Ink, flags, and unlimited possibilities
Two months into my creative sabbatical and I'm finally home and figuring out my new normal.
My six weeks at Penland were incredible. I spent 7 days a week surrounded by creativity in a gorgeous, sunlit, loom-filled studio. Since returning to California, I feel a bit aimless and struggle to regain the magic and inspiration that surrounded me at Penland.
I have several workshops on deck for 2023: painting, printing, silk screening, weaving. In the meantime, I'm overwhelmed by the limitless possibilities of what I could and should be doing with my time off. For now, while I figure things out, I'm trying to finish up a few WIPs.
International Code of Signals Flags
I started sewing these maritime signal flags at the end of 2021. Don't ask why, I have no explanation. A year later, they are finally finished! I keep wishing they were smaller (they would made an adorable bunting!) or made out of cotton and assembled into a quilt... instead, I'm left with 40 huge, weatherproof, ripstop sailing flags and no boat to use them on.
Shall I string them outside in our yard to the horror of our neighbors? Or inside our house to the dismay of my partner? Maybe assemble them into a brilliantly colored sun shelter in the backyard? Only time will tell.
A flag roll up on my messy desk.
Handmade Ink
I also spent several days belatedly finishing homework from my Maiwa Ink Workshop. From top to bottom:
Indigo midnight blue
Cochineal red (interestingly, it starts out tomato red and reacts to my sketching paper, turning pink as it soaks in)
Cochinean purple
Weld + indigo green
Weld yellow
While I enjoyed using a dip pen for my carbon black inks, these colored ones are much more fun as paints. They smell of clove oil and/or wine.
DIY shoe sponsorship award
My partner ran a 50 mi ultramarathon last weekend (my literal nightmare!!) and the winning prize was a golden shoe from Salomon, granting them 10 pairs of running shoes.
50 miles takes a long time to run, so we had time for arts and crafts before the finish. Enough time to construct a DIY shoe sponsorship award, made up of a toddler shoe, a "coyote" toy (actually an arctic fox, the closest I could find), and gold glitter spray paint. The race organizer got a kick out of it and made P and his friends pose on the podium to take pictures.
