Happy Sunday

"Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard."

Anne Sexton

 I saw this log the other day while walking the cat. I have been trying to listen hard to see what the next steps are, which is probably why this looked like an ear to me. Anyway, not much news to report just yet. This post is mostly to see how the email sign up went, let me know if you get it. The first one it seemed took about 24-30 hours for people to receive, which was about the same as before. The arrowleaf balsamroot is up and blooming and the spotted knapweed isn't far behind, so yellow scarves will be next thing on the list.

Thanks for stopping by, have a lovely Sunday.

Merry Christmas!

"I am trying to be unfamiliar with what I am doing."

John Cage 

I have worked with poinsettia before. It works well on paper, not so much on fabric.

These pieces are with copper as the mordant, which I had never used for poinsettia on paper before. The prints are more diffuse, but the color is still lovely.

The top papers are with an alum mordant and the bottom row is with rusted water.

Snow Day

"Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart."

Victor Hugo

One has to ask why in the world one would be eco printing when the outdoor studio looks like this, but here we are. I am doing up some scarves with dried oak and currant that will get a bath in an overdye at a later date. Snow makes our gray winters a lot more attractive and at least the temperature is up to a balmy 19 as opposed to Saturday morning's -8.

Happy Thanksgiving

 "Rest and be thankful."

William Wordsworth

This happened a few days ago. The season of rest is upon us.

Harvest

 "Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant."

Robert Lewis Stevenson

This fall's harvest, in part anyway. Tansy flowers at the back, safflower petals in the jar, horse chestnuts, acorns, and black walnuts.

I spared you the picture of the leaves being pressed and dried in a mountain of newspapers and cardboard weighted down by giant art books (see, the history of art does have practical uses) as well as the sleeping bag sized ziploc of avocado pits in the freezer. While not much into whole cloth dyeing these days it does pay to have some dyestuffs on hand to overdye with. The acorns are for tannin solution should the need arise and the horse chestnuts will supposedly make a laundry soap with a "blueing" effect-if you know what blueing was. Anyway, I thought it would be a fun experiment provided I can find the bookmark on my computer for the recipe. As I remember it is dependant on pH to a certain extent. The safflower petals are another experiment for the winter. While not known for being a completely permanent color (even though the ancient Egyptians used it as a dye) if done following exact directions it will impart pink to silk. We will see if I get it right. To my understanding even if I don't I will end up with a really lovely orange/yellow. Avocado pits also make a pink as well.

Over the last few years I have had a hard time making plans for the future. Can't imagine why, what with the Plague and all. I tend towards depression and anxiety anyway and wasn't doing all that well in 2019 to begin with. But, in the last few months I have decided to stick to my plan when I can't decide what to do. Pick the option that will offer the most options down the road. So, for instance, when on the fence about whether to do a particular art fair or not, go ahead and apply anyway. Burning $35-40 on an application isn't the end of the world and if accepted, I can decide at that point whether to accept and pay the booth fee later. If I hadn't applied, I definitely wouldn't be in the show.

That's kind of why I have been scurrying around like a squirrel this fall. As I said above, my emphasis is really on eco printing, not whole cloth dyeing. But having the dyestuff to work with does give me other options if an eco print doesn't "come out well", overdyeing can sometimes give you something so much better anyway. The other stuff just keeps me entertained! Last year the snow was so early that the leaves didn't change  color, they just turned brown and crumbly on the trees and then hung on all winter. Strangest looking thing. So this year I made sure to get out and pick up some of my favorites for winter time eco printing.

Even though this is harvesting, it is a way to plant seeds of ideas for the future.

Tea Time

 "A simple cup of tea is far from a simple matter."

Mary Lou Heiss

This turned into quite the project! I am still mulling over what exactly I will do with all this fabric, but in the meantime, here is what happened. As far as process goes, I let the various teas steep overnight and then used the liquid as a dye, vs. just dipping the fabric as one normally thinks of "tea dyeing". So I poured the liquid into a clean stainless steel pot, added enough water for the fabric to float freely and then simmered each one for about 30-40 minutes. All the silk broadcloth pieces for the herb teas were pretreated with alum. As you can see, the nettle did almost nothing, instead of green or yellow. This could be because it may not work as a dried plant, or it could be I didn't simmer it long enough.

These are the herbal teas, hibiscus, comfrey (after an iron dip), chamomile (the type for tea, not the dyer's chamomile, so the yellow was a nice surprise), St John's Wort, and the last was nettle. 

The picture above and the ones below are all with a very strong brew of plain old black tea that I steeped overnight and again used as dye, so they were simmered about 30-40 minutes. The pretreatment of alum didn't seem to make much of a difference color-wise, but may add to longevity. Since tea is high in tannins I am not sure it would make a difference one way or the other. The samples on the left of all these images are just as the silk broadcloth came out of the dye pot. The samples on the right are after a dip in iron water. I did this to give myself more color options, and just to see what would happen.

The fabric was rust treated with steel wool, so everywhere the tea interacted with the rust it turned black.

The fabric had rusted nails laid out on it first, and again, when the tea and rust meet, the rust turned black.

I am betwixt and between as to what to do with all this. I had better make up my mind soon as the pictures and info about the piece are due at the end of the month! I found it interesting that when I was just sitting there looking at the first results I could not see the herbal tea fabric being used with the black tea fabrics at all, but when I did the iron dip on the black tea fabrics (turning it gray) other possibilities emerged. This is kind of how my head works anyway, the process of doing things inspires me, I just wish I were a little speedier at it is all.

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.

Gray Fall Days

 "The color of truth is gray."

Andre Gide

I went walking the other day before the rain got going, to look for sticks for a project. I love this old tree, it is down near the river bank. At some point it split in two and both halves, the one still vertical as well as that laying on the ground continued to grow. The one on the ground seems to have finally given in. Sad as that is, I am always intrigued with the weathering of the exposed wood. 

Zen and Cats

 "I have lived with several Zen masters-all of them cats."

Eckhart Tolle

I have been rereading Pema Chodron's When Things Fall Apart, an advisable book in the middle of a pandemic that seems never ending. It is tempting to keep thinking that things "will get better when fill in the blank". I keep doing that to myself over and over. Not long after the year began I was reading an article on the Black Plague in Europe. It started in 1346 and faded out by 1351, or about 5 years give or take depending on who you ask. This may seem somewhat depressing, as it did to a friend who said something to the effect of-"But that was before modern medicine and electricity!!" But, really, I found it to be helpful. Especially with all the talk about lack of enough vaccine doses (for the first time in a very long time I am "too young" for something) and now teenage mutant ninja virus variants and all the rest. This isn't going away anytime soon, so it seems to me that it is better to have that expectation than to be constantly disappointed that things don't go "as planned".  There are just some things that are out of our control, and the pandemic has pointed that out in spades.

I especially started to put this altogether when I read the chapter in Ms. Chodron's book called "Nonaggression and the Four Maras". As to what is a Mara, the story goes that on the night when Buddha was to attain enlightenment, he sat under a tree. While there he was attacked by the forces of Mara (basically demons) but when they shot swords and arrows at him, their weapons turned into flowers. The Four Maras are described as Devaputra mara, seeking pleasure or partaking in activities that kill pain in a detrimental way, such as addictive or compulsive behaviors for instance; Skandha mara is our reaction to having the rug pulled out from under us; Klesha mara is reacting emotionally to a situation in a way that makes whatever bad thing happen even worse; and Yama mara is basically thinking that if you just do enough, you will be in control of your life, and when totally uncontrollable things do come along, like the death of a loved one or plans change due to a pandemic, you basically bring the other maras crashing down on your head. Read her book, she says it a lot better than I can.

So, while I was pondering all this I decided to work on some small collage pieces to be placed into Pottery Place Plus. I have some small stretched canvases (9" x 12") that were calling to me. I started with enough eco printed fabric to "slip cover" the stretched canvas, and let it go from there. There was a lot of digging around in the studio, not to find anything specific, but to see what looked like it wanted to be together. So these were a meditation of sorts.

I am also trying to take a page from this little sentient being. When I feed her in the morning I sometimes ask her what her plan for the day is. She tends to blink slowly at me as if to ask "Plan? Who needs a plan?" If the weather is good it might be a day to go have a walk about in the yard, if the weather is bad it is a day for sleeping on the bathroom rug in front of the heat register. This day she saw that I was changing the sheets, one of her favorite activities! Never miss an opportunity to chase the sheets around! 

I guess the takeaway here is that I am not sure when we will have art fairs again so focusing on my online stores is the way to go. I do have work in several galleries, which are hanging in there, so I have to keep them stocked. Soon it will be time to order silk to have things ready to go when the fairs start back up again, albeit fall or beyond. One day at a time.

Speaking of, you can see my eco printing HERE and my handmade supplies HERE. My work is showing at Pottery Place Plus in Spokane and Essential Art in Moscow Idaho and hopefully this summer at Entree Gallery in Nordman Idaho. 

New Year, New Day

 "Living in the past is depression, living in the future is anxiety."

Unknown

We have hit the gray and sometimes bleak part of winter here, so I decided to spend the week making a little sunshine. In the summer I pick Tansy flowers from along the river and hang them to dry for just such an occasion.

I put the dried flower heads in a pot of water to soak overnight, then simmered them for about 45 minutes to make the dye. The scent is lovely, like yarrow, sharp and calming at the same time.

This is right at the beginning, such a beautiful soft color! I simmered them for about an hour and then let them sit until evening before removing them from the dye bath.

The fabric in the background silk crepe de chine, the one swooshing across the middle is silk dupioni. These were scrappy type pieces of fabric that I had treated with alum last summer (I have no idea what I intended to do with them then) and they did have a bit of iron contamination as there are some spots here and there. No worries, I will either find something to do with them, or maybe, give them a bath in the iron pot and turn them olive green at a later date. Right now they are hanging in my studio so I can enjoy the color, which is about the color of the winter sun here when we get to see it.

At the moment, I am doing my best to live in the moment. Having too many expectations for the coming year could make it seem worse than it actually is. Looking back on the debacle of 2020, I can see where I did that to myself at times. I was just reading an article about people who are starting up whole new businesses during the pandemic, and I know several personally that started up businesses during the Great Recession that are still in business. While I have no interest in reinventing the wheel at this point, I am looking deeply (as I was right before the pandemic started) into the business side of my art, while still practicing art, no matter what type it is. I bought myself a little Christmas present, Shelley Rhodes book Sketchbook Explorations, and although I have never really kept sketchbooks decided it would be an interesting idea to mess around with while waiting for the snow to melt and spring to return. Only two days into it and I have had a bunch of thoughts about the art, that may or may not lead to other business ideas. But without the art, there is no business, so the thing to do is keep making more art and when the time is right (whenever in the world that might end up being) the business ideas tend to synthesize themselves.

If you can't seem to get into the "Happy New Year" mood, that may actually be a good thing for now. It may be your soul protecting you from either overthinking the past or the future; and thus causing you pain of one sort or another. About the only thing you have control over is today, so the things to do today are those that make tomorrow a better place, no matter what happens. 

Cheers, take care of yourself and stay safe.

Thinking

"Everything here at St. Aggie's is upside down and inside out. It's our job not to get moon blinked and to stand right side up in an upside down world. If we don't do that we'll never be able to escape. We'll never be able to think. And thinking is the only way we'll be able to plan our escape."

Kathryn Lasky

Papers from last summer

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!

The Only Constant in Life is Change

"Man cannot discover new oceans  unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore."

Andre Gide

Low tide

High tide

Everyday Life

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."

Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

"Artists are not exempt from that truism. Fix Breakfast, do the laundry, write a poem: That is the real life of an artist."

Ted Orland, The View From the Studio Door, referring to the Annie Dillard quote above.

An experiment on 100% wool craft felt, something I had never thought to use before. I will take the next piece and tighten it up, or make it "feltier" if that makes any sense, with a denser surface the prints most likely will be more distinct.

Laundry both studio and familial.

Mixed up a concoction to relieve my dry skin.

First salad from this season's garden!

A reread of one of my favorite books.

And last but not least, my studio door!

Operating at Peak Efficiency!

Ok, the next time you feel like you get nothing done, remember this post.

This morning I went to coffee with some artsy fartsy friends and got so inspired I made a pass by my local big box fabric store for a few items and then dashed home. Had a quick sandwich and then put my new purchase to soak in the basement bathtub. As I was headed back out to the studio I saw ants invading the hummingbird feeders. I had purchased ant traps for them last year but had forgotten all about it so I had to dig around to find them. While I had the feeders down I might as well clean and refill-right? So as I am washing out the feeders I begin to realize there is water coming up the kitchen drain which is not how it is supposed to work. I pulled everything out from under the sink and unscrewed the trap. Nada. This means that there is a truly evil, smelly clog in the pipe over the dryer in the laundry room (this is not my first rodeo with the kitchen drain needless to say). Then I had the horrifying thought that my husband had gone fishing yesterday and had cleaned fish in the sink. Which means there is probably day old fishy smelling water in the dishwasher. Opened it, yep, there sure is, and slammed it shut. Mr. Man was sleeping to recover from said fishing trip but I woke him up to ask if he wished to help unclog it (two person job-somebody has to hold a bucket while the other person snakes the pipe) or call a plumber. Naturally when someone awakens you from a sound sleep to ask if you would like to have sewage rain down on you the answer should always be to call a plumber. 

At three in the afternoon on Friday there are no plumbers available. Anywhere. The ones that are willing to show up at five in the afternoon want several hundred dollars. Or to make an appointment for next Tuesday. Did I mention fish water in the dishwasher? Oh, yes I did, but I probably failed to mention 85 degrees on Sunday. So, no thank you, I will figure it out. 

Without raising my voice I made it clear that while several hundred for a plumber may seem high, it is lower than spending the weekend plus Monday and Tuesday at a hotel. He dashes (ok, saunters) out to the barn to bring in a bucket and proper tools and we head to the basement. Clog removed, dishwasher running to get rid of stink, mission accomplished. Oh, and hummingbird feeders cleaned and rehung with ant traps. It was about four by then, but I decided it was wine-thirty and the day is done. I will fix our dinner, enjoy my yard, and be grateful that Mr. Man is doing well enough to help with the clogged pipes which would have been unthinkable even a few months ago. It can all change so quickly.

Meet the newest porch cat, name to be determined. I think Buddha may be appropriate, as every time I am sitting on the deck worrying about something, the little beast brings me back into the present moment by biting my ankles. Kind of like the person at a Zen retreat that smacks you with a stick for slouching during meditation.

Thoughts

"In the land of "I know," there is always competitiveness, jealousy, pretence, pride and arrogance. It is an aggressive realm-the realm of the ego. I say refuse citizenship. In the land of "I don't know", the inhabitants move without conflict and are naturally quiet, happy and peaceful. The wise stay here."

Mooji

Bald sumac on silk dupioni with rust

Monday Thoughts

"Treat every day like it's a new year, because it is."

Temitope Ibrahim

Eucalyptus and Maple on silk.

Past Present and Future

"Past and present I know well; each is a friend and sometimes an enemy to me. But it is the quiet, beckoning future, an absolute stranger, with whom I have fallen madly in love."

Richelle E. Goodrich, Slaying Dragons

I am trying to winter over my Scented Geraniums in the sunroom. So far, so good! Today I clipped off the leggy stuff to use for sachets. The house smells wonderful!

Lavender harvested last summer for sachets and household products.

Just Be

"Clarice scrawled, 'A question from when I was a little girl that I can answer only now: are rocks made, or are they born? Answer: rocks are."

Benjamin Moser, Why this World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector 

Spokane lies in the path of an ancient flood plain. Most rocks in the river are ovid gray stones, worn smooth by centuries of water tumbling them around and about. I love it when I come across rocks that are different from all the rest. Pushed here by the forces of ice and water they tell tales of faraway places.

Green and black, hiding in a place where fairies must live.

A loaf of bread! It looks like you should be able to slice into it. So much so that I had to poke at it to make sure it was a rock.

Swirls and eddies, a liquid as a solid.