Open Studios: Zucchini Island

Let’s meet Ioana from Zucchini Island, a lovely lady with a passion for knitting and all things creative.

mini hand knit rug by Zucchini Island

Hello to all the beautiful souls out there, my name is Ioana! I live in my home town Iasi, a beautiful city in North East Romania, Europe. I am almost 40 years old, well, let’s say that my life is just beginning *grin*

As most artists and crafters I always have created something, from an early age, when my main “media” were the walls and doors from my parent’s house. Finally my mother gave in and allowed me to paint on ONE wall in my bedroom. I remember one day coming home from school, very happy that I had learned a new way to draw a tree and I could not find a spot on that wall. It was full!

creative work by Ioana

I have tried during the last 10 years many different ways of expressing my creativity: I painted, worked with stained glass, got into photography, sewing, jewellery and making fabric flowers. I still do that with my other shop: Flowers by Kara

In Zucchini Island’s Etsy shop you can find hand knit goodies for babies: blankets and hats – most of them knitted in seed stitch. They say: search for your calling until you find it. I absolutelly love knitting and I could easily knit all day long. It is like stitching seeds of love.

My working space is my home. I live in a 2 bedroom apartment and I work most of the time in my livingroom. I have a favorite armchair, with my laptop nearby, my coffee cup (I loooove coffee!) watching TV or listening to inspirational clips on YouTube.

I usually make a mess arround me, as I have about 3-5 open projects and after I clean the livingroom, when we have guests, it takes one day and it all comes back there: my yarns, needles, felt and ribbons, buttons and beads… what can I say? I just love to see them all there.

The view from my bedrom window – where I keep most of my yarns and do all the “Office” work.

I take the best pictures on bright sunny days on my balcony. I set up my improvised “studio” on the floor, with a white blanket as a backdrop, a vase as a stand for my baby hats. Last summer a little dove used to come, whenever I was there to take pictures, very curious, very sweet.

The camera I use is a Fuji Finepix S2500 in the Scene Recognition Mode…basically like a point and shoot. Last fall I bought two lights, to help me in the dark winter days, but still I cannot take quality pics, so the best light for me remains the daylight.