Darlisa's Interests
This is me.  Would you believe that the image on the left is from my 1994 Texas driver's license?  Well it is, and just like everyone else, I'll tell you that this doesn't look anything like me.  I've never looked this good.

The image to the right is a more recent photo of me.

Anyway, below are a few of the things I enjoy doing besides art.

  • Pysanky Eggs were used in ancient times to symbolize the rebirth of spring, life from apparent death. The symbolism of the designs on Pysanky or Ukrainian Easter Eggs has evolved over the years changing in meaning as Christianity spread. The making of pysanky is deeply intertwined with the Ukrainian celebration of Easter. A collection of stories and legends associated with pysanky are included in the Ukrainian Design Books published by the Ukrainian Gift Shop. I first became interested in pysanky about 1986 but was unable to locate instructions or supplies. When I finally got a computer with a modem in 1996, I found a wonderful website by Ann Amorash that has several designs from easy to expert, with detailed instructions. If you'd like to see some of the eggs that I've done, please take a look in our galleries for some examples.

  • Hardanger Lace (Har-dun-ger) comes from Norway, specifically from the Hardanger region, although it probably originated in ancient Persia and Asia. Hardanger is worked on an evenweave fabric using blanket stitches and kloster blocks with specialty stitches (such as picots and spiderwebs) worked in openings created by cutting away threads in the design. I am currently working on designing a Christmas stocking with a cuff made of Hardanger lace.

  • Crochet For my birthday in 1996, a friend gave me a doily that she had crocheted for me. I had tried to teach my self how to crochet before but had not been successful. I bought a book on thread crochet and finally succeeded. While I don't have much time to crochet, when I do, it's usually to make blankies and bonnets for All Crafts 4 Charity.

  • Cross Stitch I have been cross stitching since I was about 14. I bought a magazine, some thread and fabric and taught myself. I don't like to do simple designs or ones with a lot of repetitive or large areas of one color. The more intricate it is and the more colors there are, the better.

  • Sewing My mother taught me how to sew when I was nine on her Kenmore (which is still going strong after almost 30 years) and since then I've been making my own clothes and also for other members of the family. My other sisters never did catch on to sewing. When my brother-in-law bought my sister a sewing machine so that she could 'start' sewing their clothes, she began making a pair of shorts for him. After struggling through it for a while, she told us that even if the shorts had three legs, he was wearing them. While in college, I worked for the university Costume Dept. We made costumes for operas, Shakespearean Plays, and for the college choirs (stage and TV). I was also Costume Mistress, as a class requirement, for a play put on by a senior Dramatic Production major.

  • Painting & Drawing My father is an excellent painter, working entirely in oils. I haven't painted in oils since 1981 and usually use acrylic paints. I particularly enjoy painting nested dolls and have recently found a new source for the blanks. You can see some examples of ones I've done in the galleries. I've also done painting on paper combined with embossing and reverse painting on glass (paint is applied on the back of the glass, backwards).

  • Papercutting Paper cutting has always fascinated me. The intricate cuts that can be made astonish me, especially when you consider that Polish paper cutting is traditionally done with shearing scissors. Around the world paper cutting is known by many names and each type has it's own style. Below is a listing of the major types (taken from The Book of Paper Cutting by Chris Rich)

    • Kinds of papercutting:
      scherenschnitte (sher-en-shnit-uh) - German & Swiss
      wycincnki (vee-chee-non-kee) - Poland
      monkiri (mon-kee-ree) - J apan
      chien-chih (jian-jeh) - Chinese
      k'e-chi (kuh-jeh) (paper carving) - Chinese
      knippen (knip-pen) - Dutch

  • Beading Although I haven't done a lot of beading, I've always enjoyed seeing the intricate designs that can be achieved, not only in items made with beads, but also in the beads themselves. I hope to have more time in the future to actually make something.

  • Elephants When I was 3 days old, my father gave me a small leather elephant filled with sawdust. Over the years, family members have added to my collection. On my 21st birthday, my father gave me another sawdust filled leather elephant he had found in an antique shop. I stopped counting at 6,000 items (clippings, buttons, toys, figurines, etc.) about 10 years ago. Not long ago, I went through all my elephants and got rid of two large garbage bags of stuffed elephants and about three boxes of other elephant items. I donated them to the Salvation Army.

    Things I'm working on: I recently bought a kit to teach myself how to make bobbin lace. I haven't had time to even try it out, but am so looking forward to it. Another lace technique that I bought supplies for is for needle tatting which uses a needle instead of a tatting shuttle.