Busy Work to Keep Calm

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I made small bits of four watercolors the other day. I am going to use these in my journal of a drawing a day for October. The drawings come with a haiku if I can fit it in.

Here is the first one. Still feeling a bit of the sadness this past couple of weeks and having those blues so handy, I wrote a fitting haiku.

Blue has colored the

tears flowing into seas of

uncontrolled sadness.

Tomorrow I will use the greens in a haiku drawing about the herb seasoning salt Lee helped me make today.

You start with loads of peeled garlic….Lee’s job.

And add a goodly amount of coarse salt.

All of this must be chopped by hand….a chopper would pulverize it too much.

When it is hard to find a piece of garlic in the mix you add the herbs. In this case we gathered whatever we still had after a very dry past few months. Rosemary, thyme, oregano, mint, basil, sage….no stems.

Then chop the herbs into the garlic salt mix in small manageable amounts at a time. You have to do this until your hands ache and there are no distinguishable  herb leaves.

Spread out on a sheet and place on the porch away from critters for several days until it is completely dry.

It is worth the achy hands to have the house filled with the smell of garlic and herbs. We are hoping to bottle some up for Christmas gifts. It is the perfect herb collection to cook with. Sometimes I will just use rosemary and other times just sage, but this year was not the best for anything but rosemary that loves the dry conditions.

This kept Lee busy for about an hour or two. That was a good thing. Here are some ideas for those dealing with a partner who has dementia.

  1. Keep a sense of humor and say something funny to break a sad mood even if it makes no sense at all.
  2. Keep to a routine. There are days we go to lunch. We only take walks in the early morning. We go to the grocery store and feed store after the grocery shopping is done and before we head home.
  3. Take advantage of the calming effects of alcohol….in moderation. A half beer with lunch. Some wine before dinner or a very short glass of Southern Comfort for him while I have a good glass of single malt.
  4. This is your life now. This is his life now. Take deep breaths and remember that maybe someday you can go back to doing the things you miss terribly right now.
  5. If you burst into tears don’t worry he will forget you did a few minutes later……and so will  you.
  6. All the jobs he used to do are now your responsibility. If you can’t do them, get help.
  7. Don’t count on friends showing up to do these things. They won’t. Pay someone.
  8. I can lift 50 lb bags of seed and pour them into his feed cans. When I can’t, I will buy seed in smaller bags or take buckets to the back of the car, slash a bag and transfer it all a bucket at a time.
  9. Remember to start his vehicle every few days to avoid having to hook it to a charger.
  10. Don’t ask what you can do for him….just do something because he can’t tell you when words don’t come.
  11. Fix meals that are easy for him to eat. Use a large plate regardless of what goes on it because he is going to want to cut all of it up into small pieces.
  12. Remember to say something funny, make up a story….don’t lose patience anymore than you have to….it only makes you both feel bad.

So that is it…..well a start anyway.

Til later.

A Really Up and Down Few Days

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Turkey buzzards were very concentrated at the dam yesterday morning. The wind was perfect for them to ride the thermals across the  walkway. I often think of them as not only a pretty ugly bird but harbingers of not so good news. And so it was.

One bad news came via email from a friend who has a rare form of cancer in the linings of abdominal organs. He must stay abroad until they can find a way for him to manage. We were looking forward to the visit to his Brasstown home in just a couple of months but now that is quite unlikely.

The other sad news came by way of a phone call from a very good friend telling me that her husband that I have also know since the eighties has a cancer of the bladder. When I hear her voice I see her broad smile, twinkly eyes and the most amazing laugh. We hung up before those tears that choke your throat into uncontrollable sobs could surface.

Yesterday was not the best of days.

 

But the day before was really good. I actually had a student in the studio all day. He came bearing gifts of beautiful powdered pigments.

A lovely Cyprus green from Maiwa, an indigo and Maya blue pigment from his wife who is an amazing textile artist and knew how much I would appreciate these non-earth blue pigments. They are beautiful and I will find a good use for them soon.

And the student will be back to learn more about white line printmaking from me. Another day in late October. Maybe by then I will have something worked up using his gifts. The next day his wife emailed me about the blue pigments and how they came to be. She also told me that her husband had stopped at the Craft Shop at John C Campbell on the way home and purchased one of my stitched prints to take home. Lovely.

Here is the latest one I have been experimenting with.

Might have over-stitched a bit on this one but Lee and I were engrossed in a cop show series that kept saying “to be continued”, so we had to stay tuned for a few hours to see everything sorted out.

And I have one more picture from the dam on buzzard day. These pillars marching off toward the woods. They are there to protect against cars driving around past the gate and going across the pedestrian only dam. I think of them as old friends in a row. They are always going to be there and just as solid as ever. We need to remember that.

Friends in Hobart will remember later this month when they go to the wake for someone we all miss, and recall how many good times we shared, and they will smile. Raise a glass of red for me.

Til later when I can come up with something better ….. take care.

 

Hard Truths In and Out of the Studio

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I tried a collograph this week. Here is the start using a mat board backing and some textures of papers and cloth. Dried weeds from the dam walk and thick card stock for the rocks.

Added a bit and then covered with PVA glue.

Then gessoed to seal it all in while adding a bit more texture to the rocks.

A good coat of shellac.

Inked up and ready to go.

Pitiful print is the result.

The thing I learned here is that collographs take time, lots of time. Especially if you are using different colors. There is a finesse to the process that needs to be learned before you squash the plate completely flat.

And with Lee slipping a bit more this week I have no time to practice this. I have cleaned up the glass plate of mixed colors and am taking a really hard look at whether I really want to bother with this. What you see here is the third print…the first two just awful….one too wet….one too dry. And I think that to do it more precisely I need to use extra cushion between the roller and felts….more felts would be smart. Also a very lightly dampened paper might be another good idea.

The three I did get printed could get stitched into with cloth….if they don’t end up in the bin.

Things just are not looking like you think they should. For example my latest attempt at a new picture of myself.

It is a rather dull light when I look in the mirror each morning to “fix things up”. Then I step into the light. So today I decided to update my picture….my “selfie” so to speak. All I can say is no wonder my niece thought I looked like her grandmother, my own mother. I really thought I was younger….but seventy-five is beginning to show.

 

Or one without the bags under the eye.

And one more thing. We found this brand new 19 Crimes wine in the store while looking for the Hard Chard which by the way hits you a bit like battery acid if you drink it as cold as you think you should drink a chardonnay. …better when closer to room temperature.

But this new sauvignon blanc cleverly called “block” is very good. And the story of Mr. Michael Moore convict is nice as well….”I used to make chains in Ireland, in Australia I wore them…..”

Til later when I have something more exciting than a new wine.

One Last Shirt

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I looked at the linen cloth that was left after sewing this past week and decided there was enough white linen to try contact printing the pattern pieces for the cowl neck shirt. Since I planted some small leaved Eucalyptus trees last fall, I decided to try some of those leaves. They are the small ones on this test cloth. The large one on the left is from the walnut tree. There was a Japanese maple leaf in there as well. I dipped them all in an iron bath before putting them onto the dry linen. And because there were some Eucalyptus leaves left from two years ago when a friend had some sent from California, I stuck those on as well.

Those leaves from California were completely dried out but I liked the color. I did not like the purply tone of the other leaves….probably too much iron in the bath dip.

So I decided to try it on the pattern pieces with some adjustments in the bath and steaming. (I love using my hide covered rocks to hold pattern pieces in place.)

Here are the pieces after wrapping them dry around small PVC pipe and tying with cotton string as tight as I could get them. They were then dipped only on their ends into the heavy iron bath from before. Then steamed for a bit over an hour.  They looked like they had too much pale rust color showing so I decided to put several large black tea bags in the water and then just lower them all in that for an overnight soak.

This morning I unwrapped them and gave them a rinse in a solution of dirty iron water with black tea water and vinegar. Here they are wrung out and drying until I can wash lightly, dry and iron before sewing them into the shirt.

Front.

Back.

Sleeve.

The back did not pick up the Eucalyptus leaves from California as well as the front. But I like it overall. The nice grey is from the black tea overnight bath and the beige is not as pinkish.

I will show it finished after the sewing.

The linen is lovely and comes from the online store, FabricStore.com.

More later.