Spirit trap

I’ve decided to try my hand at quilting and embroidering some of the fresh leaf indigo cotton swatches I’ve made. The color reminds me of the ocean, so aqua, which got me thinking about the classic Scandinavian embroidery motif known as Rán’s net. She is an ocean spirit that catches souls, and you often see her nets in embroidery and folk painting at the center of herbs and flowers. In combination with the flowers, which represent blessing, these motifs become a kind of protection symbol– similar to the Native American art of dream catchers.

At the center of my quilt will be a net, and I’ll play around with quilting different tones of indigo over the salted indigo as a base. I’m excited that I finally have a use for this antique embroidery hoop I’ve been carrying around for 10 years I picked at a tag sale.

Mumming I, II, III

Hand coloring cyanotypes in the studio today- I haven’t tried this before but I have been thinking about it a lot. One of my favorite things when I was young was hand coloring the photographs in photo class. I only really desire to push and pull the light in my toned photographs, because the paper changes from the various toners and you lose a lot of the brightness. But in that loss is the ability to make it more painterly.

I like how it’s turning out but wondering if these are too dark and wintery for a September show? I suppose it’ll be after the equinox so the energy may shift by then. Today it is wishful thinking that sweater weather is in our reach. It’s still bright far too early, and reaching the 90s later this week.

I was starting another silverpoint but after putting the braid silverpoint on the wall, I wonder if that won’t make the cut for this round of showings. It’s a bit too far afield aesthetically.

the current cut, awaiting framing:

Into the Indigo

This week was as good a time as ever to harvest the indigo, which I grew for the first time in my garden this year thanks to a 1:1 broom student of mine who gifted me the seedlings in exchange for a broom lesson in the spring. I grew them next to my herb garden, and they grew easily with very little coaxing from me, just two little seedlings gave me more than enough to work with for a first time experiment.

You want to harvest the indigo before it has gone to flower, and also as early in the morning as possible and as swiftly as possible to retain all the moisture in the plant that you can. I chose a morning after a rain; a set up my bowl right in the garden so I could work quickly.

Stripping the leaves into the bowl, I first experimented with a Japanese salt method wherein you massage the leaves with salt to coax out the dye and then submerge your fabric with the leaves and salt, scrubbing and massaging for at least 30 minutes. This was extremely satisfying, and yeilded a beautiful deep aqua right away. I wish I had found some silk instead of cotton, because I did read that animal fibers take better to this method; I will be better prepared next year.

I also tried an ice water method I read online attributed to John Marshall; placing the fresh leaves in an ice water bath, blend the leaves with the ice in a good blender until a thick potion is made and then submerge your fabrics in that for several hours, occasionally turning. This also worked but I found it to be less effective; it created more of a baby blue color, and it was very hard to get the plant flakes out of the fabric after. I ended up dipping multiple times but it wasn’t as nice as the salt way.

I am in love with indigo. I knew that I would be; I am so grateful for the plants and their wisdom. I made an offering to the bare bit of earth where they once lived, and I look forward to seeing them again next summer. This winter I will use these fabrics for quilt blocks and as the ground for an embroidery I have in mind.

Summer is Cyan

Summer is the season of cyanotypes because I personally feel I must use the summer sun instead of a studio enlarger. If I want a good exposure, I have to make hay while the sun shines- this means getting outside whenever it is sunny and making as many as possible while I can. It is awesome to me how I can feel the passage of time and season through this process, how much closer I feel to the land, the way that the sun peaks at midsummer and makes the crispest exposures at only 3 or 4 minutes- and then a month later, and a month later still, I am exposing closer to 8 or 10 minutes at the very same time of day. I feel the summer fleeting and I have been traveling a lot, not able to bring these delicate setups with me.

I am happy with some of these exposures and experimenting more with bleaching and toning. Instant coffee makes a wonderful sepia, while green tea makes a more victorian dark blue/black. I want to try working with chestnut, oak leaf, black walnut next but I need to catch up on making an ample stack first to play with. Some of them I have been working back into with chalk.

exposing

bleaching

Wyrd walk

Made this freaky little guy after thinking about them all year, I foraged this stick while camping out for the total eclipse in April and I needed to wait until I was patient enough to be wapped in the face while making.

Useless brooms are my favorite kind of power object. Queering domesticity.

Destroy

Today I decided to pull everything I had from the small works gallery and start over again. I had a rather discouraging open studios experience. I had a lot of folks come through confused why I had old work up on the walls, why I overuse black gesso, why I make seemingly depressing or scary looking work, etc.

I bounce between wanting to burn down convention and do whatever I want; and knowing that a ‘successful’ artist usually creates a cohesive visual identity, a strong voice with good statements and a vision for where the work will go. I really struggle with this, and it’s easy to feel lost. I get bored by rules and wonder what the point is.

In a slump, I decided that I would rather show work I am proud of rather than slapping anything crowding my studio on a gallery wall, so I took them back to build them better. I am not sure what I will do yet, we will see.

Letterpress of our dreams

We finally acquired a letterpress, after years of dreaming and assuming we would never have the space or money to acquire one. We got incredibly lucky when a local dude close to retirement decided he didn’t need one for his printing business anymore, and we just so happened to spot it on the local online marketplace. It was for an extremely reasonable price, in perfect condition, and he was even willing to deliver for $50. We oculdn’t be luckier— though I was definitely anxious about it surviving the ride on the truck, which seemed to be actively disintegrating under his feet as he lowered it into our alley.

Just as lucky, we had just happened to finally clean up the garage the month before and install a heat source for winter. It felt like the stars aligned in a big way. We decided to test it for the first time on reprinting booklet covers for my broom zine with a type I found on ebay- two brooms tied with ribbons, seemingly from an old newspaper. It was a beautiful Sunday, printing covers and making hot ham and rolls on the new wood stove.

I am very lucky that my partner Tom studied letterpress in college and is able to show me how it works!

I spent maple sugar season at my sugar shack writing and revising my zine, Plain Living II & Plain Living I, which are works I began around 2012 when I started urban homesteading for the first time as a diy punk in chicago, Il. It was a fun project to work on while tending to my maple taps, and even more fun to be able to print more covers by hand. The hunt for good letterpress pieces is like foraging on eBay. I was very happy with the results and I look forward to experimenting more with the letterpress over the next few years (until we die, because I am never moving this piece of equipment again!)

Imbolc, February 2024

This weekend I travelled to Viroqua to study traditional european basket weaving techniques in willow with Anni of Weave the Day. It was a very cold weekend, but not as snowy as you typically see this time of year in Wisconsin. It was easy to learn coppicing without being knee deep in the snow. They brought us into the field to learn coppicing, which is a willow cutting technique done in the winter when the plant is dormant, to encourage new growth and gather weaving materials. You cut the second year growth only- seeking the color change in the different varieties of willow, imitating the beaver in its natural habitat.

We spent three days weaving our baskets, with short breaks for food and stretching, and one field trip to Avalanche Looms which was an absolute delight! We learned several structural techniques, as well as how to finish the basket and cure the basket and willow. Honestly it was one of the most challenging classes i’ve ever taken- my mental fatigue was so strong on the last day I was unable to compute how to finish the top rim of my basket, and needed assistance. But I am in love with my new basket and will treasure it for the rest of my life. The colors of natural willow are out of this world. I look forward to returning for another class- perhaps after a lengthy break! I did come home and practice coppicing, and wove a simple fence of willow and dogwood around the lingonberries in my garden.