Spirit Cloth

Cloth and beans

So I am still filling in the wing span.  I should be done with  the darker/ blue side later today.  Yes, it takes a long time to hand stitch all these pieces to the surface.  But I have stopped focusing on how long it takes.  I am enjoying it.  Because really, so much has been done in the last days.  It feels like a Cloth. 

Sort of a Blue- Grey day here. Inside and outside.  A batch of veggie burgers was a weekend priority.  And an opportunity for some black bean dyeing.  I soaked  cotton, linen and silk scrap.  Varying lengths of time. 1-3 days.  Soy milk mordant.  A piece of copper pipe toward the end.   Nice color really, and so nice to use the waste water.  Maybe I will sew up a little dye sampler and leave it to fade.  Or not.  The best is to witness for oneself.   I guess you can get a bluer blue with alum.  But this is fine.  I will play a bit with the next batch of  beans needed here.   And try some wool.  

I think the Cloth will go up on the wall later today for inspection and a new point of view.

The Beginnings of a Warm Day

 

12:16 AM

The new beast arrived in the dark like a preview to sunrise.  Hungry.  Then fed.

I expect returnings.

7:04 AM

Cotton from the outdoor pot that just thawed after a cold winter.

Because one day while cleaning the wood stove I put the dye pots outside for a bit.  And things happened and it snowed and well,  they got lost under it all for a while.  Happenings can do that.

All the snow will surely melt today. 

I can feel it.

3:42 PM

...and so it continued. An old spin with a new sense of warmth.

Gold on Monday

So  the squirrels are having oranges today, the maple leaves are really big,  pomegranate, walnut and onions skins have yielded a perfect earthen gold on linen and if you didn't know or weren't sure,  Lotta's   eco printed journals are worth their weight in gold.   I lucked out and got one with some of  Velma's paper in it.   Really.   Perfect.  Shockingly beautiful  in every way.   If you sell what you make it should be like this.  Special.

Lotta and Velma are over on my placekeeping page  for safe keeping.

Extending season

It has been the longest growing season ever here.  With the last couple of chilled nights, the edibles are fading.  Late blooms will not make it to fruit.  And some emerging  food has been stunted by the sudden cold.  Too small to eat but  still....

The purple squares are nice. In a sea of old tea.   Season never ends really.  Unless we look at it that way. Season is never-endingly useful.  In my little world of squares there seems to be a square for all seasons.

Yesterday and today

Because of the extended dampness and warmth here, we are overrun with insects.  Yesterday we caught and  gently transported many baby crickets  outdoors via shot glass.    I felt  a bit like this yesterday.  

So I mended my jeans.   Filled some holes.  Reinforced some seams.




I have a lot more patching and stitching to do on these.   I am also going to dip them in the indigo vat,  once I revive it.  It is still warm out.  A plus for the fermentation thing.    I am doing this because they say indigo dye can strengthen a cloth.   And also to mute down the patching a bit.   And a dip in walnut is planned as well.

Today I feel more like this.