Glen Skien’s Mytho-Poetic Crow is the silent guardian at the window
the Mr Lincoln roses are nearly ready
this piece of iron called out from the park to come home & act as the mordant in the rose brew
channeling Morticia Addams in the old 60’s TV show The Addams Family I cut the heads off all the red roses
isn’t this a wonderful 21st C world!
then filled the pages of the rose book with petals, stamens, sepals and leaves
bound the book & paper bundles with rose stems, silk, flax & nettle string and wrapped the iron mordant with paper interfacing and linen thread
(NB this bit is totally intuitive I have no idea what I am doing ( it may well all turn to mush!)
just having a go after seeing India Flint’s wonderful rose book a couple of years ago!)
in the pot ready to add lukewarm water
and here’s what the pot looked like after being heated gently for 1 & 1/2 hours
the bundles are held down by a heavy glass mortar Eric of Dragonglass blew for me about 25 years ago
now it’s time to let it cool down overnight and have a look in the morning!
the alchemy of roses
Posted: March 7, 2014 by Mo Crow in It's Crow Time, magicTags: Glen Skien, India Flint, inspiration, works on paper
Comments
It's Crow Time 
Alchemy!Alchemy!
it’s very exciting!
your pictures are beautiful.
it’s like being a potter. making something so beautiful and then trusting it to the kiln
i am sure it must be hard to put it in the water.
thanks Linda, it’s almost too exciting!
Good luck Mo, hope it works out ok. I do know from making rosewater, you have to have a lot of petals and not much water to get colour. But the dying thing is a mystery. I have just recieved some green walnuts, to have another go. I put some vinegar with the water in a rusty pot and left it outside for a couple of weeks (with the one I did last year). Not sure what to do with this lot. I used to LOVE the Addams Family, what a great show that was!! Fingers crossed for your book!! ox
we shall see…have my eyes, toes, arms, and legs all x-ed & good luck with your walnut dyeing I love the bits you sent from the last go!
Good to see what’s brewing…. look forward to the results!
It’s 2:22am, will wait another 4 hours until the sun comes up!
oh it looks wonderful and must smell dreamy….can’t wait for the result.
the smell of the roses cooking and now standing til dawn is not as intoxicating as I had hoped Deanna! more like rose soup than the elixer I was dreaming of… will dry the restof the Mr Lincoln’s and stitch a couple of petals directly into Crow Book 3
the dream of it is also bundled in…almost too exciting, yes. o, YES………waiting………..
Oh Grace it didn’t turn out anything like I dreamed although the interface wrapped around the iron thing and linen thread are pleasingly black! will see how it all looks as things dry will make a new post once the camera recharges…
Alchemy doesn’t come easily, I guess, Mo, but what a great post! Could smell the rose petals as I looked and read. I hope the book is better when dry but if not, onward and upwards! Back to the markets…
just about to put a new post up about making rose compost!
Oh, sorry! At least you have retained your sense of humour!
it’s going to be OK Carol, not what I expected but it will be something! visited Wayne Stock at the Old Chapel bookbinding studio and he was amazed that I threw the whole book bound into the hot water and left it there overnight and that I hadn’t undone the oriental side binding… that bound edge was never going to dry so I unbound it and have all the pages spread out all over the floor & now that it’s starting to dry there looks to be some quite lovely things going on!