My cat Lester and I have settled into a contented late autumn routine. Nearly each weekday we sit and enjoy the sunset. He has a good view of the street below and I can see the surface of the water from my favorite chair. I always crack open the window a bit and can sometimes hear the remaining geese calling as they gather on the water surface. I always feel nourished after a few quiet moments of watching the light fade.
I received John Marshall’s wonderful new DVD, Journeys in Katazome, in the mail last week. It’s the first in a series of DVDs teaching the katazome process, starting with stencil design, cutting and preparation. A richly illustrated interactive PDF document describes the process in detail from start to finish. The DVD also includes high-quality demonstration videos in which John demonstrates and talks about various steps. I’ve started to re-design my minnow stencil after viewing the videos on stencil design. While I like my original minnow design, it is a challenging stencil to paste, and feels a bit unstable, perhaps because of the large open areas. I’ll try to create another more useful variation on the same theme as a 4-way repeat, sharing the process here from start to finish. I expect I’ll need to do 4-6 iterations before I’m satisfied with it.
In the first sketch below, I’ve played with some of the shapes, experimenting with scale and rotation. I can see now that 4 minnows do not excite me that much. In the next sketch I’ll try 3 and/or 5.
This weekend will be unseasonably warm for November, so I am taking advantage of it! I’ve been reading India Flint’s fascinating book on natural dyeing this week, and now I will look at every carpet of leaves with new eyes! (see if you can spot the dog paws…)
I spotted this eagle twice earlier this week, and today I had my camera along! Even though Bald Eagles sightings are fairly common in my neighborhood, I am still thrilled to the bone every time I see one!
silver minnow 