bee creative

making is good medicine

More "m" words and thoughts...

Making, to bring something into being.

Today I worked on "Good Enough."

Thinking again about the reading I've recently been doing in Your Brain on Art, about how the arts (in a very general broad sense) are considered good for your health. 

One of the reasons I started Good Enough COVID 19 was to give myself a focus during a very stressful time. 

It became a lot more than that.

A kind of mending.

I need a few more blocks to finish up. 

Medicinal plants.

This is the first year I've had echinacea come back in the garden. I think it's because I put it in a raised bed with good drainage.  It's right next to the mint which is also thriving. 

Gardening is a kind of making too, but one done in partnership.

It's a new Moon today, a growing moon, the Harvest Moon.

Today I picked apples, pears, a zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, peaches, tomatillos and the first of the grapes. 

Also a handful of herbs.

Food is medicine too, especially herbs. 

And...

the indigo vat is working again so I experimented a bit with moon making. 

Walnut first, then marigold, and then a dip in the indigo vat.

  It's a kind of magic to me, the way that plants can make color and how indigo goes from green to blue.   

I am wondering what it will look like dry...

 

 

 

lazy day

I was going to go to the farmer's market but realized that I had enough to eat and enough projects so I've spent the day puttering. 

Today's lunch:

Zucchini corn fritters. 

I've fallen in love with zucchini fritters this summer.  This recipe is pretty similar to what I am doing. 

The substitutions I've made are about 2 tablespoons flour and a cup of bread crumbs for the 1/2 cup of flour. 

Sometimes I add cheese and sometimes I don't.  Today I made a blue cheese dressing to go on top.

I don't add the baking soda and I always forget to wring out the zucchini after I grate it. Sometimes I add the herbs and sometimes I use a salt/herb mix.  

After lunch, I made a lake pigment with some of my indigo. (Caitlin ffrench's directions). 

This looks like it will be a very pale batch of pigment.  I am going to set up another batch to make more indigo pigment tomorrow and also start a lake pigment with marigold flowers. 

I was hoping to work on some log cabin squares this afternoon  but I ended up taking a nap...maybe tomorrow. 

 

 

 

h (again) and i

Inspired by Jude and today's comments on her blog ...

Harvest salad:  bread, lettuce, blue cheese, pear, prune, olive oil and apple cider vinegar. 

And...

Imagining all the things I want to do with the indigo this weekend.

And well...I just had to include this:

 

Inconceivable...

e is for effort

The walnut vat is doing well.  It doesn't take any effort really. I gave it a good stir today.  Tomorrow I will add some fabric so I can try some further experiments.

The indigo (date) vat  is still alive but too cold right now to do much. Maybe next week when it is hot again I will be able to dye some more blue.

A few things to eat from the garden and some flowers for dyeing.  I really haven't done as much dyeing this year as I'd hoped.  Painting the house has taken a lot of my energy. 

A few other experiments...

Cloud paper.

A piece with grass embedded between two layers of paper. 

More experiments to come...

blue

So many words that begin with "b" that I love. 

Be for being present.

Bees for so more reasons that I can list right now. 

Baskets and bowls, the magic of holding.

Boats, for going as well as holding.

Books, they hold too...stories and thoughts. 

And blue. 

I would never be able to choose a favorite color but there is something special about the color blue.

Yesterday I took some of my indigo plants to work with me and did some dyeing with the preschool class.  The children picked the leaves off the stems, used the hand blender to chop the leaves, and then after I strained out the leaves, took turns squeezing the silk as it went from white to green to blue. 

I brought the dye bath home so I could add a skein of yarn to it. On the way to my car the toddlers stopped me, wanting to know what I had.  We talked about the color blue.  Many of them wanted to put their hands in the water and so they took turns squeezing the silk as well.  One of the children was fascinated by the wool and kept sliding her fingers around it. 

I will be making something for the class with the wool and silk.  We discussed a cape, balls, and a doll blanket.

Yesterday was also a super blue (seasonal, 4th full moon of a quarter) moon.

  I saw it outside the kitchen window at about 3 AM.

It was a very good day. 

more blues

Much cooler today but the indigo vat is still happy.

More dyeing. 

The only piece of fabric that had a white base is the blue in the middle, the rest had a yellow base.  The yellow is either marigold or buddleia from last year. 

For comparison.

Waste not: 

I've been adding the indigo rinse water to the paper pulp I've been making (on the left).  Some of the pulp has been used for paper sheets and some as "paper clay." 

The square on the left has a paper basket as a base and the one on the right has a plastic container as a mold.  They both seem to be drying well.  I added flour to the paper pulp to make it clay like. 

I was inspired by an Instagram post (Sibster) but it's something that has long interested me...

I bought this book which has instructions on paper making and paper mache, along with other paper projects, over thirty years ago. 

Somethings just take a lot of time to get to...

 

light is magic

This photo wasn't altered in any way, the layering of buttercup and poppy are just from the light and the way the petals fell. 

Today there has been 16 hours of daylight and it reached 81 F, hot for us. 

The date/indigo vat is happy and I did a second dip for the fabric that I've been dyeing. 

The reflection in the indigo vat shows the current house colors...shades of blue. 

Today I painted the front of the house, bottom level. I never thought I'd paint a house pink...and yet I am doing it. It's a fairly small section but large enough to give me a good idea of what it will look like. 

The pink makes me think of peonies and roses and sweet peas; some of the things that I love about summer.

In her essay, Summer Solstice, Nina Maclaughlin asks readers to consider what is the season that calls to them the most, summer or winter?  Mostly I love the in-between seasons.  I don't like the heat, but do love so much of what summer brings...

The first of this year's raspberries, picked this morning.

 

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? 

 

 

 

 

 

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. 

so much color

I was able to come home early today and spent some time in the garden.

There is snow/rain mix in the forecast for next week but also signs of spring everywhere.  Pulmonaria (lungwort).

After I was done working in the garden, I started playing with the pigments...

The alder pigment is almost done and the lichen is soaking in water.  I think this type of lichen is Usnea.  It should make a brown, yellow or orange shade. 

After doing some research I've learned that some lichens will make purples, pinks and reds.  They need to be fermented with ammonia.  Not sure I want to do that.

I've been saving some indigo pigment made from indigo that I grew.  I decided it wasn't really enough to make a baby vat so I've made it into watercolor. 

Very glad that there is indigo seed on it's way so I can make more...