Amon Din, Eilenach & Nardol

Amon Din

Eilenach

Nardol

      After missing the finished Nardol for several weeks (I couldn't bear to work on the later beacons without having these three together), it has been found in a likely place behind a large piece of furniture, so here I am, feeling rather silly. Anyways, these are painted on- I think- 3 by 5 inch pieces and are my interpretation of the seven beacons that run between Minas Tirith and Firien Wood on the border of Rohan (between the Great West Road and the White Mountains).
     Three down, four to go!

From the sketchbook

Trying something new between these old pages

 I plan on finishing up this sketchbook in this manner

With more (mostly correctly spelled) words, National Geographic photos and watercolor

So much color

I've gotten tired with using plain old pen and pencil

And this is also an excuse to find inspiration from places all over the country where I may end up these next few months

And always coming back to where I'm from.

     The plan is to finish the last few dozen of these pages before March, so I'm doing several chunks at a time. There are other plans underway between applying for jobs across the country, new stuff to go up in the shop and some new paintings. Whew! Time for a cup of tea now, I believe...  

Week in Pictures

Alder tincture

Mid-January geese, quilts and cards

     This Friday I am planning an intensive soak for my hands. Between carving linoleum blocks stress on my fingers, and printmaking stress on my wrists as I have no formal print press but instead improvise with a full metal water bottle... (the plan is more improvisation to make a simple press eventually) Until then however, I have one last block to carve. So far this week there have been little hobbit doors and just now a goose triangle.



     A few days ago I mordant-ed and dyed fabric with willow bark and a few old black walnuts. Using diluted soymilk for mordant, I was impressed with how well it turned out and I'm excited to experiment more with natural dyes. Soon if I can find a red cabbage I would like to try to get a blue-green dye. And when it's all said an done, print some of the brown fabric with the little goose and sew a flying geese table cover.


Sorry for the blur, took this quickly with my phone

    While Canada geese may be extremely aggressive and territorial (I've been bitten myself... admittedly when I was young and interested in exactly how soft a gosling is...), after growing up with several dozen residing in the pond in front of my parent's house they now remind me of home no matter where I am. In using local dyes, the little table cover will be a way of bringing a piece of home with me wherever I am, especially next year when *fingers crossed* I will be in Virginia.



     Shop news: In the next few days I will have Tom patches, Hobbit thank you cards (in a different color scheme), and hobbit door cards and patches up. Next week I plan on having goose cards and patches as well as pomegranate cards and patches if my fingers survive until Friday.

     It's 5pm here and still light out, so I hope everyone is able to enjoy this. If you have a garden, I have heard that some people are already starting seeds- indoors of course- so have any of you started yet? We haven't here, but I'm beginning to look for medicinal wildflower seeds, especially yarrow to sow when it's warmer. 

Pictures that should have been here yesterday

I love how these turned out

Allowing the patches to dry

Hobbit thank you cards!

     Exciting news, I should be opening my shop on Etsy in a few hours and list some items that I have shipping materials for :D
And again, 1/11: I thought this had been published

SHOP IS OPEN

Time for celebration!
     You can visit it here.
     So far I have several photo print options up (more tonight/ tomorrow morning), and my Hobbit thank you cards. Soon I hope to include patches and some other card designs, so keep an eye out over the next few days. :D

Working away...

     First off, if you are in the US, I hope you don't have too far to go and are able to stay warm in this cold! It makes me glad I won't have to return to Syracuse in a week and a half, but it is giving me an excuse to work inside all day and get significant chucks of work done, although my cats sometimes make this difficult; Smokey managed to slip out yesterday and spent the night outsides (he'svery shy and we had guests) and I had to coax him out from under the porch at 7am. He spent the rest of the day pawing and mewing for my attention. And clawing up my yoga mat...
     With the opening of my Etsy shop just around the corner, I spent the day working on little hobbit "Thank you" cards, patches and got some 4X7 prints of my favorite photographs. I am sad to say that while I did order some small prints of some of my paintings from a local shop, I was not pleased with the results (too much saturation, surprise cropping and the like), and hope to order some from a different place soon. I will also have original drawings and paintings for sale, and a more wide variety of patches available after tomorrow/Friday and those should be up sometime next week after the ink cures.
     It appears that at the moment photos aren't attaching to this post, so if anyone would like to see them, they'll be showing up on my tumblr over the next day or so, and if you'd just like to see shop stuff, you can go here instead. There will probably be another post along or an edit with pics soon when I get this figured out/ open the shop officially. :D
Edit 1/11: Oh no! I thought this posted...

Possom, a bread for wooing and some lino blocks

      So, a few weeks ago on Thanksgiving, my mom called me during lunch. A opossum had crawled into the warm air vent that comes from the dryer in the laundry room. It was gone the next day (and I hope it was able to enjoy a bit of time in the warmth, although little critters do not belong in air vents), but my mom snapped some photos of it. Then last week, this little fellow showed up again under the bird feeders and has the same ear markings as our previous guest.
     Looks like it is doing alright. Possums are really cute when they aren't bearing their teeth or playing dead, and I think a lot of people don't look at them beyond this. They're just misunderstood, poor creatures.
     On a different topic I am sharing a really awesome bread recipe. It is so good that you should be able to woo friend and foe with it. It is modified from Paul Hollywood's recipe in 100 Great Breads, which I recommend for anyone with an interest in bread making. Although I'd check your options in book purchasing, as the Amazon price is a bit more than I remember paying for it.

 You will need:
- 4 cups of while flour, leave the bag out for dusting
- 2 teaspoons of salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 15 grams yeast (I use Fleishmann's dried)
- A bag of dark chocolate chips; you don't technically need the whole bag, so feel free to snack on some
- A can of tart or black cherries, washed and shaken as dry as possible (Or use a cup of fresh or frozen)
- Warm water to mix; about a cup but it may vary

Makes two decent sized loafs

In a bowl, mix together the flour, salt, chocolate chips and yeast. Add the olive oil, cherries. At this point I usually mix it together to figure out how much water I'll need as the cherries will already be moist. Slowly pour in the water and mix. There isn't an exact measurement because this is different for every time the bread is made, but I usually use about a cup. Mix well; if the dough is too moist, add more flour as needed and if it too dry add a few tablespoons of water at a time until it is doughy enough.

Because you'll squish the cherries a bit, thoroughly flour your hands and wrists (repeat as needed) and knead the dough. To knead: tip out dough onto a floured surface and make an indent in the middle with the palm of your hand before folding the dough sides or a side in. You can do this with either one or both hands, or if you don't have the space, knead it in the bowl (great skill to have in a cramped apartment!). This bread doesn't take much, only 3-5 minutes or until the dough is smooth and slightly elastic.

Put the dough in a floured bowl and cover with a dish towel or unused garbage bag and keep somewhere warm for an hour or until it had doubled in size. I forgot about the chocolate chips yesterday and left it on the heater- they will melt and it will be messy if this happens so keep that in mind. After an hour, heat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Divide the dough evenly and shape into two loafs. I usually make cross hatch marks with a knife on the top.

When the oven is warm enough, put the loaves in. Because the loaves will be pretty large baking will likely take 45 minutes to an hour. After the first 30 minutes I like to check every 10 or so. The bread is cooked through when there is a hollow sound when tapping on the bottom with your finger. (Don't worry if it is a little undercooked, I'm only just starting to really figure this part out myself)

Allow to cool a bit and enjoy! P.S. It makes a wonderful birthday/anniversary/holiday/etc. gift for people and usually doesn't take long to finish so storage isn't often a problem. Now go win the hearts and eternal affection of people!


This is a tear-into bread too. Who needs knifes and stuff?

So far the only bread recipe book I've really enjoyed. I've made over a dozen on the breads and they are all wonderful!

     

      I've also been working on stuff for my shop (Hoping to open by either next Tuesday, but no later than next Friday, woot!) including one of a kind business cards and thank you notes and original drawings, possibly some patches as well if I can find a suitable ink in the house. As you can tell I may or may not be continuing my Middle Earth theme with the thank you cards.....

And lastly on the side I am going to learn how to knit socks! This rusty red wool has been staring at me the last few weeks and it's finally time to start I think, although probably finish setting up shop first...