bee creative

web making and rabbit holes

Instead of making a to-do list and in addition to the ta-da list, I made a web of my favorite things.  I tried not to overthink it and stopped when it felt right.

I realized as I webbed that my favorite things aren't the same as what I value.

It was interesting when I found patterns. 

I wouldn't even try to prioritize these things. 

Making, color, local:

Color, garden, connection:

The pigment that I ground last night...brick from the alley.

Garden soil...I can't say how much I love this. 

Another kind of field note.

Reading, thinking, writing:

It started with the newsletter for Poetry Unbound.   I went to read an essay by Matthew Bevis, "Unknowing Lyric."  Which led to a short podcast on Poetry Magazine (10 minutes) with the author about the essay.  One of the topics discussed is the importance of not knowing, to leave space for wonder. 

That podcast led to another with Ross Gay, Nikky Finney and Adrian Matejka.  There was a discussion about time and artifacts. Artifacts, thinking about that...

And then when I was done listening and making I went back to reading Ways of Being and found:

"Time has always been an imaginary concept, and it matters who imagines it."  

I always find it fascinating how it can be that when something is being considered (Jude), it just seems to keep coming up. 

And now, where next...?

list making

This morning I thought I'd make a list of everything I wanted to do over the next week and then I stopped myself.  The only list I want to make is a "ta-da" list (a phrase from Hazel, thank you again!).

One more finished block for the quilt.

A few strips are from Nancy (thank you again!).

 

I wandered the garden looking for things to make ink with.  I gathered twigs, leaves, and rose hips. 

I also found a crumbly brick that I ground into pigment.  I am going to try mulling it soon.  I was able to break down one of the rocks I found on the beach to a fine white powder.

Some of the rocks will leave a mark when I try a scratch test but I didn't have much luck breaking them apart.  I either need to pound harder or try a file.

A couple of the rocks I picked up just because I loved them.

And I listened to this podcast, The Ground Shots, episode #59 "Is there such a thing as an invasive species."  It was long (three hours!) but a great discussion of science, history, how we define words....

 

science

From the farmer's market today...romanesco. 

One of the most amazing vegetables.

It's a fractal.

Where my indigo that was fermenting sat for a couple weeks. 

It left a footprint.

Ice-dyed fabric that I bought, and that they dyed, at a local yarn/fabric store (Spincycle). 

I want to try this... of course I do.

Definition of science in Ways of Being by James Brindle, "A guide to thinking, not a thought: an endless process of becoming."

 

Ta da!

Well that was an unexpected pause...and it's so good to be back!

One thing that this past week made me realize is that I am not done blogging.  It bothered me that if I'd had a story to tell, something to share, that my chosen platform wasn't available.

As it is, I don't have much to share. 

Just this...

I am kind of amazed they can still fit in this space together and wondering how long they will continue to cuddle like this.

That and it's cold.

There is a chance of snow next week.

I am not ready.

in a way these are all field notes

Yesterday's lunch break...cloud watching.

It feels like fall. 

It feels good, cooler. Just a little rain this morning.

The yellow shirt went into the walnut vat.  Yellow from the home garden, walnuts from the work garden.

A more wearable color. 

I am stitching up the sides now and considering a touch of the yellow somewhere.

Two new books:  Lab Girl by Hope Jahren and Wild Textiles by Alice Fox.

(How many books can I read at one time?)

Feedback Friday's presentation today was by Alice Fox.  For the first time I decided to watch it in "real time."  It was a great presentation and I have plans!  Tomorrow I am going to gather bindweed to save for a basket.  For today, I twined a flyer that was in the mail into paper yarn. Twined paper makes a great cat toy.

And then there was this, late afternoon...

There isn't supposed to be rain for the next 10 days.  The crocus will be beautiful as long as there isn't a downpour. I need to water.

Sunrise: 6:49 AM  Sunset: 7:20  

 

edges

Yesterday, off work a little early, I took a walk along the bay...

I love how the pier on the left catches water.

The light is changing, the wildfire smoke is gone in the air and it is cooler.

It was so good to walk.

Early in the morning, which is now dark for so much longer, I am stitching by hand. 

I love the quietness. 

I am going very slow and really paying attention. 

Linen fabric is easy to stitch through, the thimble not really necessary but I've been practicing at times. 

I really enjoyed hearing everyone's thoughts and experiences with thimbles.  Thank you all for sharing.

 

summer in a bowl and other considerations

Couldn't sleep...and so very early this morning I saw a glorious full moon.

I listen to Frank Wilczek being interview on On Being.  It was a random choice, picked when I caught "beauty" and "compass" in the title. Half asleep I heard:

That’s what I think may be the most poetic way of stating this conclusion that the world, in large part, does embody beautiful ideas; that if you regard the world as a work of art — first of all, it helps you understand things, and secondly, it’s a pretty good work of art. It has tremendous beauty. It has tremendous creative power in using a few principles to make elaborate structures. Yeah, it’s a wonderful thing.

 

row row

 

I've been thinking about Jude's definition of art... Do I make anything I would define as art or is it all craft?

I do draw a line between the two.  For me craft is making something useful.  Knitting a useful pair of socks to wear is a craft.  Weaving net for fishing is a craft. Making a basket...

And all this can be art too.  A work of art can be useful, can have purpose.  Purpose is what separates the two for me.  Is there a purpose to what is being made. 

And then there is decoration, perhaps better called beauty. Some things might just be beautiful (although that can be very subjective).

We need craft, beauty and art. Art as communication, as consideration, as perspective.  Craft, and people who are makers, to make useful things...things for shelter, for food.  Beauty feeds us, makes us fall in love, become caregivers... 

Where we get in trouble with all this is when value is assigned. 

And...can how we live our life, our lifestyle, be a form of art? Don't we all present a perspective to the world by how we go about living? Is there craft? Where do we add beauty?

How we define words, how we are defining self...

endlessly fascinating.

hope

I've finished reading A Sideways Look at Clouds and have started reading Horizon by Barry Lopez.

As it seems to happen...I find connections. 

This week's On Being Newsletter features an interview with Craig Minowa and Cloud Cult which led me down a rabbit hole of listening.

In the interview there is a discussion about hope, and then later as I read Horizon I find:

"We, all of us, look back over our lives, trying to make sense of what happened, to see what enduring threads might be there.  My further desire in planning this book was to create a narrative that would engage a reader intent on discovering a trajectory in her or his own life, a coherent and meaningful story, at a time in our cultural and biological history when it has become an attractive option to lose faith in the meaning of our lives.  At a time when many see little more on the horizon but the suggestion of a dark future." 

Thinking about time this morning.

And hope.

Also... a link for the cloud watchers, this is a nice one for identifying the scientific names of clouds. This morning I would say I have Stratus clouds...a gray blanket of low clouds (pure coincidence I am sure).

The forecast is for sunny skies although I wish it would rain just a bit more and water the garden.

 

funny little (well relatively) cloud

On yesterday's walk I noticed the funniest cloud.  I am stitching one sort of like it on my Peace and Plenty quilt. 

I think it's a cumulus.

This week's On Being podcast of choice, Ann Hamilton, titled "Making and the Spaces that we Share."

"And that we grow up or we’re educated in a world that ascribes a lot of value to those things that we can say or name. But they’re all these hundreds of ways that we know things, through our skin, which is the largest organ of our body. And, so, you know, my first hand is that textile hand, and text and textiles are woven always, experientially for me. And then, I think that when I first started making things out of cloth, it was like it was another skin. So I was thinking about it as an animate surface, and thinking about it as something that both covers and reveals."

I am finding a lot of value in daily posts right now.  Following a thought, research, noticing, making, gratitude...