Monday Thoughts

"Gentle Reminder: If you feel "off track" please remember there is no track. This is your life. It ebbs and flows and twists and halts and speeds up. It all belongs. Stop trying to be a robot who is productive and perfect all the time. You're not a robot. You're a human. Be alive to it all."

Jamie Varon

Japanese Butterbur on paper. I did some remodeling on the blog and put up a list of shows for this summer, other things coming soon! Check it out.

Watering the Grass

 "The grass is  not always greener on the other side of the fence. The grass is greenest where it is watered."

Robert Fulghum

This could be either Old Witch Grass or Purple Love Grass. The plant ID app can't seem to decide. The scientific names for either are not in my copy of Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia and the Inland Northwest or Northwest Weeds, so both the app and I could be on the wrong track. At any rate the common names are charming and it is an interesting element in the paper samples especially. As always, the fabric sample will hang with me over the next year and have an occasional bath, just to see what happens.

Watering the grass in our climate change fueled summer is pretty much a pointless endeavor, you can get brown grass without wasting a bunch of water and time. Mr. Man and I will be discussing its replacement this winter. Right now I am watering flower beds in order to weed them and put them to rest for winter, not to mention trying to keep my dye and print plants alive until they can go to sleep on their own. In poking around I found this crazy grass tuft that looks like a fiber optic lamp from the 80's. If it holds on fabric, it could be an interesting connecting element between leaf prints. It looks like Mr. Man and I will be having another chat about what is a weed and what is an art supply. 

The Owl

"The owl," he was saying, "is one of the most curious creatures. A bird that stays awake when the rest of the world sleeps. They can see in the dark. I find that so interesting, to be mired in reality when the rest of the world is dreaming. What does he see and what does he know that the rest of the world is missing?"

MJ Rose, Seduction Series

At night, before bed, I go out and check on the world. To see if it's cloudy, if I can see the stars, whatever. A week or so ago a huge black shape swooped across the yard and landed in the pear tree. It was the neighborhood owl. Another bird, one that probably was roosting in the tree for the night, took off with a squawk into the dark. The next day I was working on a collage for an online group and just happened to come across an image of an owl and ended up making this one as well.

Since the original plan was to offer classes in April about how to prepare fabric for the coming summer the next post will be about working with rusty objects as a mordant. I just have one more procedure to do and take some more pictures. I hope you and all you know are well, or as well as can be expected under the circumstances. A friend posted on Facebook about using the time to ponder what parts of "normal" could we personally live without and should leave behind when this is all over. I think this is wise. After several really frustrating weeks, I suddenly realized that this situation is telling me something and that there are certain things I am not wrong about and it is futile to try to fit myself into situations that are just completely unnatural, and in some cases downright harmful, for me. The owl does what it needs to do in order to survive, and  so should all of us.

Remember to check out my Etsy site, new things go in almost everyday.

Report from the Backyard

"If we built houses the way we build software, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization."

Clifford Stoll

Can you tell I have been spending way too much time filling out online forms, surveys, and not to mention online financial stuff? And let me tell you how much I enjoy listening to a lovely recorded message about whatever I am calling about can be found on the callee's website. That would be the one I am staring at, and have been staring at-and clicking endlessly on-for the last half hour. BTW, I have no idea who Mr. Stoll is, but he seems a very wise man.

The backyard keeps me grounded. Watching what plants are coming back to life, keeping track of the birds and their goings on remind me that there is a bigger world out there. They just deal with whatever they are dealing with and then there is the next moment and the next and the next. The Flicker is busy trying to find a mate. I have start calling him Ruddy the Riveter. The other day he started out on the furnace vent pipe on the barn, taping away. Today, even in the blustery wind we are having, he was at it again on the peak of the barn roof. All these are metal structures, he is not looking for a meal. He is looking for a partner. He is say "Look at me!" "Pick me-I am the best!" in his rat-a-tat sort of way. He needs to find the substrate that will make the loudest sound so the girl of his dreams will come along and claim him. Kind of like applying for grants, but I digress.

So, since getting a decent picture of this is impossible, I asked a dear friend to send me one of her paintings. Her name is Linnea Tobias and her work is wonderful. So bright and beautiful, and in a lot of cases thought provoking as well. You can see many of her lovely works on her Etsy site and when the Pottery Place Plus opens up again you can see them in person.

Flicker with Dahlia by Linnea Tobias

I have been putting eco printing on my Etsy shop, and adding new buttons every day, be sure to check back often-Thanks!

Decision Made! Well...Maybe, I Don't Know, Let's See What Happens

"This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it."

Dorothy Parker

and/or

"What fresh hell is this?"

Also credited to Dorothy Parker

There is not much eco printing going on since it is still pretty cold and the plants are keeping their heads down, as are we all at this point. I have been spending so much stressful time on the computer, that by the time I get around to this blog I am worn out and haven't been keeping up with it. Here is an update of life in semi-isolation.

Adding things to my Etsy site, next week's task is to explore other selling options. If nothing else, by the time this is over I will have a much better online presence. With everyone at home, and finances uncertain, I don't expect tons of sales, but at least I will get a lot of things done I should have been doing all along. Thanks to all who have been buying, even small purchases help a lot.

These two images are of a series of works regarding the effect of textile production. The series is called "Unraveling: The Effect of Fabric on our Environment, our Culture, and our Health". Or some such thing. It is scheduled to show in September. I will be writing more about it over the spring and summer. The top image is for a piece called Worry Dolls, regarding child labor (yes, this is still, unfortunately, "a thing") and the bottom is about what happens to first world clothes when they are dumped on the third world. If you donated clothing labels, this is where the lion's share of them went. Still trying to decide on that screaming pink thing dead center in the middle-may have to de-emphasize that.

 Life around the house goes on as normal.

Lots of wandering around, both in the yard and over to the river and back. 

Mr. Man is getting ready for gardening season. His health is good, we are trying to keep it that way by staying home. I am learning all kinds of new digital web skills because of this! (imagine frowny face here)

Buddha excels at self isolation.

Anyway, needless to say, I don't know what will happen with the show season or my intended class schedule. With no crystal ball it is hard to tell. Galleries, like the Pottery Place Plus and Essential Art will eventually open again and classes can be put together at the last minute, while not ideal, it is possible. The art fairs are another matter. Are they being held, is it worth the expenditure during a year like this, are all questions with no answers at the moment. 

I want to thank my friends and local art community for all the help thus far, you guys are the best!

Kindness

"Kindness and a generous spirit go a long way. And a sense of humor. It's like medicine-very healing." Max Irons

Peek-a-boo!

Black Hollyhocks-I can't wait for them to start blooming!

Don't remember planting these, but, yeah!

We are working on a friendship, sometimes we have disagreements, but we are always happy to see each other.

The Color Red

I came across a writing prompt that said to pick a color and watch for it all day, then write about it. Since this is the season of commerce (places you can catch up with me are at the end of this post) and not much in the way of creating in the studio goes on, writing will have to do. I have to make something every day or I get crabby.

A woman was standing in my booth one time and ask me what was the hardest color to obtain. Since I don't really think about what I do in those terms, it kind of took me by surprise, but after a quick glance around I said "Well, if you take a look there isn't much in the way of red, in fact, no red at all." At that point I explained that while there were several options in natural dyes to obtain red, not many of them grow around here. For the most part I limit myself to what is available in the area, I figure I have already used up my carbon allotment by working on imported silk and then I also avoid dealing with the question of how a given dye stuff was harvested and shipped. Madder root, a traditional dye plant, is considered hardy to zone 5 so in the right position in the yard it would probably grow here, but it is a pretty big commitment. If it gets going it has to be in a raised bed as it can be invasive and it takes at least two years for the acid in the roots to be strong enough to make the dye, three to four years is better. Since actual whole cloth dyeing is not really my thing, it seems like a lot of work. We have its obnoxious little relative here, Lady's Bedstraw, that to my understanding will make some sort of a pink. Considering how invasive this naturally occurring plant is in the garden, you would think I would be all over it. Trying to find its roots however, is pretty challenging. They are very fine and you end up plowing up an entire garden plot just to finally get enough to work with. I decided it was just better to rip the plants off the top and dry them for a tea that is supposed to ward off kidney stones, a malady I hope I never get again, so I am willing to do about anything.  

Here is the red I saw in the last couple of days. Eastern Washington has entered the gray time of year. The sky is very often gray with fog, and unless there is snow, the ground gets gray and muddy as well. It gets dark early, Google informs me that sunset will be at 4:21 PM today. Red pops out.

Hawthorn leaf in a pile of cherry leaves

Hawthorn berries that will be picked off by the birds all winter

Mountain cranberries, also bird food.

As I was walking across the yard I thought I saw a bright red piece of fabric stuck in the border garden. It was this little rose bush putting out its last effort for the year! I was so surprised as we have had some really cold nights already, I guess it just had one more thing to say.

Anyway, you can catch up with me in at the following shows, and of course my work is always at Pottery Place Plus, 203 N Washington, Spokane, WA

Tonight I will have jewelry and scarves at The Inland Empire Gardeners' monthly meeting at Centerplace 2426 N Discovery Place, Spokane Valley WA. The market runs from 6-7 PM, meeting starts at 7:00

The Spokane Women's Club 5th Annual Artisans and Crafters Show, 1428 W 9th Ave. Spokane, Wa This Saturday 10-6 and Sunday 10-4

Custer's Christmas Arts and Crafts Show

Spokane Fair and Expo Center 404 N Havana St, Spokane Valley, WA

November 16th-18th Friday 10-8; Saturday 9-6; Sunday 10-4

Urban Art Cooperative's Holiday Market

3209 N Monroe, Spokane, WA

November 30th-December 2nd

Friday preview 6-9; Saturday 10-6; Sunday 10-4

Pounding on Plants

Or Hapa-zome as the famous Ms Flint calls it. Pounding on anything is a good way to relieve stress and probably helpful to achieving serenity. 

There is a disclaimer for this post however; this all looks much better in the pictures than it actually does in real life.

That being said, here goes. As you may remember I had eco printed some sample fabrics with test plants earlier in the summer. I did try to include leaves I knew would work so at least I would get some sort of useable result.

In this case, I can't even remember what the test plant was, but the rose leaves are nice!

The fabric in the image above is silk crepe de chine, probably not the best thing to use, this works better on fabric that has more body and a tighter weave to it. I started out by picking some of the more colorful leaves in my garden along with the one scented geranium I had that doesn't smell like cat pee. The scented geraniums were an experiment this year and my nose must not interpret the smell as others do. Bleck.

Geranium, Begonia, Astilbe, Coleus

I decided to go with the process that has you put paper down over the leaf, I have done it with a bare hammer before and you do get a good print, but kind of an over-cooked spinach type mess on your hammer. Besides, if nothing else you get a nice print on the paper. I laid the fabric out flat, placed the leaf where I thought I wanted it and pinned the paper in place. I used handmade paper for this as that is what I had, but any absorbent paper will do.

I gently tapped around the outside edge of it first to figure out where I was supposed to be hammering.

The Begonia was probably the best print.

The Coleus had nice color but was so juicy it leaked outside its own border

At one point I switched to a scrap of dupioni

Here are some of the cover papers both present and past. 

The thing to remember about this is that it isn't permanent. I like India Flint's suggestion in her book Eco Colour* to do a T-shirt and then as it fades just keep pounding more stuff into it as the summer progresses. From what I have read applying a mordant beforehand doesn't, probably, make it any more colorfast but there isn't any reason you can't try it and see what you think. Do one shirt with and one without and let me know what happens.

*Remember, I don't do links for books in the blog. It is important that you go to your local bookstore to order and buy it there. Shop local, even if your only option is the local big box bookstore-at least your neighbors that work there will have a job. This week's missive from the soapbox.

Two Wrongs make a Right?

A friend had said she made sun tea out of all the unmarked, one of a kind tea bags in the cupboard and it turned out great. Since I had a collection of those type of tea bags I thought I would give it a try. I did not have quite the same luck, mine tasted like a puddle by the side of the road.

Pretty to look at-but yuck!

So now what to do with it? I had some scraps of crepe de chine that I had used for experiments. I threw rose leaves in so I knew I would get something, but also put in a bunch of weeds and flower heads that I couldn't remember if I had tried before. As you can see the rose leaves came out, but no sign of the other plant material.

Rose leaves and rusty nails with faint hints of some random weed in the yard.

It is pretty but I thought it would be interesting to experiment with it. The fabric was mordanted with rusty nails to start with. In the past when I have overdyed such things with black tea or coffee they can be anything from gray to black. I also decided to see how much difference heat would make. So I put part of the tea in a stew pot and part in glass measuring cup. I heated the tea in the blue pot until boiling, turned off the heat and put the wetted strip in and left it overnight. I also left the cold experiment overnight as well.

I like the little landscape in the reflection.

Cherry season is upon us, they are everywhere!

Since the sun tea was a mixture of black tea and herb tea and who knows what else the results weren't as dark as they sometimes are. As far as the heat goes, the one that was in hot tea (on the left) is a bit darker, or more brown. Tea is pretty hard to wash out anyway, but the one that was heated probably will last that many more years than the non-heated one.

I have a bunch of the strips so I will do and share some more experiments this summer. I like having stuff like this around. There is no pressure so it is easier to ask the question "Why not?" instead of freaking out that something may be "ruined".

What a Week

This week has been very disconcerting. When I feel this way I look to nature to remind me of the bigger picture. I have taken a very long walk each day. I see the river rising as it should at this time of the year, the leaves changing and falling, and, thanks to the incredible amount of rain, the mushrooms rising. My husband has brought home something new almost every day to identify. There was even an article in our local paper about the diversity of fruiting fungi this fall, some not seen for the last ten years.  

                                                                                                                                                        Watching the ducks paddling around in swirling water that I would be afraid to swim in due to its force, is comforting as well as inspiring. They are completely at home no matter the tempest around them. Or, maybe to my untrained eye, they know when to dodge the churning water coming from below that I can't see from where I stand. I wish I had the same knowledge about my own world. To know how to swim into the whitewater while avoiding the deadly whirlpools would be empowering.

While my sunroom would hardly be considered a nature area, it is soothing to see my Christmas cactus doing what they normally do at this time of year. The days shorten and they bloom. With all the gray days in October, they are a bit ahead of schedule.  They have adjusted to what is going on around them. 

                                                                                                                                                         Outside is another story. Our temperatures this fall have been abnormally warm. We did have a light frost in September, so the hollyhocks and other perennials died back. The annuals died off and it looked like fall was on the way to winter. Then we had copious amounts of rain and highs in the sixties with nighttime lows in the high forties for all of October and now for the first two weeks of November. Today it is a beautiful spring day. We started out with rain and now it is sunny and breezy. Trouble is, it is not spring. The snapdragons and even some petunias have reseeded and sent up seedlings, the perennials are coming back from the roots. They don't know it yet, but all will get a rude awakening later in the week when it is supposed to freeze at night. 

                                                                                                                                                                  I feel like the outdoor plants. I had been going along thinking I had at least a notion of what was going on, and now-I don't know what to think or where to turn. Society was not what I thought it was. I went to bed one night and woke up to a very harsh reality. It would be easier to live in some sheltered, hothouse world where there was plenty of time to make decisions and adjust. Truth is, life is not that way. I stay grounded by enveloping myself in a world that remains constant by continuously changing, the real world, the natural world. The plants will freeze, go dormant and be back in the spring and their lives will go on. While I can't go dormant entirely (wish that I could) I do need to rest, pull back and conserve my energy for whatever life delivers next.

Wishing for a 48 Hour Day

I just could not get enough done yesterday-in a good way. The sun was shining and it was warm. A day for working in the yard. My son was here working the greenhouses and vegetable gardens with his dad and a friend. They got the hoses back out and the yard got the first hair cut of the season. Meanwhile, even though I am headed to Best of the Northwest in Seattle in a few days, I could not resist working in the yard. I discovered that most if not all the hollyhocks I planted last year have come back up. These are the dark red, almost black and they are great for eco printing.

I have seen some amazing eco prints using purple carrots, so I put the seed in the ground for those. I have no idea if it is permanent color or not-there is only one way to find out.

I planted more gourd seeds. They are a great art material to have around, they cut easily and accept stains and inks well. I like playing with a wood burning tool with them as well.

 I rearranged the "gourd farm" out behind the barn. Hopefully it won't be quite so hard to find them all this year if they take off up the old pallets and fencing. This is the hottest spot on the place, sun all day, so it is ideal for gourds. The ground is terrible though, so I used all the big pots and tubs I could find last year, but it was pretty random. It will be easier to manage with it all in a row.

Although what I am growing more for is probably beyond most people since this is the batch from last year.

If I hadn't run out of day I would have finished cleaning the perennial borders and washed the lawn furniture, among other things. Best to get on with the trip to Seattle, I hope to see you there!

Monkshood

Time for another plant with a creepy sounding name from days of yore. I tend to buy plants off the "half dead" table at the local home center, so the labels are usually gone. What ever this thing was, the plant itself looked like a delphinium, but the flowers were different and it bloomed in the late fall. A couple of weeks ago it was the only thing left blooming out there, so I decided to throw the last of it into a scarf and see what happened.

While it was cooking away I plopped myself down in front of Google to see if I could figure out what it was. After not too much surfing, I discovered it was Monkshood. It is poisonous (of course) and thus the deer don't like it (good enough reason for it to stay in the yard) and it blooms in the late summer and fall which is also a selling feature for me. By the time we get to late summer everything else is cooked in the heat.

I used a smallish piece of silk crepe de chine with steel wool as the pre-mordant. The flowers did impart the smoky, blue/purple to the back ground, I suppose if I used enough of them it would dye the whole background that color, which could be nice. I did throw some of the leaves into other samples, but nothing came of it. At any rate, it was a nice experiment for the last blooming plant in my garden. Now there is a layer of snow out there and everything has gone to sleep for a long winter's nap. 

Happy Turkey Day!

Today was International Happy Turkey Day at our house. Never heard of it? Neither had I. Turns out, this day is celebrated on the first Wednesday after the 4th of July. Mama turkey arrives in your yard the day before you are supposed to leave for a show in California. I guess tradition holds that once she and her babies arrive, all productive work ceases. Pots boil dry on the stove, laundry molds in the washer etc. This is so that you and any other humans around the place can stand on the deck, or behind trees or sneak around the bird bath to try to observe the turkeys, well, being turkeys. Part of the tradition is also trying to count the number of babies (4) while burning up your phone battery taking grainy motion shots of Mom turkey and her wee ones diving in and out of the perennial border. Turkeys are apparently very camera shy. I ended up way behind on the watering schedule for the yard, as I really didn't want to turn the sprinklers on the baby turkeys. They left, I turned on the sprinklers, and here they were back again! As hot as it is, it is no wonder. I felt like scratching a dip in the ground and sitting in the spray myself.

Later on I went to water flower pots in the front yard and they were out there, heading off to neighbor Neal's to have a bit of chicken scratch before bed I suppose. I can't imagine what Neal's domestic girls think of their wild cousins inviting themselves to dinner.

The best surprise was the gift I received tonight. I went out to the garden to get squash and onions for our dinner, and discovered mom turkey had left a small feather.  The most startling thing about a wild turkey is how big they are, not their coloring. But this feather has the most beautiful subtle shades of grays, browns and tans with small bits of olive green thrown in. I wish I could draw it, but this photo will have to do.

Well, ready or not, I am off to California to visit friends, see galleries and then do the show at Mendocino the 18th and 19th-hope to see you there!

Books About Eco Printing

I like lists, so here is a list of books that I have found useful for learning eco printing.

1. Eco Colour by India Flint; 2008, Interweave Press.                                                                                    This book changed my life. While causing me to grow as an artisan and craftsperson, it also brought me full circle to a place and time where I was a lot more comfortable in my own skin. It is not an instruction book or recipe book per se, so if you know nothing about natural dyeing, it could be a bit confusing-or the perfect place to start. To have somebody tell me I didn't need to order exotic dye stuffs and that using what I had thought of as toxic mordents was completely unnecessary was exhilarating. It threw out all the notions I had about natural dyeing and opened a whole new world for me.

      Some of it is hilarious, the part where she talks about the pros and cons of using cat urine as an adjunct cracks me up. Since I haven't known any cats willing to pee in a cup, I wondered how in the world she got enough to experiment with!

     The text is accompanied by lovely photography, making it a beautiful object in and of itself, a place where dreams can grow.

2. Harvesting the Color by Rebecca Burgess; 2011, Artisan.
     The author leads you through the seasons while guiding you to plants that for the most part are found or can be grown in North America. The book is geared towards those that work with wool roving (as most seem to be) but much of it can be used or adjusted for dying natural fiber fabrics. It did make me want to travel the country to try out many of the plants she uses. She also uses ecologically responsible mordants etc. This IS a recipe book for those that must have one to follow, but it is not about eco printing-the dye stuffs and mordants she uses are very helpful however.

3. Wild Color by Jenny Dean; 1999 and 2010, Watson-Guptill Publications
     This is a great technique and recipe book with a bit of history and back ground thrown in. Many of the dye materials are plants found in North America and she gives good little color swatches along each page with the plant. Again, not about eco printing, but playing around with the pre-mordants and modifiers in a eco print setting can be loads of fun!

4. A Dyer's Garden by Rita Buchanan; 1995, Interweave Press
     This is a great guide for growing your own dye plants. She gives a lot of information about the plants themselves and color swatches down the side of each page. She also has a helpful section on what not to grow yourself and why.

5. Craft of the Dyer by Karen Leigh Casselman; 1983, 1993, Dover
     I found this book used and almost passed on it and now I am glad I bought it. While she does use mordants I would not use (I tend to convert things like that into "pot as mordant" in one fashion or another) it is a fantastic list of plants, both wild and from the garden with great commentary about extracting color from them. No photos, but she does give the scientific name for each plant so you can do a quick search to see what it looks like.

6. Plant Guides
     I am a geek about plant guides-I have tons of them. I really like the ones from Lone Pine press as they have good images and descriptions and a notes section that tells you all sorts of weird fun facts about the plants, including whether anybody used them for color or not. I also own weed, tree and wild flower guides for the Inland and Pacific Northwest. All of which live mostly on the back seat of my car to be used when needed. Many state and county weed boards have come up with weed ID apps, which are great if you have a cell signal, not terribly useful if you don't. Low tech as it may be, books on the back seat very often work out the best!

     Please note, I did not provide links to purchase these books on line on purpose. It would really help out your local independent bookseller if you went to them first. No local independent bookseller left in your area? Then at least go to the local version of the big box bookstore and buy them there-the folks in your town that work there need their jobs and the way they get to keep them is if big companies know that a real book store is important enough for you to shop there. Thanks!


   

Goodbye to Green for this Year!

Summer is finally coming to a close here in Eastern Washington. I used almost dead sunflower leaves on silk that had been wrapped around a copper pipe to get the greens pictured here. I have time to make some more, just waiting for the copper pipe to work it's magic on the silk.

Coreopsis Verticillata, Part Two

This is what happens when you use alum as the mordant! Cha-cha-Cha!

The End of Summer is Near!

     For the last few days I have been up early. I have been surveying my weed sites and picking what I need. As you can see, the knapweed is toast at this point, as are some of the garden plants I use. With those plants I now wait for them to reseed themselves, sleep for the winter and start again next spring.

     Yesterday I went to my favorite place to collect driftwood, alas, it is blanketed in a luxurious coating of poison ivy! That will have to wait until next year, when again, the pile will be floating in a bend in the river. I did see a lovely little snake, we traveled together for quite awhile before he turned off into the grass.

     Today I saw some silvery minnows and when I got home I discovered a pair of quail decided to have a late season brood!  I hope they get a chance to grow up before it is too cold. They were out for a stroll across the lawn. While the temperature says otherwise, the change of season is near!

Coreopsis Verticillata

I love the way this plant prints, not just the flowers but stems too. It ends up looking like a watercolor.

Sun Printing-I hope

There is actually a little sun in the forecast for tomorrow, so I am trying to get ready. I use a lot of templates and stencils and decided this year to get back to using at least some real leaves and such. To work well they need to be flat-but not dried out, so picking the day before use is ideal. Trouble is, if I get up and there is no sun-dry and crispy is what they will become!