bee creative

quiet...mostly

Playing with pigments again. 

Two new inks are steeping...Douglas Fir cones and rose hips. 

windfall

A yearly tradition for me...a wreath made from things from the garden and foraged. 

Tomorrow I am going to try making an ink with some of the pine cones from the fir tree along with some other things I have been wanting to experiment with. 

And since the indigo vat is still working...maybe some moons?

Windfall... something falling from a tree, unexpected good fortune. 

sunrise

Plus one more r...robe.  The one that I started a long time ago for one of Jude's classes.  I have been wearing it but am also ready to do a few more things with it. 

More layers of wool, pockets, and a button or two. 

Not the picture I wanted to post, Typepad seems to prefer landscape oriented photos right now.

Yesterday's sunrise.  It's been a beautiful couple of days. 

Out on the porch I found my indigo pigment ready to wash.  It's so beautiful...

Satisfying.

 

 

return and reflect

What do I come back to? 

The garden, reading, the beach, rearranging things in my home, color, yarn, sewing...

I know making paper and baskets will be added to this.

And reflection...as in thinking, the kind where you are considering but not necessarily making a decision or doing research.

I've been thinking about why I make and what I make.  They are kind of heavy questions right now when I consider the state of the world.  How much of a privilege it is to ask that question.

Unless I have a specific project, this is the last year that I will buy any materials for dyeing with the fresh indigo.  I have enough to make several things and it's time to focus on some other things. 

I do still want to grow indigo though. What I will do is add another layer of color to things that I have been dyeing. And then I can make pigment because this is something that I can keep using in a way that is a better use of resources for me.  

Making a lake pigment, not sure if this will work but it looks promising!

There is so much paper in this world...and I love making paper.

  It's a great way to make recycling personal. 

I used the leftover walnut/marigold dye bath for this paper. Also a bit of a hop flower and marigold seeds

My assistants as I reflected on all this:

They are laying on top of my collection of handmade paper and some scraps I've been using for a project. 

They do love a box.

 

present

Present as in a gift, to give. 

Present as in this very moment, this place. 

I had to pause on my trip through the alphabet for awhile because I really didn't feel very present...

Mostly I've been working on the blanket for my coworkers baby. 

She is due any day now. 

It's made things extra busy at work. 

Tonight I took the ends that I've collected from the blanket and carded them into some roving.

And then I spun it into yarn.

This had me thinking about practice...practice as in to do something with the intent of getting better at something and practice as something that you do. 

I don't particularly care if I get better at spinning yarn with a drop spindle.  I can make consistent yarn when it is my goal but really, I love the bumpy lumpy texture. The parts where I spin it tight and it loops over on itself. 

I spin in a way where I am very present and paying attention to what I am doing.  Spinning consistent yarn, at least for me, is about muscle memory and paying less attention to what I am doing.

Using up scraps as I go is something I want to get into the practice of doing, rather than storing them for future projects.

And then I took the yarn and knit it on to the end of a strip I started for the Field Note blanket. 

It was such a pleasure...

play

Playing with scraps, arranging. 

I think I want to set myself a goal of doing this every Sunday.  Gathering a few things, assembling them, taking a picture, altering the image when it seems right (this one was altered-a filter for color and a layer to patch a spot) and then sharing what I've done.

I've been reading Your Brain on Art by Ivy Ross and Susan Magsamen.   The book makes an argument for the arts/aesthetics being just as important for our health as good nutrition, exercise and rest.  That our brains need to make meaning out of our experiences and that the arts (and this is defined very broadly), give us the opportunity to do so. 

Which brings me back to paper and ink...

My next batch of paper is drying on the front porch.

To be continued...

"what if" might be the most important question there is...

Chopped threads and a bit of wool added to some of the paper pulp and water.

What it looked like as paper. 

I am wondering at what point would there be too much thread and not enough paper to hold together? 

I am also thinking of wet felting.  I have added threads to wool to make a textured felt and to make yarn. 

This was made by laying the thread on top of the paper pulp while it was on the screen and then flipping it off the screen to dry.  I will be doing more of this!

The threads that were placed on top of the wet paper and then pressed into the paper with my fingers didn't stay very well. 

Now I know.

And for this one I made a piece of paper as the base, laid strings across the paper and then placed another piece of paper over the top.  I have done something similar to this with wool felt. 

When I am ready I will drop ink on top. 

I am thinking a lot about how felt making and paper making are very similar. 

 

threads

Adding thread to the paper I've been making has been on the to-do list. I tried it this evening. 

One strand, as an experiment.

Little ends. 

This is mostly what I want to do...as a way to use them. 

I tried it two ways.  First laying the threads on the wet pulp while it was still on the screen and before flipping it on to the towel and then for the second attempt, just pressing the threads into the wet paper. 

This is some of this batch of pulp as dry paper.  The indigo rinse water has made a nice soft blue. 

I'll share my results tomorrow. 

My long term goal is to set up one corner of the covered porch as an outdoor studio...for dyeing, pigment making and paper making.  Oh...and basket making. I've signed up for a class on basket making, something I've wanted to do for a long time.  There are so many possible basket making materials in my garden.  It's another way of connecting to what is local, to place. A kind of field note.

Other things...

Sour cherries at Mom and Dads.  I have enough to make jam and plan to do so tomorrow. 

A wee little box.

Playing with filters. 

The boys are working on their scynchronized head turning.

And an interesting conversation:  Sam Lee (Emergence Magazine Podcast) talking about singing with nightingales.

"And the space you held as a singer is all about the gaps you leave, because that’s the orchestration, that’s the arrangement, that’s where the listener can enter in. That’s the invitation. And learning from those old singers, you know, I really learned a lot in that art, and here was the nightingale doing exactly the same thing, even better, with such grace. And the timing that he leaves between expressions was formidably brave. And in that space, so much is happening. Although it’s silence, you know, it’s a very rich and fertile place for the imagination, for listening deeper into the places that one never knew they could hear, inside and outside."

 Here is one of my favorite Sam Lee songs:

 

 

 

confession number one, I keep things too long.

I feel like I lost a week and am not sure quite where it went.  Maybe it's just that the grass pollen is high...the garden is amazing though. 

(cucumbers and celery...trying celery for the first time.)

It's been raining so a lot of time yesterday was spent cleaning and organizing.  I am not sure it looks much better than it did before but two big bags full of things left the house so something must have changed.

There was also a lovely surprise visit from Hazel (the second in two weeks!)...just when I needed a break.

I also made a new indigo vat with some dates that were way past "best by."  This is dip number one; the fabric (dipped today) will go back in for another dip tomorrow and/or the next day.

Today I used some shredded junk mail for paper pulp and added some of the pansy ink the water. 

Just for a moment it was purple and then it was blue. 

This is some of the pulp flipped out onto watercolor paper.  It doesn't matter if it sticks...I have an idea!

Some of the pansy ink was saved in some tiny bottles that I've had forever and found while sorting.  Maybe this is something I kept for just the right amount of time? But it's the "it will be useful someday" that gets me into trouble.  

There also has been some stitching; trying a technique that Jude shared in the Forever Zone.  The fabric is some that I dyed using a clay resist for the circles.  It will make a nice pillow once all the circles are stitched

Hmm...where did that clay go? 

 

 

 

 

 

June arrives

While standing on the porch one minute before a sunrise that was too cloudy to see, I notice that the paths around and in and out of my garden form a nine patch as they intersect.

It makes me think of Jude.

Still playing with the pansy ink.  The purple on the left is where I squished the flowers into the paper. 

The ink is dry; I think the color is different because of the paper.  It also gave me purple fingers for a day.

This morning's mark making.  Flower moon and charcoal ink along with the pansy ink.

And then digital layers, more charcoal.

June is when everything grows so fast here; along with the typical rain, it is warm and the days are long. 

It's also when the roses bloom...