ENGOMIS GYMNASIUM, COMENIUS 2010-2012

Mosaics

Mosaics in Cyprus are very popular and date back centuries ago. Most of them picture Greek mythology. We have created those mirrors with the help of mosaic tiles. We believed it was going to be an easy procedure but we were a little bit mistaken. We glued down the mosaics around the mirror frame and after waiting for like an hour or two for the glue to dry, we used a rubber spatula to fill the grooves between the tiles with grout. To make cleanup easier, we wiped excess grout off the tiles with the spatula. After that we waited for exactly 20 minutes before proceeding to the next step because the grout needs to set a bit. We then we wiped away any excess grout on top of the tiles with a barely damp sponge. After that it need one whole day to dry so as the mirror to be ready and decorate our wall!

The evil eye (in Spanish - Mal de ojo)

The evil eye is a look that is believed by many cultures to be able to cause injury or bad luck for the person at whom it is directed for reasons of envy or dislike.…So that was the main reason that the blue evil eye was created...to protect people from the evil eye. It’s a blue eye that takes away all the bad things. It was believed that, this eye saw all the wickedness in the world and removed poverty and ignorance.

Vufa, Argalios

Vufa or argalios is a very old traditional wooden tool that offered a lot to the Cypriot housewife. There were a lot of weavings that you could make with different kinds of patterns. With the help of vufa women used to weave men's wear and women's clothes, sheets, carpets, curtains, table clothes, mosquito nets, bed covers etc.

We made a small handmade vufa to create this little handcraft. It can be used as a table decoration…or as a coaster for hot dishes. We decided to use the colors of our flag so as to remember us…

How did we create the vufa? We took a small piece of wood and nailed pins on a straight horizontal line on each side. We then passed wool through all the pins making vertical lines. And that was it…

For the weaving part…we just took wool and with the help of a small hair pin we passed that wool though those wool verticals lines going… one up and one down… It’s not that hard…you just need to remember to breath and don’t get frustrated!!