“Love can be ragged like a wind blown leaf” by India Flint

this beautiful eucalyptus dyed pennant arrived in time for the Solstice from India Flint
“Love can be ragged like a wind blown leaf”
settling in
with the gathering
India’s cloth poem will float beautifully with these large talismans in the cloud of tulle
you can see more of her fabulous art on her website
Magic Days!
namaste

More Fishy Celebration!

Fish by George Chirnside
these wonderful fish are carved red gum, laminated and articulated with cloth webbing were gifted to me last night
& then this wonderful bundle of blueness arrived this morning
grown and then magically transformed into indigo cake by Tarla of Tamborine Mountain Indigo
Tarla hosted the Bower Bird Blues workshop with Roz Hawker & India Flint at the beginning of the year
These are the Most Magical Days!

the indigo amulet with feathers

‘The Indigo Amulet’ by Mo 2015
made in the Bower Bird Blues Workshop with India Flint & Roz Hawker hosted by Tarla Elward
with feathers and a few vintage treasures added this morning to honour the indigo
materials : vegetable tanned leather, papyrus, indigo leaves stitched inside with linen and silk thread, edged with frayed raw and open weave silk, hand twined silk cords, tiny samples of silk, linen, cotton, jersey & wool to see how the different fabrics vary in colour, etched silver milagro by Roz, vintage silver talisman from Africa, new & vintage glass beads, glass feathers by Kathy Dorfer, found Satin Bower Bird, Crow, Cockatoo & Rosella feathers
(NB photo taken outside to show true colour variations)

mark of the blue hand

mark of the blue hand from the Bower Bird Blues workshop
(photo courtesy of Old Man Crow’s iPhone at the Gold Coast airport)

Alchemy and Indigo (Part Three)

‘Indigo Amulet’ by Mo 2015 made in the Bower Bird Blues workshop January 9th -11th 2015
front detail all materials supplied by India & Roz except the vegetable tanned leather
back detail
India and Roz made small blue notes notebook and handy envelopes for collecting feathers and leaves
sketches and notes
drawing helps me understand the world
and find the focus
walking each morning at dawn in the subtropical rainforest
looking up
finding beauty in the fine detail
and the long view from Eagle Heights
What a magical start to the year!
Link to Part Two here & Part One here

Alchemy and Indigo (Part Two)

Renee put together this magic amulet
with her beautiful smile on our last day just before everything turned blue
Heidi’s hand twined silk string spirals holds her magic in place
Bronwyn holding her beaded and twined string for her amulet bag
Annie’s satchel in process
Annie has a sail boat named Blue!
Madonna bound her cloth with string shibori style
Lynne’s gathering bag
love how Anna manipulated the open weave silk to cover her amulet pouch
beautiful long strings with beads & tiny hand made milagros of silver, brass & copper by Anne
Jane experimented with various resists in her pieced cloth
Michelle’s stitching & piecing in process
Alyssia pounded some beautiful leaf prints
Amba’s magic bag
Margaret’s Japanese style bag
Hilary’s scarf
thank you India and Roz , you make strong magic!

Here’s links to Part One & Part Three

Alchemy and Indigo (Part One)

The Bower Bird Blues workshop with India Flint and Roz Hawker held everything I had hoped for and so much more
a collection of wooden amulets from New Guinea with silver amulets made by Roz
Our host Tarla Elward grew a variety of indigo producing plants to experiment with
On the first day we tried some fresh leaf bundling and cold metal working techniques
I didn’t bind my leaf bundle tightly enough to make an impression
Tarla cooked up seriously beautiful morning teas and lunches each day from her garden
while India cooked up a jar of indigo
 starting to make it’s magic
India’s beautful blue hands rinsing the first indigo dipped cloth in cold water
Tarla’s big vat made from her home grown Japanese indigo
India gently gathering the “flowers”
Tarla showing us the rich deep indigo “mud” before it goes into the vat
A beautiful quote from “A Field Guide to getting Lost” by Rebecca Solnit
(link to Part Two here)

Results of the alchemical rose experiment

Aim: to investigate the alchemy of dyeing with rose petals and leaves on books

Method: interleave rose petals and leaves between the pages of 3 bundles of bound & unbound text blocks
bind the bundles with rose petals, leaves, stems & string in a big steel pot
add a piece of bound rusty iron as the mordant and fill the spaces with the rest of the rose petals
add lukewarm water, heat the pot gently to hot but not boiling for 90 minutes, turn off and allow to cool over night
remove bundles from pot, untie, dry and bind

Materials: 14 long stemmed Mr Lincoln roses
found piece of old rusty iron
flax & nettle string for binding bundles
paper interfacing & linen thread for binding old rusty iron
text block for crow book- acid free cartridge & Stonehenge watercolour paper
Rose Book 1- rough watercolour paper, acid free cartridge text pages, Moulin de Larroque handmade watercolour paper, nettle string
Rose Book 2- acid free cartridge text pages, Moulin de Larroque handmade watercolour paper, nettle string

Result: Rose Book 1 – the tea stained rough water watercolour produced a soft pink but indistinct print
the text block of spare acid free cartridge was dyed by interleaving Rose Book 2 in the drying process
Rose Book 2 – this book was bound with an oriental side stitch binding before immersion but was cut & unbound to dry
the carved cover did not enjoy the immersion
the pattern on the spare front cover & back cover was achieved by binding rose stems round the bundles which acted as as resist
Crow Book 3 text block- the acid free cartridge produced very clear results, this book was wrapped in silk, rose stems & flax string

Conclusion: I was hoping to make some beautifully perfumed books
this didn’t happen but massaging the covers of Rose Books 1 & 2 with Jurlique Hand cream does the job
I will do the same on the Stonehenge watercolour paper front & back pages for Crow Book 3
here’s the link to India Flint’s post from a couple of years ago which inspired me to try
you can see more details of my process here, here, here & here
and here’s some more photos
Text Block for Crow Book 3, Rose Book 1 and Rose Book 2 by Mo 2014
a soft print on Stonehenge watercolour paper 245 gsm will be the front page of Crow Book 3
the clarity of the petal prints on the acid free cartridge is a surprise
the rough tea stained watercolour paper produced a subtle print and the acid free cartridge used for drying the text block of Rose Book 2 made a pale  purple blue print
the clarity of the prints on the acid free cartridge is quite lovely
This has whetted my curiosity to explore some of these ideas further in early January 2015 when I attend India Flint & Roz Hawker’s Bower Bird Blues workshop

the alchemy of roses

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!

slowing down to sniff the roses!

Here’s our lounge room this morning,  in the foreground you can see some Madonna Lilies & a Kentia palm ready to go out and work for our Happy Triffid indoor plant hire service but just behind them is a bunch of sweetly perfumed pink roses, the Mermaid’s Pet by the fabulous ceramicist Jenny Orchard and a bunch of aged champagne coloured roses which have no perfume but I love the colour, they look like an old sepia photograph!
The roses are my birthday treat from Old Man Crow,  left home this morning at 4:30am and walked to the train station by starlight, arrived at the Sydney Flower Market at 5:15  dodging forklifts and trucks to get to the flower shed and what a buzzing scene it is! Nearly a hundred flower growers and importers supply all the Sydney florists every day from 5-8am, there are so many flowers, it’s a riot of colour and people all haggling, didn’t take my camera but will next time!
Here’s some pics of the 5 bunches of roses and the bunch of blue water lilies I scored for under $40 all up… I will never ever go to a florist again & guess what everyone else is getting for their birthdays this year? am still buzzing hours later and the scents are simply divine!
a closer look at those roses and the Mermaid’s Pet
a pretty posy of scentless roses reflected in the bathroom mirror
talking to a friend who is a florist, the story is the roses breeders have sacrificed scent for longevity, these new hybrids can last in a vase for 10 days… but really what is the point of a rose without the scent? It’s like taking away it’s soul, the essence of roseness….
and here they are, the darkly scented deep red Mr Lincoln roses still tightly held in their buds along with a big bunch of blue water lilies
when I lived in the bush in the early 80’s these water lilies grew wild in the dam, I would gather them every morning at dawn…
the perfume is divine
a Mr Lincoln petal torn to test the perfume, this will work!
here’s the little rose book I made on the weekend from the offcuts of the text block for Crow Book 3
It’s an oriental  side stitch binding, the cover is thick Moulin de Larroque handmade watercolour paper with a scan of an old rose drawing I did for Old Man Crow back in 1996 reduced to size, incised with a scalpel blade, carved with a graver and burned with a pyrography tool. I will simmer this little book in a big pot of Mr Lincoln rose petals with some of the petals, leaves and stems interleaved and see what happens!
India Flint made a beautiful little rose book a few years ago and I have been wanting to have a go ever since, now’s my chance! Some of the text block for the new Crow Book will be immersed in the rose pot as well to give Old Man Crow a little time out to sniff the roses every time he opens it to write the next song!