an intervention of sorts

so, I took it in my head to learn something new this week

***correction: "some things"

why I don't know, and to be honest, it hasn't really gone all that well

mostly technological things were on the menu, to do with computers and printers, the kind of learning that rarely goes well for me

the only thing in my favour is that I'm rather determined and I'm pretty good at Google

still... I'm writing this with a glass of wine in hand and if it wasn't a bad thing for my health there would likely be a few more in the offing...

it all began with a hankering to learn photo editing, specifically, removing backgrounds in order to isolate things such as tree branches, flowers and other objects

for example:

original image

cropped, reversed and background removed

original image

cropped, background removed

then to print said edits on commercial fine papers as well as my own handmade papers

the printing portion had two methods, both rather straightforward

the first was to coat papers that were not made for use in an inkjet printer

(that would be fine Japanese papers I have purchased as well as the ones I made)

coating them was easy - a ready made solution brushed on one side, left to dry for a while and then pressed under books so to dry perfectly flat

messy but simple, just a lot cutting and brushing

the other method was to print the image on a clear transfer film, then mix a solution using an InkAid product with isopropyl alcohol and let that sit for a few hours

brush the mixed solution on any paper you like (or wood, glass, metal, cloth etc.) and place the transfer ink side down, press and remove after two minutes

not so easy

sticky, messy, bubbly and so on... the initial results look pretty shiny though on the handmade darker papers it didn't look too bad

a bit of a learning curve and as I have 19 more transparencies and a good-sized bottle of transfer product I'll be tackling it again 

the best thing that came out of the days efforts was something completely unexpected

after doing a number of edits on an even greater number of photos with varying degrees of success I had decided to try one last one using a favourite photo of the old dock pilings along the Yukon River

it was late in the day and I was tired and things weren't going well... the background remover function wasn't responding so I thought I'd try one of the other edit function buttons... still nothing

then another

then background remover again

not sure what I did next but I'm pretty sure pushing several more buttons was involved

the image began to fade and pulse a bit and then this appeared in it's place

simply stunning...

its as if the pilings were duplicated again and again, then flipped and flipped again, faded, stacked and layered

a ghostly image of the pilings the ones in the forefront similar to but not identical to those in the original image with all the others standing silently behind them

I've always thought of them as ghostly sentinels of history, representations of time past, as well as all the comings and goings of the river and it's people over the decades

it continually amazes how sometimes things show up in my life that depict my thoughts more clearly than any words I could find to write them

I couldn't have created this no matter how much I might have wished to - I couldn't even have imagined it

but it is the defining image of what I feel for those rough decaying pieces of wood, anchored on the shore whilst the river still floats by, how I see them, layered through time and space

such an unexpected gift 

it's only words

this calligraphy thing is capturing my attention still... 

I recently watched an interesting interview with the artist Yukimi Annand in which she suggested that while practicing the fundamental strokes of calligraphy: the up-curve and down-curve, ascending loop, and downward loop etc.  was essential, it was also important to practice creative use of letterforms at the same time

the thinking is if you practice the drills and gain mastery of the letters through that route alone you may well hinder your ability to do creative work with calligraphy and/or calligraphic marks later on

that makes a lot of sense to me as after decades of doing hand embroidery my stitches are always pretty well perfectly spaced and matched for size

 trying to do primitive style stitching is almost impossible for me and a long-held source of frustration

my daily practice for calligraphy already had me doing a mix of trials and drills as well as forays into more expressive work with letters but after watching the interview I am taking that dual aspect of learning much more seriously

the two images here are the latest examples of that...

the first began as a test of three pencil grades: HB, 2B and 4B

writing very small and using the same pressure for each example was an interesting way to see and experience their subtle differences

I then used one of the pencils and the same style of handwriting in a larger scale to "draw" a grassy hill and dip - the exaggeration of the upstrokes and downstrokes is such great fun and I hope over time those marks become more expressive and less about making a legible letter

the brush trials of that same week were to hold a fine brush (a size 1) perpendicular to the page and then make quick marks, curved and straight, barely letting the brush touch the page

"quick and light" ran through my head over and over

they were such fun!

keeping each somewhat tight, and lining them up the page of my sketchbook lent an air of Chinese calligraphy to the work that I was quite taken with, the motion becoming more and more comfortable with each one

muscle memory at work

as I was writing this a thought occurred to me - what if I held a word in my mind as I made each of these marks, and then recorded that word underneath? 

the result would be a unique representation of a word I held in my mind at a moment in time

an interesting thing with that is I could never duplicate it, the motion is simply too random and truthfully, I hope it stays that way as an ever-changing written language holds a strong appeal to me

a word is spoken in a certain time and place, and coupled with the characteristics of the inflection and volume used, add subtle layers of meaning, providing an individuality to the word that can hold even greater meaning than the standard definition

perhaps holding a word in my mind whilst making the marks in this way might allow for a written word to have those same influences and impacts?

there’s a lot in that idea I find incredibly intriguing

something else to ponder…

take care,

Jillayne 

and again, it's the hands that matter

one of the most worthwhile things I have learned over the past few years is that the best path to learning is to simply show up regularly and put in the time

its so simple yet surprisingly hard; in a world full of instant gratification the notion of working at something every single day seems not just daunting but downright unreasonable

and yet...

I have been spending 45 minutes every day doing pen, brush and drawing trials and whilst the desired outcome is to see an improvement in both my calligraphy and drawing skills I'm finding what has actually improved the most is my comfort with the materials

in drawing, holding the charcoal, choosing the paper, mixing the paint... all of these things are building my confidence and making me much more comfortable with the tools and materials

and from that comfort , the marks are being made with more surety and the outcomes are more interesting

I began the pen and brush trials at the end of August I think, the drawing one was added to the mix just over two weeks ago

below are the first two drawings, both done with a charcoal pencil

I found the pencil difficult to use (though that may have had more to do with the paper than the pencil) and so from Day 3 on I have only used compressed charcoal

I'm struggling to preserve any white space, the charcoal seems to get everywhere, not least because it first gets all over my fingers!

I had a stack of papers left over from other projects and have been using them for these trials - some times that works out alright but not always

(a more considered approach to choosing paper seems to be in order)

but what fun it has been to get so dirty, smudging a few clouds into existence with my fingers

charcoal is such a tactile material

the drawings are rather messy, the lines not always as crisp as I'd like them but every day I hold a piece of charcoal in my hand and bring something forth on the paper

no longer does the wish to draw or practice swooping, swirling letter forms live in my mind

the marks on the papers are tangible reminders that it's my hands that need to be at work, not my head

disengaged

there are times in the creative process where it is far more beneficial to just let go of the thinking mind and allow the hands alone to do the work

I try to remember that when coming to a feeling of being blocked, of not knowing what to do, when I spend more time thinking about what to do than actually doing anything

this wasn't so much one of those weeks more, it was a week when there wasn't much time available and I didn't want to get caught up in over-thinking things

and so, I looked to the meaning of the name I chose for my Substack newsletter:

 "Thinking With My Hands"

a way to give the thinking mind a rest and let my hands move as they will

or as a friend aptly put it:

"getting out of my own way"

the week kicked off with photographing some linen cloth I had randomly gathered here and there, rolled into a cylinder and let sit in a jar with a small amount of watered down ink, allowing the colour to seep up the height of the roll

I got a couple of good images and then decided to edit them with an end-game to print any interesting outcomes on both fine art paper using my inkjet printer and transfer film to print them onto handmade paper too fine to go through the printer 

without really thinking about what I was doing I just started zooming in on the image here and there, looking at what showed on the screen, and then taking screenshots that I could later edit 

I wasn't looking for anything in particular, not trying for a particular look, just moving the slider to see how things changed, saving anything that appealed

more screenshots and image duplicating, editing this way and that - it didn't take more than 5 or 6 minutes and I had many to sit back and choose from

it's so interesting how things can change so quickly, a nudge this way or that in almost any of the editing options and the image can change rather significantly

I enjoyed that freedom, to do without actually trying for anything, so I took the same thinking to my brush trials

still working on them daily along with pen trials using a calligraphy marker as well as a wide-nibbed fountain pen, enjoying the simplicity of moving a pen or brush across the paper, over and over again

I'm still doing simple lines and curves, approaching letter forms but not trying to rush into them, mostly just practicing a flowing "script"

pleasantly methodical is my best description of the repetitive nature of this work that fills page after page, day after day

I keep them for a day or two to reflect on but then they are consigned to the fire

 the working at it with my hands is more important than assessing the results with my brain and the best way to dodge that is to burn them so into the fire they go

no attachment, no thinking I need to keep them for reference, nor collage, nor anything at all

the work is a means to an end and if I start thinking I need to keep it for any reason whatsoever I will quickly become attached to both the process and the outcome

all I want or need to do is trust in the process and keep making the marks day after day

there will be time enough for the work to become something else

take care,

Jillayne

the nature of things

I've been making paper, again

the first time was in 1986, using recycled paper... it was an amazing thing, to lift that first piece of dried paper from the plywood board we had formed them on

I was hooked

over the years I've made paper in that way many, many times, sometimes adding plant material for a different effect, other times embossing a design using objects such as large needles, or else embedding lightweight cheesecloth within the paper

never did I make the paper from plant fibres, though I knew it could be done

this year all that has changed

I was very fortunate to be able to take a course in making handmade paper from plants with Karen Olson (among other techniques involving handmade paper), offered by Fibre Arts Take Two

learning to do this was a revelation... the possibilities are extensive and the ability to bring "place" into the work at a deeper level feels rather profound, with the materials holding a place of greater importance than even the process, at least for me

over the years the materiality of things hasn't been much of a consideration 

(though I do admit a long-held penchant for linen over cotton)

it never mattered what it was I tackled, it was the process intrigued me the most, the materials were simply what I was first told to use, though as I got more experienced, what I found to work best

I rarely considered what they were made of nor where they came from... they were simply the means which made the process possible

over the past decade that began to change, first with cloth (100% linen became my fabric of choice), then thread (hand-dyed), paper (Japanese) and so on,  in fact, now it's become more about the materiality - if the process won't work with the material I'm determined to use I change the "how", not the "with what"

thankfully my first forays into making paper with plants have been a wonderful combination of a process I enjoy and materials that please me greatly

this small paper bowl is the culmination of all I have been doing lately...  the last of the pulp from two paper-making adventures, combining corn husks, Reed Canary Grass, with cotton and abaca linters

draining the water through a bowl-shaped strainer to collect the last of the pulp. compressing and shaping it, then tipping it onto a prepared mold (an upside down jar), a little refining for an even shape and then patiently waiting for it to dry

pleased with the outcome, the wheels already turning for my next paper-making adventure...

I didn't start out interested in paper sculpture but it feels as though process is now swinging to the forefront and "shape" is occupying my thoughts - I know for sure there will still be a dance between process and materials as cotton is a somewhat weak fibre for paper whereas abaca is much stronger

and then there's kozo... there's a bundle of that fibre amongst my supplies...

the gathering

at the start of spring, an early evening walk with a friend, shortly before twilight

we drove to the little lake, mostly for a stroll but also so I could try and identify any paper-making plants growing along the shore

as we wandered the path I used the app "Seek" to identify the plants I wasn't familiar with, my list of local prospects in my pocket for making a note of location if I found any...  I did find stinging nettle and canary reed grass, only one plant of the former, an abundance of the latter

on to the big lake, a similar story unfolded - no nettles, yet even more of the reed canary grass though it was last year's grass, dried and bleached by the winter sun

I took out my collecting bag and began to gather some from here and there as we walked the trail, after a few minutes my friend began to help

we chatted as went, stopping if there was a patch that looked "clean", gathering a few, moving on

the light was falling more to dusk and the pheasants began to show themselves... the water gleamed silver and the collecting stopped as appreciation for the beautiful evening grew

back at home, I laid the grass on my potting table, securing it against the wind, hoping the sun would bleach it further

 later in the season I picked a few handfuls of new growth of reed canary grass, this time letting it dry in the dark, preserving the beautiful deep green which darkened as it dried

and finally this week I made paper with it... first cutting and soaking the grass for a day and a night, then simmering it for a few hours in a soda ash vat, more soaking and finally rinsing and blending it to a pulp

a happy morning yesterday yielded ten sheets of paper

the first two were pure grass, no other fibre added

the paper is a beautiful green with a slight yellowish cast - the texture is a nod to its origins, it looks as if fine blades of grass were scattered over the surface... it feels sturdy in the hand but I'm not sure how strong it actually is, something I definitely need to test

after those two sheets were formed  I added a blender full of abaca pulp and pulled two more 

On I went, pull two, add another blender of abaca pulp mixed with water, and with each blender full the subsequent sheets became lighter and smoother, and the last two, after four blenders full, were more beige than green

the sheet below is from the 3 blenders of abaca batch, just the barest hint of green left

the images below show the full range of colour with the pure grass version at the far right

(these  show the smoother side)

the photo below is of the rougher side of the paper

 after some thoughtful comments on last weeks post about sketchbooks and ledgers, recording and sampling,  I prepared a small book to record my paper-making adventures, the material used, where and when it was gathered and how it was processed along with a small sample of each of the paper sets

the interesting thing with this batch is that I used 80% beige leaves to 20% green - it makes me wonder what 100% green would look like?

reed canary grass is an invasive species in this area and is more than abundant... there are no issues with me picking as much as I want so whilst its still green I'll be heading out to get a few armfuls to work with over the winter

I'm finished with the yard and garden but I think the Fall Harvest is not quite finished yet

take care,

Jillayne

shelved

swish swish, back and forth, stain sliding across the wooden boards swiftly and easily

dip the brush, tap it gently on the side of the can

swish, swish again

as the stain flowed across the fence boards my thoughts began to drift, eventually settling on the yarns I had been making whilst away last month

pondering what to make with them, all too well knowing how unique the rovings were, nothing I could go out and get more of - in the world of art materials "unique" is a hop, skip and jump away from "precious" and the minute that word enters the psyche, a reluctance to use it sets in

years ago, as a panacea to that affliction, I began to create written and visual records of such things, mounting the materials in ever-increasingly creative ways, making small experimental samples of work using said materials, recording the what, where, when, why, and how of it all

I have shelves of books partially filled with all manner of such records

remembering that practice and my love of documenting my processes I resolved to create a ledger dedicated to the rovings and materials I used for the yarns I spun

a quick list swiftly followed:

a cut-out window on each page to weave a sample in

paint swatches detailing all the colours present in the roving

all the written information one could hope for

ideas for use

and ultimately, photos of the work it was used for

last night, as I thought about finishing the first of said pages it dawned on me that in many instances this work of documentation often becomes the only work that actually happens

and so I decided not to finish it... to just leave it as it is, at least for now, and to get on with some actual making, not just the recording of it

the only fly in the ointment is the fence, still needing a fair bit of work, still taking up much of my time so rather than start something new I decided to pick up some work that has been shelved for a couple of years

patches of wool felt stitched together, now to embroider the seams

striving for simple stitching; one strand, muted colours, a soft palette

the challenge is that the single strand sinks down into the wool so the stitches need to be somewhat larger than my usual size

some a little more complex, with more than one stitch

keeping it light and fresh

a little bit random

I will admit it feels better to be doing rather than writing about doing

Take care,

jillayne

Next

yet another busy week though an extremely joyful one

the little ones were here with their mom and it was a whirlwind from when they arrived last Saturday until today when they left

our daughter often wants her children to experience things we did during her childhood... and this trip it was all about making paper

I first learned to make paper almost forty years ago - we made it by recycling used paper, sometimes adding flower petals, leaves, onion skins etc.

it was great fun

this spin around the paper-making blender I started with cotton linters, a new to me process that was easy with decent results

my grandson pulled two sheets and decided that was all he wanted, leaving me to work with the remaining prepared pulp

six sheets later I called it a day... I'm keen to make paper with other materials such as cattail leaves, reed canary grass and corn husk leaves, combining them with either cotton or abaca linters so for me this was more about learning how the cotton linters perform and how the paper would dry rather than making numerous usable sheets

'

after pressing out the first sheet I grabbed a bowl of water and, using my fingers, flung large drops of water hard at one end of the formed sheet

you can just make them out on the left hand side

a better look below, there are three near the bottom of the page

it works though its a bit more subtle than I was hoping for... more experimentation is needed for this one

next was to try making lines with a fork

that worked very well though there is a way of holding the fork where it will glide smoothly across the pulp forming clear lines,  and another way that tears it... I want to experiment with both 

so, a good beginning, and next week I'll try the abaca linters on their own in order to compare the two

the reed canary grass and corn husk leaves are gathered and dried, just cattails to pick and then I'll be well-supplied ready to go

I also want to try paper casting, have a play with adding sizing so the paper can take ink and paint 

without bleed... and I need to figure out how to press the pages as they dry so they stay flat

the ultimate goal is still the same. making books with paper I have made, lettering the words by hand and making the illustrations myself

its been a long time in the wanting but the doing is finally in full swing

A Thinking Thing

it's a cool windy Saturday, rain in the offing... a thin sun slants through the clouds every now again

we've just arrived home from our latest travels, a twelve hour car-ride to south-western Oregon to visit family and I'm reflecting on the week that's just been

my sister-in-law is a creative as well, at the moment she is immersed in spinning and weaving, having recently raised sheep for six years

I had taken my calligraphy and brush lettering supplies but a trip to a textile centre on Day 2 of our visit waylaid all of that... I left the store with a drop spindle and roving in tow, it was a Reeves-Schacht spinning wheel that followed her home 

a whole new learning curve for each of us but what great fun it turned out to be

I found two short but good YouTube videos and got right to work

a bit of trial and error but as I wasn't looking for perfect I was rather pleased with how things went

 (which should be no surprise given my penchant for texture, irregularity, and roughness)

over the next week I worked with wool from one her sheep, a shetland that was blended with alpaca (the off-white skein below),  an unlabeled medium-grey roving she had that was too short for her needs, and the darker brown (mixed wool and shetland) roving I had purchased

once I felt comfortable with the drop spindle she brought out some washed raw fleece, pulled away a large chunk, and handed it to me with the words "have fun" along with a pair of English wool combs

a bit of a learning curve to take raw fleece and make it into a roving but I got there and its the mixed grey on the left below

then it was on to learning to ply - a bit of a challenge as with a drop spindle however you spun the spindle for making each strand,  you then have to spin the opposite way for plying

its definitely a thinking thing

below, the three yarns on the right are two ply, the one on the left is the single I combed out and spun from the raw fleece

after a few days of spinning we went to the coast to take a walk on the beach 

I found this...

a half-shell in the same colours as the yarn I had spun

seems nature has offered up a weaving pattern

a collaboration then...

**** It seems AI is using my blog to learn, page views in the past week are over 21,000. I am not happy about this and I think at some point in the future will stop posting here altogether. Substack is private and my content can't be used by AI so eventually I will only be present there. You don't have to subscribe to view them, it's just a way of getting posts by email.

If you prefer to receive my posts via email you can subscribe to my Substack Blog for free here:

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writing the landscape

time has been elusive, the hands of the clock whirling around and around at an ever increasing speed, day and night in a constant tug-o'-war

until the snow flies, I give up

moments are captured here and there, the beauty of the pen as a tool is evident in those brief snatches

it only takes a moment to make a mark, mere seconds to write a word

one afternoon, during a brief respite, I searched out a favourite photo of river ice

using the words of Mr. Service, I literally tried my hand

there's something in this idea that fascinates me, likely will for a while yet

it needs refining

refining needs more time

time will come

the trick will be to grab it when it does

I'm ready...

take care,

jillayne

running on empty

darkness is falling early now, the nights cool with the feel of dampness that means the heavy dew of fall is here

it always surprises me how the slightest nuance of change in nature can register and I know a shift has happened even before the results materialize

sometime its like that with my work... I can feel something in me has changed even though it hasn't manifested in the work just yet

but like Fall, I know its coming

this morning whilst doing my daily writing I felt restless, and when that feeling comes over me I know i'm in need of a clearing out of sorts though I had nothing in particular in mind

as I thought about that my eye fell on a piece of work I had just finished, some painting of the ice along the river, another re-visiting of that winter landscape

trouble was, there was just too much of the landscape in it, as if I was trying to cram every detail... guard-rail, river, icy windrows, trees, rocks - you name it, it was there

and I right away thought my drawings were what was in need of a purge

 in that moment something in my head clicked

I have been trying to simplify my drawings for a long time but have found it difficult to do that, losing my way time after time, but perhaps if I can think about it from the other way around, as a removal, that might make more sense to me

what I can erase... what can be taken away

how much can go before it's too empty?

and so I isolated, chopped, and trimmed

so much easier to decide what to remove than what not to include

the drawings I want need only enough to tell the story I want to share

and not be weighed down with what doesn't

line work... a meandering

a calm intent descends over me, the paint-filled brush resting lightly on the page 

ready for the day's brush practice, the motion to take it across the page begins... shining blue ink laying down in a straight line from where I begin to where I momentarily rest again before lifting the last of the stroke into the air

dip the brush in the paint, a gentle swirl, bring it to a point

again and again, first horizontally, then vertically, the page fills with line after line

they are all the same and yet not

taken as a whole they become something more than what they are individually

its interesting to me how doing the same strokes again and again, day after day never becomes tiresome

from the brush I turn to the pen

writing the landscape, literally

using the written word to evoke a scene makes for an interesting way of "drawing"... no thought of trying to depict tall grasses nor fallen wood... no gravel, nothing

just a drawing of meandering shapes using words

an exercise that completely empties the mind of everything but the letters of the word I am writing

in addition to "writing" scenes I have been seeing how small I can get with handwriting... the goal is texture and though these are actual words I am again striving for texture and to take the letters to the point of abstraction, where the writing, unless magnified would be difficult to read

I'm not there yet but working at it

this morning I took a brief break to indulge in the making of a different kind of texture, this time with folds and a wash of sumi ink

 smitten again, this time with the methodical nature of measuring, scoring, and folding, this way and that

thinking this technique will fit nicely with the wabi sabi work that is never far away from me

and so the studio explorations continue... 

quiet, methodical, and meditative

and eminently satisfying