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The rose petal ink, one with iron/oak gall added.
They will be different in the morning when they are dry,
part of the process.
I could wait to share but am trying to stay with a daily practice.
Going.
When I was looking on the porch for the rose petals that were used to make the ink (some got a way when the wind was blowing),
I found a June bug.
I wonder...
I thought I only had dreaming and thinking in me tonight but...
the dreaming led to making.
I went out on the porch with my carders, drop spindle, some wool and the knitting that I had started for the section I had imagined.
A strip of pink for June, for the roses.
And so I did some making while listening to the rain.
A few more rows for my fieldnote blanket.
I am not sure if I will ever be able to use my drop spindle inside again...
Even if the boys had slept through what I was doing, Widget had her eye on me.
and
and
and
Some days are play and rest.
I have 2 different directions for "how to make ink" from anything and one suggestion for how to make ink from rose petals.
This is what the ink looked like after following the suggestion for roses.
And this is what rose petals look like after simmering for 2 hours.
(I love how the petals have become translucent and the veins appeared.)
After it cools I will add a few things and see what happens.
And these just because they are pretty.
Thinking about memory.
How we hold on to them and how we forget.
Things that we take pictures of and things that we don't.
Memorabilia and keepsakes.
Documentation, journals and diaries.
Story.
Plant and soil, both from California.
This morning I listened to a conversation with Heidi Gustafson on Feedback Friday. She has a book out, primarily about ochre, called Book of Earth which is beautiful. I am just now settling in to read it more thoroughly.
Part of the discussion was about ethical foraging, about connection to the place where something might be collected and who you need permission from.
And about purpose, are we respecting what we take?
What I hold in my hand is about family and birth place.
It feels good to hold.
It leads me back to why we make and who we are making things for...
I need to organize this:
Find a rasp of some sort
And make some more ink...
No rain in this cloud, a happy summer cumulus cloud.
I am still reading Katherine May's Enchantment. Most days I only read 2 or 3 pages at a time...and I will be sad when I am done. It is a beautiful book.
The passage that is lingering at the moment is about how she feels when she goes swimming in the ocean.
Me dipping my toes into the very end of a river a couple weeks ago, where it enters the ocean.
Like Katherine May, and I am sure others, I believe that to step into the ocean is to step into connection.
And oh joy! I just discovered Katherine May has a podcast.
First up, listening to Ross Gay, the author of Inciting Joy and Book of Delights.
This morning I finished the shirt I started yesterday so that I could wear it...perfect for a warmer day.
Forecast a high of 75 F.
A table cloth that belonged to one of my grandmothers, or maybe one of the great grandmothers.
The floral print is faded but still beautiful.
It still could have been used as a table cloth but I rarely use tablecloths (cats!) and wanted to have this be useful, not stored away.
The fabric, linen, was a dream to sew.
I added a few inches to the width so that it could be a layer over a tank top.
I will probably be posting everyday for awhile.
Maybe just an image of something that brings me joy, a way to continue...
I've been cleaning out an old photograph album with the sticky pages that were covered with plastic.
Thinking about how once they were considered something amazing, no more photo corners!
On the back of this photo my mother has written, "July 11-1974 at 10:00 P.M." The P.M. is underlined...probably because it was still light out. This picture was taken in South Eastern Alaska.
The sticky in the album is, for the most part, long gone and the pages may be fun for a collage base. For today, I made a copy of one of the pages and then folded an origami butterfly.
Copy paper works well for origami.