Heimana's artwork

 

Heimana's almost four now, and while big sister is definitely the big starlet, Heimana is quietly growing and developing her own personality - she's an easy going, slightly shy, slightly tomboyish girl, easily lost in her own little world. I often wonder where she's got to only to find her entirely absorbed by a drawing or a game. She's been showing a bit of an artistic streak recently. Like with  Mato's photos, Heimana seems to have a naive flair for art, here are a few of my favourite paintings, produced over the May school hols.

  

And also a cute little mother's day gift, she made at school, using clam shells.

Tira wood

In Rimatara we visited the local technical high-school, where they teach handicrafts. I was very impressed with their wood-carving. They are using traditional Austral Islands motifs and hand carving some amazing pieces, mostly using tira wood, Melia azederach commonly known as Indian lilac or Chinaberry in english. It's a tree related to mahogany and has attractive, fragrant lilac flowers and poisonous fruits.

I'd never noticed it around in Rurutu much, but it is pretty common in Rimatara, it is clearly a nice wood for carving, but it is also used to make head-dresses out of the pith, Matotea is very obligingly modeling hers here....

Mato's art

You probably think I'm mad, but since Mato was about two and a half, I've allowed her to play around with my camera. It is a risk letting her play with such a delicate object, but I've found her to be very

responsible and what's more a talented photographer, she loves to draw, but clearly photography is a medium that is easy to master, and with my digital she can shoot off snaps to her heart's content, and yes she does shoot a lot of duds, but over the last few months I've collected a series of beautiful shots that she's made. Here are my favorites. She's been concentrating on self-portraits recently. All the photos in this post are hers.