Finally

Got my painter’s “corner” set up in the living room by rearranging furniture. Now I just have to battle my performance anxiety alongside my urge to spend a fortune on supplies….

So taking up this hobby again after 10-15 years (not counting computer graphics and similar antics) has been a strong urge lately but also brought out all sorts of fears. I have no idea why this resistance exists in me, it must mean it’s somehow important and my subconscious wants to fight it with any means to make me lay off and continue my old path. It’s futile, as I’m determined to keep pushing, but an interesting process, a tug of war. I guess I not only have an inner critic I need to talk some sense into, but also a drama queen and somewhere in the far corner lives Marvin, the paranoid android.

I might get wheelies for this if I get into large paintings again, since I’m short and it’ll be a struggle to reach over a 40 cm deep shelf. But I really like these square modules with all the different kinds of baskets and accessories that you can get. And if I can just roll it to the right under the window, it won’t be a problem! You can say a lot about IKEA stuff, but it sure is easy to set up in no time, even by an arthritic midget like myself. (am I a weirdo for actually liking that kind of activities?)

Cartoon of my horses that I was working on a few years ago.

There was absolutely nowhere this would have fit in here before we turned sofa and tv 180 degrees, but we don’t actually feel more cramped than before, so that’s a definite win – just have to live with one part backing up to the window. An added bonus is, I can now see the fireplace from the sofa.

To be continued….

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PÃ¥ dansk

SÃ¥ fik vi endelig drejet sofaen 90 grader og tv’et flyttet til den anden væg, sÃ¥ jeg kunne fÃ¥ mig et lille hobbyhjørne i stuen. SÃ¥ mangler jeg bare at finde ud af, om jeg overhovedet KAN male efter sÃ¥ mange Ã¥rs pause, det føles faktisk lidt skræmmende selvom lysten er der. Underligt, at man kan have sÃ¥ modsatrettede følelser for noget som bare skulle være sjov og ballade, ikke? Men jeg vælger at tolke modstanden fra min underbevidsthed som et tegn pÃ¥, at jeg faktisk har gang i noget vigtigt, sÃ¥ den indre kritiker kan fÃ¥ en finger kan den. Basta.

1990 – aner ikke hvad det forestiller.

For at det hele ikke skal komme til at ligne et formningslokale har jeg tænkt mig at sætte et stykke klar plast pÃ¥ væggen bag lærrederne, lige til at pille ned hvis der kommer gæster, ligesom min “fine” røde voksdug hurtigt kan fjernes fra spisebordet. Til daglig er vi ret ligeglade med den slags, det er et sted vi lever, ikke en udstilling…. Og jeg ved, at hvis jeg skal bruge en halv time pÃ¥ at rydde pynteting væk og finde ting frem inden jeg kan komme i gang, ja, sÃ¥ bliver det ikke til noget. Nu kan jeg jonglere med farvepulver sÃ¥ snart jeg kommer ud af brusebadet med en god ide til noget nyt garn, og lærredet sidder pÃ¥ væggen og rÃ¥ber til mig hver gang jeg træder ind af døren: ikke flere dÃ¥rlige undskyldninger!

Fortsættelse følger…

Paper prints

Dry flowers apparently aren’t my thing, they look very dull and broken, some leaves might be useful. I don’t know if I went overboard squishing them real hard with clamps on the books?

I do still plan to try some garden printing, when time allows. There must be stuff out there that I can use even late in the season! Maybe I can do it on pieces of cloth that I plan to plant dye, if I use acrylics, they shouldn’t wash off no matter what I put the material through afterwards, at least that’s the deal when I get it on my clothes…. (does anyone paint and manage to look pretty throughout?) I wish I had some more fluid paints than the ones I have, guess I’ll have to invest in Golden acrylics next time.

In the meantime I saw those posts on plant dyeing on paper, which I just had to give a go although late in the season. Next summer and flowers and new dyebed (which hubby at the moment has decided to till for me as a first prep! Yay him!)

First session went quite well although I had no idea how to “steam” the paper, nor how to best keep the sandwiches tight and not floating apart. So I’ll be getting some alder leaves and some coreopsis from the freezer, and hey! How about all those dry homegrown weld and Dyer’s chamomile I collected!? Any Woad leaves left out there I wonder?

Time to get a bit scientific about it. Two pair of sheets soaked in vinegar, two in aluminium acetate. Alder leaves, more yellow birch leaves and Liquidambar styraciflua. Another sandwich, same mordants, strawberry leaves green and yellow, sage, celandine. In between the 2 sets, a layer of frozen coreopsis tinctoria and blue columbine flowers.

Then there’s the consideration of temps. Will a too high temp give dull prints? How low can you go and still get steam? I started with 150 C because 100 didn’t seem to get steamy. 120 doesn’t seem to quite work either, no visible steam anyway.

I’m showing both front and back of some sheets, since they could be used either way.

Unfortunately at some point in the drying process, I lost track of which 4 sheets were aluminium soaked instead of vinegar, AND forgot in which way they were different. I could identify them by which first sheet has the grate imprint from the oven, but after a 3 day break I also forgot which batch was on the bottom. DUH. Scatterbrain.

I’m happy enough with these results that I’m going to keep playing with paper and plants. Test which seasons give the best results and see if I can find any info on it. Some also say use “dead” leaves collected from the ground, some even use older leaves and soak them first. Hmmmm – I wonder about the above pressed flowers and stuff now?!

A short search gave me:

Cassandra Tondro on eco printing with a recipe (backwards) for paper steaming

The natural surface – great forum

Dip and stain

Threadborne list of plants to use

Next challenge: If I order a new batch of water colour paper, can I resist getting pens and inks and other lovely supplies while I’m at it?! Now that I’m getting a micro painting studio and all….

Winter on the march

After a frosty, beautiful, sunny weekend taste of the season to come, we’re now facing a rainy prenovember this week, temps around 5 C and winds to chill your bones. Weather for crafting, yeah? October has been really mild, but I guess it couldn’t last.

I haven’t been doing anything fibery really. I’ve been busy, and then I’ve been too tired. Next up is plying my “black” shetland, I managed to spin it a lot thinner than the last batch, so now I have to make more plies to match or I’ll never have that sweater.

I did manage to finish one wip though, the new collar on my scratchy sweater.

I unwrapped my last cotton plant print experiments – very disappointing, but more about it later since I did not take advantage of the sun to take pix. I think next year I’ll try to get some silk instead.

We’ve been remodelling the bedroom wardrobes this weekend, now all that remains is reORGANIZING stuff. I just love it when I can fill a few garbage bags with old useless stuff (and get more efficient space for fiber too). I have 5 new shelves instead of a double coat rack – the other 5 I had to let the tall guy have since I made him throw out the mint green shirt his mum once bought him. 😉 I’m determined to have a clutter and dust free bedroom without his piles of whatever just draped across every possible surface. Some training in addition to the shelves will probably be involved in this project, but hope springs eternal… Come summer it’ll be paint the walls and wardrobe doors as well as carpet begone and we’ll have at least one room that’s relatively spiffy and up to date. Ok, I won’t invite any interior design magazines, but it’ll do. My life must be really dull since I can get all excited about cleaning house!!! (oh that promised trip to IKEA for my paint “studio”, when!?)

from ikea.com

And I still have outside stuff to do, small trees that need to be replanted, some baby lilacs need to be dug up, the stable is overdue to have the cobwebs removed and I need fresh gravel in front of the door instead of mud. It’s good to move your body they say. And so much more fun to do real stuff compared to mindless exercise! That said I got inspired by a tv show about the human as a running machine and got some Vibram Five-Fingers on sale. Not exactly the season for trying them out, but I do have issues with landing hard on my heel, instant knee pain when running and just feeling stiff and awkward in normal trainers. Could be just the thing? And they included free socks. 😀

Baby Arthur is now turning into a teenager and has been allowed trips outside to burn some of that energy. Oh, he sleeps so well after exploring the big wide world. He’s learned to use the cat flap, which was one of the requirements, since we have the occasional stray tom, and I want the little one to be able to escape to safety. Right now he’s feeling poorly after his 2nd vaccination, I do hope he perks up soon! I’m soo fed up with sick animals over the last few years.

You seem to need an additional brake, yeah?
No mom, we iz not fightin’!

I came across these nifty images from space, when I was zapping the interwebs, I’m thinking cool stuff could be made from some of these with Photoshop, as backgrounds for something?

ESO/Igor Chekalin

But after I’m done – I will get back on my wooly track I’m sure. Moorit Shetland to be spun (thicker this time), fiber to be dyed.

Reader Appreciation Award

http://fibercrush.wordpress.com has nominated me for the Reader Appreciation Award.  It’s always nice to be appreciated by fellow talented fiber addicts, thank you for visiting and commenting on my ramblings! 🙂

The rules for receiving this award are as follows.
1. Provide a link and thank the blogger who nominated you for this award.
2. Answer 10 questions.
3. Nominate 10-12 blogs that you find a joy to read.
4. Provide links to these nominated blogs and kindly let the recipients know that they have been nominated.
5. Include the award logo within your blog post.

The Questions
Your favourite colour? Green?
Your favourite animal? Horses
Your favourite non-alcoholic drink? Orange juice

Facebook or Twitter? FB – mostly lurking
Your favourite pattern? Sunlight through tree branches
Do you prefer getting or giving presents? Neither. I prefer random acts of kindness – giving and receiving! (sorry – I just had to copy this one)

Your favourite number? They’re just numbers, who cares? 😉
Your favourite day of the week? Sunny, calm days
Your favourite flower? Sunflower
What is your passion? Colours

I’ve chosen some of the newest blogs in my reader to share, simply because I haven’t gotten that many yet, I’m kinda picky. Fibercrush is one of those and I thought about nominating you until I remembered I got this from you. 😉 And I’m having a hard time finding blogs that we don’t share in our lists!

Pam de Groot

Tread gently on the Earth

A word in your ear

Inspire; to breathe

Stitched up Mama

Canadian Hiking Photography

Colour it Greeen

Wendi of the treasure

Seascapes aus

The Witch of the Forest Grove

Woolwinding