seed

did you ever do an art piece where the materials just spoke to you and demanded to have their way? in this case i've had some horse chestnut branches in my workshop for years which i use for handles n some of the boxes i made. i was cleaning some things down there this weekend and happened upon them and they told me they wanted their ends dipped in black paint and then wrapped in red thread

 during the thread wrapping process i inserted a wooden sphere i had which has a really interesting grain pattern.

i am entitling this piece "Seed"

one part of the piece i like is that is rests on just 3 points and has a dynamic arch to the underside

seawrack, a book

a small artist book i finished today using some paper i had dipped in the indigo dye which warped quite beautifully and was very evocative of the ocean.

not that i have much of a relationship with the ocean. those i prefer are the tortured coasts of maine and brittany and the like. rough seas, storms and salt

i paired the pages with some simple wood slats and hemp cord and some beads i had (glass, bone and ceramic)

japanese/inuit/eskimo culture, expressions and symbols of elements at work

today in the garden

lots of greens

work in progress 6

the final artist book is nearing completion. this one is for the ancient moon priestess (and named first known astronomer) who is also probably the first recorded poet and the earliest named woman in recorded history - Enhudeanna

over forty of her poems survive to the present time which is saying much for poetry over 4000 years old. one of the appears in the ring of text in the piece.

the book has several numeral references. there are 29 pages in the book, corresponding to the lunar cycle and the piece of thread used to wrap the lapus lazuli sphere is 177 feet long, or 100 royal cubits or 1 'cord measure' which is mentioned in the poem

i chose this particular poem for the piece for the references it makes to science.

today in the garden

the first of the french breakfast radishes and ready to eat. 

best with some good irish butter and a sea salt

and from last fall, my cyser is finally bottled. much better batch than the previous year's vintage. now who are the lucky people to receive some bottles?

shibori sunday

the final results from yesterday (i added additional dye to 3 pieces of cloth this morning to experiment further with coverage, which included my hand due to a hole in one of my gloves)

experiments

with a lot of leftover indigo dye and yesterday's successful paper dyeing, i decided to try and do some additional paper today. well well pleased with the end product. i think these could be framed as is and would look good in a gallery setting

work in progress 5

A photo compilation of the 6th artist book for my upcoming show. This book is titled - The Dyer's Hand and is about Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin who correctly posited the elemental makeup of the sun in the 1920s. 15" x 22" - paper, oil pastel and indigo dye

i think the subtle washes of indigo dye are quite fascinating

today in the garden

green is blooming

today in the garden

rainy day weekend bouquets

lily of the valley, chive blossoms, viburnum, japanese tree peonies

scenes from shibori saturday

well this was certainly a long and fruitful day. my mother came over to lend me a hand with the dyeing and i was thankful to have her.

as her mother's day present she got to pick from what we dyed. these are all work in progress shots taken along the way. they show the cloth after it has been dunked in the dye and allowed to soak for a time. the cloth comes out sort of an acid green and as it oxidizes it turns the indigo color and repeated dunkings makes the cloth darker and more saturated.

 i learned a huge amount, enough that after lunch we went and grabbed more cloth because there is plenty of dye to go around. the fabric has been rinsed, washed, dryed and ironed and tomorrow if it is sunny i'll take final photos to show the final ranges of patterns.

for all these swaths i tried to replicate the traditional types of techniques. about 12 yards in total was dyed today and i definitely know which techniques i like best for next time

 

the cloth resting while oxidizing after being in the dye

techniques involving multiple folds and pleats

my favorite technique by far - a wood grain pattern achieved by rolling the cloth around a cylinder, wrapping it with twine and then scrunching the whole roll down to the bottom of the cylinder



multiple triangular folds



striped pillowcases done with the wood grain technique

for this the cloth was folded into a very small square and rubberbanded between two pieces of wood. this is the swath my mother chose for her present


and this is the swath that will go to someone special for her to make a skirt out of i hope. this technique was achieved by gathering small pulls of cloth and rubberbanding them around stones. i am pleased my stone pattern is fairly even. the bottom is wrapped at the edge with a lot of twine to create a border

stay tuned for final photos in the sun

work in progress 4

the final 2 books in their WIP states
The Dyer's Hand (for Cecila Payne-Gaposchkin, who first proposed that the sun is primarily made of hydrogen and helium)this book measures 15" x 22" and will have its lower half dipped in the shibori dye on saturday (hoping the thick paper i am using will withstand a quick dunk without warping too much). if all goes as planned the dye will bleed up into the paper and oxidize to a dark blue.

and a book for Enhudeanna which so far consists of 29 pages of circles, each precisely cut 1mm smaller than the previous page

more on this book once i figure it out

shibori before

i've spent the last week reading up on shibori techniques. this may or may not be part of the 7th artist book i am working on. if nothing else at least i'll learn something new

the last hour was whiled away cutting swaths of cotton and then ironing, folding, scrunching, wrapping and pleating them into various packages for dyeing later this week

5.5 yards of cotton does not amount to much when all packaged. i wonder if i should go get more fabric n wednesday to max out the dyeing session


trying each of the main techniques to see what happens. now whee did i put that 5 gallon bucket with the lid.

work in progress 3

book no. 5 is now complete. it is entitled - "Photo 51 or A Hand We Are Dealt"

this book is on rosalind franklin who discovered DNA is in a double helix pattern due to her famous "photo 51". watson and crick appropriated her photo and research and got the nobel prize instead of her.

this book has some details not readily apparent

it is a deck of 51 cards representing 'photo 51'

there are 4 sets of 11 cards each of the A, T, G, C elements that make up DNA

making 2 sets of 22 cards pairs which represent 22 of the 23 human chromosomes
the 23rd pair are the sex chromosomes represented by the XX and XY cards

there is a lens embedded in the front cover of the book structure which allows the cover to act as a camera of sorts representing her x-ray crystallography work

when the deck of cards is enclosed in the wooden cover, it aligns so you can see '51' through the lens

works in progress 2

the fourth book/object for the June gallery show is now finished.

finally all clicked last night when i got the idea to make a featherduster which fills up the space in the bell jar nicely as well as being symbolic of the domestic role of women at the time and because Williamina Fleming was Pickering's maid before he hired her to catalog stars.

and yes that is an actual 1891 Liberty Seated Quarter which i got at the coin shop downtown on thursday.

works in progress

I will be part of a 2-artist show at Gallerie Chiz in June. The theme is 'passion'. Here are the current works in progress (4 of 7 books/objects) (click on images for a larger view)

"Binding Energy" - Lise Meitner

"Pickering's Women" - Williamina Fleming and Annie Jump Cannon

"The Complexities of Pitchblende" - Marie Curie

"Unfoldment" - Hypatia of Alexandria

All of the books are about women scientists who made significant contributions to the knowledge of the world and were often overlooked, shunned or uncredited by their male counterparts/collaborators

The other three works will be about Rosalind Franklin, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin and EnHedu'anna

fences made for great supporters

the great westbrook wagon train made its way to my house this afternoon bringing beans for planting (sadly no sorghum which i assumed all wagon trains carried). many beans, of course, need something to grow up and in this case being the crafty person i am i went to the abandoned house next door and cut some long branches from the weed trees (in essence coppicing) and wove them into fencing

as the branches dry they will tighten up and make a very rigid fence.

i've decided to keep a notebook this year because i am planting a bunch of things new to me and i am curious about their germination rates and harvesting times

stay tuned as the garden grows

first bouquet - 2013

finally after 2 months of seemingly february it is spring here. i've been out all morning digging and clearing and composting and the reward is

the first bouquet of the season - hellebore

lots of new things to be grown this season - beans, chickpeas, greens of some sort, heirloom potatoes. 

Finishing Wizards

With some time on my hands I am finishing up crafting some game projects I've done re-designing on. This is Wizards, a venerable game from the early 80s with a positive theme of magical quests. It combines aspects of RPGs, wargames and boardgames.

Now to finally play it.

Conjuring Demons

as i continue to design my own games i am also pursuing my interest in the re-design of older games to understand how they were created and how they form the foundation to modern boardgames

this is a fantasy game masquerading as a wargame from the early 1980s by Jim Dunnigan. light on components, it was a fun game to work on and improve my digital mapmaking skills with.