Having managed to pick only a few handfuls of dead needles (not easy to get off tree, then frost happens and they’re all on the ground), I decided to just toss them in a pot rather than save. Put in some testknit of my usual plant dye yarn and see what happens for future reference.
There’s all sorts of things I could have tested, iron, mordants etc, but I don’t think I have enough dye. One might be able to scavenge from the ground in the forest where they grow large and many.
I used rain water, pH 6. After boiling the needles, pH 6.5? I wish I had some way of preserving that water barrel over winter, but the last one is proof that I can’t:
In the back you see part of the original old farm house on this property, from the 1860’s, now wood shed.
Some colour seems to be available, one could test quantity, pH values, mordants, modifiers. Could be a nice dulce span of colours, doesn’t always have to be pow! Different from any of my previous results of plant dyeing at least.
Et lille hurtigt farveeksperiment med visne lærketræsnåle, havde kun et par håndfulde som jeg kogte i pH neutralt regnvand.
Der er da noget farve at hente, måske mere hvis man har flere nåle, bruger bejse, jern og andet til en samling afdæmpede naturtoner? Anderledes end noget jeg har fået før i hvert fald.
Heidi asked what my thoughts (and actions) were on conquering the fear of white canvasses. So I thought I’d give it a go and see if summing it up would help myself in the process too! And of course it’s a process, not a one-step fix. I probably won’t get it all in one blog post either…
Well, it’s a start, the canvasses are no longer white even though they’re filthy. (keep reading below)
I think the problem for most people is the illusion that they need to be perfect. At once. Always. Don’t get me wrong, I think art is something to be dead serious about, just imagine a world entirely without it! Well, No, right? Well, say hello to the World Champion of perfectionists. I know exactly, inside my head, what I want my stuff to look like. And if I can’t pull it off in first try (usually I can’t), I resign, tell myself I have no talent in this area and sulk about it. A lot. It’s even been a motto thoughout my life, “if I can’t do something really well, I won’t do it at all, and if I can’t have what I want, I don’t want anything”.
Lately I seem to have changed. I still want to be good and I have very high standards for it. But the concept of “practice” has suddenly dawned on me. Oh, I knew that old proverb, but really, it didn’t seriously apply to myself. Now I’m suddenly game to give it a try. Worst that can happen is – well, at least more will happen than before, when I didn’t do anything but wait for the perfect moment, running over the theory in my head (my version of practice). I might even have fun along the way.
Are you still hesitating? Break it into small steps. Arrange every step to be a succes in itself, be satisfied with your progress even before you get to the actual creating. Buy supplies, arrange a workspace so your supplies are there and ready, allow yourself to be fearful, push and rest, advance and retreat. Doodle a bit, go to an art exhibition, make really silly collages from magazines if that seems like a smaller step than brush on canvas. Tell yourself you’re just going to paint a nice background to get some colour happening. Don’t overly pressure yourself, nor let yourself get away with excuses forever.
Of course, some people like to just jump in, but they’re not reading this. It’s ok to sneak up on the action so to speak if that makes you more comfortable. What set me in motion and gave me a new urge to paint again, was learning to spin in 2011. I suddenly rediscovered the joy of working with my hands, not just my head, after years of photoshopping and Flash animating. My creativity suddenly woke up after being near dead for a couple of years (not good when you are a self employed graphic designer) and suddenly I had all these visions about colour and yarn designs and all sorts of things. Sometimes what you need to get the spark going is not even related to where you want to go!
So, what are some of the excuses the mind comes up with to postpone the moment of “failure”?
Equipment costs a lot of money.
I don’t have enough room in my house.
The kids (husband, cats) won’t leave me alone.
I’m exhausted today (again).
I have no time.
And the classic:
6. I don’t have any ideas….
Well…
Yes, it does. You can get cheap acrylics and low quality canvases at the supermarket from time to time, you can paint on almost any paper, doesn’t have to be 300g acid free watercolour paper straight off the mark. You don’t really need an easel, technically you can just cover a table in old newspapers. I always put nails in the wall and hung my frames on those. But even so, a decent starter collection of stuff does make a dent in your budget unless you have stuff from 20 years back stored in the garage like I did (and then I still spent some on this and that. And strangely enough, when you begin using it, it’ll be gone and you need more). But you have to make a decision. If you want to paint, you do need colours of some kind and a surface to put them on. Easier if you want to write, if you’re reading this I assume you have a computer, so you don’t even need pen and paper (although it actually does give another perspective on the process to handwrite from time to time)
Paint smaller. Something that fits your chosen table, see note #1. Keep your paints in a handy box or suitcase that you can get out in a jiffy and get cracking.
I don’t have human kids, but I imagine this can put quite a damper on your ambitions. I hate being interrupted when I finally get started and focused on something, impossible to stay in the mood! Or have someone stand behind me and just watch. I don’t have a lot of advice to offer I’m afraid, if you can’t train the kids to give you an hour in peace, or their other parent to deal with them, their grandparents to pick them up for the weekend, you might want to cover the whole room in newspaper and give them their own brush and paper. My solution to a small house and a chatty partner has been earplugs and mental blinders. Even if I feel eyes on my back, if I do not want to take a break I.DO.NOT.TURN.
THIS. I suffer from headaches, back aches, chronic fatigue among other annoying things for years. BUT. Another reason you are feeling tired might be the lack of creativity in your life. Art gives you energy, excuses and avoidance drains it. For real. See if your head doesn’t clear and your confidence gets a boost simply from that one victory of starting your first painting. Then have tea, pat yourself on the back, take a nap and have another go.
Do you ever watch tv? Do you have to? I mean, is there really, really ever anything on that is more important than painting? Your choice…
So you have no ideas? So why do you even want to make art? Like me, you probably can’t answer the last question, you just do. No matter how you try to be sensible, it keeps sneaking up on you, the urge, the dreaming. I think the more we keep telling ideas that they don’t exist, the more they’ll oblige. Leave the door wide open and they begin to trickle back in, soon you’ll be flooded if you let them come. In fact, you may have too many ideas and postpone acting because you can’t pick the best one, because you fret about all the ones you didn’t pick. What I discovered is, you don’t have to finish all of them. Just acknowledging them by writing them down in a notebook with a few strokes of crayon, is enough to satisfy your creative mind. Most of those ideas never get any further, but by taking note, you keep the flow coming in, and you free your mind of clutter that prevents you from focusing on one project at a time (ok, 2 or 3 is ok, right?). You’ll find that some ideas survive, others are no longer as important, they’ve done their job. Still not working? Go on expeditions, see something new. Take the kids to the zoo, they’ll be exhausted and sleep early, so you get a few hours to paint your impressions of the day.
A friend of my grandfather’s made me this about 25 years ago, great for painting on a table.
Then after you’ve inched your way towards action, no more excuses, it’s all sitting there, ready for the taking, staring you in the face, be aware of the following facts.
Rule #1: There will be obstacles. Such as, to mention a few: You finally get your A into G, plastic on the wall so you don’t splatter, jars for water, paper towels within reach. And then you discover that A. your ultramarine is not in as good shape after 10 years in the garage as you thought it was, B. most of your brushes leak hairs and dust like mad, completely ruining your canvas at first stroke (this is where the paper towels come in) C. you really need a waste bin for those paper towels. And more water for all those dusty brushes. You probably should have changed your clothes too. Oh well, and that plastic sheet on the wall could be a large contributor to all that dust, find a roll that hasn’t been in the garage or under hubby’s bed (or wherever he kept the darn thing).
Rule #2: There are no rules. A colour you dislike can be painted over as many times as you like. The painting can be turned upside down halfway through the process (any time during the process, actually 😉 ) You can use both hands, one at a time or simultaneously. Give it a go, paint with your “other” hand, kick logic up its backside.
Rule #3: Creativity is not linear or schematic. You need to listen to and follow your impulses. Even if it means that after a week of setting up your painting workspace, you have a sudden urge to spin purple yarn or rearrange your kitchen cabinets. Follow the flow. Sometimes the first step in a new project is finishing an old one! Art is not a job, don’t restrict yourself to one form just because you’ve decided you should. Life and your subconscious will tell you where to go next, even if it seems erratic. Now, if something tells you that you need to finish ALL your house chores before you’re allowed to paint, that is not your subconscious speaking, it’s your mum, and she ought to go and mind her own business.
Rule #4: Don’t talk, just do it. And keep doing it, no matter what rule #1 throws at you.
Julia Cameron: Walking In This World (The Danish version is “The art of being creative”)
Want some quick and easy ways to start playing, making art with no ambition of succes whatsoever, just fun? While I was writing this and in the process of testing my oil paints I remembered all sorts of little tricks, in fact so many that I’ll save them for another post. Stay tuned!
(som sædvanlig en ikke særlig ordret oversættelse fra engelsk…)
Nogen gange tager vi kreativitet alt for seriøst og kommer ingen vegne fordi vi helst vil forudsige resultatet inden vi overhovedet er kommet i gang, og det skal naturligvis helst være “perfekt”.
Og så kommer vi aldrig i gang med fx. at male, vi snakker bare om det i årevis, køber måske lidt pensler og farve i ny og næ når vi fristes i butikken, men det perfekte øjeblik at gå i gang opstår på forunderlig vis aldrig af sig selv.
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.
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!
Time for the last set of plant print experiments! I wasn’t really inspired to attempt any nice photography, so I just popped them in the flatbed scanner for you.
Sheet from last batch as well as the “mystery fabric that doesn’t take any colour” (I think we’ll just call it Homer from now on) had a bath in aluminium acetate then some powdered madder root and a handful of dried hollyhock heads, and the sheet, previously dyed brown from longterm exposure to celandine, had a short bath in – well, celandine. Not a lot of improvement, so I wrapped it up with some fern leaves. Nothing much happened for weeks, so I steamed it. And if you squint you might just be able to see a weak fern pattern…. Mostly, what I got was a bunch of brown, mouldy fabrics smelling like a cow’s a*se.
The raspberry leaves did print nicely – from the top side of the leaves only, the fabric covering the back of the leaves have 0 change. And, well, the lupine leaves? yawn…..
I actually think I’m giving up on this. Rose leaves gave me nothing. Alchemilla mollis, nothing.
I may however, decide to try with paper, after reading this blog. Tell me it isn’t cool!
Of course, I’m rapidly running out of leaves, so this will be for another year. Tomorrow I’ll go check if any more of these are still up (and no, I can’t imagine they’ll actually print red)
Tid til flere eksperimenter inden sæsonen er slut! Lupinblade og bregner rullet ind i bomuld. Forsøgte mig ogsÃ¥ med rosenblade – ingenting skete. Faktisk skete der absolut ingenting med nogen af mine forsøg ved at blot lade stoffet ligge med planter i og holde det fugtigt, sÃ¥ jeg prøvede at dampe/koge et par stykker. Hindbærblade virkede ligesÃ¥ godt som egeblade, men kun fra forsiden. Tørrede stokrosehoveder var derimod forbavsende gode, glæder mig til at farve garn med dem.
Og der sker lige nøjagtig ikke ret meget, ud over at det begynder at stinke efter en måneds tid, så nu tror jeg ærlig talt ikke jeg gider prøve igen lige foreløbig, slet ikke på bomuld i hvert fald.
After trying to knit with my predrafted hankies on 2.5 mm needles I decided to give them a bit of twist. Having done that, I decided to ply them as well…. Too fiddly otherwise, snagging on the join of my circulars, just plain ARGH. I think if I’d drafted them thicker it might have been easier, maybe I just suffer from old lady eyes….
One mitt done, weighing in at 9.6 g. I have a total of 44 g of silk judged from various pattern, so apparently silk weighs nothing compared to wool. I’d originally wanted them really thin, which obviously isn’t happening on 3.5 mm, so I ended up not making individual fingers, not wanting too much material between each. Dunno what I’ll do with the other half of the yarn. Matching earmuffs? LOL. Or just a nicer pair of mittens…
I made up the pattern as I went along, and being my first glove ever, I see lots of room for improvement, but they’ll do their job. When I tried them on before casting off, the 3-finger part seemed longer unfortunately, I would have liked them to extend to the last(first) joint. But I’ve already woven in ends, tough luck.
I’m as yet undecided whether I like to work with hankies or not. I like silk and I don’t mind the rustic look that you get, but I think it’s really hard on the fingers to pull them open, as well as quite boring compared to spinning. I’ve got about 300 g left of them, they don’t cost extra rent I suppose, so they can either sit there or I could dye them and hope someone else will care for them more than I do. I have plenty of silk top to work with instead!
Første forsøg med vantestrikning, det gik ikke helt som planlagt, men jeg er ok tilfreds alligevel. Jeg brugte meget mindre garn end jeg havde regnet med, den første vante vejer kun 9,6 g og jeg har 44 g i alt. Den sidder endda ret løst, selvom jeg troede jeg havde strikket den for lille, da silke jo strækker sig. Jeg kan så konstatere, at det strækker sig MEGET!
Jeg ved ikke helt hvad jeg synes om hankies, jeg synes det er hårdt at trække dem ud til tråd. Men jeg har købt 300 g, så jeg må vel hellere få dem farvet og finde på et eller andet.
