Weekly papermaking report

More fun with squiggles! I bent a piece of wire into a pleasing shape and then couched the paper onto it. I think it'll make a great pendant-- it's about an inch and a half long. The other side has the pattern in concave relief, but I like the convex side slightly better for jewelry, I think.
I've been meaning to try seed paper, but haven't gotten around to buying flower seeds yet. However, I found these squash seeds that I had saved a couple of years ago but never got around to planting, and thought I'd see how they'd do. I doubt they'll germinate, but then, not really sure I'd want them to anyway. They do look neat! They were a little bit sticky when they got wet, so they bonded with the paper more than I expected-- you have to pry them out, they won't just pop out on their own.
Then I pressed the pulp over some of the netting that grocery store oranges come in. I like the resulting texture!

And for this next one, I had thrown some cheesecloth into a dyebath I had going the other day, and decided that it would look pretty nifty incorporated into paper. It's well embedded-- it won't just fall off when I bend the paper. Though I am tempted to peel it off to see what it looks like with just the imprint left, I think I'll leave this piece alone. I only did one of each type-- I can try the cheesecloth texture-only version next time. Neat-o!

Yesterday's dye job. I find that I'm enjoying posting pictures of the dyed paper before I turn it into jewelry. Sometimes it looks so cool the way it is, I hate to chop it up! So it's nice to document the intermediate stage. This one was inspired when an Etsian posted in her blog a photo of a spilled drop of tea. I can't remember who it was, though, or I'd link! If you know, please tell me! Anyway, I thought it was amazing, and set out to riff on that simple, accidental beauty. Did a batch in earthy green on caramel, and now this red. I've already started a bracelet from it, and I think a full necklace may be in order, too. I like the shot with 2 of the drops-- reminds me a bit of binary stars.

Ok, I guess this is when the blogging starts to get difficult. My philosopher, who is an avid blog reader, tells me that it is important to blog on a fixed schedule: I'm aiming for at least Sundays, Thursdays and Fridays too if I've gotten good pictures of the cats. So here it is, Sunday, and I have NOTHING to say. I've been making stuff, yes, but I'd rather show pictures of that later, when they're done. I haven't dyed any paper in the past few days, I haven't made any new recycled paper worth showing, no new bracelets. I haven't browsed Etsy much. Haven't taken any new pictures. Haven't prepared any photograph-worthy meals for myself ("here is my Lean Pocket I'm having for lunch. Mmm!)

Yesterday I did proofread about 30 pages of a biography of Ferdinand De Soto, the explorer who trudged through Florida and 'discovered' the Mississippi. Only got through part of his early life, though. Even so, boy, those Spanish explorers. De Soto was no Pizarro, as far as his brutality goes (the biographer makes a point of emphasizing this), but still. My point is, I may have more interesting facts to impart regarding DeSoto later, but at this time, not so much.

Oh, and I'm reading an article on the semantics of futurate uses of the present progressive. But I'm not quite halfway through, so can't talk about that (and probably shouldn't, even once I'm finished).

So here we are, with an entire entry about how I have nothing to day. I figured, I could have just dropped a sentence or two about De Soto and called it a day, but then you would all say "Wow, she really had nothing to say. Why'd she bother?" Now you know. Actually, while I was riding the exercise bicycle just now and listening to "This American Life", I came up with a good paragraph or two more riffing on this same topic: the exact type of nothing I have to say on a wide variety of topics. But I think you get the point.

Friday cat blogging

After spending more time than I'd like to admit trying to get a decent shot of one or both of the cats today, this was the best I could do. Ballyhoo was mid-stretch, after telling me for about the 5th time that he would like for me to please stop blocking the sunbeam and let him nap in peace. Vindaloo kept rubbing her face on the camera, so that explains why she isn't in the pictures today.

I still go to a reading group on my favorite linguistics subject, tense and aspect. When I tell people this, they give me a Look. A "What? Why?" look. Well, I enjoy it, is the only reason I need. For an hour a week (if the discussion is interesting), I am filled again with a sense of pleasure that I only get from linguistics. The feeling of understanding something so well that you can clearly perceive the vast panorama of things you don't yet understand, and a path or two to finding out the answer. Oh, it's delicious. Remind me to tell you a little about aspect some time.


Of course, on the mundane level, it involves a lot of things I'd just as soon have nothing to do with, which is why I stopped. The day-to-day drudgery of jewelry making is far more pleasant than the day-to-day business of knowledge-making. I enjoy creating in and of itself. But I do miss the pursuit of the question, just a little.


It always seemed to me that artistic creativity and, for lack of a better term, scientific creativity, are closely related, if not identical, processes. You have to put everything you know together in one place, give it a good examination, and then answer the big question: what can I contribute? How can I approach this differently? What remains to be explored? And if you're lucky, if you have that spark, you can find some angle, some little corner to magnify and riff on in your own way. Development of lexical aspectual systems in L2 Swahili; paper jewelry-- same diff. Always building on the work of others, hopefully adding something valuable to the conversation.


Well, enough of that for now.

I've been wanting to do some things in sage green, and finally managed to get the right shade! I'm pretty pleased with the patterns that emerged, too. Have I mentioned that I love dyeing paper? Because I do.



Oh, also, I know I just was talking about how I like to make chai from scratch and so on, but on a whim I bought some of Upton's black chai blend, and I really like it. Both boiled in milk or brewed in water with milk added. It's got zip. (Upton is not paying me to plug them, btw-- I just really like their tea! I've been a faithful customer since the mid 90s.)


Here's my current favorite teacup. I bought it this past fall at the Pink Palace Art show in Memphis, from Mudpuppy Studios. Simple, rough, and aesthetically pleasing. I also think it matches my new paper rather nicely.

I have no title for this post.

Away for the weekend, to attend the 60th wedding anniversary party for my philosopher's grandparents. I have had the luxury of getting to spend the morning in the hotel room proofreading things for Project Gutenberg, and just want to say again (I haven't said it here, but I have said it before elsewhere, and it bears repeating) that I love John Stuart Mill. I've been working on proofreading his "On the Subjection of Women", and have to say that it still rocks my socks off.  And my socks, my friend, are not easily off-rocked, be they my favorite argyles nor the ones with the little froggies on lilypads.