Making stuff. . .and not

 

I am amazed at how long it's been since I posted anything. Over a month! It's hard to tell where the ebb and flow of time wanders off to these days. The pandemic is worsening, which keeps us closer to home. You would think that time would drag, and for certain hours it does. But mostly we've adapted to this new normal. I do worry that the coming winter will hurt our health care and other essential workers. The vaccine news seems good, but getting everyone vaccinated is still many months off. Maybe more.

My ceramic work has been mostly super secret until after Christmas. But I did make a few bisque stamps with dried vegetation I found on our visit to Hailey, and our Sweet Gum Tree leaves here, that are rapidly dropping. They will be very fun to use.

 Winter is coming.

Cluny the Border Collie

I also knit my lovely Grand Daughter a couple of friends. I used to whip these little stuffed animals up pretty quickly, but everything seems to take me a while now. Back and eyes can't do this fine stuff for more than an hour or so.

Jasper the Border Collie

Both of our families have Border Collies now, and I was going to buy and ship some little toys that she likes in the Border Collie group. It turned out that those were special editions, and while one can order them from Japan, shipment was going to be well after her birthday. So I said "Well, I guess I'll have to make a couple". This is an ongoing theme for me. I can't find what I want (am I really that picky?), so I have to make it. The results are Jasper and Cluny, knit with size one needles and a lot of love. They look big in the images, but in fact are only 4" tall.

Snow in early November

We are trying to continue to have friends over on our patio. That's entailed purchasing a new fire table, which doesn't seems as warming as it's 60,000 BTU's might suggest. We're tweaking the system. And we have a couple of warm days today and tomorrow. The weather has been a roller coaster all year with temperatures up and down even more than usual. I'll close with this image from last week. . . we had a lovely snow that lasted for a few days. It's all melted now, but more will come, I expect. And we finally are getting moisture dropping from the sky, which is always a huge relieve for me.

A Yarn

We visited New Zealand for a couple of months in 2018, and were able to connect with the owner of the factory that made my spinning wheel, purchased unfinished, in a kit, in the mid '80's.  I recently reconnected with the owner who had welcomed us in our visit, and I told her the story (in way too many words) of getting Jasper and making yarn out of the fleece and the dog that we so generously received from Jasper's former owner. She asked me if I'd be interested in writing an article about that incident for their newsletter. I was thrilled to do so. There has been so much generosity from so many folks in our lives. So I thought I'd share the article I wrote for her here.  It is necessarily many fewer words.

My Ashford Traveler Wheel and Jasper

 

A Yarn about a Dog and a Fleece

“If you take the dog, you can have the fleece”, the rancher said when I offered to buy the fleece. We had driven out of Boise to look at a working Border Collie, Jasper, who needed a new home because at age 9, he could no longer keep up with the younger dogs. I know the feeling. The fleece in question came to light when I mentioned that I was a hand-spinner. Of course, I would mention this to a guy who runs 1200 sheep. I hadn’t spun in years, but this fleece made my eyes light up. It was very deep brown, a merino cross (fine), long stapled, very greasy and full of vegetable matter. What potential.

Jasper, it turns out, has a very lush, fine undercoat. The sheep rancher, who also breeds his own Border Collies and Great Pyrenees dogs, said that one of the Great Pyrenees dogs may have slipped in unnoticed to visit Jasper’s Mom, and hence the undercoat. The rancher wouldn’t take our money for either treasure, so we sent him a complete set of the Walt Longmire books as a thank you. If you don't know Walt Longmire, he's a Western US icon.

The batt for spinning

After we gave Jasper the first bath of his life, I started brushing out his undercoat. It took a couple of weeks to get all of his undercoat released. It was a wonderful way to connect with a dog who had worked so hard all of his life. I have spun dog fur from previous dogs, so I knew his would be lovely. It’s very like spinning French Angora Rabbit fur. It adds softness, and eventually a halo to the items knitted from it.

 

2 and 3 ply yarn

 

 

 

 

 

There was an “Oh Dear” (maybe something stronger) when I realized what I had taken on. After skirting and sorting the wool, I washed it, and couldn’t help noticing how much vegetable matter (VM) it had in it. Oh. Dear. First the teasing, and removal of VM, mostly grass seeds. Then it was 4 times through the drum carder, removing VM during and between each run through. With each run through I also spread out the resulting batt and you guessed it; removed VM. On the last run through, I mixed in about ¼ Jasper fur by volume, by making 4 strips from the batt, spreading them out, spreading Jasper fur on top, and then folding the whole thing like an envelope. This is to avoid losing all the fur on the waste wheel of the carder. Each strip was treated the same way, building onto the first ones until I ended up with a mouthwatering thick batt. 

Jasper. The way home.

 

It’s not a perfect system, and I’m still picking out the occasional grass head while spinning. Still. There is pleasure in doing it, and the yarn is lovely; slightly unrefined, but well-structured with a lot of potential. Like Jasper.

Patio spinning and other stuff

Patio spinning with Jasper

It's been way too long since a post. I've been busy doing things I love, so it's not such a bad thing. Jasper and I have been engaging in that most sublime activity, patio spinning, every day since the last post. The weather today was 77F and clear. It's been mostly clear since the last post. However, the high pressure system that's been holding the smoke in place (unfortunately over the west coast) is shifting, and we'll see smoke again tonight or tomorrow. I've become very attached to my Air Quality app.

I love sitting outside to spin. Jasper is excellent company. It is meditative, and sweet to listen to the sounds. . .some natural, some normal human activity.  The fleece still has some vegetable matter that needs to be shaken or picked out as I spin, but it's also softer than soft.

We went out for a meal on a patio (at a Restaurant) this past week. We haven't done so since the first week in March, and it felt other worldly, though of course it's not exactly normal. Still. It does feel safe. We had two drinks to drive up our bill, and triple tipped. Afterwards, we wandered around downtown, masks on, and it really felt odd and normal at the same time. Something we used to do all the time, but newly unfamiliar.

Freak Alley

Freak Alley used to be a rebellious bit of illegal artwork on the buildings in an alley, but it's been codified by the city now. This painting is an inside joke. . .Aaron Paul (left on the painting) is a local boy made good in the series Breaking Bad. 

I want to go downtown and patronize some of the businesses someday soon, but it is amazing how quickly our habits change. I don't wander around shops or drop by a coffee shop at all any more. I only go to them for groceries and home repair stuff.

View from the top, Shaffer Butte

We also took a wonderful hike at Shaffer Butte over the weekend. This is how clear it was. . .the clouds looked like they had been hung. The American West is wonderful in it's clarity of color when it isn't burning.

Clay. Right. I should talk a little bit about clay. I have several pieces in the kiln ready to bisque, but have been busy with other stuff, so I've been woefully unproductive in that arena.

Harvest continues here for likely another month, and I have run out of canning lids. Who knew we could run out of those? It is odd to see which shelves are empty at various times. It makes me realize how completely we have taken the supply chain for granted. For everything. The good news is that I need canning lids because a friend gave me 20 pounds of beautiful plums. Now, if I can just get them preserved. . . .

Blue skies. . .nothin' but. . .

The sky at Saturday Dinner

Well. Ok. That's a bit of a lie. There are lots of skies that aren't blue, but we got a break today in the air quality. As we had dinner on the patio, this is what I saw. And just this evening, the Air Quality Index went into the "good" range. . .42. This is very good. It's not likely to last, but still. Now is now.

A haunted hike: yesterday

I 

 

 

 

I was walking Jasper on Friday, and the only word I could think of for the atmosphere was "haunted". Jasper doesn't seem to mind beyond my distress (which I try to hide), but eventually the sore throat and accompanying raspy voice and the watering eyes are hard to ignore. The other "haunted" aspect is that the trails are uncharacteristic unpopulated. I would normally be pretty pleased with this, but it's only because most folks have better sense then to hike outdoors when there is a health risk involved with breathing.

The garden is noticeably slowing down. I think the plants key onto the shortening days. . .especially the tomatoes, who like heat and light so much. I picked a couple that had barely broken from green to red just because I felt like I should have something to show. I also picked the eggplant that has just been sitting there waiting for something to happen. Kentucky wonder green beans continue to give me 8-12 a harvest, which showed up on the dinner table tonight, along with a Heritage Tomato pie. A quiche, if you're French, but of course these are good old Early Girls, not heritage tomatoes, which have too long of a growing season to work for us. I stand by my Early Girls, though. They are super delicious, always. Smallish, but that's ok. Size matters not. 

Wool processing continues; pottery making continues. . .a new dress may be in the offing.

The monster we invited

 Who wants to talk about this, really? But here we are, socially distanced, and now the outdoors has become another potent enemy. Our Air Quality Index (according to my new app, which I felt the need to acquire) is 132. Unhealthy for sensitive people. It was worse yesterday, and is Far Worse in Oregon and parts of Washington. But still. Going outside was our primary mode of stress reduction. Exercise. Breathing. Wait. No breathing for YOU. 

All of that green outside my studio door is so generous. Filtering smokey air through their leaves (the stuff of all life) just as we're filtering it through our lungs. Our bodies. I'm watching a squirrel optimisticly burying a nut. His eyes and throat can't be feeling great, either. A former student of mine lives in Tigard, Oregon, south of Corvalis. His aqi number at this very minute is 365. Purple. "Hazardous". We have so fouled this nest. Where we will go from here is a mystery, but let's hope someone has Climate Change on their radar. Someone other than our little group. Someone with a modicum of power to execute change. What an undeserving species we are.

Enough of that. Let's talk about the sample I knit from my intimidating fleece, and the small porcelain pieces made in this very studio while avoiding assault by smoke.

Good news bad news on the sample. It is so lovely and soft. Once the grass was cleaned out of the fleece, it spun up well, though I still had the occasional piece of organic matter to pick out while spinning. It was enough to make me pay attention, but not enough to be annoying. This fleece is definitely worth the effort, so I have a whole lot of work ahead of me.

The most recent hand-built pieces of porcelain are similarly encouraging. Why do I resist hand-building? I have this subconscious notion, I think, that throwing is just cooler than hand-building. Maybe not so subconscious. I should probably sell my wheel, but then those over reactions are typical of a smoke-drunk human. Anyway! A spoon rest and mug, in the raw. I like both forms, and hand-building allows for so much lovely texture. 

They will shrink a lot, but I know from experience (and the pattern that I made) that the mug will be just right. . .very Goldilocks. The spoon rest needs more refining.I'll try using a form (a bowl?) next time to get the curve a little more refined.

Still. It will work, and function does matter to me. They need to dry a little more, and I'll try to get into the studio more seriously tomorrow. Then on to the kiln for the bisque firing.

Moving forward on fiber

 

The yarn after washing and winding. 2 ply left; 3 ply right

Well. After wringing my hands about cleaning this fleece, I've gotten a sample spun, plied and washed. The spinning makes a single, the plying is spinning 2 or 3 singles together to make what looks like a pretty familiar yarn to anyone. Unless you're a spinner, the single will not impress. 

Typically, one spins extra twist into the single, and then plies in the opposite direction, resulting in a yarn that doesn't try to twist in any direction. It's neutral. It just sits there. So there are a lot of good reasons for plying, in spite of the fact that it's 2-3 times as much spinning!

My Ashford Traveler wheel

The yarn above is pretty typical of the yarn I like to spin. I can make it more even, but I like the handmade something-something of the slightly uneven yarn. The larger ball on the left is 2 ply (a little heavier than sport weight), the one on the left is 3 ply (made via a technique called Navajo plying), and it's thicker. . .worsted weight. I'll need to knit both of them into swatches, then put them against my skin. The yarn does feel remarkably soft to my hand.

 

Singles being plied

 

I have to say that I am very impressed with the softness of this yarn. Jasper's fur contributed to it's softness, I think, but the wool itself is also quite fine. This presents a problem, since it will be harder to say "no" to cleaning ALL OF IT. Oh dear.

 

2 ply yarn on the spindle

Firing and misfires

Birdhouse after bisque firing

 Well, back to the clay for a bit. I need to spin that batt, and then decide how much, if any, of the wool is worth saving. Mine is not a long attention span. I am a serial process junkie. First there is inspiration, then the learning (often years long), then the practicing, then on to the next thing. It's not something I'm proud of, but a hard thing to fight. Some things are just written into our DNA. I'm feeling like I need to get out the clay biz just now. I've had a good five years of working on this. I even joined a community studio while we were in Australia. But still, it's more disappointment than progress.

First the good news. I'm liking the birdhouse. I really like the form, the design is clever (the base fits inside the house so I can remove it easily for cleaning), and it came out of the bisque firing in good shape. Of course I agonized over how to glaze it, but I'm even pretty ok with that. Well. Not completely, but it's not an embarrassment.

Birdhouse front on base

The flowers on the front are more purple than dark red (mixing underglazes is a crap shoot if you don't test first!), but that's ok. I used a diluted underglaze over the non-roof portions of it to accentuate the texture, then sponged it off, let it dry, and put on a single coat of Klaus Hard White. The base and roof are glazed with a new glaze from Amaco called Muddy Waters. Bmix cone 5-6, all fired to cone 5. 

I won't be able to mount it until after the birds all leave the current house, but that's ok. I need to get a wood base and paint it. 

 

 

Amazingly I remembered to put holes in the base of the house for screws. I am really pleased with the texture on all sides of the house.

Birdhouse side

Birdhouse Back

The bad news is that my two thrown pieces are so disappointing. They are English Grolig Porcelain. Shrinkage was more than I expected, though I guess that isn't too surprising with porcelain. The real disappointment is that I just don't like them. I love the way the porcelain fires for wall pieces. Very white and stark. But in these pieces, it's too white. Too stark. It needs the complexity of form that I had in the wall pieces. Or it needs to be thrown much thinner, which is currently beyond my capacity. They will eventually end up in the landfill, but I can't bring myself to do that just yet.

Porcelain Cup

After 66 years of life, I have learned to try for perfection, knowing full well that it is neither attainable, or worth going too far for. Perfection truly is the enemy of good, as one of the academic advisors warned me. It was good advice, but right now, these pieces are just too far from "good". So I'll continue to aim for perfection, know that if I end up with good, I'll content myself with that.

 

       

 

Plate with accidental moodiness

Plate with more light control in the photo