my drawing comrade and I
were talking about that feeling you get
when you are making
or designing
or working with
the 'right' thing.
with long term projects
where decisions have been made
and inherent pleasure already built in
so (at least for the time being),
there is nothing to do
but enjoy the doing.
that in the midst of long term making projects
other ideas are given to showing up--
and you might find yourself
pulled off onto
a compelling but slightly foggy path,
enjoying the general direction,
not quite sure what you're doing,
but aware
(or at least hoping),
that pretty soon
there will be more information--
about material
texture
color
or even medium
that will shift things,
this way
or that.
to stay loose when walking this path --
to not analyze every step--
(it's usually too foggy for that anyway),
but rather to feel,
to listen,
to notice nuances--
(though sometimes not)
to the way that ideas,
processes,
hands,
feet,
eyes,
mixed metaphors
and materials
respond to one another.
if you keep walking
(for minutes, hours, weeks, months).
you find yourself in that magical reciprocal relationship
where the stuff you are making
is also making you.
Full of hope and possibility.
Honing my nerve endings.
Meandering with intent.
It's interesting,
clearly compelling,
a teensy bit unnerving.
But so what?
There is much to be learned
even when I stumble.
and to end on a practical note,
I've been doing some glycerine experiments.
Jillayne brought the idea to my attention.
and Sue mentioned it again in the comments a couple of weeks ago.
The point is to soak dry plant material in a glycerine solution
which keeps it permanently flexible even when dry again.
The point, for me, is to have cordage that doesn't need soaking before weaving
and which can be made into things that won't crack when bent.
Some internet sources talk about soaking the stems of fresh plants in the glycerine solution and letting the plant draw it up into the leaves and flowers,
but so far I've only worked with dry material --
both cordage and leaves -- to good effect.
We'll learn more if lots of us try.
Anyone up for some experiments?
Glycerine + Cordage + leaves -- |