bee creative

true

Monday morning

Seagull after seagull flying north.

I stopped counting after 20 or so.

The colors are accurate.

 

Parting at Morning

Round the cape of a sudden came the sea,

And the sun looked over the mountain rim:

And straight was a path of gold for him,

And the need of a world of men for me.

Robert Browning

From last week:

My sense of time is very off right now. 

No consistent patterns for my days, no measure of time the same. Is it ever really?

Thinking about structure and time passing.

About "true" as a pattern making term, making something the same length, making sure your pattern pieces match up...

reflections

After all that cold weather and snow...I found this yesterday.  Our high temperature was 62 F.  The high today is supposed to be 64 F.

Strange, strange weather.

I thought I'd try sewing a cloud to another cloth and then turn it inside out before stitching it to the blanket.  This works better for me sometimes.  I need to remember to make these deeper angles for the clouds to be more puffy if that is what I want.

  Good weather clouds. 

Jude mentioned Klee so I went looking and found a collection of essays.  From page one of Creative Confession,  "Art does not replace the visible; rather it makes visible." 

From my journal (the digital one, mostly private): I thought about how I’ve been conditioned to share by my education. I wrote that process is a river for me, we just hold it for awhile. I thought about how living is process. About how my big question is “what is creativity?” How does it show up? I believe we need it so desperately. I believe it is part of the definition of what it means to be human."

colorful world

I probably should have added the cars and wheels to the train first but the idea for the smoke/clouds was there...

Reflecting on...

"In order to use color effectively it is necessary to recognize that color deceives continually." Josef Albers, Interactions of Color.

And

"Most of our lives we live closed up in ourselves, with a longing not to be alone, to include others in that life that is invisible and intangible. To make it visible and tangible, we need light and material, any material.  And any material can take on the burden of what has been brewing in our consciousness or subconsciousness, in our awareness or in our dreams." Anni Albers Selected Writings on Design 

Somehow it just seems right to read these two books at the same time...

 

 

a few things

This was before it was washed...

Madder and pomegranate, powdered dye from the stash. 

It has been washed once and the color is holding very well.  There is also dissolved dye bath that can be used to make a lake pigment. I am hoping to try that tomorrow.

Hat that was finished last night. 

Timber did let me wear it this morning.

And noticed as I was getting ready:

One of the orchids is blooming and the other has a flower stalk!

It's a beautiful thing.  

 

melting away

The snow is melting.

The first batch of snow dyed fabric was bold at first

but mostly washed out...

The softer tints of sunrise or sunset.

I had some time before a meeting today so went for a walk along the bay.

So quiet...

to remember

I added a snowflake to "Peace and Plenty."  This blanket seems to be collecting weather.  Not really surprising to me...it's something I am very curious about.

Some practice and note taking.  I've signed up again for Carla Sonheim's year long class.  I am really excited about the topic, an exploration of creativity.  And once again, I have a goal to use things up... to release some things.

A quote I wrote down:

"Perhaps experience thoughts like clouds passing through the open sky of your awareness.  Some heavy and thunderous, some light and airy, being aware of them all, exploring with gentle interest and curiosity."  And, "It may be helpful to experience thoughts as boats passing along a river.   Some passing so silently that you barely notice..."  Sharon Salzberg.

So much of creativity is about curiosity for me.  Here is something I've been curious about for awhile...

Ice dyeing or snow dyeing.  I really hope that I am right, that the fabric used was mordanted. The dyes are Dylon, something to use up from the stash.

My experiment is still outside as it's only supposed to get warmer through the night and everything is melting. There should be some snow to gather if I want to try something else tomorrow.

playing in the snow

Snow sculpture.

I love how snow catches on branches and am imaging this as a snow blossom. 

It would have been better if we had the snow before the cold snap...

it's going to be interesting to see how the garden fares.

more than forecast

They thought 1 inch or so...

I measured 8 inches.

So glad to be at home today.

A little worried the power might go out, winds between 20-30 MPH.  The sky was white a few times.

There was a lot of planning and some training on Zoom. I know how to share my screen now!  And a little bit of knitting...

Widget loves a ball of yarn more than anything else I think.

 

always looking at the sky

The sky wasn't quite this color, a little more blue, but still very much a shade of purple. 

This was true.

Over halfway on the hat.  Knit two, purl 2 is slow knitting.

I have running water again, something that I won't ever take for granted.  Unfortunately I will mostly be working from home for the next two weeks.  We had major flooding when the sprinkler system froze and burst. 

Chance of snow tomorrow.

revise

Yesterday's project:

Once this was a shirt-jacket kind of thing, made about 20 years ago.  One of the sleeves tore. I cut deeper arm holes and added pockets.  Now it's a vest kind of thing. The fabric is hemp and has soften through the years.  It's also shrunk and become a tighter weave.

The assistant:

Timber had his own ideas about arrangement.

The window:

I was intrigued by the window while looking at the photos.  This is unaltered, I just cropped this section of the photo from the one with Timber.

The altered version:

Grateful this morning for shelter and running water (which I don't have but will again sooner or later).