Daily Notes- January 31

My Goodwill three dollar napkin rings.  Just shy of 2.5 inches tall. Eight of them.  I feel like I should be selling them on eBay.

Some good work on the painted papers yesterday.  The tea bag piece now has "story" or at least a Moon and a Star and a small house and a garden (thanks to a beautiful tiny strip from Deb Lacativa). I'm going to walk away from the work for a time --when I rush I usually ruin a "good thing".  The Sun ...I need one but nothing I try is working.

In fact, I think I am going to draw something on the tea bags painted papers.  See how that works.  I do notice that the paint has changed the surface of the tea bag--it's not as soft.  Can crumble under the needle.  So a positive result and a negative one as well.  I may need to glue the papers instead of stitch them--which I don't really like the idea of.  We'll see.  I thought the watercolors would be thin enough. Too much pigment. I may have to try watery inks.

It's 9 degrees outside with a wind chill of 4.  The last day of January.

I'll be removing my desktop calendar and pasting sections of it into my journal tomorrow.  The right side has a 8 inch lined section for notes.  It's full.  Notes on the thickness of greenhouse plastic, Netflix suggestions, books, "what if Life is just a series of pages?", and plant names. I watched a UTube video on a Japanese woman ceramics professor.  It was quite lovely.  I loved the way she painted the surfaces and built the large pots.

I finished another Harbison book, Chose The Wrong Guy and it was the first of this author's books that I did not enjoy reading.  Tons of words that said nothing.  Sort of Chose The Wrong Book. I have one more on the book table.  I do have Permaculture books to read and another class to teach next weekend.  So prep work.  That will keep me busy.

Last Winter, at this time, I was reading my way thru the history of Pages on Spirit Cloth's blog.  Cutting small squares and hand sewing them into Pages.  I guess I am still doing that...but by machine now.  And 2.5 inch squares.  Jude calls these pages "bases" onto which "story" happens. I wonder at times, if I have no stories to tell?  Or if I am just moving too quickly and need to stop and work slower.   Perhaps my skill is in the making of bases on which others write stories?  I have thumbnail sketches in my journals.  I should just add them to my cloth backgrounds.  And more likely--my work is abstract and actually has no story. It just suggests...like a cloudy sky or a shadow on the pavement.