A new challenge has been on my mind and it is pure coincidence that I am posting about it on Earth Day.
This is what I am starting with: 50 projects that use up what would be commonly considered "waste," weeds or salvaged materials. Depending on how long it takes me to get to 50, I may keep going. I've already got ideas to start with such as making a rag rug, making paper with paper scraps, pieced clothing, baskets and...
Dandelion wine!
It will be a small batch as I really don't know whether I like it or not. Two cups of petals are now soaking in water for the next week.
This could qualify as a project although it feels a bit like cheating. All I did was gather some vines and put them in the tins. Mom was the one that tended the fire. The top piece of charcoal is from Mom and Dad's fireplace.
Along with some other things, my aunt sent me this beautiful table runner that has tears in it.
So many possibilities!
This isn't a daily challenge, I am just going to take my time and see what I can do.
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.
This year I decided to join The Studio for Playful Inquiry. Honestly, with a name like that, how could I not? Two of my favorite words roll around in that title, play and curiosity.
It's going to show up here I am sure, so a little background...
There are classes on offer to support those who work with children (they hosted a class I took this summer), but other things too...including the approach of being a study group and a community to explore some big ideas. It seems like something I have deeply needed in relation to my work.
This month the conversation is about resilience, Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower and Rebecca Solnit's A Paradise Built in Hell. I am not reading Parable again but am reading Solnit. It's a hard read right now given the news...
Resiliency is something that I have considered important for a long time.
I went back to listen to an "On Being" conversation with Andrew Zolli. There is so much that rings true in this conversation including:
"I think the first premise is all things fail. And in fact not only do all things fail, but failure is intrinsic, healthy, normal, and necessary to most complex systems.
Then the question is, if that’s true, how can we weather such failures? And a big part of that story is about emboldening the local. Because we’ve so tightly connected all of these systems, it’s important that we have redundancy. It’s important that we have spare capacity. It’s important that we have the right kinds of social networks, so that we can share with each other. It’s important that we have a shared wisdom, a body of knowledge that helps us be more locally self-reliant."
When I think of the best of social media, blogging, or however we reach out on the internet...I think of the ability to share knowledge and support. The global community has so much knowledge and experience collectively.
Resiliency is part of why I make things, on both a practical and emotional level.
It's part of my "Good Enough" quilt for sure...looking at the blocks yesterday morning I thought about how they lean into each other.
I also thought about where the fabric came from and the community it represents.
Fabric gifted from my grandmother and aunt, Jude, Grace, Hazel, Nancy, and my mother. Fabrics from the stash that are still crisp and fabrics from worn clothing or other blankets, soft and supple.
There is also so much emotional energy from the thoughts and support that came from so many others throughout its making beginning during Covid. Every time I look at the skinniest strips I think of Liz.
Here's another part of the conversation with Zolli:
"There’s no way we can steer around these storms; we had better build a better boat."
Thinking about life boats again and that we need more blankets.
Thinking it's too early for blossoms like this on this blueberry plant and that it is a good thing I have other varieties.
Just after sunrise I went outside to look around the garden.
There are things blooming...just little blossoms here and there.
Later I went down to walk along the bay.
It was busy but still there are ways to find quiet spaces.
Look close.
Look into the distance.
After I came home, I finished my first project with the quilt I am cutting up.
It's filled with buckwheat hulls.
Once upon a time I had a plan to make a lot of pillows and ordered a really big bag of hulls. Instead I made a few small pillows and then one really big pillow.
I've opened that big pillow up and and am breaking it down to make smaller pillows.
There will probably be quite a few when I am done.
A yearly tradition for me...a wreath made from things from the garden and foraged.
Tomorrow I am going to try making an ink with some of the pine cones from the fir tree along with some other things I have been wanting to experiment with.
And since the indigo vat is still working...maybe some moons?
Windfall... something falling from a tree, unexpected good fortune.
It was a glorious day for a walk. I took a little different route today.
There was also some gardening. At some point a bird gifted me with a holly tree. I will probably cut it back as it isn't in the best place. But that can wait until after the birds have had a chance to eat the berries that set this year.
This weekend's sewing project, remaking a dress into a tunic.
It will get more use this way...an important consideration.
The pattern is kzstevens' one yard minimalist top. It's a super useful pattern for reusing fabric. :)
My go-to "z" word is probably not one that many others would think of.
It's zither.
I am not sure that I will ever learn how to play anything on it but fairly frequently I open the case and pluck the strings and that is a very lovely thing for me. It's enough to bring memories of my grandfather sitting and tuning one of his zithers, of him playing for us.
Z is also about zero waste.
Very few things are, but I try.
(This is also something I think about with regards to my grandfather. One of the things he did regularly was use his single use yogurt containers for seed starting.)
I've been interested in bog coats for awhile and have finally given it a try after seeing another example come up in my Instagram feed. My first attempt is going to need some adjusting...the sleeves are way too big.
And...
On Monday I found an article on NPR discussing a new documentary on Leonardo da Vinci that I really want to see. I loved that they describe him as not seeing boundaries between disciplines; that he explored what he was curious about.
And...
Something to think about, from Ken Burns one of the makers of the documentary,
"This is why documentary, to me, is so much more fruitful than making stuff up. And so I have to wait and give some distance. And so I think that what you have to do is exhale a little bit, and we cannot look away. We have to dedicate ourselves to telling complicated stories. And when you do that, then you've got the tools. I mean, there's no greater teacher than the history you don't know, and that allows you to meet a moment with a little bit more courage and a little bit more purpose and determination."
I am going to come back to this.
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.
There is so much paper in this world...and I love making paper.
It's a great way to make recycling personal.
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.
The basic questions: Who? What? Why? When? How?
The questions I listed out this morning:
What can I make with this?
How was that made?
How can this be useful?
What am I trying to say?
Why am I doing this?
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.)
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 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...
From the garden, a keepsake.
This weekend I will be sorting...what to keep and what needs a new home? What do I want to keep doing?
One thing...baskets (still working my way through the class with Harriet Goodall at Fiber Arts / Take Two.)
I shouldn't have been surprised to find out that a basket making technique called looping is the same stitch used to weave crab pots and fish nets.
This is the first time I've tried to do this at such a small gauge and I was using fairly rough twine so I had trouble keeping things a standard size. There is a second stitch that I was practicing as well that has a twist.
I want to keep practicing this... I am imagining bags and baskets for hanging plants. I think it might work for mending chair seats.
A way to keep things useful.
I also want to keep knitting...one of my favorite kinds of making.