random on saturday...

>>> right now my knuckles burn dully, a niggling irritation as i go about my day. the photo at top shows why. i went out foraging for nettles in a drizzle late this morning, finding enough tender purple-green buds for a meal tonight. i will pair them with local pork sausage and fresh-made pasta picked up at the farmers market. but my choice of a glove saved from dyeing my hair (washed well!) was a bad choice, and i got a bit stung through the thin plastic. oops.

>>> after picking a small bag of nettles, i wandered down onto the beach where i spotted a poor dead mallard on the rocks. sad thing, and yet i was mystified by the way the rainwater beaded on its belly feathers. a beautiful creature, even in death. the beach grasses too held the gently falling rain, like jewels strung across the shore.

>>> on the way back from foraging, i also spent some time on a small beach in the quickening rain, shooting the crowds of eagles that are filling the trees these days. i'll share some photos tomorrow.

>>> a little peak at the skirt i'm working on, mentioned yesterday. i would love to hand sew the whole thing, but for ease of time and my awkward wrist, i machine sewed the skirt pieces together. now though, i'm adding decorative stitching along the seams, a fagoting stitch to work with the stretch of the fabric. then i will begin reverse appliquéing a design on the skirt to reveal the lighter purple underlayer. this shot also shows what happens when you start making a skirt late at night in a dimly lit room - the body of the skirt is "wrong" side out, showing the purl rather than knit side of the fabric. i think i've decided i'm okay with that. i think. at least it is both the front and back, not just one or the other. the knit in the left of the photo is the fold over waistband.

>>> a recent drawing in progress, a surfer girl and her seal companion duck diving under the swell. i want to add more above the water, but i haven't decided what yet.

>>> now to do a bit of stitching, working on a new beast of a whale. i hope your saturday is going well.

on the table...

just a few snaps of things i was working on this weekend, some fabric pieces cut with the potential to be whales, and a sketch i'm playing around with. the weather was beautiful today and i got out for a long walk at the beach. tonight i'm attempting to make cookies without getting any dough on my cast. what did you do this weekend?

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and a reminder to stop by facebook tomorrow to enter the giveaway!

flotsam & jetsam...

>>> as promised, the final pieces of the sketchbook - a fairly quiet cover, just a bit of stitching in shimmery thread to add some texture. my original idea for the centre spread involved a bit more dexterity than i think i have right now. instead, i decided i would include a bit of myself, a little insight into the sketcher. plus a silly little poem. the book is now in the hands of canada post and on it's way to brooklyn. now what should i draw?

>>> i haven't done any dyeing in quite some time, but i've had some pomegranate peels in the freezer since christmas and it seemed a about time to try them out. i simmer the peels for an hour, and then strained the dye liquid into a jar with the fabrics. i let them sit for about five days. i love the buttery silk the most, but the two linens have their charms as well (the one on the left was beige to start). wild colour said pomegranate can be a mordant too, so i didn't pretreat the fabrics before dyeing.

>>> a cold wind is blowing today, and i slipped out to a new beach this morning, trying to beat the rain. as soon as i hit the shore i was numbed, and it took all my effort not to retreat back to the car. but i stumbled along on the uneven rocks, searching for shells and other treasures as the building swell stomped up the strait. surf scoters rode the breaking waves, unperturbed by the chill. i watched a clever gull hover in the air, dropping a shell to the ground. it repeated this action until the clam was broken and it could get at the meal inside, then did it again with another one. even though it was far across the strait, i could see a tug boat heel up and then smash into each wave trough, sending spray over its bow as it made its way south with heavy barge behind. the energy of the storm filled me up, renewed me. but i am glad to be tucked in at home again, sheltered from its frozen blast. tonight is a good soup night - white bean, tomato and bacon via jamie oliver's recipe app (sorry, no recipe link online). maybe another movie (last night we watched 50/50 - good), or maybe we'll just be wowed by the skilled athletes of the x-games. what are you up to?

wrapping it up...

and so the sketchbook comes to an end, finished now and ready to be shipped off. these are the last story pages - tomorrow i will share the cover and the centre spread where i took what may be a weird little departure...yeah. the 'story' is intentionally vague, so maybe you can make your own story out of it. on some previously posted pages i have since added additional details here or there, but mostly just slight tweaks to the drawings, so i'm not sure it's worth it to take new photos, might just confuse things. then again, i may take shots for my own records anyway, as once the book is sent off, i can't be sure i'll ever see it again. you can view the entire book here. thanks to all of you for your encouragement.

i think having a record of the book will be nice for reference for future drawing too. there are some concepts here that i think would be fun to revisit, refine. it's all still just ideas, but that's what a sketchbook is for, right? roughing out concepts and ideas to perhaps be expanded later.

speaking of concepts, i have a stitching idea that's gnawing at my brain, a relatively simple notion that i'm wondering if i can pull off with one hand. maybe. it's always surprising the things that end up being trouble - tying a knot in the end of the thread, for example (as became obvious while finishing the stitching on the sketchbook cover (seen in last photo). but just maybe...

wishing you all a great weekend!

progress...

the next set of pages from the sketchbook. time is getting tight, just one more week until it needs to be out in the mail. i hope to get it wrapped up by friday. i'm actually done all the drawing i think, and most of the cover art. but the centre spread is still empty. i have hopes to try something a little different there, but i need to get working on it instead of just thinking about it. i am frustrated with how my book has turned out, as i had hoped for much more. yet at the same time this re-immersal in drawing has made me think about other ideas for playing around with my sketches, other mediums for them. we'll see. the problem with being a bit laid up right now means i have way too much time to think. unfortunately i am skilled at both never being satisfied with my life as it is now, and being alarmingly unambitious in actually doing something about it. so i'm full of ideas, but who knows if they will ever happen.

and if that sounds negative to you, well at least i can share some good news. i had my first follow-up with the surgeon today about my wrist. things look pretty good on the x-ray, so i just have to keep healing. they removed my giant splint/bandage and i got my first real look at the four pins (below) holding my arm in place. gross. i now have a cast in place again, which seems so much smaller than what was there this morning - yay, suddenly my wardrobe options have opened up a little more! anyway, those pins are still in there, and will come out when the cast comes off in four weeks. that sounds like it will be rainbows and unicorns (ha!) but at least there is an end date in sight, when i can start to flex my wrist freely and have a shower without a garbage bag on my arm. but even before then, i'm plotting if there might be some crafting i can do, something easy that won't cause too much stress. maybe. first though, must finish the sketchbook!

>>> i was just about to publish this post, when i saw the comments people have added to this photo on flickr, calling me captain hook. maybe the centre spread of my shipwreck themed book should have a different plan than i thought...

 

the curious story...

the sketchbook continues, this weird little story that i seem to be weaving. i still have no idea what's going on, or at least only the vaguest thread that is stretching thinly from page to page. the order above is sequential, continuing from the last set. i do have an idea where i want things to end up, as now i have drawn the last page (not seen here - you think i'd give that away yet? ;p) and am working my back to the ones above. i just don't know what will happen in between.

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a gorgeous day to end the weekend. A and i just got back from the beach where the sun shone brightly, cutting the chill of the freezing temps we have had lately. our voices were regularly interrupted by the honks of trumpeter swans circling in overhead and alighting on the strait. it seems like more and more of them winter here each year.

a skiff of snow still sits in the shady spots, and a bit more is forecast over the next few days, if the clouds close in. i hope tomorrow there might be a walk in some gently falling flakes. i think it's a sort of pedestal vision i have of snowfall, which is rarely ever seen in real life on this tumultuous coast of ours.

hope you are all tucked in nice and cozy on this cold winter's night.

saturday & nearly snowing...

i went for a walk in the woods nearby this morning. the temperature is hovering around freezing and i was bundled up as i meandered along. remnants of yesterday's snow lingered on lawns as i walked past, now hard and icy. everywhere else had fresh coatings of frost, silvery linings on leaves and moss. the sky that was clear at first light was now filled with pillowy clouds, and the anticipation of snow was in the air. we are supposed to get more tonight, although then it will probably turn to several days of rain. fun. snow in november used to be unheard of, but now this is two years in a row. la niña is settling in for another winter.

last night we went to a screening of the art of flight. i'm still reliving some of the amazing scenery and skills of the snowboarders (and helicopter pilots!). if you are looking to get your stoke on for the ski season ahead, i highly recommend it.



i'm getting more into my sketchbook - it is definitely distracting me from other work i should be doing. but i'm really enjoying drawing again, and except for some glitches here and there, i like how my book is developing. if you click through to flickr (click the photo), there are some notes about certain items in the drawing.



and above is a few of the current stitchings i'm working on, and the reason i might get less of them done this evening than hoped. i got a new iphone today. i'm a long time user of macs & ipods, but i've never had one of these before. should be both fun and also wholly distracting. hmmm.

i think i'll light some candles and make the house cozy for when A gets home from work. i'm still deciding on dinner, but i think i might bake some walnut rum cookies. they're super good, and i'm trying to slowly stock up my freezer with holiday baking. what are you up to?

a stitched photo...

tomorrow i am headed out to the west coast of the island, for an annual "girls" trip i do every spring for about eight years now. a few girls, a cozy beachside cabin, a few bottles of wine, and perhaps a bit of surfing and definitely lots of beach exploring - it's always a great time. the crew of women varies each year, except for my friend who organizes the whole thing, and me. the spring date usually coincides (give or take) with her birthday, although this year we are about a month late. hopefully that means warmer weather will prevail, although we have often been surprisingly lucky in march.



anyway, i wanted to bring her a little present, as i usually do. this year i thought it might be fun to bring something that was actually somewhat commemorative of our annual trip. i printed out a photo i took of some of our surfing crew about three years back, in black and white to add a bit more timelessness to it. i faded out the bottom of the sand to leave a bit more white space, and then i started stitching.



some bull kelp, a seal, and a bit of a border grew on the photo. it was fun to be stitching on paper, so completely different from working in soft, pliable fabric. i only stitched in black thread to keep this fairly monotone, but i'd like to try some colour in the future. it could also be interesting to work in a much larger size - this is only an 8x10 sheet of bamboo paper. i've put it in a simple white frame for her. i hope it will be a good memory of our times at the beach, especially now that she lives far away from the ocean.



wishing you all a relaxing weekend - i'm looking forward to three days without work and worries.