resurrection fern

looking at mushrooms is making me feel cooler

** big thanks to my friend Geninne who made me the most beautiful blog banner ever**

 

As evening falls the forest turns on it's tiny night lights.

Just making this post has made me feel just a little cooler.

xo

m

board

That's right board not bored. No time in my life to ever be bored. I was walking down the street yesterday when I noticed a neighbour had placed some items by the curbside. An old sewing machine caught my eye but as I approached closer I saw something I have been wanting for a very long time, a vintage wooden ironing board. It had a dirty old cover on it with very cool metal spring pieces to hold it in place instead of the usual purse string. It is beautiful and I couldn't be happier. I put it to use on the porch immediately as evening approached and I decided to start cutting feathers out of the plant dyed felt I talked about yesterday. I will be using them in some hand stitched pieces I am working on for the december show at gallery hanahou in NYC.  They are going to be wearable and based on the concept of native medicine shields.  I am really excited to work on these.

 

I will post more pictures as the process develops. Enjoy the last few days of August. My favorite season is soon approaching.

evidence of a daytime raid on the backyard laboratory

Before the raid:

 

 

After the raid that happened in between soccer games yesterday:

I am almost certain it was the "brown squirrel gang" . Were they thinking it was crystal meth nuts??  Or perhaps they were just looking for color inspiration to redecorate their nests. I would be pleased to help them if they promised not to live in my attic ever again.

What a delicious high fiber sandwich it makes.

The materials used for dyeing from top to bottom were:

sambucus canadensis

viburnum lantana

vitis riparia

rhus typhina

crataegus pediculate

buddleia

tanacetum vulgare and orange mycena

frangula alnus

caulophyllum thalietroides

coffee arabica

mystery bush ( the squirrels stole the label and I can't recall what it was)

mystery solved thanks to Andrea's suggestion

it was cornus stolonifera ( a dogwood species) ( no idea how I could have forgotten that:)

There you have my amateurish musings on natural dyeing on a sunday morning.

xo

m

nature echoes

I love how the thick mushroom spore print I made a few days ago echoes the color , shape and pattern of a ocean dweller, a sand dollar. Not surprising since it is really all about mathematical sequences but it did cause me to pause and appreciate it's extreme beauty.

I reprinted the same mushroom cap on black but it is very faint since there were few spores left. I will try to find a perfect fresh sample this weekend to try again. I think it would look so beautiful on black and then I might even be able to use it to make a print.

On the other side of the house ( the backyard) the natural dyeing lab is open, with wool felt being dyed for a future project.

It was a beautiful night yesterday for the first in a series of soccer games to finish off the season. I caught this picture of the ref just before the second half started.

xo

m

pink lichen

Finding pink lichen this week was a first for me. I have seen all shades of green, orange, yellow and even some reds in the matchstick lichen but I can't remember ever seeing pink before.

xo

m

wordless wednesday

xo

m             

 

a sneak peak at pudding-stone

inspired by this conglomerate I saw on the shore of Lake Ontario

 

I couldn't get the idea of making a crochet covered conglomerate or I prefer the name pudding-stone out of my mind.

I set to work on the porch last night. Isn't that last issue of National Geographic Magazine with the micro images of insect eggs inspiring?

Could be the fact that I just watched Avatar recently but doesn't that look a little like a hand-grenade?

Just a quick little sneak peak with more details, explanations and images to come very soon.

ps I want to thank Deborah for taking some of these images for me this evening

  

    

 

a late summer night's dream

If mushrooms and fungi were actors in a play here is what they might appear like. 

and then evening falls    

 

  

          

pulling my string

The weekend was almost over and I had an overwhelming feeling that I had not been very creative. Sure I had enjoyed my family, helped prepare and eat some lovely meals, cleaned up a little, opened some most amazing gifts from afar, read a little, taken some walks when it wasn't pouring rain, snapped some photographs but I hadn't made anything with my own two hands, or at least nothing I could show. So I grabbed three stones off the porch in varying sizes of smooth greyness, some vintage crochet thread in a faded red and natural and my teeny tiny crochet hook and started hooking and pulling.

 

 

    
   

the teeniest tiniest of all

I hope everyone's weekend is going well. It is raining here on and off but mostly on. Good day for errands and chores and looking in the garden for snails. I just had to share this littlest one with you.

Arwen is being so sweet and affectionate today.  

Good day to curl up with the kitties and a good book in the late afternoon.

peace , out

(photocredit to deborah for that last shot)