Good Times With Old Friends

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Thursday I went for my morning walk at the dam and then purchased a cake to decorate for Suzy’s birthday. Four old friends from St. Louis were arriving later that day to spend a long and wonderful weekend with me.

Suzy works with textiles. I called her obsession “wallowing in the rag bag”.

Ed went with me on morning walks. He was the only one up early and eager.

The river was way down.

So was the dam.

Suzy, Carlene and I worked in the studio. Carlene is an excellent sketcher/stitcher. With her husband, Ed, trimming out the fish pond, she had some lovely dead leaves and pods of lotus to draw. I forgot to take pictures of her expressive sketches of them but caught her stitching on her faces.

Suzy worked on trying to find ways to resolve her stitched pieces.

Bryan and I enjoyed taste testing a new find they brought me from Trader Joes in St. Louis.

I could not believe that Trader Joes now handles liquor, let alone a single malt scotch that is quite good and sourced from Aberdeen, Scotland! A quick check reveals that only Trader Joes in states without state controlled alcohol regulations can have it. So we found Illinois, and Kentucky besides Missouri. But not North Carolina and Georgia. The single malt was only $24 a bottle! A little sweeter than the Glenlivit they brought for comparison, but very nice.

And their final day here we went to a local vineyard. A perfect outing! Crane Creek Winery just over the line in Georgia.

I miss them already. Ed not only trimmed the pond but replaced all the fallen rocks from Lee’s stacks along the walls. Later today after the rain stops I will walk along the trail to look for feathers, etc.

One of the great things about their visit was how much of my studio cleanouts they took back for artists/craftsmen to put to good use. And inside their cars was a total of six framed artworks for them to donate to their guild’s artist collection auction. It has been awhile since I donated to that worthwhile effort and it felt good to take work off the walls and put it into the cars.

Just before they arrived I finished another sketch in the journal, a portion of my tapa cloth on the table.

Now I am going to get the lotus leaves and pod to draw next.

Til later….

Trying New Things

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Making my first batch of sangria for company coming to spend a few days with me. It will be so much fun to have them here, wives working in the studio and husbands working outside, hiking, cooking and maybe even working in the studio with us. I will make lasagna later today to serve tomorrow when they arrive.

The walks in the morning have been wonderful with the sky views at the riverwalk.

Then this morning at the dam!

More drawing in the fabric sketchbook.

And with so few pages left in that book, I have started a new one. The cover is made with using gesso mixed with earth pigments from my yard, then coptic bound using watercolor papers, some with rusting techniques used on them.

I am calling the book, Bird Stories, and every page will have an image related to birds. And every page will have stitching added.

Here is the start…more pictures to come later as I add more stitching.

The pages are loosely water colored, then graphite drawings are added. Next I pick a pattern for the stitching to follow and poke the holes through before taking needle and thread along the path. There are limits to how much I can turn the book as I stitch so making the holes before adding thread helps.

I have put some stitching in but looking it over, I think much more is needed. Stay tuned.

I am getting more sociable in my conversations on the walks. At first it was only a nod, then talking to their dogs, then the people with eye contact, and just yesterday stopping to carry on a full conversation with a gentleman who just wanted to talk. Coming out of covid and the solitude of being with Lee has resulted in a reserved-ness I was not used to. Now I am hoping not to talk too much as I loosen up a bit.

Covid rages in our area with so many not believing the science. Hospital beds full and funerals on the rise. I am masked more now than ever.

But tomorrow friends arrive and more than just a little conversation and fun comes with them.

Til later…..

Some Beautiful Weather for Distractions

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I am so glad to be an early riser. Two beautiful mornings out at the dam.

It was like the sky could not make up its mind the next day. Then for a change of mood back on the river this morning.

The other day I tested whether soaking dried out Eucalyptus leaves in vinegar and water would increase the possibility of getting reds. After posting these results, the consensus was to use silk or wool, not cellulose material. But they can be used to draw into. I do like the yellowy-orange bits.

I worked on my fabric journal.

Then realized that I only needed two more fabric swatches to fill in the five pages for drawings that are left. I decided that the cover was too plain for the greatly expanded book with threads hanging out so stitched a larger one to glue to the cover.

And now I seriously need to think about what to work on next for drawing/painting/stitching.

I started this with a piece of failed contact printed mulberry paper and put one of my last wood engraving seconds on it. Then just patched in with silks, cottons and other papers. Simple running stitch to hold it all together. The book really needs squeezed to fit on a book shelf with other books. But now it is as thick as it is going to be. I need to get something started before friends from St. Louis arrive next week to work in the studio while their husbands do some cooking and maybe yardwork. They want to help out with things Lee may have done if he was here. First offer I’ve had for that. Very grateful!

Yesterday I met with my attorney to go over paperwork for building the house. All is good there. I had a chat with the builder and my questions are now answered. If I can possibly put a dresser or television into a closet I need to know there will be room and outlets in them. Also just where is the exterior door on that small screen porch. Knowing that helps me figure out what furniture to take for that space. There was not much interest so far in my etching press so it may go with me and stay with work tables in the garage. I am having the builder put a window in the garage to give me more light if I want to keep carving wood blocks.

Almost everything here is finding a new home if it’s not going with me. Some will undoubtedly be trashed when the time comes. I need to get some more bags ready to go out this weekend. The more I throw out now the less I have to later. I need to locate a place to get some shredding done when family comes down in a few weeks to help haul it somewhere.

I have not walked the trail in a few weeks. It is a rather sad thing to do when I think of Lee and I collecting all those beautiful leaves and feathers this time last year. Maybe I will do that in the morning and then ask the friends from St. Louis to put Lee’s rocks back along the edges where deer have kicked them about.

Now I am off to face the last closet that needs some garbage bag attention.

Til later….

Separating While Still Hanging On

Posted on by Sandy Webster

The morning river walk in a steady mist offered this view of a vine just hanging there looking like a story needed telling and then a cheerful note as I walked back to the car.

I went by the coffee shop to get a takeaway coffee but they were closed due to it being a holiday. Being alone I have lost track of holidays, days seem to just run into each other and I lose some of them.

Later after finishing my drawing I took these pictures out the windows.

I feel so distant from my home now. I have done all the clinical work of drawing the new house plan to scale, measuring every piece of furniture and fitting it into that plan. There is no sadness when I think of leaving here. Those emotions went when Lee was settled into a care home. This house was our last big project together and I was going to leave the documentation of that building process via my journal to the new owners. But I decided against that. They would likely only be interested in the cost of our appliances sixteen years ago and miss the subtext of two people building their dream house with every intention of living the rest of their lives in this one place.

There are other books about this house I will take with me like this one using earth pigments from my yard to watercolor the white line prints of my yard, titled Home Colors.

And another wood block story of my front yard.

I loved figuring out how to make 3D images for each section and then having them fold onto each other to close the book/story.

These and all my books will go with me and be kept where I can reach out and touch them whenever I need to remember being here with Lee. It is hard some days to pack his things away. Here is the last rock he brought into the house…a small red one after trying for several days to bring in big ones to start one of his lines of rocks in the house. I said it was lovely and we should save it here. I have not been able to move it yet.

It sits atop a rock a friend sent from Alaska and that one sits on one a friend brought back with others from New York for me to roll shifu threads on. Next to it is a rock my dear friend from graduate school gave me from her home in Canada.  All these rocks will go with me plus those in a snake form in the yard near the large Japanese stone lantern (also going) and all those lovely round ones my daughter and her partner brought down for me to hold and move about just a couple of months ago.

Thinking of Lee today I went to our bedroom and pulled three things from his wooden bowl of things dropped in. One of those emptying pockets wood bowls that he turned in his shop. A pair of reading glasses, a bottle opener and a pocket watch I cannot open. It is a nice page I think.

I added scraps of cloth to the page. Tomorrow I will find something on my walk to draw next. I might just pour an early glass of wine and start another short story. It is that kind of day…..

Til later…