bee creative

making things, growing things

Salve making:

Olive oil (about 1 cup) that  calendula petals have been steeping in + beeswax (about 1 tablespoon).

I usually dry any plant matter before adding to the olive oil.  This keeps it from molding.

I have a dedicated jar that I use for melting the beeswax in and use a frying pan as a double boiler to heat the oil and the wax.  Once the wax is melted, it is poured into the heated oil and stirred (I usually use a wood skewer).  If you try this, be careful with this step and don't walk away. 

The salve will solidify as it cools. 

The proportion of wax to oil will impact how hard the salve is.  My proportion makes a fairly soft salve that can almost become a liquid on a really hot day. 

Sewing:  This was dress length.  I never really wore it much and it's been sitting in a "re-do" pile.  Today I cut it to just above knee length and am now hemming it.  I will probably make a bag with the fabric I cut off.

Growing: 

The ginger has sprouted! I will put it in a planter and give it a good dose of fish fertilizer (recommended by a local farmer who grew it to sell at the farmer's market for many years).

The cherry, plums, pears and one of the apple trees are blooming.  This cherry has never set fruit.  It's supposed to be self-pollinating but I don't think it is!

Eating:

Pasta + homemade ricotta + sorrel (garden) + oregano (garden) + asparagus (garden) + hazelnuts and hazelnut oil (local, farmer's market) + parmigiano reggiano (from far away Italy because I am not perfect and I love it so).

Listening to:  Where the Deer and the Antelope Play by Nick Offerman.  Interesting, sometimes funny, political, and seriously concerned about the state of our world. He sometimes seems to go off on a tangent, which might drive some crazy, and he has what I would call a "potty mouth."

I am not quite done yet, but am pretty sure one of my favorite things he discusses is about how disconnected we become from our  environment and what it means to be a community, when we are only consumers... 

random thought

Earlier this week I was wondering what the world would be like if we put flowers in unusual places more often...

And, over the last couple days I've been working on this

 

and this

Enjoying a quiet moment here and there.

growing season

From my journal today:

April 23, 7:03 AM

I was up at 4 AM but then back to sleep…now just waking up to a world that seems to have tipped green overnight. All the leaves just beginning to bud on the deciduous trees. Maybe that little bit of warmth yesterday afternoon, almost 60 degrees? It’s rained and there are little droplets suspended from the branches adding to the beauty of the morning.

I love how this blurred. 

I started reading Enchantment, Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May.   Hazel mentioned it and I thought I'd just read a bit of it last night...Katherine May is such a beautiful writer.

She writes, "Not all that we know is verbal."  

I am thinking about that.

 

Paper that caught the drips of dye while undoing fabric bundles... I don't remember what with though + lake pigment made with onion skin.

I will still be sharing my experiments with pigments and mark making regularly.  I am doing something daily and suspect that it is a habit now.

waste not

A new challenge has been on my mind and it is pure coincidence that I am posting about it on Earth Day.

This is what I am starting with: 50 projects that use up what would be commonly considered "waste," weeds or salvaged materials.  Depending on how long it takes me to get to 50, I may keep going.  I've already got ideas to start with such as making a rag rug, making paper with paper scraps, pieced clothing, baskets and...

Dandelion wine!

It will be a small batch as I really don't know whether I like it or not.  Two cups of petals are now soaking in water for the next week.

This could qualify as a project although it feels a bit like cheating.  All I did was gather some vines and put them in the tins.  Mom was the one that tended the fire.  The top piece of charcoal is from Mom and Dad's fireplace. 

Along with some other things, my aunt sent me this beautiful table runner that has tears in it.

So many possibilities!

This isn't a daily challenge, I am just going to take my time and see what I can do. 

 

 

lazy day

There was a long nap.

And some list making.

I choose flowers a lot.

There probably won't be any new posts for a few days...

#100 still so many questions

Today's marks, inspired by the neighbor's porch light and tree branches. 

Made with oak gall and iron ink which is an ink that is pretty much permanent and has a long history of use.  Using it is a connection to tradition.

Turmeric ink which isn't light fast and will fade eventually.

The top image was made with layering the page three times digitally; the center a cropped section of the page.

This is the original page.

I also copied the page and then used the copy to make the two painted butterflies.  I added more turmeric ink and indigo ink to these.

I made some notes today...thoughts about the last 100 days. Still processing really.

A list of words: time, location, story, ephemeral, permanent, sky, layers, filters, flowers, birds, the ocean, boats, rocks, dots, lines, wet, dry, found, organic, digital, connections, relationships, unpredictable, and resist.

I've played with a variety of ways of making marks, a variety of papers. 

And this too, layered images as another way of telling a story.  A liminal space between digital and handmade.

There are still so many things to explore...

 

 

#99 windows

This morning I was inspired by the shadow of a curtain.

I suppose too...thinking of weaving (Jude's post).

And I thought of another window that I loved.

This is more a sense of the window than an accurate representation of the window I really saw. 

A memory of stained glass and blue light.

And that seems real enough.

#98 add color

Moving forward I predict some experiments with layers of color.

Yesterday's doodles with layers of color added this morning.

And guess who loves the blanket?

Still cold here, there was frost on Tuesday morning and the day's have a nip to them.

#97 doodle lines at the end of the day

Permission to be tired...

#96 more lines and dots

I meant to share this yesterday with the other lines:

Always magical.

I am thinking about a rainbow of ink lines but I haven't gotten there yet.

Today there was time for a few dots and a little figure.