Over the past two weeks I got started on my fall commission
pieces. The first one is a
revisitation of my ‘Tap Water’ piece that features a water faucet dripping onto
a dandelion with a long taproot. I
began by digging through my earthy browns, which I love to do. The colors remind me of chocolate, from
American milk chocolate to extra dark Swiss delights. The darkest colors sink to the bottom of the piece in a
gradient to the lighter browns at the surface. I warped the loom and just rocked on the dirt for the
piece. My next project was to
create the stone wall that holds the faucet. For the mortar I use greys with a hint of brown to give the
piece a warm feel. Oh, and the
teacup in the picture is from a local artist, Walt Schmidt. At the Fourth Street Festival he caught
me drinking out of a cup made by a Slovak artist, but that wasn’t enough to
appease Walt. He gave me a nice
cup from his wares. It is perfect
for tea—thanks Walt!
To create the stones in my rock wall I like to cluster
similarly colored yarns together.
That got me digging through my box of sand yarns. Unfortunately, I discovered that a
rodent was trying to turn my yarn stores into a winter pantry. I found acorns, allium seeds, and
sunflower seeds. To Mr.
Mouse: sorry, that is SO not
happening. I gave Jim some dark
sunglasses, a stern look and orders to solve the problem. Despite the losses, I was still able to
bring together soft grey pinks, stony browns and earthy purples to make the
stones I needed.
I want them to be
slightly colorful, reminiscent of the different granite rocks I found on the
beaches of the Pinery in Ontario, where I grew up. I just love the colors in the water-polished stones! I even added some yarns with glittery
characteristics to match the feel of the rocks when the sun hits them. The effect needs to be muted so the
rocks, which cover a large background surface area, don’t stand forward and
fight with the foreground water tap structure.
Fall marks the time when the boys get seriously into their
extracurricular activities. That
gives me lots of time to needle felt objects I need. Jacob is practicing for a hip-hop showcase in two weeks, and
both boys are gearing up for the next belt (red/black) in Taekwondo. It’s the last stop before black
belt! I have had plenty of time to
create the dandelion leaves and root that I need, as well the tree trunk for the next
commission piece. That will
feature a willow tree with a nearby park bench.
The last two weeks also featured all sorts of fun family
events. Grandma came to visit
during the boy’s fall break. The
weather was perfect, giving us plenty of outdoor time. That keeps Grandma happy! She mowed the lawn twice. Really! I think the second pass just scares the grass, but she seems
to think the collecting bag fills up again. We did leave the lawn in pretty bad shape before she arrived. She bought herself a present that will
stay at our house, which is a weed-whipping trimmer. Jacob has taken to it, and now the lawn looks wonderfully
manicured all around. We also
managed to do some shopping for a new sofa after seventeen years of hard use on
the last one. We traveled
Bloomington to test every couch in town for bottom-pleasing comfort.
While we shopped, Jim made a delightful
salmon dinner and followed it up with a farmer’s market fresh raspberry
pie—yum! On Saturday, everyone had
a nice trip to the farmer’s market.
That means we made a stop at Le Petit Café for hot chocolate, bought lots
of fall veggies for the week, and came home a basket of tomatoes for the
freezer.
We even got in a trip out
to Brown County to see the fall colors.
The boys and I did some zip-lining, we had lunch at Zaharenkos, and we
all took in a round of mini-golf.
ONE of us scored THREE holes in one! Since you asked, yes, it WAS me! With the beautiful blue skies on a perfect fall day,
everything just came together nicely.
Except that the pie disappeared way too fast. I think we’ll need another soon, please, pie fairy!
Until next week,
Martina Celerin
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