LAW 52: Indian Summer and dead fish

One of the greatest gifts inherent in life as a self-employed artist is the extreme flexibility of 'the schedule', or well, pretty much lack of aforementioned abomination. We realized after breakfast that it was indeed going to be a drop dead gorgeous fall day, so we promptly decided that spending a couple of hours at Marshy Point Nature Center hiking was a much better idea than doing maintenance on the boat, so off we went.

View from the bridge at Marshy Point

Marshy Point is less than five miles from us and is truly a wonderful place. it has a great center with all sorts of programs for kids of all ages, many miles of well maintained trails that border on the upper reaches of the Chesapeake Bay. It is a real gem, a little bit of wild and wet set in the urban environment of Baltimore. We try to go there at least once a week. Even though we live pretty much as close as we possibly can to nature, well sometimes its important to get even closer.

From the bridge looking out to Gunpowder Falls

Marshy point abuts a portion of the Gunpowder Falls park system, also a wonderful Baltimore treasure.

Vernal Pond in spring

We hiked the Vernal Pond trail today, the first time since it was opened  this spring that we were able to hike around it without getting our feet wet. i guess thats why they call it …..

The downside of living as close as we do to the Chesapeake Bay is we get to see first hand all of the problems generated by 'civilization'. Lets face it, there's just to damn many of us, and we don't think abut what we're doing to our environment. The Middle River and all of its tributaries, including Hopkin's Creek(where we dock) is experiencing a HUGE fish die off. We noticed it Saturday morning. We had a very low tide and as we were walking the bulkheads with friends we saw literally thousands of dead fish. Our normally very abundant and beautiful fish population was all lying dead on the bottom of the river. Why? Well, higher than average temperatures along with fertilizer run-off spawned a toxic algae bloom. Bye bye Rockfish, etc.

Vernal Pond today, notice, no water

LAW 51: More new handmade books

For some reason this past week or so i  have been extremely prolific; ideas have been sparking and i have started many(probably too many) projects. I taught myself how to create a Coptic headband binding for my books. I think that it does add a little bit more stability to the binding, but all in all it strikes me as more decorative than functional. Not that there is anything wrong with that mind you. So,
here they are two of the pieces that i have recently finished. I will continue to update the pages sections, so you will be able to view categories together. Don't forget handmade books make great holiday gifts!

Crazy quilt back view

Crazy quilt Celtic headband binding detail

  

Heron front view

Heron bind view detail

More later,

Morgainne

               

LAW 50: Handmade Books for Sale, part two

Well, here i am again! Twice in one week, don't expect this behavior very often, but an out of area friend wanted to see these… sometimes, someone has to light the fire.

Any way, with the exception of the  Sunflower book, these smaller books are quite reasonably priced. The Sunflower is a first for me, made from  100% post-consumer recycled products. It is also completely hand made. Late this summer i decided that would start making my own paper. So, October being a month when the marina population thins out here   i felt i had enough space to commandeer and dedicate to the paper making project. If you have never made paper on a large scale, it is a wet, messy space consuming type of process. Something best practiced outside on hot summer/fall days. Did i mention low humidity would be nice.

Handpaper paper has so many interesting qualities, properly prepared it has many applications(more on this later). I particularly like the quirky traces of prior use; sometimes a word will escape the shredding process, small flecks of color float just under the surface, and of course anything you put into the vat will float on or near the surface of the paper. Sunflower Nouveau Woman has flower petals from our Jerusalem Artichokes. Which incidentally were blown down by the remnants of hurricane Joquim.

So here is a sampling of the smaller, earlier books. I am willing to entertain special requests. If i find them interesting enough. So, let me know if you're interested.

SMALL FORMAT BOOKS

SUNFLOWER NOUVEAU WOMAN: 4.5 x 5.5", 72pp handmade 100% post-consumer recycled paper with sunflower petal inclusions. Cover, handmade papier mache,  board with brown and gold patina with 'vintage' brass pin head. Black ribbon Coptic stitch binding. *Paper has been blocked, pressed, gessoed and burnished to more easily accept ink. $150

 

So here you have four views of Sunflower. I am going to post this now, and go hit my head repeatedly again a wall somewhere, as that will make me feel better after dealing with computer glitches all morning. No, of course it's not operator error! 

More later,

Morgainne

LAW 49: Handmade Books for Sale

This year i re-visited the art of bookmaking. I have made books and taught bookmaking for many years, but for some reason was never attracted to the most traditional of binding stitches used in the West, the Coptic Stitch.  I was, however, increasingly unhappy with the usability of books that were bound with the Japanese stab binding.  So… one of the great gifts of living here on the Empire, and calling all of my time my own, is time. Time to experiment, time to learn, time to have fun.

Finally i am getting around to posting images and descriptions of what is available. I will continue to update this page as i make more, so check back often! It takes about a week, start to finish to make a book, unless i am also making the paper(more on that later). These books are all blank books, with a variety of paper types and sizes. They make great gifts, think, Christmas, birthdays, weddings, any special event, and of course are ideal for the poet, writer, or artist in your life.

MEDIUM SIZE/NAUTICAL THEMES

BOLD BUCCANEER:  5.5 x 7", 120pp. Canson 98# mixed, wet or dry media paper. Cover; recycled Sunforger fabric with board. Black and white cotton hand stitched embroidery, top bound with red ribbon Coptic stitch binding. $150

Bold Buccaneer

PIRATES: 7 x 5.5", 120pp Canson 98# mixed wet or dry media paper. Cover, recycled Sunforger fabric and board with black cotton hand stitched embroidery. Black linen Coptic stitch binding. $100

Pirates

MERMAID WITH ANCHOR: 5.5 x 7",  96 pp,  Canson 98# mixed, wet or dry media paper. Cover; recycled Sunforger fabric with board. Multi colored cotton hand stitched embroidery and red ribbon Celtic stitch binding. Top bound $100

Mermaid with Anchor

CELTIC DRAGON: 7 x 5.5", 120pp Canson 98# mixed wet or dry media paper.  Cover; recycled Sunforger fabric with board. Multi colored cotton hand stitched embroidery and black linen cord Coptic stitch and long stitch binding. $100

Celtic Dragon

 CELTIC HEART SWANS:  5.5 x 8.5", 144 pp, pink medium weight card stock paper, dry media only. Cover is Dupai silk  and board with multi color cotton hand stitched embroidery. Black and red ribbon Coptic stitch binding. Side bound $50.

Celtic Swan binding detail

Celtic Heart Swans

  

 CELTIC KNOT: 5.5 x 8.5 180 pp, multi colored light weight writing paper. Cover, Dupai silk and board with multi colored hand stitched cotton embroidery. Black and red ribbon coptic stick binding. Side bound. $50.

Celtic Knot embroidery detail

Celtic Knot bind view

  

 BROWN PAISLEY: 5.5 x 8", 84pp medium weight mixed media, dry only paper. Cover brown paisley upholstery fabric and board. Black linen and long stitch binding. Ribbon tie close on book.$50.

Brown Paisley

RED MEDALLION:  5.5 x 8.5" 120pp tan toned Strathmore 80# acid free drawing paper. Cover, red medallion upholstery fabric and board with red and natural sinew Coptic stitch binding. Side bound. $50.

Red Medallion

 GREEN PAPIER MACHE: 5.5 x 8.5", 120pp, tan light weight writing paper. Cover handmade papier mache with green tone patina. Black linen Coptic stitch with Stab stitch binding. $50.

     

Green Papier Mache

 HEALING HAND: 6 x 9", 96pp tan toned Strathmore 80#, acid free drawing paper. Cover, card stock with Kirlian photo of healing hand. Red sinew Coptic stitch binding. $50.

Healing Hand

LAW 47: Summer is slipping away

Yikes! The last day of September, it is a gray, rainy, windy day, thank you Joaquin. Here at the marina, the weather is a more frequent topic of conversation than normal, which way this storm tracks makes a major difference in what we will plan for and experience. So we will wait and look obsessively at radar maps and weather pundit predictions and continue to enjoy our lives here hurricanes or no.

I can't believe that this is the last day of September! Summer is for all extents and purposes over. Yes, we will continue to have remarkably beautiful weather. Yes we will continue to spend much of our days out of doors, but the signs of change are in the air. People that i have never seen dressed in anything but shorts and tank tops are now sporting jeans and sweatshirts. It is dark enough at suppertime that once more lit candles grace the dinner table. There is talk of bonfires, stone soup and s'mores instead of swimming expeditions.

Dinners ready! Good food, candlelight and candles

Last night's storm took down the rest of our sun chokes, damm! They had really just come into full bloom, almost a month and a half later than predicted. We really did not intend to harvest them until after the first frost, but i think if they don't have any leaves left that we should harvest them early. I guess this is what i get for planting what is a forest verge plant in the middle of an unprotected sunny river bank. I already had planned to move them to the fence line behind the boat yard as they had grown much taller and bushier than anticipated.

Blown down by wind and rain, they were almost to the roof!

Our good friends Chris and Shannon adopted a boat kitty this past weekend, Chuck, a beautiful, three month old ball of solid black fur, energy and boundless curiosity. He and Magellan are learning to be friends.

curiosity doesn't kill...

hmm, who are you?

 Almost with out our notice the local tomatoes, sweet corn and peaches have disappeared from the markets. I'm never really ready to see them go, lucky for us our stalwart Mexico Midget in a pot is still putting out incredibly delicious tomatoes.

There is so much more that i wanted to do this summer. How did i let it slip away?

More later,
Morgainne

LAW 46: More tales of the cat

I'm actually considering the possibility of allowing Magellan his own blog, that way i could write more about art. Sadly, he is not  as yet adept with a keyboard as Cocoa Cat was. Perhaps with more remedial training….

Magellan doing yoga while guarding the electronics

Actually the thrust of this entry is about some of the rather weird, and frankly almost, dare i say, psychotic quirks that Magellan has developed over the last couple of months.
the absolute weirdest of these is the Girl on a String Game that he insists we play every day, at least twice a day. Actually more like every time i sit down to work in my studio. Luckily so far this only occurs when i am siting on my rocker, doing embroidery.

I AM paying attention! 

No, i am not making this up, here is video proof.

More later,
Morgainne

LAW 45: Some of us are makers

Recently i discovered/rediscovered yet another way that we humans divide ourselves. I am sure that you are all quite familiar with many of the 'standard' divisions that we have come up with, all of which are designed to separate us. You know, black and white, rich and poor, have and have not. Historically we have used race, income, education, talent, birth, shape, age and many other potentially divisive markers to make ourselves special and others, well, not so.

Mungo and i spent the last week, one of the hottest of this summer, building a wooden sailing dingy. Building our PuddleDuck Racer was a lot of fun, and of course, work. It was through the course of this build that i realized that people, at least people of a certain level of affluence in  this country also divide themselves in a very significant fashion into makers and consumers. Numerous times in the past week we were asked, what are you doing? Why are you making this? Are you going to……. with many variations of the basic query that indicated most, if not all of our interlocutors thought that we were likely, well, crazy.

moraine starting the name

The bottom line appears to be why would you want to build(MAKE) something if you could buy it?!? My first, admittedly flippant response, why would i want to buy something that i could make, flip or not holds significant truth.

yes, you really can find anything on the internet

If i think about it i can come up with at least three reasons that a majority of people would prefer to buy rather than build. The first and likely most compelling reason would be instant gratification. Making takes time, buying generally does not. Making does take specific skill sets. Learning how to do something takes time and practice, time that many of us are unwilling to commit to.  Making takes a level of self confidence, a willingness to fail, to play the fool. Somehow in the past fifty years it has become more chic, more in, more, well more, to be a consumer. Somehow the possession of commercially made objects has become a symbol; a status symbol, a symbol of worth, a symbol of success.

sail's up, away we go!

I just don't buy this. I have been a maker pretty much all my  life. I love making things; beautiful things, functional things. I love the feelings of pride, of accomplishment, success. I love the rush, the high, the feeling of completion that comes from finishing a project. Whatever that project is. Be it finishing and launching the Dharma Duck, which Mungo and i did yesterday;  or placing the last stitch in my newest embroidery piece; or eating a new, experimental  dinner with friends(yes, the grilled octopus was delicious), making something and experiencing the thrill of its completion, its use is ever so fulfilling.

detail summer sun banner

oh my! Ever so yummy

I have been a maker all my life. Are you?



More later,
Morgainne