The Book of Night Women

"This is why we dark, cause in the night we disappear and become spirit. Skin gone and we become whatever we wish. We become who we be. In the dark with no skin I can write. And what write in darkness is free as free can be, even if it never come to light and go free for real." - pg. 427, "The Book of Night Women" by Marlon James

Lilith

Natural Dyeing with Plants: Glorious Colors from Roots, Leaves and Flowers

Purple is my favorite dye to use. I like Logwood, and also black tea with an iron after bath, and also avocado with an iron after bath. They all give various purple tones. 

" There are legends of both gods and heroes relating to the discovery of several dyes, such as, for example, the story of purple. Purple is one of the most important and valuable dyes of antiquity, and according to legend, it was the Phoenician god Melqart who discovered the effect produced by the purple snail while walking by the sea. Supposedly his dog bit one of these snails in two, whereupon the animal's jaw turned purple. The god wiped the dog's mouth, believing that it was hurt, and found to his surprise that the cloth he had used was dyed the most glorious red tone he had never seen. According to this legend, dyeing with purple snails thus comes from the Phoenicians, and it has actually also been proven that the Phoenicians were using purple dye by 1400 BCE. This dye remained very popular among the Romans. There is a text from 301 CE that contains, among other information, the exact prices for purple. To convert prices into today's currency is difficult, but it can be assumed from the literature that at least $9,200 in today's dollars was spent for slightly more than two pounds of purple dyed silk." - pg.10, Natural Dyeing with Plants

on dyeing:

"However, just as things already were during the long history of dyeworks, it is still so today: Dyeing with plants is an art, a secret, and an activity that requires a holistic approach to the dyestuffs and the material. " -pg. 12, Natural Dyeing with Plants 

-Both quotes taken from Natural Dyeing with Plants: Glorious Colors from Roots, Leaves, and Flowers by Franziska Ebner and Romana Hasenohrl https://www.schifferbooks.com/natural-dyeing-with-plants-glorious-colors-from-roots-leaves-flowers-6423.html  This book is excellent. I also checked at this book from the library, and liked it equally well https://www.workman.com/products/harvesting-color Harvesting Color by Rebecca Burgess. She divides natural dyes into different times of year, based on when they are best to harvest and use. She also includes maps of the United States, and where the foraged dye plants are located, and how to dye and harvest sustainably. 

Missing my Tree

Missing my wild apple tree in the Cambrian Mountains.

Working on a dryad or a fairy

Little Baby Ghost Deer

ink on paper after a evening encounter

Honeycomb Pleatwork Apron

I recently made a medieval/renaissance inspired apron, from a free pdf pattern titled 'Honeycomb Pleatwork Apron' by Baroness Genoveva von Lübeck of germanrenaissance.net. It's been saved on my desktop for a hot minute, so I finally decided to try my hand at smocking. I loved the simple beauty of this apron. 

 "Aprons are an ubiquitous accessory in medieval and renaissance ages. Not only do they protect clothing from dirt and grime, they serve as a handy way to carry items and can even be fashionable.

Pleating the top of an apron is a simple way to gather a larger quantity of fabric as well as show off one skill with a needle. Simple pleated aprons are popular in Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th

centuries, as seen in the images below."- taken from pattern pdf by Baroness Genoveva von Lübeck

Medieval apron citing on an angel (?)

"Birth of Jesus," Oil paint on panel. ca. 1390-1400. Part of a four part panel. In collection of Museum Mayer van den Bergh Antwerp. 

"Pleatwork can be done on shirt necklines, collars, sleeves, and cuffs. The modern name for pleatwork is smocking. The German word is fitz-arbeit (which means pleat-work). The German word for apron is schurz. Only two pleatwork styles have survived in clothing: honeycomb (Alpirsbach monastery find) and pattern darning (Mary of Hapsburg chemise)." - on pattern pdf from Germanrenaissance.net

Pillows

I made these pillows out of my grandmother's old lines. I dyed them with logwood/cochineal and avocado/cochineal. The ribbons I bought, and are silk dyed with logwood. I adore silk. The whole time I was sewing I kept thinking about all the pillows in Indian miniature erotic scenes. Particularly the foot pillow. 

"Kissing Both Eyes," ca. 1725

"Erotic Scene," ca.1675-1700

"Lovers on a Terrace," ca. 1800-1825

I know how to make the paper that the miniatures are painted on because I took an Indo-Islamic papermaking class with Radha Pandey at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts. It is a particular type of excitement to know I have some comprehension of that. All paintings are in the collection of The Walters Art Museum. 

Lie With Me, 2

    "For a long time I will return to this moment, a moment in which a young man approached me with a confident stride. I think of it as the perfect little crack in an extraordinarily brief window of opportunity.

    If I had not been abandoned by my friends, if he had failed to convince his to leave him behind, this moment would not have taken place. It could have almost never happened.

    I try to figure out the part that chance played, to assess the nature of the risk that led to the encounter, but I don't succeed. We are in the land of the unthinkable. (Later he will tell me that he waited for the right moment to approach me but until that morning it had never arisen.)

    In later years, I will often write about the unthinkable, the element of unpredictability that determines outcomes. And game-changing encounters, the unexpected juxtapositions that can shift the course of a life. 

    It starts there, in the winter of my seventeenth year." -  pgs. 25-26, Lie With Me: A Novel by Philippe Besson, translated from the french by Molly Ringwald. Such a moving, incredible book.