JAZMINA CININAS

This piece came about when I was asked to run an online art workshop for the Lithuanian community (yep, COVID times) and had to come up with something that was both easy to explain, and promised easily achievable results for the participants from their homes. Frottage to the rescue! I had originally scrounged the plastic packaging thinking I would use it in creating collagraph negatives, but turns out it's terrific for frottage as well. The weaving design was chosen for the ease with which it could be mapped out and also for its Lithuanian reference. With borders closed around the globe and no idea when we would be able to travel again, this was my way of 'returning' to the motherland. 

This was my first serious foray into frottage, in the early dark days of lockdown 2020. Its serpentine form reflects my recent fascination with the snake, following on from my time in the Baltics and exposure to Andrus Kivirähk's fabulous re-imagining of Estonian folklore in "The Man Who Spoke Snakish", as well as Lithuania's fable of Eglė the Serpent Queen. There is a particular snake, the žaltys, which is revered in Lithuania as a protector of the home, and encouraged into the kitchen with saucers of milk. It seemed appropriate to create a snake frottage from my own kitchen surrounds.

I have a soft spot for vintage implements (and vintage items in general), partly because I try to avoid buying anything new if there are second-hand options available, but largely because vintage items are usually better made and more beautiful. The long, thinness of these implements suggested feathers to me, so I embarked upon a frottage that suggested the tail feathers of an exotic bird - a phoenix reinvented from the histories of burnt dinners.