paper and ink...

ice crystals shimmer thickly in the air...

 dancing in the sunlight as the wind swirls and whirls them round and round

the effect is magical, though it does make me want to stay inside where its toasty warm

inspired by the motion, I picked up a plastic fork, dipped it into a dish of black ink in front of me and did some swirling and whirling of my own

not an easy tool to master but such great fun to try

I'm in the midst of a course on using text as texture with Claire Benn and Take Two where we are encouraged to use, among other things,  found objects such as forks and other oddments to see how they might work as a writing tool

on a walk to find a twig or two I found a good-sized branch torn off a tree during a recent windstorm

clinging to it were several tiny pinecones

fragile, hard to hold but oh so effective

this last one is a favourite - a broken popsicle stick,  any long splinters cut back to create a somewhat "even" rough edge

for the the upper version the stick was dragged to form the letters, in the lower, it was used to stamp them

another thing gathered on that same walk was a few small clumps of long thin pine needles

a paper-making date with a good friend yielded the sheet below

the needles were scattered over the couching sheet and the freshly pulled sheet of pulp was pressed upon it, drying under weight overnight

the result is light and delicate with strong impressions of the needles, clearly visible from each side

so, a paper and ink week

lots of trial and error, experiments galore and a few wonderful outcomes 

take care,

Jillayne