Gin's Place

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9-2-06  I have a basket demo scheduled a week from today at the Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea, so I've been gathering materials and weaving a few baskets to have on hand.  I'd like to have several started and in various stages for the demo.  That always makes it easier to explain how various steps are done.  The staves or spokes of these miniature baskets are usually hosta leaf stems because they are substantial enough to stand up to the constant twisting and pulling involved in the weaving.  Heaven knows, I have enough of them growing alongside the walk.  These plants were here when we bought the place, planted in the full sun, a terrible place for hostas.  Every year the leaves blister and sunburn, but the plants thrive.  Go figure.  For weavers, I use various plant materials - daylily leaves, mulberry root bast, woolgrass leaves, Siberian iris leaves, Peruvian daffodil seed stalks.  The baskets look wild and hairy while I'm working with them, but eventually, everything comes into place and it becomes a basket.

9-3-06  Umph!  Why the "umph"?  Because I forgot to put the hosta leaf stems in the refrigerator.  Yes, I know, I keep weird things in there, but that's where they have to go once they're wet.  Otherwise, this is what happens.  In order to weave with plant materials, they have to be brought "into case" or "in order."  If you're familiar with stripping tobacco, you'd understand.  Dry plant materials, such as hosta leaf stems or daylily leaves will crumble if they're dry.  They must be moistened slightly and allowed to soften before they can be used.  I mist these stems and leaves and wrap them in a wet towel until they're pliable, then put them into a plastic bag.  If I'm not going to work with them immediately, they go into the refrigerator.  Otherwise, a mold will form on them and they will deteriorate and quickly rot.  I had wet the pictured hosta leaf stems a couple of days ago and meant to refrigerate them, but forgot.  You can see what happened.  With some plant materials, this doesn't really matter if I go ahead and use them up immediately, but that's not possible with hosta.  The stems become slick and sticky and impossible to weave.  So much for those.  Another bunch is waiting underneath a wet towel and they'll be ready tomorrow.  NOTE:  Refrigerate them, Gin, refrigerate!

9-4-06  Watercolor will take a backseat this week to baskets and garden renovations, but I do have one picture started.  This one had a title before the brush ever hit paper.  It's called "Here Comes the Sun."  The title comes from Fred First, the man who shot the picture that is the inspiration for the watercolor.  Fred is a writer, and he maintains a blog in which he shares many things, and among them are some excellent photographs.  This one is of his granddaughter, Abby.  He has graciously given me permission to post the picture I'm working on.  This is likely one I'll revisit and redo when my skills are good enough to do it justice.  Backgrounds have been my bugaboo from the beginning, but this is very close to what I wanted.  Yes, there are things that I would have been done differently.  I can see places I wish the sunlight had hit, and I would have been better satisfied with a darker foreground, but I can live with this, at least with this iteration.  I've removed the mask from the little girl, and I'm almost ready to do that.  Just need to screw up my courage.  I'll do a couple of drafts on scrap paper as practice before doing this one.  I'm beginning to understand why many painters do a rough draft of their picture to work through any problems they might face.  That really seems to be the logical way to go about it, but there is a part of me that doesn't like doing it that way.  There is always the fear that I'll do a really good one on a practice sheet, then do a less than perfect job in the painting itself.  Mind games.  **For those who have written to ask "what the heck are buckeyes???"...  I never thought to explain the image on the homepage.  I just assumed that everyone knew what buckeyes are.  Apparently, I'm wrong.  The pods in the picture grow on an Ohio buckeye tree (Aesculus glabra).  Inside the pod is a seed with an "eye."  It looks very similar to a Chinese chestnut except that it is completely round rather than flat on one side.  Unlike chestnuts, buckeyes are supposed to be poisonous, though squirrels eat them.  Local lore says that carrying a buckeye in your pocket brings good luck.

9-7-06  If I seem a bit absent from the journal, it's because I'm trying to get ready for this Saturday's miniature basket demo at the Kentucky Artisan Center.  It doesn't involve much getting ready, other than starting several small baskets so they can be displayed in various stages, making it easier to explain how they're made.  Unfortunately, a series of partially completed baskets doesn't make for good journal pictures.  If you're in Berea, please do stop by and introduce yourself.  I'll be there from 10:30 until 3:30.  **I'm also working on a website for the Berea Arts Council.  Right now all they have is a rudimentary site for their workshop schedule.  The organization is doing some excellent work in the community and needs a presence on the Web.  BAC runs primarily on volunteers, none of whom have any experience designing websites.  This is one niche that I can fill in order to help out.  When the site is further along, I'll share the URL.  The Arts Council has some exciting plans for next year if you're interested in quilts, both traditional and decorative wall hangings.

9-9-06  Had a great time with the demo today.  It was a slow weekend caught between last week's Labor Day holiday and the coming fall foliage rush, but there were still plenty of people to talk with.  It was an interesting crowd.  As many men as women, or maybe more, stopped to spend time asking questions about the basket materials and weaving process.  I met one couple from Wisconsin who had visited the Center last March and admired the baskets.  On their way back through today, they stopped specifically to purchase one and were pleased to find me there weaving.  The Artisan Center treats demonstrators like royalty.  The staff is there to help you get in, get set up and is constantly stopping by to ask if you'd like a cup of coffee.  Given that coffee is my beverage of choice, I kept them running.  Then at lunch, two or three of the management staff join you for lunch on their tab at the café.  Come breakdown time, the staff is right there to help carry out and clean up after you.  I'm of the opinion that all demos should be handled this way.  Of course, with a vested interest in the matter, I'll admit to being prejudiced.  During the demo, Gwen Heffner, the Information Specialist, always stops by and shoots pictures.  The demonstrator leaves with a printout and the pictures on disk for their own use.  Very nice touch.  Gwen was having camera problems today, but she still managed a picture of me and the daylily leaves and one of a basket in progress.  I had twelve baskets displayed.  Unfortunately, the pictures of those didn't come out well, but the baskets looked similar to these that were at the Artisan Center in May.  Good day.  Thoroughly enjoyed it.

9-18-06  A few weeks ago I bought a couple of mushroom logs from Tim Hensley, the brother of a basketmaking friend.  I figured it would be next year before we saw anything out of the logs, but surprise, surprise.  We had mushrooms this morning!  There were just three, but given that I wasn't expecting them at all, they were a delight.  They were also tasty!  Sautéed them in butter with a couple of cloves of garlic and some scallion tops.  Added a can of crabmeat at the last minute, just enough to warm that.  Tossed all that with cooked fettuccini, lots of fresh grated parmesan and a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice.  Stirred in just a little milk to keep it from being dry and topped the dish with fresh parsley.  Mmmm!  I'm eyeing this bunch of mushrooms growing up on Center Street.  I've been told they're eatable, but I don't really have enough nerve to try them.

9-26-06  Finally finished the Berea Arts Council website and got it up this morning.  If you've got a few minutes check it out.  Even though the Arts Council works almost entirely on volunteer effort, it does an excellent job of promoting the arts locally.  Neat people working for a good cause.

9-27-06  The Yahoo papermaking list is hosting its annual Swatch Swap.  I've participated for the last five or six years, and in the process, have been able to get swatches from all over the world, lovely 2"x3" pieces of paper made from every imaginable fiber.  Gorgeous stuff.  Over this past year I've made precious little paper.  Seems I've been involved in everything but papermaking, but I don't want to miss out on this, so I've been casting about for the last few days, seeing what was available.  Many plants are summer hardened and difficult to work with now, but there are still lots of things available.  Today I was doing the annual fall flowerbed cleaning, and there was a large section of gayfeather (Liatris spicata) that needed to be dug and thinned.  Hmmmm....  These plants had been topped after blooming so they wouldn't reseed, but I left the stalks to hide some rather unattractive plants behind. There were plenty of leaves, quite enough for the swatch swap project, so I cut the stalks off, stripped the leaves and cooked them up.  These particular leaves, like a few others I can think of, are a problem source for fiber.  While the veins do run parallel, indicating a reasonable source for fiber, the central vein or main stem of the leaf is considerably stronger than the fiber veins that run on either side of it.  When the cooked leaves are beaten, the fine veins break down but the tougher, central vein doesn't break down completely.  All well and good for an interesting paper with the lighter colored central vein floating through the dark green fine fibers, but it makes pulling a pill.  Oh, the central vein is broken down enough that it doesn't "drape" over the sides of the deckle, that's not the problem.  It's the super fine fibers from the rest of the leaf that create the difficulty.  These fibers clog the screen and dramatically increase drain time, particularly when pulling thick sheets.  Fortunately, I planned on thin swatches.  You can clearly see the central rib fibers in this picture of a swatch.  The fine fibers in these leaves also mean a high shrinkage sheet.  I'd forgotten about that (duh) and made the mistake of trying to dry them on glass, something I don't usually do unless I'm pressed for time, which I am.  My first indication of problems came shortly after I put them up.  I noticed a few edges beginning to curl away from the glass, and I knew what was going to happen.  If I left them there, they would twist and curl and even pop off the glass.  I took them down and finished drying them in the press, something I didn't want to do because of the time involved.  Sheesh.  If I'd read my own journal, I would have known not to glass dry these things.  Anyway, I have nice, flat swatches now, just hope I have enough.