bee creative

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...

 

 

color play

It's been stormy, but not as stormy as other places. 

One day last week I heard someone call out "rainbow" and went outside to take a peek.

And then it rained again...hard.

This weekend I processed what is probably the last of the indigo.

(I may have said that before...but there was more! No hard frost yet.)

The leaves were fermented and then calx added.  There is a step where the liquid needs to be aerated; the hand blender works beautifully.

  This (Caitlin ffrench) is where I learned about processing the indigo this way. 

There are two layers of pigment here.  The top is where the foam settled and the blue sitting on the bottom of the pot is the remainder of the pigment. 

And this is a sample of the pigment:

I've set aside some of the pigment and calx water to see if I can make a baby indigo vat. 

Until later...

words, wonder, and wool

I am still reading In Kiltumper.    This morning I found another passage that I need to keep track of.  The passage refers to plants that self seed and come up in unexpected places.  

"These surprises are small reminders that you are part of a living, changing space, and also, that you are not in control of everything, a good thing for me to remember.  Another, that you can't imagine what will lift your heart tomorrow.  But somewhere, today, it is already starting to happen."

The book has also taken me down a bit of a rabbit hole. On Niall Williams' website I found a podcast called Shelfmarks that featured the book.  I am now working my way through the series. It's a mixture of poetry and natural history. 

And...today the indigo that I grew this year (started by my mother),  is lifting my heart. 

I made the pigment on the right with indigo that has been fermented and with calx added.  The one on the left was done with fresh leaves and as a lake pigment.  The lake pigment won't work as a dye (I am pretty sure) but the one made today can be used that way.  I have a copy of John Marshall's book Singing the Blues.  It's been very helpful (for the fermented pigment, no information about lake pigments).

I still have a tiny bit of fresh indigo and might dye part of this wool a third time. I want to use this for a lap quilt and am thinking that some applique on top might be nice.

 

time and to-do lists

Time...today I had some for myself, a day off work.

I decided to not make a to-do list. 

It was sunny so I spent most of the day outside.

I pruned hops for baskets and gathered rose hips for ink.

And then picked the last of the dahlias.

There was dyeing with some of the last of the indigo plants...

A paste of leaves and salt rubbed in circles to make polka dots. 

It was so good to sit in the sunshine and just play.

I added another layer of color to this silk and wool.

And worked with pigments a bit. 

The indigo and lichen lakes; brick and earth pigments. 

There has been more poetry too,

Mary Oliver... "The Summer Day" on an autumn day. 

"Tell me..."

 

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.

 

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.