grand opening

The season has begun.With such fine weather it's a crying shame to be inside and the excuse is dyeing. Get ready for my tribulations.
This year as it was plain silly to keep on saving my precious indigo balls from Mali i took the plunge.What if it doesn't work out the cautious side asks? What if it does the daring side counter asks? i'll never know if i don't go for it.
Six balls were crushed and soaked in water overnight (foreground pot) then taken outside and put in a big 25 gallon plastic drum along with lye water and slaked lime.

i'm following this recipe for a fermentation vat while i also pretend to be studying Japanese :) Working my way along with Google translator and my Pera-pera kun.

The vat will take 20 days to develop, a labor of love! .

It will go from this awful color to something more appealing with ao bana and the proverbial bronze colored film. It will also develop a horrid smell i have been warned. The approach this year will be less serendipitous , i'm taking notes, photos and measuring ph and temperature. Almost not me.
But, i'm doing madder dyeing first as it is almost instant. Look at that nice pot of soaking madder! Let's see what i can get from it.
All this entertainment and i still have to finish the warp on the loom and study for a Japanese test coming up this week.

neki desu


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cooking

This is what i'm cooking and i'll go back to work right now. But before let me gripe a little.
Yesterday i went to a juried art exhibit with a painter friend of mine. She had entered a painting and had to go to the opening to find out whether her work had been accepted or not. Keep counting, please.

The awards were announced and the exhibit opened. Ninety eight percent of the works were figurative. And some of them verging on the commonplace.
This in a country which gave Miro and Tapies to the world.
It is disenchanting to say the least, that in year 2009 people still need to see the little house with the path and the tree. And i'm quoting my art history teacher on the house, the path and the tree.

By the way, my friend didn't get accepted.

neki desu


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vanitas

Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower,
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind.
William Wordsworth

neki desu


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