Day 18, exploring ancient tools again...from the comfort of my AC!

On the way to the shed, I taste of a young dandelion leaf sprouting from the bare earth where my neighbor's water line was recently replaced.  I enjoy its tender, flavorful bite, and called it good...my summer-morning wilding!

Tender young dandelion plant

A day of heat and thick blue humid air, when my "re-wilding" in the middle of the day must be done indoors, exploring pigments and ancient methods of making art--and watching the wildlife beyond my windows.  In lieu of a mountain stream or a cool lake to jump into, this will have to do.

The books I spoke of the other day are these--so different but all useful and inspiring.  I've done many of the things these authors suggest, from making my own pigments as I mentioned the other day to cutting pens from quills, twigs, bamboo and reed...

(I've owned the Dover book in the center for years...it's one of my favorites.  The other two are recent...if you click on the image it will enlarge enough to see titles and authors.)

I often test one stone against another to see if they'll grind with interesting colors...here's hematite, ochre, and some interesting greenish-gray pebble.  The grinder at top is a found stone, the other is an inexpensive Japanese suzuri or ink-grinding stone.

Here are a few of the pens I've made...

The pen on top has a tiny reservoir added, to make it hold more ink.

This is how Denis Diderot illustrated cutting a quill pen in the early 18th century...I use a similar method.

 
I have arranged with the friend who made the rawhide for the healing drum to save me some deer hair to make my own paintbrushes.

There is something so satisfying about making and using your own tools, whether art tools, practical pottery, sandals, moccasins, knives...

I used this little flint herb-cutting knife in the garden today, trimming back some things and harvesting on my way to the shed.  The handle is bone I found in the woods...

And for the maximum inspiration beautifully presented, there is this video chronicling primitive potter Kelly Magleby, exploring pottery Anasazi-style.  I am in awe...my own experiments with primitive-style pottery seem almost urban by comparison!

Hand built raku pot

Day 14, Re-wilding--creativity in ancient ways

I love to explore how our forebears might have worked when creating art...discovering my own pigments, grinding and making paints, making my own pens or other tools, trying out natural dyes or inks...

Drawing with a twig dipped in paint or ink connects me to ancestors long gone.  They drew on cave walls and stone and parchment, I on paper made from plants--but still I sense them looking over my shoulder.

Hematite on a grinding stone...it makes a beautiful reddish brown color.  That's the hematite stone itself at lower right.

My palette of natural colors! 

This is the healing hand symbol currently on my healing drum...it's limonite I found in our local river's gravel bar.  I've since found a darker stone, perhaps a type of hematite like the one above, that I want to use, so may give it a try.  It's a good feeling to honor our ancestors and to use the kinds of tools they might have used.

I often use this river stone for smoothing, rather than reach for the sandpaper...

Check out Nick Neddo's book, The Organic Artist: Make Your Own Paint, Paper, Pigments, Prints and More from Nature, or Sandy Webster's Earthen Pigments; Hand-Gathering & Using Natural Colors in Art for much, much more.

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It was a honeysuckle, honeybee, and hummingbird kind of a morning and I loved sitting and working
where I could see these little visitors.

This little female repeatedly darts in for a taste, chittering each time, then draws away before chittering and diving for another taste.  None of the others seem to need to vocalize before drinking--perhaps she's giving thanks!

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Interesting, to me, the way my blog offers related posts or those you might be interested in.  I checked back on this one, on nurturing or killing creativity and found it relevant but ironic, in one way.

Though I am normally not one for challenges or prompts, I have taken on this 31-day challenge, and I DO feel a bit constrained by it, as I thought I would.

Still it is one I need, and it's deeper and more personal than most, and completely self-directed--letting the days unfold as they will, grateful for what they offer me. 

(And if you're interested in what DOES nourish my own creativity, that was the post before, here.)