i'm off, for a while

I'm going to Wales tomorrow to participate in this

meet friends, play the ney and zarb for Ben Haggarty's telling of the epic of Gilgamesh, tell stories, hear lots of stories, meet up with plant and stone acquaintances

be back in about a week

colours

the camera inertprets colours.

the green skein in the bottom picture is cotton for lace(?) dmc no 60, dyed in a mix of various rhamnus berry dyebaths, simmered and left in the sun, where they fermented happily and smellily, in the company of a small piece of rusty iron.

the same skein, in the picture above it, with stronger light from the sun. maybe it it foretelling poor lightfastness.

the same skein in the top picture, lower right looks beige (!) in the company of indigo blues, which in their turn look quite washed out and grey......

on my monitor, the last foto is truer, and the little skein is eucalyptus.

the beginning colour of the cotton is ecru

I'm getting more cotton to leave in the pomegranate and madder

sea and sky

we went to the sea today, there was no one swimming, too cold. End of June, in Greece! I stitched some, and took photos. Telemaco went in the water, I put a jacket on..

all colours (on the cloths and threads) are from plants, with some help from rusty nails and little bacteria, except for the heart- I haven't gotten round to dyeing threads with madder yet

artificial light in the top two pictures, the beach scenes are from the cellphone

conversations

once upon a time there was a hunter

the beginning of a new illustrated storycloth


I am experimenting with indigo

and I keep reminding myself, just to give me courage, of the trials of learning how to make bread from books

It took me about a year to get the hang of it, and quite a few bricks were produced in the meantime

so maybe the lesson I learnt then was patience and to keep going

fermentation is so much like a blessing, when you finally get it

and it always seems to be a little outside of you

you can't really control it, just try to provide the right environment

like parenting, or art

and lots of prayers to the weather gods

oh yes and preparation

the corner you see there is Helen Melvin's the colours of sea and sky, a great companion on this path. thanks, Helen

fun and work

we went to the sea, and washed two sacks of fleeces. They were incredibly dirty. abeetle came to investigate, some horseflies too, ugly bites, those.

and I made a pincushion- I need it, with all the sewing I've been doing!

and a snake left me a gift.

sky, wind, meetings with remarkable men,

when I was young, I played the darbukka for a saz player

heard koroglu at dawn, with the light shining through leaves

took ney lessons in istanbul from the gentle arif

met and had the honour to listen to Djamchid Chemirani teach

here with his beautiful sons

and bathe in his smile

now I am at last tapping the same deep well, the ashik spirit, the dervish soul

as a woman,

it is there, deep, quiet, breathing, singing,beating, shining in the sky, in the dark of night

a poem

...es sind/ noch Lieder zu singen jenseits/ der Menschen

-Paul Celan

In the threadbare

air, through the tattered

weave of leaves,

the blue light cools

into ash black shadow

Tree: the high

thought roots itself

in the luminous clay

of the caught light's closeness

to audibility

So we know that again

today, there are songs

still to be sung. they

exist. Just on the other

side of mankind.

from Pieces of Map, Pieces of Music

by Robert Bringhurst

philemon and baucis

the treecloth I've been making for jude hill's cloth to cloth online workshop, backsidetrunk and beginning of roots, up close
all components secured, cloth washed. All fabrics have been dyed by plants from this area. After I washed it I saw the face on the trunk, but the embellishing will come later. It has been so satisfying to make, and magical, really. It is full of stories. I see the olive tree of this land, after the fire, is she praying, or is she dancing? I think a beetle will keep her company, a little lizard and a scops owl,

this is the olive tree which lives next to the houseand this was a fragrant home for a family

today we sre going to the sea to wash the fleeces

doobeedoowahhhh

a mood

todays mood

there are clouds in the sky

warm breeze

and I listen to the weaving going on between the guitar and bass

the quality of the sound is like the pictures in the video

slightly out of focus

as if silk gauze has been stitched over it

a new cloth is soaking in soyamilk

summer and change are here

this new cloth is not going to be like the previous one

no pictorial representation, just leaves and shadows, a dreamscape for a story

this will be painted on, scrolling with a light behind it

when it makes me some money I'll do it again with linen and leafprints

with new project I have to get a "proper"one out of my system,

and then I can go wild so now that I have a "proper"storycloth, with pictures in boxes, now I can do the singing one. the chanting one is waiting for its turn

the blank canvas moment is my favourite

lets see what story will be born of this mood

grace set the mood this morning with the story. thank you grace