Three potato more. I’ve
been making potatoes! Needle felting sweet potatoes, Yukon
gold, and redskins pretty much filled up my week. We spent the
first part of spring break in Michigan, which gave me hours to needle felt
along the drives to and fro. I’m assembling
components for my weaving ‘My Roots’, so I’ve been thinking about all the root
vegetables that are part of my life.
Sweet potatoes are back in our life after a long hiatus. They left our diet when the boys came along,
but as they have gotten older, new flavors are creeping past their selective
palates. A couple of years ago, baked
sweet potatoes finally made the cut. Now
sweet potatoes are a pretty consistent part of our dinners, including when we
go out to our favorite restaurant, the Owlery.
Sweet potato fries are the side of choice, and hands down they have the best
fries in town.
From an artistic perspective, I’m still pretty excited about
figuring out how to do potato skin surfaces.
The secret is something I picked up from a video series about Mark
Rothko’s strategy of layering translucent paint colors to create glowing
effects. I have embraced that concept in
my medium to make lifelike potato surfaces using dyed fleece. The sweet potato under color is fleece dyed
with onion skins and the over layer is a hot chocolate brown that I bought a
few years ago at The Fiber Event in Greencastle.
Together the fleece combinations produce an effect that I’m very happy
with to replicate the skins of root vegetables.
Speaking of Michigan, we had a wonderful visit with
Grandma. We also got to spend some time
with Ben and Kathey Gibson and Great Aunt Lois.
At Grandma’s house the rules are always a little different, especially
with our diet. The boys get delightful
things such as ice cream and whipped cream on their cereal for breakfast. We tried on a new tradition for happy hour by
baking some of cousin Martha’s very southern crispy cheese snaps to enjoy with
a glass of wine. They were very good,
but when I make them again I’ll need to add a Czech twist and include a little garlic.
While in Michigan we did our usual rounds to stores where we
bulk up on supplies. We stopped at Williams Cheese Factory in Linwood, aka ‘The Cow’ to stock up on cheeses and spreads. We visited Northwood’s Outlet to stock up on
things I don’t know I need yet, but look as if they could be useful in a
weaving. The Cat’s Meow is also on my
rounds, where I get my big pink bag to fill for seven dollars. I secured a big load of pre-costumes for the
incoming freshmen in Sounds of South to make their circus costumes. Overall, the visit was intended to be low
key, but my health didn’t get the memo.
I left Bloomington with a runny nose and came home with pneumonia. Fortunately, I think I’m back on the mend,
although I’m supposed to take it easy. The
Indiana basketball games were my only source of excitement this weekend, and
last night’s defeat of Kentucky was truly awesome!
Finally, I think Jim felt sorry for me and made a delightful
raspberry pie on Saturday morning. I
just had some for my breakfast, along with an espresso. I’m ready to face the world again!
Until next week,
Martina Celerin
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