bee creative

catching up on the projects

First the stitch book...

No where close to done but I am committed to doing it.  I thought it would be a good lunch break project but for various reasons it's not. 

When I want to knit I've been working on this. 

There is still a sweater that needs the button band added though. 

This weekend, I will do it this weekend.

I made a tiny collage as a response to finishing listening to/reading The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern.  The audio version is very good and I loved the story itself so much that I bought the book.  It's a complicated and twisty plot so not for those who like something straightforward. It's also a lot about story and what a story is or might be. 

There are more characters in the book that I want to make "portraits" of.  There is also just a bit more that I want to do with this portrait...she needs pink hair. 

The boats are going well.  I can always manage 5 minutes a day to fold one.  Storing them is becoming a bit of an issue though...

 

putting the pieces together

Some people go on vacation.

I seem to take staycations and classes.

I am taking a collage class from Donna Watson, hosted by Fibre Arts Take Two.  It's a bit ironic to be taking a class from an artist who lives close enough to me to be called "local" on a site hosted in Australia. 

Working with all the paper I've accumulated over the years is a goal of mine for this year and the class seemed like a good way to commit to it.  The title of the class, "The Way of Wabi Sabi Collage" (which also references Boro) was a huge draw for me. 

 

I've also been visiting local beaches and one of the lakes.  Today I discovered another beach access and walked out on a pier that just opened.

It's definitely going to be a regular destination.

 

life boats, built with words

The fleet at the moment:

And three in particular:

The first boat redacted to one word, direction. 

The second full of words, a conversation.

The third, a blank slate.  It could also be about being speechless...

assemble

Number one.

The boats are piling up.

Today's was made from a map page. 

Number two.

A pair of Steller's Jays kept me company in the garden today. 

They were collecting moss in their beaks. 

Nest building in the pine tree next door I think. 

Number three.

I also assembled the pages for a book I've been making.

A few weeks ago I took Jody Alexander's Origami Travel Notebook class.  This is my second book. 

I have plans to make a lot more... I love that it is a book of pockets.

built with poetry

Sun lit.

No. 22,  little creatures, soft wind.

No. 45, breath love.

No. 41, tangled leaves silver risen full.

I am also making little books, this one with a turmeric tea bag glued on.

 

life boats

Back to them again...

built from poetry.

And

Walnut ink and tea bags.

I am thinking one a day for the next year. 

Imagine what it would be like to set them free...

a flotilla.

resiliency

Today...just at sunrise, snow.

It's gone now but there will probably be more over the next few days.

And then there were two zoom calls. 

The first a wrap up for the rust mark making class with Alice Fox.

I tried stitching a face into this one but didn't like it and pulled it out. 

I love it like this. 

A face and heart imagined. 

The mind making meaning and telling me a story. 

While I had things out on the table I realized the rust marks (iron and tannin), created a color similar to the mussel shell pigment I made (on the right). 

Another perspective.  The color inside the hole is mussel pigment and the top is some of the paper I made with a rust mark.  I tore the paper in the process of making. 

It's still beautiful and full of potential.

I love that the marks are a chemical reaction and are about change. 

That they contain iron, something that each of us carries within our bodies. 

That iron is a building material.

That stars contain iron.

All this reminds me of Ada Limon's poem, "In Praise of Mystery."

 

The second zoom call was for the book discussion on  Parable of the Sower (Octavia Butler) and A Paradise Built in Hell (Rebecca Solnit) hosted by the Studio for Playful Inquiry.

It was a wonderful conversation about resilience (the focus for the month) and how it might show up in our lives...in particular for this group, while working with children.

Throughout the afternoon I kept thinking about the ways that those of us who explore creativity practice resilience.  The need to experiment and consider multiple ways of doing things.  The knowledge that not all things work and that we might have to try again; problem solving.

layered image

That we need to create meaning. 

That we are storytellers...

 

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.

 

q....questions

The basic questions: Who? What? Why? When? How? 

The questions I listed out this morning:

What can I make with this?

indigo dyed yarn, I have a plan.

How was that made?

How can this be useful?

Handmade paper scraps. I need to start over with the paper lantern I was covering.

What am I trying to say?

Why am I doing this?

Willow branches brought home from work.

What was I thinking? (Said from a place of being overwhelmed.)

Will this work?

What am I feeling? (I don’t always know.)

Why did that happen?

When will I find the time? (When is not a question I ask much.)

Hops from the garden, the edge of a dye pot and a stack of wood scraps I brought home because they were going in the garbage. I am going to practice wood burning on the wood scraps...someday.

How do we become who we are?

Why do children have so much creativity and adults question theirs so much? What happened?

Why is creativity so important?

Where should I start?

What was this used for?

What would that taste like?

Would it be better if I did this?

So much of making starts with a question... So much of life is about questions.

Jude brought up quality of life this morning. 

That's been on my mind too... What does that look like?  How do we balance the present, which is what we have, with what we need in the future?  It's a big question for me right now.   

Ear worm of the moment:

 

 

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.