real

there's this quote  that found me this week. about spirituality. but but i say, it's about creativity, too. it's about the thing that wakes you up (past the murky-sludgy stage if you're like me) and says  "LOOK goddammit" and get out the stuff and make that thought. fabricate. word made flesh. thought made materiality. maybe the language of spirit isn't far from the language of making. so: Authentic spirituality is revolutionary. It does not legitimate the world, it breaks the world; it does not console the world, it shatters it. And it does not render the self content, it renders it undone.  Ken Wilber ~~~ so, I've been working on several things this while, ~ the madder dyeing ~ a couple botanical contact prints for my indigo shifu ~ tending a new small garden at the new place ~ finishing the cleanup and label of ALL the fiber ~ finding yarns for my new pipe loom ~ sorting cloth for Zone 4,  my own work,  and my fall papermaking class at SLU and ~ i'm going to Vancouver to Maiwa to take the five day dye workshop. yep.  Vancouver.  i want to have a more methodological dye experience, to have a deeper understanding of the basics and then more, something i never had,  except with chemical dyes. in the mid 70's. this week's red daylily flowers prompted the first quarter sheet contact prints in quite a long time.   i got out my camera (after realizing that my little red one has some lens damage)  and took a few photos of the garden after i removed it. the working metal  and the newly dyed papers  being rinsed and then drying.  i tried hard to adjust the color and just achieved more weirdness apologies. there was a lot of green.  here the four are in blotters, under weighs   and dried, they look more like this  the exhaust dyebaths from my 35 year old madder yielded some lovely pastels on linen cloths  and on silk  this is the rest of the madder the first dyebath yielded the deep rose  and then the oranges  and then the cloths and finally the above bits.  i mordanted with alum and cream of tarter and here are different fibers both cellulose and protein the big skein on the left is a darker rose. how do real photographers get their colors right???  the last five red daylilies as i begin a bundle. If you see some wonky spacing here, blogger seems to be struggling lately and sending up weirdness each time i post. sigh. of course today, monday, i have errands-a broken vacuum -my right rear tire picked up a 1.5 " finishing nail and had embedded it. yes, my second set of new tires this year and the same spot, though different tire as the one that had three nails simultaneously in it last year. and it's the one that had been replaced because of that. apparently i ride on back roads in the country where people haul around their waste haphazardly!

gift of time

during this gift of time that i gave myself

avoiding traveling and instead doing some necessary things

i've cleaned. 

cleaned out the intensely untidy

and overstuffed closet in my studio.

which has lead to other things

as many cleaning projects do,

the bookshelves that hold equipment,

the unders- and overs- that also stashed "supplies"

mostly fiber in the form of

raw or prepared fiber

cloth

paper.

i found this little bag of madder root

that i bought from Trudy Van Stralen

the author of Indigo, Madder and Marigold

and

owner of Hilltop Wools

back in the 80's when I worked (briefly) for her. 

Trudy died in 2015, 

her business lives on run by her son, i believe.

i soaked them overnight or so 

and then cut them up a bit and then soaked more

 and cut them up again

nothing was longer than 1/2 inch by the time i was done, 

 i could have chopped them in the blender but i was tired of this work

and besides, i wanted to dye.

i'm not sure but i don't think i've ever done my very own madder dyepot.

i was once told by a *famous* (unnamed) dyer that madder goes bad after a while.

so i sent my newer bag off to a friend with good wishes for her to use it.

so in the ethers both tim mclaughlin and sarah swett recently became enamoured with madder.

i indulged myself after finding this old bag of 250 grams of madder.

i cooked on low heat, well under boiling, 

but i don't have a thermometer 

(well, i do, but can i find it?)

but it was a lovely color blood orange sanpellegrino 

stained the paint strainer bag

one little swath of kozo i just dipped in for a bit

part of my quest was to find fiber to dye so i can use my new tapestry pipe loom

with wool 

before i try the other stuff 

(do it proper first, gurl)

it was really almost red, 

but has oranged out some now.

meanwhile this was happening in the dining room 
while i unburdened all the containers, 

closet from hell, 

under the tables and etc.

there is an abundance that i wish i could be 

somewhat unburdened of.

this closet under the stairs is actually organized now.

this is the next big step after the fiber--

much fiber went to places--

the paper mills at home and at school,

some to recycle,

some to compost.

that box of bottles under my studio table is 40 years old

each bottle a lichen vat dye.

gifted to me by jean reynolds from cranberry lake.

in about 1980.

and my lovely partner has made a wagon from our trees he

marked for harvest

cut and hauled last winter. 

the sawyer came and made the boards

and it's now been screwed into a usable and "free" wagon.

a huge accomplishment.

home work

homework.

the best work.