one sixty.  seems important.  and it continues a little odd.  things happening for people.  Here and There, changes.  i just hung up from Nurse Cindy at the Old Folks Home where Alz B is and she has been offered a job elsewhere.  so…it was a kind of Looking conversation, of where she IS, where she might Go and we are relatively New to one another, but also, there is the Recognition of the Familiar.

Cindy speaks of ….God….and she knows that i speak of the….god thing….but we allow for the differences and look for the similarities and we are Good with it.  She will try to come tomorrow to help me castrate the little bucks.  and i know she will, if at all humanly possible.  

Today there was 4 significant storms.  one on the heels of the other with short pause inbetween.  This made for miserable sad Goats.  their Hay, soggy.  sad.  miserable.  and the way sad miserable Goats express their sad miserableness is with repetative blah blah blahs and this made me wish in the moment that i could say something to them, Loud, like to the dogs, and even Tazmeena the cat that would make them be

quiet.

but…Goats, no.  Bleah Bleah Bleah.  all day.  i'm glad it's dark.  maybe tomorrow will be different?  maybe not.  who knows.

 

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and the cloth on the cloth line yesterday, dry, inside, ….a very significant difference.  so, Looking. 

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and i wrapped some cloth with wire.  in this case, baling wire and a little copper wire, which there is in abundance around here and made even a "tool" of it  to retrieve the cloth from the depths of the vat.  felt quite accomplished by this.

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and these.  from the vats….the canning pots, not caste iron, … look at the difference.  lacking the iron mordant.  so tomorrow i'll put some of the SAME cloth in an alluminum pot and see what happens.  I feel very scientific.

 

 

 

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17 responses to “160”

  1. Nance Avatar
    Nance

    I just love that rose print… And yes a significant difference… Looks a bit purple ish . Good! And more like what I got from my walnuts … Are you Happy with it?
    Will cindy go to another town? Far away?
    Change is the only constant…here too.xxxooo

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  2. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    Sometimes I wish folks would stop moving around, but that’s just like wishing technology would stop posing unwanted challenges, or that the weather would always do what I need it to do….nothing taken seriously. Shocked by the difference in the cloth. I think I got the deeper browns one year when I used the black hardened husk covered black walnuts…not fallen green ones. They don’t ripen to form a husk off the tree. They shouldn’t have fallen green given a good season, but I think this past season was not ’cause they fell green when I was in Massachusetts too. I only used white vinegar after I boiled the leaves, let them sit for a few days, then drained the debris out, added vinegar and boiled the bundle, then let it sit a few more days. I don’t remember how much the rinse bled. LOVE that ‘tool’ you made.

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  3. Minka Avatar

    I like the large floral print. Beautiful shade of brown. I love brown.
    What is the tall tree? Mimosa?

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  4. patricia Avatar

    lately i’ve had similar experiences with dyeing. the amazing deep vibrant image/color when wet, then watching it slowly fade before my eyes, disappearing into the mist. becoming memory. my inclination was to say “wait. come back, just for a moment.” and then wondering where did it go? it reminds me, as well, of a dear relative who was so mentally sharp all her life until she wasn’t. and the last time i visited with her i was able to get her attention for just a second. our eyes met. she was there–just long enough for me to ask, “Aunt Jess, where have you gone?” but not long enough to answer.

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  5. jude Avatar

    was the fist piece cotton?

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  6. grace Avatar
    grace

    no, silk noile

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  7. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Used the very dark husks for most of my walnut dyeing and left cloth in pot for a very long time. (Over dyeing existing cloth patterns is very good, gives that old time sepia feeling to cloth.) Sometimes, I would take the pot and heat it as well. Lots depends on the water as most of my cloths stayed that deep brown, with varying shades depending on how long I left them…well, I wouldn’t say the gift of walnut vat the best you have ever given for you have the ability to give very, very good gifts, but this one stems from you knowing me so well and knowing that walnuts would be one thing I would miss now that I live in the desert…the joy that I feel from knowing that it is waiting for me is so good, thank you for this especially thoughtful gift.

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  8. grace Avatar
    grace

    yes…it’s purple ish…with emphasis on the ish. i
    am happy with whatever happens, really, so yes. i DO
    want that earthy brown too tho and will leave some in
    there for longer than hours and i think i’ll get it.
    Cindy lives in an other town already/anyway and drives
    about an hour to get to the place here. so, she’ll still
    live in her same place, just drive to Albuquerque instead.
    AND she has a personal connection with one of the women
    at our place here, so will continue to come weekly to
    see to her, is her “Family”…and that’s when she stops
    here on her way home. so…might not change a lot as
    far as she/me/Goats? but we’ll see. Change is the only
    constant, yup.

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  9. grace Avatar
    grace

    i haven’t used any vinegar at all. just the difference
    in pots and i haven’t boiled anything, just SUN.
    i think the big difference will happen when i leave it
    alone for a couple days or longer. i’ve just been so
    excited…
    and the tool…i feel like the chimpanzees that use
    the twig for ants….all self satisfied….

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  10. grace Avatar
    grace

    yes…the floral will make many interesting scraps/fragments
    the print remains an indigo.
    Tree is Locust. very similar to mimosa.

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  11. grace Avatar
    grace

    i go stand in front of this cloth every time i move around
    here this morning, looking at it….
    it’s really interesting to me that the “design” is still
    there, but really so subtle, almost Hidden. this could
    have some interesting meaning if i go forward to trying
    to create a Cloth with it…how the Magic is always
    there in matters of the Earth, but is not always evident?
    Aunt Jess…so tender a story.
    last with Alz. B. i sang her the Miss Lucy Had a Baby
    song and she began LAUGHING, like almost belly laughs.
    and then disappeared again

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  12. grace Avatar
    grace

    Marti…it’s some of all stages and also a lot..
    Could be separated later. and also is really a new batch.
    i’m sure it will thicken…like Jude’s got syrupy.
    really looking fwd to seeing what happens with some in
    the aluminum today. and then, i want to make a smaller
    container in a cast iron and let it oxidize. lots of
    possibilities. LOTS.

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  13. beth Avatar

    Feeling very scientific. I love that. I call them science experiments and I warn my husband–science experiment in the sink, on the deck, in the bucket in the front hall, in the compost pile… He doesn’t even raise his eyebrows any more just says okay.
    Yes, that cloth is so different. But I like it and now I want it to have stitching.

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  14. Mo Crow Avatar

    your stitching might trace the fugitive earthiness… like following the songlines in the landscape of the cloth

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  15. grace Avatar
    grace

    interesting. i don’t know how many times i read:
    furtive earthiness
    because…i guess i see it that way????
    just now i read
    fugitive
    OH…this, THIS is interesting.

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  16. grace Avatar
    grace

    here goes…

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