bee creative

practice or play?

It's both.

This is three different drawings that I layered on top of each other, keeping the parts I liked the best. 

following up

Did the baby vat work?

Yes it did.

The silk worked the best but the cotton picked up color as well. The darkest of the strips is four dips.  It's still a little wet so some of that darkness might not stay.  Still...home grown indigo used to dye cotton!  As much as I love silk, it just isn't very practical for me so I am very excited by these results. 

I roughly followed the directions from Maiwa for making a fruit vat. For the fruit I used the core and peelings from one pear and about a cup of water. 

To recap, the vat is a mixture of the fruit water, a tablespoon or so of the indigo pigment and the water the indigo leaves were fermented in that had calx added to it.  Like everything else I do it isn't very exact and I only did one measurement...the PH was around 11. 

I am also still enjoying playing with the transparent papers for the Carla Sonheim/Aris Moore class.  This is a photocopy of a couple of the pages layered. It looks like I am needing to refill one of the ink cartridges but I love the way this copied as well as the little bird I drew. 

Glad that I have more time to play this weekend...

 

 

I wanted an x-ray for x

I love the idea of x-rays. 

The ability to see inside of something.

But I don't have one to share.

So...some things that are not an x-ray, but another way of seeing.

1. Breaking things apart.

This is a collection on things from my last beach walk.  I thought the clump of gray was a rock but it crumbled easily. 

It's a piece of clay from the bank.

It was easy to grind into a pigment.

2. Looking out the car window on Monday. 

Atmospheric rivers.

The rain was streaming off the windshield.

Looking into the weather?  

3. Layering, vellum doodles over ink doodles. 

I am taking a class from Aris Moore hosted by Carla Sonheim.  It's giving me some ideas...

Not an x-ray, but another way of seeing.  

Another way of understanding.

pruning

It seemed that the lilac started turing brown overnight but the high bush cranberry (a native viburnum) is glorious at the moment.  At the edges of the day it glows outside my window. 

Two or three years ago I had to cut it back to it's base because it had an illness of some sort. 

Last year I pruned the plum trees heavily, this year I have more baby prune plums than I've ever had. 

I think there is a lesson in this.

From the little blue book I am assembling:

Blue watercolor samples.

And a boat inspired by Hazel...mostly drawn with my eyes closed. 

The front sail was drawn after I opened my eyes. 

The boat needed some balance.

 

dreaming

I wish I had been able to capture the immense and incredible blue of the last few nights. No Aurora B but I am okay with that. I’ve seen it green and blue and dancing across the sky in the past.

My brother (the local one) was only able to see a green glow, captured with his phone. Maybe it was there when I went out? Maybe it was what was creating a blue that seemed extraordinary? I like that idea...a layer not quite visible but changing the usual color. Or maybe it just felt good, to be standing outside on a warm night looking up and out into endless blue?

 

I am still spending a lot of time in the garden.  So much to appreciate there.

The lilacs have been amazing.

I have also been making blue dots.

This one is the pigment I made:

I want to sew something blue soon.

blue

Last night I went searching for all the books about blue that I could find in my collection and today I gathered blue art materials (minus the thread and yarn which is just an invitation for trouble with the cats).

This month’s theme for Carla Sondheim’s class 2024 Creative Lab is “blue” and she suggested starting with reading a book or watching a movie with blue in the title and gathering the art supplies. 

The first book I thought of was Madeleine Corbin’s book, The Stuff of Everyday Magic which doesn’t quite fit since blue isn't in the title, but is about the color blue.

Blue things: cyanotype, an indigo vat, indigo ink, blue moons, blue herons, blueberries, blue flowers, the sea (sometimes), the sky without clouds, and blue eyes. I think about how earth is the “blue planet” and how blue flames are the hottest flames. Also, blue birds, “the blues,” and blue jeans.

Books: Blue Iris, Mary Oliver; The Anthropology of Turquoise, Ellen Melon; Blue Highways, A Journey into America, William Least Heat-Moon; Blueberries for Sal, Robert McCloskey; Bluets, Maggie Nelson and Singing the Blues, John Marshall. 

I went to get Bluets from the bookstore this morning after having it be mentioned two different places in less than 24 hours. 

The only one of these books I've read from start to finish is Blueberries for Sal (and have, of course, read it many times). I won't be able to finish them all by the end of the month but will try to read more of all of them. 

Songs/Albums that came to mind:  Blues Run the Game Jackson C. Frank and Joni Mitchell, Blue.

Blue Research: Tatter issue 3, "Blue."

I know there is so much more that I haven't thought of...these are just the first things that came to mind. 

 

research as play, play as research

Alder: I haven't made it into a lake pigment yet but did dye some fabric. I was hoping for pink (as seen in my copy of Wild Color/Jenny Dean) but it's a soft yellow brown.

I am going to collect more cones (lots of them in the parking lot at work) as a supply for tannin and more experiments.

Playing with paper and colors.

Not quite done with this one, I'd like to draw lines across the windows.

I am still reading Interaction of Color, Josef Albers. One section had me going to listen again to an interview with Yo-Yo Ma on On Being.

Albers writes, "Our concern is the interaction of color: that is, seeing what happens between colors.

Yo-Yo Ma says, "You look at the sky and you start wondering: where are we? How do we fit into this vast universe? And to Casals saying that within the notes that he plays, he’s looking for infinite variety to Isaac Stern saying, the music happens between the notes. OK, well what then do you mean when you say music happens between the notes?"

Found in the garden today. 

I'm just going to let these be...I think.

four things

one

two

three

and four

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.

variety pack, day twenty-four

I didn't alter this photo and I am not sure why the leaf is so pink, it's the same one I shared a few days ago.  Maybe sunrise? I remember thinking it was beautiful this morning but not if I actually perceived it as this color when I took the picture.

Today's lunch: the last of the red lentil/squash soup I made over the weekend with pot stickers (from the store) and crispy kale.

I have some time off over the next few weeks and am trying to do some cleaning, organizing and finishing of projects.  

Today I tackled the front porch. 

I was about to compost the garlic leaves when I realized they would make terrific twine. 

Today's dot landed in one of my sketchbooks.  This is the sketchbook that I randomly dropped lots of alcohol ink dots into and then have been adding to on occasion. 

I might glue this dot down...