more than twice the price

there is way of looking at the true cost of a thing that takes into consideration the cost of every aspect of what it took to bring it into being, not just the materials and labour 

a  factoring in of the cost of the education or life experiences required to develop the idea

or the same in reference to inventing/developing the raw materials

the cost of building the roadways or rail tracks to deliver the finished product, not just the cost of the actual transport

but another way of looking at the true cost of a thing is to also consider the price you will pay to make use of the thing you acquire - the cost of the time it will take you to read the book you just bought

or to buy the bookcase you'll need to store it

this week I discovered the true cost of one of my favourite things to do in my art practice - collect materials to make paint, ink and dye in a bid to bring "local colour"  into the materials I use in my work 

during my recent travels to the Yukon and Oregon there was an abundance of natural materials available in the landscape that I could use in making art

acorns, whole plus already separated caps

bark from the Madrone or "Arbutus" tree

dried rosehips

wild yarrow

swan feathers

oak galls

in less than an hour one afternoon at the farm I gathered enough acorn caps and madrone bark to fill a large brown paper bag

last week I decided to get busy with them

five days later I finally finished tagging and photographing a good sized collection of fibres dyed with natural dyes of my own making

and what a long, drawn-out messy business it was

a friend asked me the other night why I found it messy

I had to think for a minute and as I typed my response I began to laugh... no bloody wonder I found it to be messy...

I seem to like to work in a manner where I do everything all at once so...  as I was working with silk, cotton and wool fibres I needed two different mordants, one a hot process, the other a mix of cold and hot

and then there were three different dyes to prepare... acorn cap silver grey, a golden madrone, and the pinky-gold rose hip

plus some acorn cap silver grey ink

and why not a lake pigment with the madrone dye so I could make watercolour paint

 since there was a large quantity of good strong dye what about tossing in a few pieces of linen cloth?

what about making some in to greyed threads done with an iron-water dip 

a messy business?

well, fair enough

this was the also the first time I've worked through the dyeing process properly: weighing the dyestuff and threads, doing a proper mordant, preparing samples, recording method and so on

a lot of work but such good results

below is the acorn cap silver grey dyed fibres

from left: wool (from "Jack" the sheep), twisted silk, and four different white/off-white DMC 6 stranded embroidery threads

these were all dipped in iron water the day after they were dyed

the fibres below are the madrone dye with an iron-water dip the day after

the top four are the same DMC embroidery threads, again in base colours of white or off-white, the bottom hank is silk

and this last group is a second set of madrone, left in their beautiful golden state, no iron

from left: Jack's wool, two skeins of silk (one left in the dye much longer than the other) and four of the same DMC threads as the other two groups

I love the colour variations using different base colours gives

(the ones I used were "Blanc", 3865, 822, 644 and 648)

after they were all twisted into skeins I labelled each and then wrote the methods used in my dye journal and added samples of each

nice to have that record should I want to do this again...

it just won't be for a very long time!

it took less than an hour to gather the materials and approx. 50 hours to do all of the preparation, make the dyes and mordants and then do all the finishing work once the fibres were coloured

 the true cost

sift, sort, start

travelling is finished, company is gone

I could have written that four or five times this year but now both truly are finished for the remainder of the year and I have spent the last two days settling in to my creative work

where was I then?

ah yes...

 

nowhere really

it was a lot of sorting samples and sifting through ideas

not much actual work

the images today are the last of that and as of now the new work has begun

still banging away on the same old tune though

water, sky, plants, layers

abstraction is still top of the list

distinguishable... not obvious, that's my playbook

last year (or was it the year before?) I gathered linen in the manner of shibori and painted it with a granulating watercolour by schmincke 

it's called "forest" but dries blue and brown, sort of

the brown settled on the edges of the folds, the blue elsewhere

below,  top left

on the right is a print of a cropped, bleached out version of it and at the lower left is another, cropped even more

still looking somewhat like water though if placed in a different context, perhaps not necessarily so

a close-up

on the left below is a rudimentary plan for a weaving idea I'd like to do on paper

the other two papers are a nod to a possible colour palette

I'm exploring the idea of extreme photo crops being translated into small woven tapestries though the idea is teetering on the edge of "why?" 

time will tell...

and yet another train of thought is fighting for space just now and it's gaining traction...

still with water, still also the Gold Rush

exploring ideas of water carrying people along the path of their dreams

the clothes they wore and how they were made

a dress Martha Black wore that I have written of before

and work I did inspired by the neckline and it's edge-stitching

note the brown silk piece at the lower left, the blue silk  "waves" at the right

and here I give you a water-inspired version... pale blue-green and brown shot chiffon silk, a "v" created with hand-stitched tucks, the embroidery design taken from a piece of driftwood

a loose plan has formed... clothing, nature, the journey, as bound together in stitch as they were in life

I'm taking this further, though for now I'm making samples of the hand-stitching techniques of late 19th century clothing whilst I let my mind drift along

there's something interesting here that has my attention 

farm work

a sense of leaving filled the last few days at the farm

 that separation of me from place began early I think 

 in a bid to hang on to the simple beauty of following the rhythm of the light I gathered materials that lay at my feet and began to work with them

grasses were printed by pressing them onto a pigment ink pad and in turn onto the pages of a small book I had made in the preceding days

an acorn cap was also pressed on to the same ink pad and then holding on to the stem end it was twirled over the page, the tiny marks finding a pattern of their own

a very scruffy sketch of a young oak tree Maggie, the alpaca liked to stand beneath and quietly watch me come and go 

a very old, almost falling apart bird house on a faded fence, the branches of a nearby evergreen providing a beautiful backdrop

flowers pressed and smeared on the page, the acorn cap for marks and show-through marks from a print on the next page 

a print of grass on the right, a sketch on the left

another sketch, this time a lichen covered oak twig

almost all of this was done in less than an hour

seems I'm no longer as intimidated by the blank page as I used to be

I think that's a direct result of my daily evening sketches... there is that new-found confidence that once I start I can work with what I've got, the first marks are just the beginning and perfection is not required

home now, though I did bring some gatherings to make ink, paint and dye with and will get to work on that this week

this little book is not yet full 

something new

a few weeks ago I came across a method of making books that focused on decorative stitching along the spine... decorative, yet functional as it is also how the book is constructed

as we're visiting at my sister-in-law's farm in Oregon it was the perfect thing to work on during quiet afternoons in the large barn conversion space that is used for all manner of creative work

rather than trying to learn the stitching pattern whilst actually constructing the book I tried a few that looked intriguing, doing them on strips of the cover papers

and am I glad I did!

they are not at all difficult but working out the best spacing for the stitches, thickness of thread for certain stitches and contrast preferences (thread to paper) proved to be a challenge; as with embroidery, some stitches just look better with low contrast and others shine with high

the thread I used was valdani pearl cotton in either a 12 or an 8 weight

when I get home I'll try a few with a 5... for the most part I think 12 is too fine

these samples will all go into my book-binding sketchbook and used as a reference - easy to make a choice when looking at these than a photograph or stitch diagram

and finally, a couple of photos 

 the first is sunrise south of Summerland the day we left

and this next one is a barn-shed on the hilltop across the valley... we climbed high on the hill directly behind the barn for this view

heading home on Tuesday, it's been a quick trip but a delightful one in every way

paper shuffling

last week, against all sense and reason, I had the urge to gather up some papers painted last year and shuffle them about for a while

looking for connections, how this might work with that

layers

juxtapositions

in the doing of that I noticed marks, nuances of line and colour I hadn't really seen before

beginning with commonality of colours, I found papers and fabrics I had painted with varying media

watercolour, ink, acrylic paint and gesso

and then lit upon some pieces done using expressive calligraphy, the words from a Robert Service poem

written with ink on paper I had painted with watercolour

a spray of water immediately after writing caused the ink to burst forth, creating marks that reminded me of the dark winter trees I grew up with

a heavily edited photo of cloth I had gathered shibori-style and painted with a granulating watercolour paint, also from a year and half ago, also seemed like an interesting backdrop 

there are some here too that are intriguing me but there was no time to take either of these further (hence the "sense and reason' remark) - we're off to Oregon for a while to visit family but as I said at the beginning, the urge to play with these was too compelling to ignore

I haven't brought them with me to work with but I have brought the fire they lit in me along with a few supplies to feed it

after a few years of struggling to find inspiration I have come to learn that I must take it where I find it, follow the threads where they lead me and let the work come as it will

to trust in that and seize it when it does

this one I've grabbed with both hands

on it goes...

its been some weeks now, that I've been working with a more limited focus than usual

 

sketching and painting and painting and yet more sketching

improvements come in small increments, most would probably be recognizable only to me, but I feel I'm better able to:

 consistently mix watery, juicy and pasty watercolour paint

manage the water and work wet in wet 

sketch marks are more deliberate, less hesitant

the need to rub out "incorrect" marks is mostly gone

and so on

I suppose it would seem that with those improvements the outcomes must surely have also improved but I don't know about that

 I do know I'm happier with the work now and as I gain better control over the method I can begin to focus more on the brush-strokes and composition

I've been taking a watercolour course by Anita Lehmann, an artist who, among other things, paints abstract landscapes

one of the lessons is on painting tree-shapes and this past week I've been practicing 

some I keep to refer back to, thinking about what's good and what needs working on

the bad ones get tossed... move on

the fifth one I did is the first one I kept

this is the latest version - sort of

I did two, one had better trees and the other a better ground so I tore off the good ground and glued it to the better trees

I'm struggling with fine lines for the branches though, they're way too thick so yesterday I bought a much finer brush, with very long bristles and tomorrow I'll start practicing with it

and just because I'm itching to get back to my Yukon work, I'm gathering photos of scenery and things I gathered whilst there and am going to make a few collages

a reader of this blog suggested I use some of the combinations I showed a few posts back in collage and I though it a great idea  - below is the start of the first collection

busy, busy days...

of the best kind

quiet time...

in grade school, ever day had a period of quiet time...

usually it was for silent reading and when the order was given, a calm silence descended over the classroom, the only sounds were books being pulled from our desks, pages turning to find the right place to begin

every evening I get into bed and descend into a quiet time of my own, for drawing

the lamp casts a soft light on the page, I flip slowly through the pages of one of my drawing books, looking for something inspiring to copy

something interesting but not too intricate

once found, the sketchbook is also opened, pages turned to find a blank page and, with my pencil in hand, the marks slowly start to scratch across the page

sometimes a quick bird sketch... another day, while feeling somewhat bolder, a larger bird

rocks are a favourite, this one copied from a drawing by Van Gogh 

another rock, and the next night, three logs, lying in the grass

these two are my favourite

"notice what you notice" is common advice in the art world

I have come to notice that I love drawing rocks and wood

there's something so calming and restful about being propped in bed, a small pool of lamplight shining down, the house dark and quiet and the only sound is my pencil on the paper

watching as with each mark a shape begins to appear, adding detail refines the image, the almost magical way a few marks in the surrounding area anchor the object to a place, how they add depth to the drawing and create a kind of story

when I first decided to draw at night, I wasn't sure it would be sustainable but I have come to love that quiet time before sleep and for now at least, couldn't be without it

its the most peaceful, thoughtful time of my day