Irina

I am a 54 year old woman. I live with my partner in a city (although I would love to live in the country). I used to have 2 cats, but they died recently. I love to make art and do handicraft. I have a web shop with my own handmade soap and a web shop with my linocuts. I have Lylme disease (borrelia). It brings me a lot of trouble but also several good things. For instance I never enjoyed life so much as since I became severely ill again. I feel very happy from time to time. I live in the south of the country now, but hope to go back to the north, where I was born and raised. The air is much more clean in the north, which is better for me. The doctor says air pollution influences Lyme disease negative. And my family and several friends live there. But it is hard for my husband to get a job there and for me it is not the moment to go for another job. I can work 2 days per week now. It costs me a lot of energy, but I really love my work and in that way it gives me also energy.

At the bottom I have put more information about, and/or an explanation of, the words marked with a *, mostly combined with a link to a picture.

• painting (acrylic)
• lino cut*
• ceramics (both common techniques and pitfire* /raku* /small oven)
• card making
• crafts using things like fimo, wood, paper, beads, fabric etc
• jewelry making
• sewing my own clothing
• knitting
• sustained glass
• making soap

This is what I am doing at the moment. I love almost everything.

I swap postage stamps for my dad from:

• Canada
• Germany after 2008 (Bundespost/BDR, so NOT DDR / Deutsche Demokratische Republiek, only new BDR)
• Germany BDR Berlin
• Sweden after 2008,
• Finland after 2010,
• China,
• Japan,
• Malaysia,
• Singapore,
• Hong Kong

I am allergic to a meldew in old paper, so please bag up older stamps properly. .

• zipper bag, zipper pouch
• cross stitched great tit (a bird with yellow, white and black) or blue tit on something. (in Dutch: bijvoorbeeld een koolmeesje op een geurzakje of boekenlegger geborduurd in een soort marjolein bastin stijl, zodat ik vaak aan mijn oma herinnerd word die altijd koolmeesjes borduurde. Het geurzakje vul ik graag zelf met geur ivm allergie)
• large stamp, Xmas stamp, cute stamp
• something related to a moose or elk
• something related to a snake
• small 'musical instrument' (like small bells, rattles, thumb pianos) and percussion instrument
• drumsticks (for use with shaman and frame drums)
• a bag for a shaman drum*. We have 2 drums, one has a diameter of 82 cm and is 9 cm thick and one has a diameter of 92 cm and is 9 cm thick.
• new age theme
• something handmade in general. I love to receive handmade things and to learn new crafts or new techniques. .

• a special or souvenir pen for my husband who is collecting pens. No girly things.
• something which I can use for sewing projects
• wool for knitting projects (80-100% wool)
• a dragon bookmark or something else related to an European type dragon (not the Chinese type) for my husband
• !! tea towel from your country (not Germany or Belgium, I go there too often, and not containing a flag). It doesn't need to be a touristic tea towel, and even rather not if it is too thick to use in real life.
• cute baking molds: molds containing several identical forms to be used for making soap, so cup cake size. The soap should not be higher than 4 cm. (new or second hand)
• large (clear or wooden) rubber stamps or Xmas stamps. Both new or second hand.
• distress ink pads, every color is fine
• black permanent ink pad
• a purple sharpie permanent marker fine point.
• ! something with the theme new age (no incense)
• ! spiritual and natural things, like gem stones, crystals and rocks. Decks of cards with affirmations, such as angel cards. Pendulum.
• light theme (I don't mean light in weight, but light like LED light)
• ! handy things on solar energy, like lights.
• T-shirt for my husband, European size XXL (that means width about 56 cm, length about 75 cm from the neck to the bottom. His head has a circumference of 62 cm). He loves something spiritual on the T-shirt or something related to didgeridoo* /aboriginal, a bird of prey or European dragon.
• ad T-shirt for my husband, European size XXL (see above for the size) with other characters (text) than the normal European/English characters. He would appreciate a translation of it, so he knows what he is wearing :-)
• a handicraft, garden or sewing magazine (new or second hand). I can read Dutch, German, Swedish and English but with good pictures all kind of magazines are fine! Not older than a few years because of allergy for old paper.
• !! snowflake obsidian* earclips for my mother (70+ years old). She has a necklace of snowflake obsidian and is looking for matching earclips. She doesn't has holes in her ears. Either new, second hand or hand made. If they are too expensive for the swap, please let me know and maybe we can arrange something.
• singing bowl, either new or second hand
• tingsha's* (buddhist bells), or comparable instruments (to be used for instance in 'dreamtime' concerts).
• small 'musical instruments' (like small bells, rattles, thumb pianos). Either new or second hand.
• percussion instruments. Either new or second hand
• drumsticks (for use with shaman* and frame drums). Either new or second hand .

• food and drinks, because of many allergies
• bath products, soap, melt wax, smelling candles, fragrance, cremes etc, because of allergies and because I make them myself.
• earrings, except when they are handmade and light in weight, then I can wear it.
• very girly stuff
• beats, diamond stickers and that little plates with a whole in the middle, because I have more than enough myself. I do love handmade beats! .

• bordeaux red
• purple
• combination of purple, blue and pink
• combination of purple, blue and green
• ultramarine blue

All colors are fine to me, but these colors I especially like.

I prefer to receive a postcard in an envelope. In this way it is not so damaged and I can use the stamps for my dad who is collecting postage stamps.

I like the idea of recycling to save the earth. If a (handmade) postcard is blanc at the back, I will recycle it: first I enjoy the cards I get for a couple of months (I put them next to my computer or hang them on the wall) and then send them out within the Netherlands for someone who has a birthday, is ill, or something like that, saying I got the card via a swap. In this way both I myself and someone else can enjoy the card and we are recycling too. It is up to you whether you want to write on the back or not. Maybe you have your own thoughts about it. I send out my cards blank most of the time, so other people can do the same if they want to. Except when people say they like the card written. .

Here you will find an explanation of words in my profile marked with an *.

• lino cut - is similar to woodcut, and I have done that too, but I like the more detailed lino cuts. First I make several drawings, then draw on the lino, cut the lino, put ink on it with a roller and print it on paper using a press. This process takes several days of work. A multicolor lino is made with several lino cuts printed separate over each other on the same paper.

• pitfire - the ceramics will be baked in the middle of an open very hot woodfire. Afterwards you can see the effects of the flames. See a picture here

• raku - this pottery technique originated in Japan in the late 16th century. I bake the ceramics in my self made outside kiln and heat it on wood until 1000 C / 1800 F. I take out the ceramics while they are still glowing red and I will wait a few seconds until I hear the glaze crackling. Then I put it into a closed container filled with sawdust. The smoke will be absorbed by the unglazed parts and crackles and they turn black. Copper glaze will turn red when oxygen is reduced. Red glaze is normally hard to get because the color disappears in high temperature. You can see a picture here

• didgeridoo - a kind of large natural wooden trumpet, about as long as a human being. Original made by the aboriginals of Australia. We have made some didgeridoo's ourselves, from bamboo, plastic pipes and Giant Hogweed

• shaman drum - a large flat hooped or oval shaped drum, see here. We have made our 2 shaman drums ourselves.

• tingsha's - copper bells, see here

• snowflake obsidian - black gem stone with white or grey spots on it. See for instance here