Monday 19 May 2008

It's That Season

It's May long and not bad outside. This means one thing.


(silk in alum on the left, logwood being extracted and reduced a little on the right)

That's right: dyeing accidents experiments!!


I was so happy to have found the big canning pots this spring after having lost them two years ago by putting them somewhere "safe" to winter. I thought I could extract my logwood in a little pot and transfer each extraction to the large pot. Happiness dissipated when I discovered the one had a hole rusted right through. And I always find these things out the hard way, like coming out to wonder hey why is there dark liquid leeching out from underneath the pot...?

Look at that hole. Damn. Now I have to find some new ones.


And now I also have a nice purple ring on the step. Glorious dye-wasted!>:(


I told mama "dyeing accidents!" She said "wood makes that colour?" Such things no longer phase her. Then again the porch always was a catch all for messy projects and I think the wood has been every colour it could be. One time an entire 5 gallon pail of blue fibre reactive dye spilled on the floor. I can't remember how that one happened...I think it was the dog. Well whatever it makes the place more interesting, and we have another story to tell to go along with the others. At least it isn't india ink.

Logwood is an indicator though and I'm tempted to throw some ammonia and/or vinegar on the step. Just to see. ETA: so I did. The vinegar made it fade to yellow. The ammonia darkened the purple and ate what paint was left on the step. Heh.

4 comments:

Marc said...

I bet you make a mean kool-aid.

P.S. I really need to do an art critic on yourPetra collection one of these days! :-)

mem said...

Hey, when I get a second or three I will respond to that long comment. I like being busy, but it makes me anti-social on the Internetwebosphere.

Also, the word is mfvgaa, which is like a baby swear.

mem said...

So finally I am getting to my promised response.

What do you think is an appropriate way to bridge the differences in perspectives of evangelism? I have tried with some success to correlate gospel-evangelism with evangelism of another kind—one friend in particular preached the virtues of a church camp to all and sundry, and in making the comparison to her passion for that with another's passion for the gospel, I think she understood things better.

I like what you said about the gospel being for sinners, believer and non-~ alike. And you are right—we are prone to forget it. This makes the point better than any other; if we who are to tell others are prone to forget, it should be first in our priorities to immerse ourselves in the gospel.

I had not considered the passage from Jeremiah, and I would need to think about it more.

And I am equally no fan of St Francis' maxim. I do not agree with the principle that our actions are the best means of evangelism, or really that they are one at all. I do think, however, that the gospel is transformative and should have some kind of effect on us, if only to make us repentant.

Raquel said...

aren't you supposed to blog on blogs?