lise – the companion planting in a deep cardboard apple box of corn and cucumber. Rachael also planted some lettuce, coriander and rocket in a large wide container, and delegated the old galvanised bath to carrots and radishes. The studio’s sheet mulch garden will not be planted until next moth, but in the mean time, Lise will have some greens to be going on with and of course they will provide a platform for us all to learn from over the coming months.

Rachael’s big theme this month was ‘Don’t be afraid to learn from your mistakes’. We discussed what had gone wrong – and right – with other’s seed starts of last month as well as the garden at the studio, and kept reminding ourselves that the best thing you can do as a gardener is ‘try it and see’.

We will all miss Rebecca and little Alice who will be moving back to the UK next month. Alice and Edie (Allie’s daughter), as you can see from the pictures, thoroughly enjoyed themselves and are sure to file today’s experience for future use.

We have decided that the garden workshop will be a monthly feature -- taking place on the last Wednesday of every month. Come and join in, make friends, and gain confidence in your ability to produce food organically in your own back yard!

Finishing the Water Carriers

So many children participated in Saturday’s workshop that not everyone had a water carrier to decorate! It was the second of a two-part recycling workshop: converting milk cartons, old newspapers, and plastic cups into papier mache copies of traditional Indian water vessels. Those that didn’t have an actual vessel to paint were able to design their own plan onto some sketches that Lise had made to help the children plan their final designs.

We were lucky with good weather, and everyone enjoyed being able to work outside again. Last workshop was an indoor one, thanks to the cold. Now that spring is here we are looking forward to spending more time outdoors.

There is only one more workshop in this series. It will take place on Saturday, March 27, and is free to all children and the adults that they bring. So join us at Turtle and Moon at 3 p.m. with your milk cartons, bottles, and recyclable materials, prepared to have a good time!

Indian Water Jugs

Despite the grey and chilly weather, Turtle and Moon was busy on Saturday February 27. Eight children showed up for the afternoon recycling workshop: creating Indian water jugs from milk cartons, plastic cups and papier-mache. Lise had made an example for us all to see and talked us through the construction steps.

First we cut the cartons and stuffed enough newspaper inside to support two plastic glasses. Then we taped the cups securely into the cartons, made handles from twisted pipe-cleaners and tape, and covered the construction with strips of glue-soaked newspaper. This was the first part of a two-part workshop: a fortnight from now, when the glue has had time to dry, the children will be decorating their jugs.

After tea and biscuits, we played outside, explored the garden and experimented with weaving.

Gardening Workshop

Wednesday, February 17, saw six of us (and a baby!) gathering at Turtle and Moon for the early spring Organic Principles for Backyard Gardeners workshop. Rachael started these workshops last year, using the studio garden as a tool to make clean vegetable growing accessible to all, and so far they have been a great success.

Wednesday’s topics were starting seeds for summer vegetables, and the construction of a herb spiral – a permaculture concept that uses a spiral design to create the different microclimates favoured by a variety of herbs.

We started with a discussion on summer fruit and veg – which are propagated from seed and which from seedlings, and why. Then moved on to talk about the difference between hybrid and heirloom varieties – and why saving and planting the seeds from the delicious pepper or mango that you bought at the shop might not result in a plant of the same type.

Rachael had brought the boxes that she uses for seed starting, as well as a supply of newspaper (to line the boxes) and compost (as a seedbed), and a variety of seeds that grow well during Cyprus’ warmer months, and everyone set to work selecting and planting the seeds that they would like to see growing in their own gardens over the coming months. Eggplant, pepper, cherry tomato, water melon, sweet melon, beans, and strawberries were all on the table. As the seedlings grow, Rachael will be available to help with advice for transplanting.

After coffee we moved out to the clear area beyond the wall where Lise had decided to site the herb spiral. After laying a thick mat of cardboard about 2 metres square, we drew a spiral, then laid cinderblocks and rocks, building the spiral to a central summit. We filled the inside with layers of soil, goat manure, and straw, then bedded the plants into their new homes. Thuli (lemon geranium) is the centrepiece, and the sunny southern face hosts rosemary, lavender, and oregano. Sage and a rather succulent thyme occupy each side, and you'll find the chives, parsley and mint – planted in it’s pot and a larger enclosing bucket to discourage rampant suckers -- on the cooler northern side. There were no basil plantsat the nursery, so we made a little seedbed and planted some basil genovese for summer pesto.


























By noon the work was finished, and the final half-hour of the workshop passed in an informal question and answer session, exchanges of addresses and emails, and brainstorming for topics for the next workshop.



If you haven’t tried one of our gardening workshops, watch this space for announcements for the next one.