A new addiction is budding in me. I have read about using copper as mordant and I recently purchased a piece of copper for fifty cents at a nearby thrift store. I cut it apart and placed a piece of vinegar soaked cloth on top of this ring on a piece of paper hoping to catch some of the color onto the paper. It's sitting on a metal cookie sheet so I got a double dip of color rust and copper onto the paper but I was most amazed with is the beauty of the green from the copper. It is so bright and beautiful and then I can't go with out being reminded that this is created due to degradation. Which then reminds me of earlier posts on the beauty in brokenness. I suppose that the real awareness is that I am growing older every day and as I muddle through the difficulties and joys of life I am aware of how my body is breaking down. I fell the other day on the way into a thrift store. What was remarkable was that a young man near by that was doing construction work ran over and asked if I was ok. This rather surprised me and I didnt respond right away but he still stood there. He just kept asking over and over if I was ok. He asked if I hurt my hip and I said no I hit my knee and I rolled up onto the knees and steadied myself to make the ascension to an upright position haha ... and he said "you got it?" I said I will take your hand thank you. And with that he offered me his hand and I pulled myself with his help up. I straightened my clothes as I was telling him thank you so much for coming over and even asking about me and he was walking away telling me .. no problem, just glad your ok. And suddenly I thought how silly to have tripped over a curb and am I really just getting old and absentminded? The main thought was I'M OLD! I'm really not that old but I am a grandma. So a lot of time has passed. I don't think that we go around thinking about the passing of time every day but just when milestones or events happen that sort of cause us to think about it. I survived with nothing broken a slight bruise to the knee and one elbow and more bruise to my mind knowing that life will bring me more frailties as i age but with it hopefully more wisdom and acceptance and with that peace and serenity. No I'm not giving into old age, I went out and purchased a bike to get myself into some better shape so if I should fall it won't be with a lot of weight behind it. And a push mower YEAH!!! to have a reliable method of trimming the grass when I can't or don't wish to fix my gas powered mower. ANd this will also give me more exercise. And in between I will continue to play with dye's and fabric and drawing trees or little girls, dogs or what ever else is my fancy. I will forever be creator artist remaker of things that make me happy. For me I am grateful to care less and less what others think and to make my own way what ever way that is. Today there is much beauty in degraded copper, there is so much more yet to explore. I will share what I can of those travels. Blessed day to all you who stop to look.
Well today finally the weather has warmed a bit and there is some sunshine which I am so grateful for. I am tired of the rainy dreary days as much as we may need the rain. Before the week of raininess I decided to take a cloth that I have worked on for some six months and had pretty much left outside for that entire time. I had tried just leaving this cloth on some rusted metal thinking that it would over time add rust to the cloth with only water or the elements being involved. I would periodically go and check on it and nothing much would happen/change. So I decided to do something in the south we call Hep It. haha .. I decided recently to go ahead and add vinegar to the mix and to wrap it in some plastic so as not to have the moisture evaporate so quickly. I did this before the rain and it's been raining for a little over a week here so thats how long it's been. I have gone out a few times in the dreariness to turn the package over just to let things change up a bit. Today was the unveiling, unwrapping the revealing of the treasure. Thats what it always feels like to me. Ofcourse I was delighted with the results. Rich tones of rusty reddish browns and areas where I have added something to act as a resist and not .. i know that seems obscure but hey .. it's exciting. I took a huge quantity of photos of this cloth and it's not small its about 8 feet x 10 feet. What I am struck by is that several of the photos of portions of the cloth are so interesting to me that they stand on their own as small works. I'm not quite sure what to do with them yet but I'm posting a few of them here to see if any of you lurkers that stop by will have anything to say of them. I love the texture and the effect. I am so amazed and yet reminded yet again how there is so much beauty in this form of degradation. That is what I get out of this. A reminder of words written by a friend that said "break my heart beautiful" and my friend that wrote a book on forgiveness that "nothing is more whole than a broken heart." Which all of this reminds me of.. this isn't broken cloth but it is a breaking down of fibers and an addition of metal that is breaking down infusing itself onto the cloth in a way that I am compelled to look and stair long stairs at. Below are some of the areas that were the most interesting to me of cropped portions of photos of this cloth of rust.
