bee creative

R...

Rose hips...so much potential. 

I could make a syrup or a jam.

Or ink.  It wouldn't turn out red. When I've made it in the past it's a soft pink. 

They could also be strung for a decoration. 

Resilient.  Being out in the garden and making things helps.

I've been soaking black beans today. 

It was so tempting to keep the liquid for dye but I didn't.

Release.

I am working on letting go.  This just wasn't something I could find time for today. 

There is also letting go of things.  I am working on that too. 

Recipes...I think we all know that I am not good at them.  Baked apple, yogurt, and granola (oats, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, honey, molasses, sugar, salt, and butter).

Return...thinking about that.  Things that return. 

 

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:

 

 

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...

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.

m followed by n

From my journal this morning...

September 3rd, 6:05 AM

M…migrate, moment, map, meditation

The alphabet might be a map.
Migrate, movement…animals, plants and people.

N…nest, night, nurture. Narrow. Some of the strips on Good Enough have to be very narrow to fit.

I like the narrow crooked ones the best.

Night...it is getting longer and the days shorter.  Moving towards a balance, at least for a little while.

Yesterday's moon, fabric dry.  Barely visible. I am not sure where that really golden color went.

On Jude's post today I wrote... "Some letters are hard to leave, they are little gifts…the words." 

M feels that way.  There was one other word that I thought of this morning but then forgot.  Should have written it down right away... memory, sometimes it's not as good as it could be. Maybe melody? No I don't think so but that's a good one too. 

 

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...

brought to you by

the letter C! 

Hopefully there are no copyright issues with that.

..................................

What are the things that we don’t remember learning to do? The skills we learn along the way as we grow? How to roll over, crawling, walking, talking, how to feed ourselves…

I don’t remember learning to crochet or who taught me. Mom doesn’t remember who taught me either. It is all muscle memory for me now.

To crochet is to connect a thread or a skein of yarn to itself or another strand until it becomes whatever you are making.

Chain one or chain two, the pattern might read.

Crochet is also, for me, a connection to one of my great-grandmothers. I don’t remember seeing her crochet as her arthritis made that difficult during the time I remember but I have pieces that she’s made and some of the cotton thread that was hers.

It is cherished.

We also shared a birthday.

I took this picture when I was maybe twelve or thirteen? It's in front of the cabin that she was living in...which also happens to be where I spent the first months of my life. 

Some of the lace she crocheted. 

This type of crochet is called Filet crochet. 

Connections hold us together.

Thinking about the thread…awhile back Jude was considering the thread that runs through. I’ve been thinking about that since (and it may have planted the alphabet seed). About how curiosity is the thread that runs through everything that I do. It's probably why I never settle on one kind of making. 

And then thinking about how curiosity lead to creativity.

(This seems bluer in reality.)

I am also thinking about when curiosity can go too far.

Do we always need to know?

Can’t somethings always be a mystery?

(Something to explore, an interview with Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio.)

Yesterday I was asked whether I thought creativity could be taught. I don’t think so…but I do think that play encourages creativity and that the more we play the more we keep that creative muscle working or rediscover it if we feel that it has gone missing.

Connection, communication, curiosity, creativity, community, caregiving…they are all words that I keep coming back to.

I suspect that as I move through the rest of the alphabet, these words will be a part of all the rest.

taking my time

The baby shower will be soon and I know there is no way that I will finish the blanket in time. 

I had a thought that I could do "so many squares a day" and maybe I would get there if I sat down and dedicated some time...

but some days it just doesn't happen. 

And...I don't want to rush this. 

When I am working on it, I am enjoying the texture. It's so soft. 

I smile because the colors make me happy and they make me think of flowers. Mostly roses.

I want the blanket to be filled with joyful energy...

that means it will take time. 

For the baby shower I am thinking to give a doll sized blanket. 

When I am finished is soon enough for the baby blanket. 

This took time and love too...blackberry plum sorbet. 

Plums from a tree in my garden that has been growing for 7-8 years.  This is the first year it had a good crop. 

The recipe is a blend of a few.  About 3 cups fruit, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, and a couple tablespoons of an unlabeled cordial that I made last year, maybe quince? 

fieldnotes and cat-a-log

 

Basket making is something I've wanted to explore for a long time.  When I stumbled on Fiber Arts Take Two and Harriet Goodall's class I decided to take the leap and I am so glad that I did! 

This basket was made from birch that had to be pruned off the house for the painting.  It's random weaving which is lots of fun!

It's not the best time to harvest branches for baskets but they were there to play with.  It also may shrink as I wove it without drying and re-hydrating the branches.  I am always willing to experiment though so it was worth a try...

The rocks are possibilities for pigments.

And this is the latest batch of paper (still wet).  It has quite a bit of color to it as the paper I used for pulp had some color.  It also has lichen in it. 

I am thinking of both the basket and the paper as "field note projects" as they both contain materials that are local and are about place. 

And the cat-a-log, as an update:

It was early in the morning and the house was still cool. They are sleeping on top of the fieldnote blanket which is still in progress.

In front of the fan is a coveted spot for all of us right now... 

this week

We've had days and days of sunshine. 

Today, some overcast and just a sprinkle of rain. 

It feels good.

Today's harvest.

Underneath the top layer are blueberries. 

The calendula will be used for salve and the marigolds for dye.

All of this, but the cheese (and the sugar for the jam), came from the farmer's market.  The cheese is local, a smoked scamorza. It's really yummy with apricot jam.

I've started a new project...baby blanket for a coworker.  Her favorite color is pink!  I also know she likes granny squares so it's a safe bet that she will like this.  There is no way that I am going to finish it in time though...the baby is due in September.

This week's collection on some cord that I made.  A dried rose from the garden, a shell and a bead from Venice Italy. 

Still house painting...