bee creative

perspective

Revisiting "putter."

It was a slow day after a busy week.

The cats wanted lots of cuddles (purr).

There are things to preserve...pears from the garden and local prunes.  It was the best crop yet on the prune tree (about 20) but that's not enough to fill up the dehydrator and I love dried prunes.  They have so much more flavor than what can be purchased at the store. 

I am thinking about things that are precious, things we want to preserve... About how seasons come and go but it's never quite the same.  Some things age and new things come about; we change. 

Today everything is filtered through smoke from wildfires. 

Perspective.

Two pigments.

On the left is what I think is a piece of cement.  I picked it up on the beach.

On the right, soil from California.  Soil that fed redwood trees. From a place where I played as a child.

Pigments are so much about place for me.  And place is one of the most important things that I care about.  Local and global.  That we are part of both.  Thinking about soil as earth. Earth as soil and earth as planet.

Products...things that have been made. 

Paper and twine.

The little purple dot is pigment too...from the corn husk that I was twining.

I think I will probably make some ink from some of the corn husks. 

More play.

The twine was made to bind the top of a basket together. I might, with the next batch of paper, try placing other twine into the pulp to see if it will hold in a different way.

P.S.  I really can't write the word "precious" without thinking of The Hobbit... a whole other perspective.

h

taking my time

The baby shower will be soon and I know there is no way that I will finish the blanket in time. 

I had a thought that I could do "so many squares a day" and maybe I would get there if I sat down and dedicated some time...

but some days it just doesn't happen. 

And...I don't want to rush this. 

When I am working on it, I am enjoying the texture. It's so soft. 

I smile because the colors make me happy and they make me think of flowers. Mostly roses.

I want the blanket to be filled with joyful energy...

that means it will take time. 

For the baby shower I am thinking to give a doll sized blanket. 

When I am finished is soon enough for the baby blanket. 

This took time and love too...blackberry plum sorbet. 

Plums from a tree in my garden that has been growing for 7-8 years.  This is the first year it had a good crop. 

The recipe is a blend of a few.  About 3 cups fruit, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, and a couple tablespoons of an unlabeled cordial that I made last year, maybe quince? 

holding

Third batch of paper, made with recycled paper, a paper wasp nest (found last year in a shed), and dried rose petals.  The next batch is going to include some lichen. 

And something else...

Most of my non-work time this week has been spent on the house.  One of my brothers is helping me with the upper story.  My next task is to sand the rails on the front porch. 

This makes me smile.

The first quilt that I made for myself was shades of pink and yellow...

moments

Gibson in a box...I looked up and saw him there, framed.

Filter added to adjust the color.

At Mom and Dad's. 

They have a small pond in their front garden with a few gold fish. I love the lilies and also love the color contrast of lily with the yellow greens. 

And isn't this magnificent? 

In my garden I am celebrating celery (along with every berry that I find!).  Some of the celery is planted in my mini-hoop house with an olla and some in a raised bed without the olla.  This is in the hoop house and is doing very well.  The olla's in the planters are working wonderfully and I am going to use more of them next year.

And...

A dot.

Last month's flower moon ink and the ink made from black/deep purple pansies.  I think I added a bit too much clove oil to the flower moon ink (as a preservative) and it made the ink separate some. 

Always learning...

possibilities

A coffee ink dot that when turned just right made me think it might contain something, hold something. 

A dot that had the potential of something else (like a stone or an egg?) even though I liked it just the way it was.

Like this.

Or this.

Everything holds the potential to be something else.

thinking of the full moon, the flower moon

The flower moon was right outside my kitchen window at 3:00 AM. 

I am simmering a mixture of black tulip petals, the deepest of purple pansies and the last few blossoms from my favorite auricula primrose to make a flower moon ink. 

At the moment it is a deep dark liquid about the color of the flower petals but a piece of paper dipped in the liquid comes out yellow.  I will share the results tomorrow. 

Other flowers...the dog rose. 

I will make more rose hip ink from it in the fall.

By September it will be the harvest moon. 

 A flower bud the shape of the moon. This is a new peony for the garden. 

The flower should be about the color of the yarn I am knitting with.

Silk so it has a shine.

Thinking of all the transformations.

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.

everyday

Earth pigment, the soil from my garden.

A different perspective.

Foot level, just after sunrise. 

I am on staycation again this week and am planning on working on at least one project everyday. 

Today I finally got around to making clothing for a doll I've been working on for quite awhile.

I named her Primrose...last year or maybe the year before? 

Time gets away from me. 

The blue is indigo (ice dyed from the fresh plant) and the purple hollyhock; all fabrics silk.  The piece of fabric with the dots was originally dyed with onion skin and pennies as a resist and then dyed in the indigo.  It's one of my favorite pieces of fabric that I've ever dyed.

Still more work to do on Primrose, but first I need to find my felting needles...hopefully that won't take me another year.