Flax Update

The flax is doing well; as you can see it is now about 30 inches tall and is covered with beautiful cornflower blue blooms. It is quite lovely waving in the breeze. The lower part of the plants are starting to turn yellow as it matures, but it is not ready to reap yet. I am somewhat disappointed that it will not be ready to harvest before the kids leave for the summer. I will need to come back during the summer to check its progress and pull it up when it is ready.

8 Things You Don't Know About Me

My daughter tagged me with this meme, so here I am:



1. I collect turtle shells---Terrapinas carolinas, aka Carolina Box Turtle---to be more specific. I have a nice collection that I have found in the woods near my home. The shells decay slowly when the animal dies, and I have examples that still have the outer scales attached as well as some that are just the boney calciferous remains. I don't remember when I started saving them, and I really don't have a reason for it. I just like these creatures with their beautifully patterned armour. They are becoming threatened as more and more roads are built and vehicle traffic becomes heavier through their habitat. When they travel across the roads, their slow pace makes them vulnerable to drivers who are less than concerned about their welfare. My daughter and I have rescued many by moving them out of harms way. If you move a turtle out of the road; be sure to take him to the side he is traveling toward, or he will just turn around and go back!



2. I cannot tolerate having anything laying across my legs. Phobia? I'm not sure. When my husband and it are watching a movie, if he lays his leg across mine I really struggle to allow it, but just a few seconds is all I can handle. I panic and begin to feel trapped.



3. I don't watch TV...just a waste of time in my opinion.



4. I am a PACKRAT of the Royal Order. I hate to throw "stuff" away, because I can always imagine some use for it at a later date. This is somewhat of a problem (storage/order/organization/etc) since my husband of 32 years is the Grand Poobah of Packrats of the Royal Order.



5. I don't fight with my husband and I don't nag...makes life easier. But, I do voice my opinions in reasonable discussions with my always wrong half (just kidding, Honey!).



6. I hate doing dishes. I love to cook and I love a neat kitchen, but I deplore washing dishes. I think its a subconcious reaction to all those dirty dishes my Mom MADE me wash while my sister didn't.



7. I will try just about anything once, as long as it isn't illegal or immoral. I tend to just jump into things and then look back to see where I am how I got there. I read instructions only after having leaped forward on my own. Sometimes this gets me in over my head, but...I haven't drowned...YET!



8. I am very picky...about socks that match my clothes, clothes that match, people rearranging my Stuff, lint & fuzzballs on clothes, squeezing the toothpaste from the end of the tube, spelling, scribbling out writing, sorting out laundry





I tag Ellen and Kristin.

Dying Almost Killed Me

Well, never let it be said that dying is effortless. Two days of gathering plants, two days of mordanting, four long days of preparing dyes and then actually dying, standing most of the day on these concrete/tile floors ... horrendous on the old knees, but, after almost two weeks of work, the Appalachian Arts natural dying project results are finally in. I tried to get all the colors in one shot, but the photo just doesn't do them justice. If you click on the photo and look at the larger version you get a better idea of the color. We only purchased the indigo for the blues; everything else is local plants. There are still lots of other plants I want to try, but a lot are not ready to gather yet, and I would also like to do overdyes for new colors, so---at a later date, we will try again. This was a great practical chemistry lesson; the kids were very interested in why one plant gave such different results with different mordants. What a great excuse to pull my chemistry background into my art classes (my original degree is science; I taught Chemistry for five years). All in all, this has been a great project. I don't think the kids will forget this one.

Prepare to Dye

Last week we began our natural dying lessons. We gathered yellowroot (top photo), curly dock plant & roots, blackberry shoots and wild cherry bark around the school grounds. I brought bloodroot and roots off my eastern red cedar from home. A friend had collected marigold blooms and froze them for me last summer and my independent study student and I had gathered and dried goldenrod last fall. Cassie donated black walnuts for the dye pots. The only dyestuff we purchased was indigo. The first two days of dying we cooked down our dye liquors (bottom photo). The third day was dedicated to mordanting the wool. After all the prep work we were really excited to get down to the actual dying. This has been wonderful for the kids. People were coming into the room following their noses to the strange smells emanating from our pots with "Phew, what's that smell?" heard from more than one passerby. The kids would just patiently explain what they were doing and laugh about the "smelly" comments. Results of the lesson to follow...

Shearly Interesting Field Trip

On Tuesday, my Appalachian Arts students and I traveled to visit my friend Martha's farm to watch her sheep being sheared. The shearers are from Australia and come to America each year and travel around to small herds. They stay with the farm owner and shear sheep daily for as many days as needed before moving on to another herd. One of the guys said he had probably sheared a million sheep, at up to 30,000 per year. He started shearing at the age of 16 because it was what he had always wanted to do, and he added that not many people his age could say that they had spent their entire life doing what they loved to do. My students had never seen this anywhere other than on TV. They really enjoyed talking with the shearers, and were amazed at how these guys manhandled the sheep "at their age". The shearers seemed to really enjoy talking to the kids and answering their questions. As we were leaving, the shearer thank me for bringing my students; he said he had really enjoyed talking to them and that it helped break up the "sameness" of the job at hand. This was a great experience for my kids ...and I bought a beautiful fleece from a sheep named Natalie. My daughter and I will have fun washing, carding and spinning.