My garden cleanup now that the zinnias are finally done, was to shake the soil off their roots and toss the greenery into the trees to feed the earth. That's about it.
On the way back I committed a bit of gardener's larceny, just swiped a bit of Gary's ivy to start in the house. I don't like ivy outside, clawing at the stucco, but I fancy some trailing indoors.
Last year I made soap using ivy Gary gave me when he was pulling it back. That was a bit of fun. Ed: April 6, 2023, but who's counting.
Just boil a bunch of leaves in water until the saponiferous element is released, and it thickens up a bit, let sit a day to gel further, and you've got a soap solution. I did a batch of laundry just to try it out, worked fine. I imagine it's friendly to the environment, too.
I do make my laundry liquid, not usually with ivy, but with borax, washing soda and castile soap. No perfumes, additives, unknown brighteners.
About handmade paper, as promised
This piece, about 24" x 18", is made from first cut cotton linters pulp, the way you get that brilliant white
And
below, blogger dropping pictures any old where, is abaca, banana, fiber molded over toys and numerals, a Fibonacci quilt idea. About 40"x 30+"
When this was on exhibit, I was there when a little boy studied it for ages then announced to his mom "There's no number 4!" I'm guessing he was four. And no, it's about the Fibonacci sequence, so there isn't a 4.
I had to angle this a bit to avoid reflections, a pulp painting about moonlight. You load tube things with pulp, and paint using them as if with brushes. It dries like a painting, it's not a collage. I added copper wire later. About 30"x18"
Here's a sheet of iris paper from my plants, overprinted with stamps I carved from plastic erasers. That's fun you should try.
Sometimes a sheet of paper is a useful backing piece for small weavings. Here a couple of small four selvage tapestries are mounted on a sheet of abaca mix paper
And when you've made all the things, you salvage every tiny scrap from the vat and use the bits to cover photo frames, so your frugal self will consent to finally dumping the vat. Outdoors, okay for the earth, not in the sink, bad for plumbing.
Sunday evening, in anticipation of the temp going to the low 30sf, I reluctantly turned on the furnace. Set at 68°f. I hoped to make it to the clock change next weekend, but oh well.
Happy day everyone, make all the things, or read about them, and say not in this life, honey!
