30 seconds

Buddy bits
I guess this is my 30 seconds of fame or something like that. I knew that the page was coming and have been looking for it, but now it’s up for a little while. I love the presentation-student work. This was a great place to be and it was my first United Arts teaching experience. Working on the elementary school level is different from high school, of course, but no less enjoyable. Observing the teacher in this classroom was a great help, but the students were attentive, respectful and I enjoyed being around them-great fun!

Lone Artist

Lone Artist

Originally uploaded by SOFennell

This little girl waited patiently until finally, today I gave permission to paint or color in their kite images. The most difficult task for them was to make the frames, which included my having them draw up a grid on which they would place their dowel pieces. There were a lot of sticky fingers and it required a lot of patience from all of us to get past this point. It could have been asking them too much, to cut the patterned edges of their kite skins for final attachment today. They walked through it though and finished their pieces in good time. They had time leftover to play games or draw.

I’ve been teaching another “Mukashi” class at Artspace this summer. It’s only for this week. I wrap up my part tomorrow. We’ve started every class with a folktale or part of one, or a story relating to topic. I think they’ve enjoyed it. I would have thrown in a song or two, but the class next door (we’re separated only by canvas curtains) was one in cut glass mosaics. There was a lot of grinding, cutting and pounding so that aspect of things seemed unwise. Apart from that, the students put their focus on their tasks and seem pleased with their results.

Handmade paper

papermaking

Originally uploaded by SOFennell

Yesterday was marked by more festivity for my fiber art group. One in our group had an important birthday, so we celebrated by having a workday, which is one of our favorite activities. It was more of a paper making workshop with other activities combined (quilting, bookmaking, shibori, archiving, etc.). This was my first experience in making paper and I was surprised to see just how easy it is. I’ll definitely try this at home.

I’ve been a part of this group for seven years now and we seem to be still going strong. I don’t think any of us has consulted any rule book or site about making a group like this work. I think we’ve been fortunate. We have lost members, people have come and gone and that’s in the nature of things. For me, it’s been a rich and rewarding experience. I probably would not be doing some of the things I am if it were not for this group. I’ve had good support from all members and I’ve learned a lot about fibers along the way.

Yesterday was one of those teaching/learning experiences. We all have different skills and experiences and from time to time we share and do a “workshop” with the group. We usually start in the morning, bring lunches and work late into the afternoon. Sometimes it’s exhausting, but so much fun! After our afternoon of paper making (which slowed down due to afternoon thunderstorms), we topped off the evening with our birthday party. We had a good meal where everyone contributed something: wine, cheeses, salads, homemade bread, chili and several desserts. The conversations, stories and laughter continued late into the evening.

Mukashi Mukashi

Origami

Originally uploaded by SOFennell

Last summer at Artspace, I did a workshop with rising 3-5th graders called “Mukashi Mukashi,” which means “a long time ago….” We might also say “once upon a time.” I read an old folktale, Urashima Taro, they did fish (and turtle) printing on paper as well as strips of fabric to make head wraps (hachi maki). Then we launched into small Edo kites which they accomplished very quickly. I was surprised. It left time on the last day for origami. So, this year I’m doing the same, but with a much smaller class. We’ll only have 6 students. My prep isn’t taking as long and I’m certainly a lot more relaxed about it. I still need to cut dowels to size for the kites and pick up a few last minute things, like small plates to serve as palettes. The class starts Monday and I’ll be doing it all week.

Goals and Homemade Bread

Farmer’s Market Peaches

Originally uploaded by SOFennell

This last weekend I completed one of my summer goals: to bake homemade bread.
I’m a bread baker. I love kneading the dough and the yeasty fragrance while it’s rising. Of course, the proof is in the eating. I like that too. I wish I could say that my recipes come from my grandmother, but they don’t. I rely on Fleishmann’s yeast cookbooks which I think can still be ordered with the little envelopes of their yeast. My paperback book is old, torn and has spots of oil and dough all over it. I’ve misplaced it a few times and when it’s gone, I’m frantic. I think bread baking is one of those things I feel like I have to do, like art. It’s a necessity.

I learned the love of bread from my mother who would often make the dough on a Saturday, putting the dough to rise on our gas heater (old fashioned). The smell of yeast would fill the house of course, and sometimes she would let us punch it down or poke it to see if it was ready for the next stage. She’d turn it into cinnamon buns and bake it for Sunday morning breakfast. It was a Christmas morning treat as well. I do the same at Christmas.

So, summer is here and I’m wanting to fill it with things I’ve been planning and dreaming of all year. Baking is one of them, baking bread, specifically. The accompanying link has only one difference between it and the one I use. It lacks the 1T. of sugar that’s printed in my little book.

Code Red

This image was on the front page of this morning’s N&O, with a statement saying we were on red alert (pollution levels). Apparently we were yesterday (Thurs.) as well. It was a lot hazier and the air was full of smoke all day. The smoke from the wildfires in Eastern NC came through the area. Needless to say, it cast a pall over the city. I was at school, finishing up and saying good-bye to faculty friends for the summer. By evening it seemed to be clearing, but the alert was still on for today, so I didn’t take my usual morning walk at Shelley and stayed in.

So, it was a good day to begin my first official day of vacation. I started thinking more seriously about my class on kite making at Artspace coming up in less than two weeks. It will be a much smaller class than last year’s, so I’m feeling relaxed about it. I do have to gather a few supplies though and need to prepare them. Since I was indoors today, I spent time at the sewing machine finishing up a few “blank canvases” (actually furoshiki) to ready them for shibori and dyeing. I think indigo will be the color.

If all goes well, the air will be clearer tomorrow and I can take my walk.

Hatching…

Hatching

Originally uploaded by SOFennell

The moon? It is a griffin’s egg,
Hatching to-morrow night.

No, not quite, but those lines by Vachel Lindsay came to mind in my wait for these little moths to hatch. Something about those yellow cocoons…well, two hatched yesterday and three more did today. They’ve also mated and laid eggs. Beth said each moth can lay up to 100 eggs. I counted 39 cocoons, which equals 39 moths and how many eggs potentially? Obviously, I won’t keep them all. I’ll save only a few, as I’m still concerned about this aspect of food.

However, a friend has found two mulberry trees in her neighborhood. They sell weeping, fruitless types at a local nursery (if push comes to shove). I feel like I just don’t have space, but these don’t grow that large.

So, the next obvious step is to start harvesting the eggs (quickly before they hatch) and store them away in a jar or plastic bag in the ‘fridge (not the freezer). They’ll incubate there for about 9 months. Then, I begin the cycle again.

ホタル・蛍・Hotaru koi!

Can you see the firefly? Summer has hit with temps in the 100’s these last few days. Early mornings are pleasant, but after that it’s stifling. There are good things to be said about it though. It brings out the magical little hotaru, fireflies (really beetles). In Japan they watch the progress of their arrival on maps in just the way they do Cherry blossoms. Earlier, I watched a video (and these images are from there) about a photographer who documents their appearance, beginning in southern Kyushu, in Satsuma, on the Sendai River, ending in Hokkaido. I learned that the dominant hotaru in Kyushu is the　ゲンジ蛍・ Genjibotaru or the Genji firefly。 The larvae also live in the river and feed on the snails living there. Recently, the concern is that the population is waning due to pollution and that was one of the concerns of this photographer.

There is a well-loved children’s song about fireflies, Hotaru Koi , that is so familiar, I must have learned it when I was young.

ホ　ホ　ほたる　こい / Ho ho hotaru koi / Come fireflies, come
あっちの　みずは　にがいぞ / Atchi no mizu wa nigai zo / That water over there is bitter
こっちの　みずは　あまいぞ。 / Kotchi no mizu wa amai zo / This water here, is sweet
ホ　ホ　ほたるこい / Ho ho hotaru koi / Come fireflies come
やまみち　こい / Yama michi ko / Come to the mountain path
あんどの　ひかりで / Ando no hikari de / To the lantern light

また　こい　こい / Mata koi koi / Come, come again.

Hotaru can also be found in shibori. Years ago, I happened upon this Hotaru technique that I haven’t had much luck with. It’s time to change that.

The only instructions said, “With the cotton balls as the center, the dyed pattern becomes blurred, resembling a firefly.”

Spring roses

Spring roses

Originally uploaded by SOFennell

My birthday morning began with this short tanka performed in several different ways on NHK . I thought it well suited the occasion.

くれなゐの/ Kurenai no / Gaudy, bright
二尺のびたる/ Nishyaku nobitaru / 60 cm. spread, width (about 2 ft.)
ばらの芽の / Bara no me no / Rosebud
針や はらかに / Hari ya waraka ni / young shoot (or sprout)
春雨の 降る / Haru same no furu. / Spring drizzle

I have a rough idea what this verse is about and I’ve learned some new vocabulary along the way. First, it’s a tanka (similar to a haiku) but it has 5-7-5-7-7 syllable lines. The author is unknown, as far as I know. All I could glean from working with the kanji and the sparse form of the poem is that it’s simply an encounter with a red rose, or the bud in a spring drizzle. It could be thoughts anticipating the bloom itself. I’m not entirely sure, but we had rain last night with more on the way tonight. My roses are in bloom and the brief encounter with this poem this morning was a great way to begin the day.

Cocoons

Cocoons

Originally uploaded by SOFennell

I came home from school with a small box of silk cocoons today. They’ll hatch soon and lay eggs. So, the cycle begins again. My main concern right now, it next spring. Those silkworms will need feeding and I have no mulberry trees nearby as far as I know. So, that’s a problem I need to solve, soon I hope.

In the meantime, there are small bodies inside these cocoons. I don’t know what their shapes are, but I can feel the form when I hold them. Are they still worms or are they already moths?

Then again, I was just asked, “What exactly is your end game, mother?” Good question. My answer is to harvest the silk and see what I can do with it. I could learn to spin it, or I could use it as roving. We’ll see what happens.