bee creative

fieldnote: blueberries

Do the first taste best?

looking for the joy

This morning I finished the shirt I started yesterday so that I could wear it...perfect for a warmer day. 

Forecast a high of 75 F.

A table cloth that belonged to one of my grandmothers, or maybe one of the great grandmothers. 

The floral print is faded but still beautiful. 

It still could have been used as a table cloth but I rarely use tablecloths (cats!) and wanted to have this be useful, not stored away. 

The fabric, linen, was a dream to sew.

I added a few inches to the width so that it could be a layer over a tank top. 

I will probably be posting everyday for awhile. 

Maybe just an image of something that brings me joy, a way to continue...

a project for past, present and future

I've been cleaning out an old photograph album with the sticky pages that were covered with plastic.

Thinking about how once they were considered something amazing, no more photo corners!

On the back of this photo my mother has written, "July 11-1974 at 10:00 P.M."  The P.M. is underlined...probably because it was still light out.  This picture was taken in South Eastern Alaska. 

The sticky in the album is, for the most part, long gone and the pages may be fun for a collage base. For today, I made a copy of one of the pages and then folded an origami butterfly. 

Copy paper works well for origami.

of land

This is one of my favorite images of my grandmother taken many years ago.  We had walked down below her house to feed the sheep apples after dinner one night while I was visiting.  She is looking out across the fields, towards where the tree line starts again.

My grandmother was deeply rooted to the place where she lived and it was very evident in how she lived her life. That's what I see in this picture, her love of the place she called home.

While I was in California I collected soil for paint. 

Some came from the ditch along the road to the house (it's too long to be called a driveway).

And another batch was collected from a bank along the road, under the roots of a redwood tree stump. 

The scratch marks were made by scrapping the clump of clay on the paper, the top mark is the clay dissolved in the water until I could use it like a watercolor.  I will be processing the clay further to make a smoother pigment but I wanted to get a sense of what it would be like.

I think my grandmother would have liked this.

thinking of the ocean

My current knitting project. 

It's a secret. :)

I've been looking through old photos.

This is my grandfather and grandmother.  My grandfather was an extra in the movie Frenchman's Creek (1944).

And this was the pirate ship in the movie.

 

 

 

#99 windows

This morning I was inspired by the shadow of a curtain.

I suppose too...thinking of weaving (Jude's post).

And I thought of another window that I loved.

This is more a sense of the window than an accurate representation of the window I really saw. 

A memory of stained glass and blue light.

And that seems real enough.

#64 random

I worked in the garden for a few hours today. 

One project, making a raised bed with materials that I have.

Today's square.

 

I made a lot of random marks today...like this. 

The green in the bottom is a watercolor pencil, not a pigment that I've made.

Yesterday's dots. 

As it dried the indigo and oak/iron dot transformed.

# 15 boat

I've drawn boats (and flowers) probably since I picked up a crayon and could draw something was "something."

A few things might have ended up a bit overdone but it was fun...

So was this...a strategically placed coffee ring.

#8 to be

Recently I've been revisiting the On Being interview with John O'Donohue.  Listening to it in the middle of the night when I can't sleep.

He says,

"I mean that everyone is involved, whether they like it or not, in the construction of their world. So it’s never as given as it actually looks; you’re always shaping it and building it. And I feel that from that perspective, that each of us is an artist."

Today looking through an old sketchbook I found a quote I'd copied by Madeleine L'Engle (pretty sure I found it here):

"But unless we are creators we are not fully alive.  What do I mean by creators? Not only artists, whose acts of creation are the obvious ones of working with paint or clay or words.  Creativity is a way of living life, no matter our vocation or how we earn our living."

Not sure if I've ever shared this but I chose my blog name as a bit of a play on words.  Deborah, from a Hebrew word meaning "the bee," + creative...

A prompt and reminder for myself.

 

#2 learn something new

Today I learned how to make hand stitched button holes.  It was the last segment of a class I signed up for last year. 

Button holes are going to take some practice.

2022 will be the year I started hand sewing clothing.

I also finished a shirt I've been working on for a few weeks.

The pattern is random on this fabric but I see roses everywhere.

Thinking about...what would I like to learn this year?