this has been a good, good week... think i'm finally hitting my stride
since there was no way to choose just one area to work on there was nothing else to do but choose many, and even though on an ordinary day it would probably be overwhelming it's actually helping me settle back in to being here
it really all started in the yard... raking gives me lots of time to think and as my mind wandered into thoughts of what to plant in the flower and vegetable gardens this year it kind of went like this:
"dahlias... i want to do more sketching of flowers this summer so dahlias would be good, and daisies... delphiniums too- there has to be delphiniums and I bought those seeds in whitehorse - didn't i get those different calendula seeds too? and bee balm - yes, there was bee balm and also evening-scented stocks... where did i put the seeds again?
should plant the woad soon too, if i'm going dye with it - no, no woad
there's already more blue fabric and thread than i'll use in five years of stitching so no more woad
what was that new book on plant dyeing i saw online the other day - what was it called?
"ourneys in natural dyeing" or something like that? by the person who wrote the one that had the beautiful photographs of plant material with the dyed fibres... have to search that out...
so no woad but i'll do some dyeing anyway - was it the carrot tops that gave me that nice green last year? i didn't write it down - don't remember half of what i did with any of it - really should have written it down as i went... such rubbish at taking notes
need a dye journal - and one for ink and paint too
an ink, paint and dye journal then - and i can sketch the plants in it
no... no sketching - too much work, just needs notes and samples, nothing fancy
ok but i also want a wabi sabi sketchbook and i haven't started it yet - well, start both then...
have to make katja's birthday card before starting on any sketchbooks - should make it with the dried flowers from last year as i haven't done anything at all with them - if i get busy using them i can press more this summer and the roses will be out soon
maybe i can put pressed flowers in the dye journal instead of sketching?
maybe"
and on and on it went but i'll spare you the rest
over the past week i worked on all of the above and then some
the first two images are from the wabi sabi sketchbook
i've done a bit of research on the seven zen principles of fine arts, below are two of them
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the painted papers are from painting trials a while back
I added them to the pages for interest but did not trim them - they went in as they were
wabi sabi
below is the first page of the dye section in the ink, paint and dye journal... i've done six pages already and quite a few in the ink section as well
i'm so glad i finally got going on this - it will be such a great resource and a nice record of my putterings with plants and pots
and hopefully it will put an end to the mysterious colours
next is the card i made for my niece's birthday... black watercolour paper for the base sets the flowers off beautifully but every adhesive i tried showed on it and careful as i was there was some visible in a few places
i tried concealing it with black markers but no luck and then i remembered I had some ivory black watercolour paint so i tried that and it was perfect
these are all flowers i pressed last summer in the yukon
i kept trying to compose the arrangement on a separate background thinking i would take a picture of it to use as a reference for when it came time to gluing things down but the flowers kept jumping around and nothing was staying in place
it was exceptionally frustrating as i thought i needed to plan the whole thing out before beginning but that wan't working and so i glued down the tall green grass stem first and went on from there
it went surprisingly well from there
and to get a jumpstart on the sketching flowers plan i bought a few from the local flower shop
photographing them on painted backgrounds will let me play with sketching petals long after the flowers have died
but... i've been to busy with the yard and the journal and sketchbook to do any sketching... maybe tomorrow...
in addition to all this i've finished two christmas cards (yep, i'm starting early!), working on another card of queen anne's lace on a faded floral tapestry print fabric, basted seven boro-style bookmarks and reorganised my linen scraps, ribbons and sketchbooks
busy, busy, happy days
5 comments:
Those flowers look almost like Redoute roses
I like the sounds of all your plans..
I love your stream of conscience. I have spent the last few months in a similar mental state whilst waiting for my new studio to happen. The thoughts flow and sometimes I lose my grasp on them. After reading your post I wonder if we should carry little dictaphones around with us so we can speak our thoughts as they happen... turn the stream of conscience into a monologue that can be played back and remembered. You have captured the flowers on camera beautifully and the arrangement on the card looks like a painted work of art. And, yes, you definitely need both notebooks lol!
Consciousness, not conscience lol!
Jillayne Dear you have the most inspiring way of writing your thoughts and intentions. Then to see your creative progress is amazing. If I only accomplished one tiny portion of what you achieve , I would be thrilled. ENJOY YOUR SPRING…
Such a joy to 'listen' to your thoughts. So glad to know I'm not the only one whose brain jumps around from thing to thing. Mind you, I'm not a person who actually manages to remember what I've been thinking about and most often lose a brilliant thought I had ten minutes ago, never to surface again. I often wake in the night with a great idea and rather than turn the light on to write it down I try to scribble in the dark. When I awaken it's always a Grande Cause For Puzzlement about just what I was trying to take note of. Most often it's totally out of reach.
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