bee creative

Just a quick share

From the Wild Pigment class, shared by Tilke Elkins:

 

More at his web site.

I love this.

 

samples

The colors I made last week.

Some fabric too. 

The pinkish fabric was dyed with quince leaves and the yellow with onion skins.

Now what to make?

I am thinking maybe a puppet...

nourish

Reflecting back on the week...it was just what I needed.  Time to play, to reflect and be with family. 

Enchiladas made with leftover turkey, mashed potatoes and tomatillo (some from the farmer's market, some from my garden) salsa.

Food is one way we nourish ourselves, but not the only way.

I had a little accident with the turmeric ink...I am going to look at this as an opportunity.

Gibson sees opportunities too.

 

and some other things

It's going to get cold again (snow probably) so blanket mending seemed like a good idea...my assistants were up for the job.

I have two wool blankets that Mom gave me that had moth holes.

  She thought I could do something with them.

I washed them and put them on my bed. :)

They got washed a lot when I had dogs so they are pretty much felted at this point and one has some pretty big tears.  The torn one was cut into strips for mending holes in the other and to extend the length of the blanket that is still in pretty good shape.

I have plans to do more with this blanket but this will do for now. 

The other project I am getting some assistance with is knitting the sleeve on a sweater. 

They did let me make this star without help (directions here).

It's a little fussier than the last star I shared earlier and is going to take a bit of practice. 

And there was one more batch of ink:

 

Made without assistance on the porch.

A real to-do for tomorrow:  clean up the studio (porch) before everything freezes...

something else

Something I haven't done for awhile.

Something I hold gently.

A poem.

 

thankful to be learning

In process, a lake pigment:

Testing:

Filtered:

And now drying.

There will be more of these.

On so many levels, thankful for conversations and opportunities to learn...

 

just (but not really just) a little love

The assistants at sleep:

One of today's experiments:

I made gum solution with the gum from one of my cherry trees.  It's going to be used as a replacement for gum arabic to make paints and ink with the pigments.

I'll need to share samples of the inks and the lake I made tomorrow...the light isn't good enough tonight.

Except this one.

Which I am going to call moonshine on this night with a new moon...

 

a few firsts

Not a lake (I am not quite there yet), but pigment. 

First orange of the year. 

I will probably dry the peel for cooking. 

Something new to fold.

Directions here.

I practiced with magazine pages but I am imagining these with all sorts of paper.

more color

When there is too much help (meow) inside, the best solution for me is to take it outside.

This morning I put my garden soil pigment in a bottle cap to store.  Here is is alongside the brick pigment. 

I also investigated my long fermented indigo and found it was still good.  I added Calcium Hydroxide and it made pigment!

Happy, Happy dance!

I had a go at making a lake (making a pigment starting with a dye bath).

A lovely blue sludge is drying out of reach of the cats.

Picture tomorrow when there is better light.

web making and rabbit holes

Instead of making a to-do list and in addition to the ta-da list, I made a web of my favorite things.  I tried not to overthink it and stopped when it felt right.

I realized as I webbed that my favorite things aren't the same as what I value.

It was interesting when I found patterns. 

I wouldn't even try to prioritize these things. 

Making, color, local:

Color, garden, connection:

The pigment that I ground last night...brick from the alley.

Garden soil...I can't say how much I love this. 

Another kind of field note.

Reading, thinking, writing:

It started with the newsletter for Poetry Unbound.   I went to read an essay by Matthew Bevis, "Unknowing Lyric."  Which led to a short podcast on Poetry Magazine (10 minutes) with the author about the essay.  One of the topics discussed is the importance of not knowing, to leave space for wonder. 

That podcast led to another with Ross Gay, Nikky Finney and Adrian Matejka.  There was a discussion about time and artifacts. Artifacts, thinking about that...

And then when I was done listening and making I went back to reading Ways of Being and found:

"Time has always been an imaginary concept, and it matters who imagines it."  

I always find it fascinating how it can be that when something is being considered (Jude), it just seems to keep coming up. 

And now, where next...?