Exotic Vietnam, same same but better !

Temple in Hanoi

The Vietnamese use bikes to transport everything

Yes, Vietnam is part of Southeast Asia and shares similarities  to other Asian countries Ive visited , yet it does have a truly distinct flavour of its own. I am skipping to the last country on my big trip as its in direct contrast to the serenity and order of France even though the French did occupy Vietnam at one point in history. There are still reminders of the French occupation in buildings seen in certain Vietnamese areas. This wonderful country is not for the faint hearted traveller. One must deal with extreme traffic noise, the risk of being run down by throngs of motorbikes wherever you walk, even on footpaths, unbelievable humidity, if visiting in the monsoon season, like we did and of course and being harrassed constantly for all sorts of services and goods.

The process of purchasing something Vietnamese is very entertaining though. This leads me to explain the same , same but better or different expression. I have published below an example off the net which sums up the meaning of same, same from the Lonely Planet.

It's used all over South East Asia. The "same same" part could be based on Malay/Indonesian sama sama (meaning same same) and/or a similar expression in Thai, and the "but different" part was allegedly tacked onto it by tourists who found it funny. 

Who knows why it got popular, but tourists and people in the tourist industry all over the region (Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, maybe other countries as well) have adopted it enthusiastically. People wear the phrase on T-shirts and bags, and there are restaurants and guest houses that use it as a name. 

My guess is that "sameness" is simply a concept that comes up a lot while buying things and haggling about the price. I'm sure everyone who has traveled a bit can't count the number of times s/he has had something same same but different from the following conversation with salespeople with just enough tourist English to get by:

Gorgeous silk lantern shops adorn the streets of Hoi An

Buyer: How much is this?
Seller: 50
B: And this one?
S: 80.
B: What is the difference?
S: No different. This one bigger.
B: And this one? Is it the same?
S: Same same this. 
B: Oh. 
S: This and this: same same. This and other: no same same. 
And before you know it, you start doing it too:
B: Ah, so this and this also same same?
S: No! No same same this. This and that one yes same same. 
B: Ah, this and this same same?
S: Yes! Same same!
B: Same same! Good! 
Smile. Pay. Smile. Walk away with new "same same" vocabulary.

Now that you understand, the same, same concept, I suppose I better add a creative aspect to this blog. Apart from great food, interesting history , Vietnam is a photographer's delight with its stunning landscapes, varied art and crazy cities. Enjoy my photos!

Tribes person from Sapa village

Closeup of an umbrella

Sapa village baby boy

Sapa countryside

                 

More on Durfort

My  Parisian woman

As promised, I wanted to show you some of the work I created during my week in Durfort under the guidance of the lovely Dayle Doroshow.
I have not yet, completed any work however there are many plans afloat now. My Mogdigliani inspired Friench lady ( here on the left ) is the first of  a series of art dolls revolving around tassles I collected whilst in France. I intend to make some of my own tassles too. My mate, Christine, the other Aussie in our group thought my lady was a man in drag. Good thing, Im not easily offended, thanks Chris!
The other figure shown here on the right is my mermaid brooch. I have no idea why I chose a mermaid. I just got carried away with her hair. Does not sound like me to get carried away, does it ......

The beginnings of a journal cover

I've always been a book freak.  When I learnt that our first project was to create a journal cover from an old hardback book cover, you can imagine how pleased I was. The cover was removed from the book and recovered in fabrics, papers then embellished. The inside of the book has a number of treatments which include pockets,  foldouts and pop ups. The book will be a diary of the time in Durfort.

Another area we covered included making polymer appear as bone  or ivory. Below are some buttons I created.
This technique is very simple and has numerous applications.

I mentioned in my last blog, we played with all sorts of transfers. For polymer there's sharpie, colored pencil, heat, lazertran, gel medium and photocopies.

On paper we used Wintergreen oil, packing tape and learnt how to do a napkin and tissue melt. Dayle also taught us many different ways to transfer onto fabric too.

Lazertran transfer polymer brooch

Bonjour, Im Back....

Margaret, a workshop buddy wearing one
of her lovely creations

La Cascade

My retreat buddies

A million apologies everyone for my slack behaviour in blogging. I do have an excuse for the last two and a half months though. I know thats still not a good enough excuse. I will just have to try and make it up to you, if I can? 

I turned 50 in June and treated myself to a big trip. Now I have lots to blog about so you will be sick of me by the time I share with you what I saw and experienced.

One of Dayle's altered books

My first instalment starts with, a mixed media creative retreat I attended on June 26. The retreat was led by the wonderfully talented Dayle Doroshow, a mixed media, polymer clay artist from the United States. Dayle has been taking groups to La Cascade, a beautiful villa in the French village of Durfort  for over ten years now. Durfort is approximately one hours drive eastvillage  from Toulouse airport. It is a delightful reknown for making copper ware since the Middle Ages. I just fell in love with its beautiful artisans galleries, small streets, waterfalls and nearby villages .Oh and did I mention the French flea markets, known as the vide - greniers ! It was no wonder I had to mail a box home after only one week in this part of the world. I picked up a number of goodies, including an old letterpress box that housed metal letters in it for an absolute song! I was very chuffed with this purchase as I am collecting, ( yes, I know another thing ! ) pieces to create assemblage artwork eventually. My brother was not so pleased as he had to carry it in his suitcase for more weeks than he cared to know about.

  

A constantina, pop up book section

Artwork at La Casacade

Days in Durfort passed very quickly as we would spend half the day in the La Cascade studio learning a huge variety of techniques. Numerous ways of transferring onto polymer were covered. I thought I knew all of these. I particularly loved the packaging tape transfer one. Another area we covered was the technique of sculpting polymer faces , which will be great for my new found love of making art dolls. The other area we worked in was that of altering books. Suddenly childrens' books were transformed into magical works of art using gesso, paints, crayons, transfers, polymer embellishments, fabric, to mention only a few of the materials we played with. Dayle showed us several samples of art dolls with books incorporated into these which has opened up another world for me. I make canes and teach this art. Dayle had a very simple approach to understanding and making canes which I will show my students in the near future. Apart from studio time, each day was filled with field trips to nearby towns where we saw fantastic art exhibitions, flea markets to collect paraphernalia for our creations and general sightseeing. There is so much more to tell but watch this space and you may hear some more. Until then, a bientot, Kathy