Plants and Mushrooms

Several weeks ago, I took advantage of a wee sale to gather some plants for my deck garden. Inertia and the mosquitoes that instantly gathered round me whenever I stepped out on the deck have kept me from getting them into the various pots and planters awaiting. It was enough to finally have some color out there that I could enjoy as I passed by the slider.

The blooms of one plant in particular - I can't think of the name off the top of my head, but I think it's some sort of daisy - surprised me with an underside so much darker than the pale lavender of the petals as seen opened. It also has a very blue center. And it apparently does not like cold weather - I just stepped outside on this much cooler day than we've been having, and all the blooms have closed up!

 

A friend chided me when she heard I'd bought plants but not transplanted them yet, saying that they would get root bound and not do as well as they would if I quit putting this off. I knew she was right, because I'd noticed several of the plants were already sending roots out the bottom of their containers when I bought them. It's getting late for planting seeds as well, packets of which lay waiting on the table. So in a burst of motivation last Thursday, the plants got distributed along with some seeds. I'm looking forward to seeing how well the seeds do - some basil, a packet of assorted bee-friendly plants, multi colors of dahlias, perennial violas. All will be welcome in my little corner of color.

Also last week, I came across this grouping of mushrooms at the far end of the park along my walking route. I don't remember seeing mushrooms in this particular spot before, and as I got closer, I couldn't believe what was going on along the tops of them.

A nature artist that I follow sends out weekly prompts, ideas for sketching while you're out in nature. Last week it was to look for pattern, like stripes in rocks, texture in tree bark, that kind of thing. I had to think this qualified!

I didn't have a sketchbook with me but I did have my phone with camera so got several shots.

I kept thinking, what a treasure trove of pattern ideas for my textile work.

So the photos are for reference of something so fleeting that it was gone in a few days, and I must get to sketching these and playing with the lines and shapes.

Where have YOU spotted patterns lately that might inspire your work?

A Month of Blooms

A few posts back I mentioned the new thing I was trying for my daily short drawing practice, abandoning the use of prompts and my imagination for copying AQS's 30 days of blooms series. Still working in that Molekine sketchbook I didn't like (and finally using it up!), using pencil and a Micron Pigma pen, coloring in with cheap colored pencils. My challenge to myself was to analyze each flower (which I find it hard to believe is designed for use as applique) to figure out where to start, the best sequence for drawing each part that would make up the whole, and to match as closely as possible the color of each as printed out from the website (see example of one page above left). Some were relatively simple shapes, others so complicated that I wasn't sure I could draw them. There were a few days throughout the month that I did not draw, but would catch up with two drawings on another day. Some of these flowers I had never heard of and all in all it was interesting to study the details of each and attempt to draw them.

I started out just penciling in the shapes and coloring with colored pencil.

At some point I decided the pencil lines weren't showing up enough, so I'd go over them with pen.

Soon I discarded the pencil altogether and sketched bravely with the pen, which at times gave me a somewhat wonky bloom. But how would anyone know if not comparing it to my model?

The top one on this page was the one that scared me off the most. I spent several days telling myself I could not draw it, would not try to draw it, being totally intimidated by it. After about the 3rd day, I relented and realized I just needed to pick it apart more or less, drawing a few petals at a time starting in the center and working my way out. The shading of the petals was nearly as challenging as drawing them. But I completed it (again, who will know how close to the original I got?).

With new confidence, I charged through the rest of the month.

 

And drew the last three flowers on the last page of the sketchbook which felt like a bit of a flourish what with those colors.

I'm trying something totally different for June's daily exercise, using one of the handmade books from my club. Not sure if I made a good choice as the paper in it is resume paper. But it takes pen well and we'll see what else I can make it play nicely with. 

More Springiness and Some Sewing

Soooo, this happened on the way to making a mask. I had an urge to sew like I haven't had for a long time, and the pieces I'd cut for split 9 patches on National Quilting Day were still sitting on my machine surround. The mask was going to require a change of thread and needle, and as long as the machine was still set for sewing these blocks, I decided to get to it. I arranged 5 of the half-square triangle units with light and dark squares and sewed them together. The next day I counted how many half-square triangle units were left, just 4, and after arranging them with dark squares and what was left of the light squares, I cut ten more light squares in order to complete those blocks too. Now I have a total of 13 six inch blocks, lots of dark squares left as well as some squares for making more half square triangle units. But this was enough to satisfy me for now, make me feel ok about packing it all back into its folder for another day.

As for the mask, yes I know, late to the party but I've never been much of one for jumping on bandwagons. While other sewers of all stripes have hunkered down to make masks not just for themselves and family but to donate, I just couldn't rally to the cause. I did check to see if my brothers/sils needed any but they are being well taken care of by their places of work. I've followed links, watched videos and read directions, and could see this was no quick project and would be the type of sewing I don't particularly enjoy. I also knew how much time I'd spend picking fabric and I wasn't wrong about that! I have fiddle now for parts of two days with what I thought was my preferred pandemic mask pattern and directions only to be unhappy with the fit and thinking I should have listened to my gut about some of the measurements and instructions. And I was so sure I wanted to make one with ties, but I am finding them problematic. One positive outcome was trying out these Clover Wonder Clips and liking them for holding all those layers of folds together instead of using pins. I've been giving these a wide berth but bought a small pack at the recommendation of my bookbinding teacher for holding signatures together or templates in place. They actually work better than binder clips for that.

Well, no matter that the mask with the ties isn't working out. I can just do that no sew version using an 18" square of fabric. I knew that when folded, the center tended not to have more than one layer so dug out some lightweight fusible interfacing from my clothes-sewing days and added a rectangle of it on the center. I happened to have some ponytail elastic ties, bought for quick closures for my soft journals, so I was set to fold and try it on. Well, THAT didn't work so well either. I've heard people say those hair ties are really too small and I'd have to agree. Plus I wear glasses and I was having trouble working around the end of the bows. And my small hoop earrings kept getting caught up in the elastic. And it kept slipping off one ear (I must have a Stephen Colbert-type ear issue). But even when I got everything in place and adjusted, I wasn't happy. No covering underneath the chin, a wad of fabric in the mouth area, I couldn't imagine talking to anyone while wearing it.

 

But as I often do, I'm digging in my heels. I've watched a few more videos, including one tested and recommended by friend Michele in Wisconsin, and rifled through my supplies. Not sure why I'm so hung up on the pleated ones, but I will be trying another version, and possibly taking apart the one with the ties to rework it. But in the meantime I had a lightbulb moment, remembering how pleased I've always been with the fit of my pollen mask, that I could no doubt make a pattern off of it. So that will be the next step.

 

Now for the promised Springiness. 

More trees in my neighborhood have blossomed, bringing welcome color. This one is by the Goodwill Store.

And this one is in front of the Animal Shelter Charity Shop.

But this is what I've been waiting impatiently for it to bloom for about 3 weeks now. 

I thought maybe I'd missed it all together, but each time I checked, I could see the tiny blooms coming on, getting bigger and finally this week opening up.

Another sure sign of spring - goslings! The goose poop at City Beach is a pain and several attempts have been made to remove the geese who have discovered they really don't need to fly south in winter, but there's no keeping them from returning. The positive side is how lovely it is to watch the little ones.

Japanese Stab Binding

April's Handmade Book Club taught us how to make basic stab binding books. I just managed to get the first one done under the wire so it could go in the gallery and also meet April's separate challenge that our fearless leader puts forth each month to both the private Facebook group and the public Crafting Handmade Books group.

I'd been thinking that some of my eco printed watercolor paper could be used as covers for a stab binding book, so I was pretty excited to pick a couple and get going. Fulfilling the challenge of using something in your stash at least a year old was easy. The sketch paper I chose for the signatures has been around for at least 10 years, bought after taking a drawing class and taking advantage of some sales at my local Ben Franklin. Also probably ten years in my possession is some handspun threads and yarns that I bought from my internet friend, Connie Rose. Look at those ribbons! The cotton one on the left turned out not to be strong enough but the hemp on the right was perfect.

We started with a basic 4 hole version while we learned how to deal with single, not folded, signature blocks and punching holes through it all.

I chose two mirror image prints to show on front and back and of the two, the best different print on the other side to show as the inside cover. This one will be a gift to a fellow sketcher.

I jumped to the third more involve Hemp Leaf stitch because I thought it would show off well on a second set of eco prints where I could continue using the hemp thread. Not really difficult, just more holes, more sequences to follow. Since making the sewing holes with an awl on the first one was very hard, I got brave and got out a Dremel-like electric drill I'd gotten on sale for use in the studio. It has no slow speed so it was rather exciting whizzing through the layers (yes, I tried it on a sample first). I need to find a slightly smaller drill bit, I think, for use with more standard size bookbinding thread.

This particular eco print was lovely on both sides. I dithered a lot about what kind of paper to use as I planned to keep this one for my own use. I have a thought to go back to some pencil sketching, maybe do some botanical drawings and add color with Inktense or regular colored pencils. I decided on a heavy vellum bristol recommended by my drawing teacher, another one of my Ben Franklin finds that have not been used all these years, because, unlike the lighter vellum I have, this one is supposed to take a light wash which I will need to do to activate those Inktense pencils.

The issue is that it is quite stiff which means the pages do not easily turn and stay turned. I've made several attempts at "breaking in" the pages but I suspect I'll have to clip pages to keep things flat enough to work in it.

Rather than three leaves like the front cover, the back eco print features two - still lovely.

Determined to finish this group up before the end of the weekend (because, you know, May's lesson is waiting . . .), I've worked diligently the last couple of days to finish this book with the Noble binding, which has the same corner treatment as the Hemp Leaf binding but otherwise is just a bit more interesting than the plain 4 hole binding. I may like this one the best and saved it for use on what you might recognize as one of the silk fusion "papers" I experimented with. This one was done with textile medium and folds softly back so works ok as a cover. The decorative thread or yarn which may be familiar from my "Adrift" piece where I used it for grass was just the right color green with bits of purple mixed in. It's weight and the twisted threads made it a bit difficult to work with but very worth it. I wasn't brave enough to use the drill through the silk fusion and the rice paper I chose for the signatures but if I had, I probably would have had good-size holes, especially in the cover. The silk fusion holes made with the awl just slowly closed back up. This one is for my use too, and I'm looking forward to doing some rubbings and work with wet media which it is supposed to be good for.

A Week of Pleasantries

I noted with a bit of joy the return of syringa blooms behind my place this past week. Syringa is the Idaho state flower and holds quite a few special childhood memories.

I've also been reminded that some of the trees in my development do indeed bloom. 

If I didn't know better, I'd say this was an apple tree in bloom. But I DO know better. Unless it's some mock or decorative variety that doesn't bear fruit.

I put my morning quick draw on hold while working on the Sketchbook Revival lessons in April. But I had printed out this batch of applique ideas off of the American Quilt Society 30 Days of Flowers series to use as prompts when I returned to the daily quick drawing. The prompts I'd been using had started to repeat too many from month to month, and I could feel myself losing interest. I'm still working in the sketchbook with the less than wonderful paper and getting out my cheap colored pencils to recreate each day's flower, but instead of drawing from memory as I'd been doing with the other prompts, I'm switching to studying each flower before drawing, breaking down the component parts and strategizing how to approach the shapes and the order in which to draw them. This has been enlightening, especially when I see a flower with so many parts, like the top one, that I am tempted to be overwhelmed into skipping it. But my experience with Zentangling kicks in and I can see how to proceed. Then I work in the color, striving to match the colors (which sometimes takes the blending of two) and shading light to dark where needed. These are still fairly quick to do and feel worthwhile as a daily practice, at least for this month.

A packaged arrived this week from my globe-trotting cousin who was on the last legs of a south sea island tour when ports started closing because of the virus. (No one on her small cruise ship tested positive but they still weren't allowed to debark for any planned flights home and eventually restocked at Hawaii for the unplanned cruise to San Diego - a trip extended by many days!) She often will pick up a souvenir for me if she can find something textile related. I'd seen her post about this yarn which she got in New Zealand and could only dream it might be for me. And it is! It is hand painted blend of merino wool, silk and possum fur! It has a wonderful feel and there are even instructions about how to work with the two skeins at once to even out any variations in the colors one skein to the next. Nope nope nope, no idea what I will knit out of it yet, but I am truly taken by it. And it will forever remind me of her floating around at sea for days before the captain could arrange a port of call.

The Whitlock women

Finally, I had every intention of finishing up the April bookbinding lesson last week (3 different stab stitches). But guilt is a great motivator for me, and I've been feeling guilty for quite awhile about harassing my brother for months and months to find and send the missing carousels of family slides from the larger collection he'd already delivered, and then after scanning a few, leaving them to languish for well over a year I'm thinking. The boxes sit in my studio because I've been scanning to the laptop I keep in there, and one day last week the pull was very strong to forget about bookbinding and do some scanning. The two carousels I worked on had slides from 1949 into 1953, so before I was born and when my brothers were very young. So many delightful photos including this one of my mother (right), aunt (left) and grandmother (center). Mom wrote on the slide frame that this was the first time she and her sister had been together with their mother on Mother's Day since mom had gotten married in 1938. Family was rooted in South Dakota and mom was all about family. It must have been so difficult for her to leave them behind when she and dad (and the first of 4 boys) moved to this mining region in Idaho during WWII. Her sister eventually relocated there for awhile as well, teaching in nearby schools, and she shows up in most holiday and camping pictures from here on out. Anyway, how sweet to run across this photo just days before Mother's Day.

Claud & Dot Sink with baby Mary December 1950

That strong draw to scan may not have been for my benefit though. I also ran across a photo of my parents' best friends with their newborn as they visited at Christmas in that same year. I've kept in touch with a few of the many children they had (they were Catholic), most recently one on Facebook who I'd promised long ago I'd share any photos I ran across with her family in them. I had no idea she wouldn't have a picture like this herself, but she told me that she was 13 when her mother died and that she had very few pictures of herself with her mother. She was over the moon to get this one, and especially just before Mother's Day. Sometimes you just have to follow those urges . . .

The World Is Brightening Up

I've been waiting not too patiently for some color to return outside. This time span between the freshening-of-the-landscape snows and the greening that comes with warmer weather is my least favorite, everything brown and grey and lifeless. My neighborhood in particular has little flowering landscaping so to find some color, I must to go into town. Last week I needed to visit the post office to mail my taxes, and I suspected that the garden of the building across the street would have some spring bulbs blooming in it, and I was right.

Several different colors of tulips were blooming here and there.

Even this somewhat scraggly azalea by the corner of the next building over was a welcome sight on this day of showers moving through.

And the other day I noticed how the tall cottonwood trees along part of my walk had leafed out, that bright new green that will soon turn a richer darker green. It inspired me to grab my sketchbook and watercolor kit yesterday to see if I could capture the feel in an impressionist style rather than my usual more precise inked and colored in style. This gravel road, shaded in the afternoon by those tall tall cottonwoods, skirts the dog park and leads to the human park behind it. I'd like to try this again as I didn't get that soaring feel of the trees, make the road smaller, thinner to allow for taller trees. But this was quite fun and freeing to do. And though it's still too cool to go without a jacket, being out in that fresh air was wonderful, now that the main pollen offender for me has finished doing its thing.

The Last of Sketchbook Revival Work

I've just put the finishing touches on or completed the outstanding lessons from this year's Sketchbook Revival videos. When last I showed you the above work which was the last lesson of the sessions, I noted that I'd be adding more to it (see the before version here). I did add another line of ripple between the green lines of ripple, but what you can't see is that I did it with a blue metallic gel pen. Just can't capture the sparkle in a scan. The green around the border is also metallic gel pen, a layering of the green and the blue that I had on hand so it would more closely match the blue/green background of the quotation. Then I used one of my own stamps to add the spirals in the background where I penned some ideas for kind acts. This is one of those times when I had a small aha moment as I added those extra ripple lines, I've been so stuck in my head regarding the quilting of water ripples, especially on some of the leaf cluster prints that I saw as floating on water. What I did here is nothing like I've been doing with those, and the fact that I worked two different colors with one flat and one shiny was also a new idea.

I didn't add a lot to my owl, mostly going in darkening areas with watercolor and making feather-like marks with a dark brown colored pencil (see the before picture here). Also used a prismacolor verithin colored pencil in green over the plaid lines in the vest but green over red, even though the mediums differ, did not leave me with the bright green lines I had wished. Still, I've grown to very much like my stodgy owl.

While the watercolor paints and brushes were out, I added color to my cupcake drawing, and my oh my did that get away from me on the whipped cream! My strokes turned out to be too broad and wet and before I knew it, all the white of the cream was gone, not exactly what we were to be going for. I did better on the cupcake liner which is supposed to be an exercise in painting reflective shiny surfaces. If there's a next time, I think I will just add sprinkles to the whip cream and not worry about painting in shadows on the swirls! Rather like how the cherry came out though.

Next it was time to put away the watercolor paints and work with some acrylic paint. This is that doodle sketch exercise that I had yet to paint, stencil, collage and mark. I'll be the first to admit that this kind of thing is not my forte. Plus all my acrylic paint colors are rather dark so subtle this is not. I actually worked on it other way around, but after I was done, I did the turn turn turn thing to see if it looked better in a different orientation. I decided I liked this direction slightly better than the direction I'd been working. I do see some flow to the overall picture, and started enjoying working with it more when I started adding marks to it in white gel pen and black felt pen.

One last acrylic exercise needed doing and this one went south pretty quick. I blame it somewhat on the size of my portrait sketch because we were not using brushes here but a finger to dab and spread and blend the paint. Even using my little finger, I couldn't put down small enough bits, and the toned green paint looked black when it hit the page, only lightening when I could spread it thinner. Very frustrating. Probably less so if I'd been working on a sketch twice this size. If the painting was to show my mood on the day, as the teacher said hers did, then I was in a gloomy unhappy one. Not when I started, but by the end of this, yeah, pretty much! Doing that light sketchy coloring in the background around her head and then along the bottom which took on the look of a draped blouse  was the best and redeeming part, although I have to admit, I like how the hair turned out too. See the ready to paint sketch and the teacher's sketch in two stages here.

Never one to feel comfortable wasting things, I expended some of the paint on the palette by brushing it on a piece of paper which might come in handy in future collages. Then it occurred to me that my last lesson required swaths of paint over the spread before gluing things to it. That was the one suggesting the use of gouache but the color I wanted to spread on one side was more like what I was mixing up on the brush from the leftover green, blue and white paints. So the rest of the expending was done in the sketchbook. On the other side of the spread, I did get out the gouache paints for a wide vertical stripe each of red and yellow. Once dry, I started cutting from the teacher's sheet of vintage images and arranging them around my key "portraits" of dog and lovely vintage lady painting. This was the teacher that I felt gave such a poor presentation but I did decide to stick to her general instructions of background painting and even added a bit of paper ribbon, lace and braid as she suggested. I really enjoyed putting this one together, from the beginning knowing there's be reference to the dog's ball (which I'd thought would be shown on the opposite page but ended up being an unseen lost ball that the lady could see so very far down the slope). Working on this collage was a wonderful way to end up my studies with Sketchbook Revival.