quite a lot
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| Onze Lieve Vrouwe kerk=church in Maastricht, the statue of Mary, Sterre der Zee/Star of the Sea with lots of lit candles; the church is situated along the square just around the corner from where my old folks live in the centre of town. I popped down for a short visit with friend M. who had never been inside this church and so we wandered in to witness this spectacle; there are always people coming and going, lighting candles, praying kneeling taking pictures, she is obviously still very much a part of Catholic life - I am an onlooker, at my age baffled by the faithful, yet I hope respectful of their intentions and beliefs |
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| back home on the north facing kitchen window sill a new addition: the doll's display table with two willow pattern tea services, the smaller incomplete version from my own childhood plus a slightly larger version with the van Nelle brand printed on it, which by coincidence was given to me by the same friend who accompanied me to Maastricht; the red metal cups and cutlery basket come from my paternal grandparents' house as does the display table, I remember playing for hours and hours with those toys |
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| despite the cold weather and thanks to new beds for the boys I have started a fresh dye pot with pomegranate/red and yellow onion/avocado peels, tea leaves and a residue from a forgotten dye pot, hence the blue; this is not a natural dye, but comes from a bottle with blue biester powder which I dropped into the forgotten pot and I am glad I did because the blue finally took to the cloth as can be seen below: |
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| although this might also have something to do with Maria's rinsing advice (I visited her last week and we had a lot of fun revealing one of her dyeing experiments, will show pics of that at a later, more appropriate date) fix the colours with vinegar! I only just remembered in the nick of time as I saw the blue seeping out of the fabric as I was washing it under the running tap, so blue and muddy greys. Fine. Two more reveals in images below, one with the blooming tree, where I'm sewing running stitch in horizontal and vertical lines in the small squares created by the invisible baste (very much visible on the back of course)so now we see undulating motion in the plains...... |
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| detail above on front; detail on back below....got me wondering: what if I started off with a removable baste followed by the horizontals and verticals and then after having removed the original baste was then left without the basting lines altogether? just running stitch squares in opposite directions |
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| here more details on the stark tree cloth: the sheer curtain fabric has been kantha-d as well |
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| mooie momenten zakje = fine moments pocket card from Maria, well this post is full of those |
Comments
meet and tell and laugh, which i know
there would be laughing.
Your kanthaing is getting just
beyond amazing...so so FINE
and hooray for sheets
The blue in the cloth is good looking and what a lot of patience make kantha
related. The first is a formal
altar. The second altar builds around what is beyond the glass. Nature. I could sit at the second
one for hours.
so glad about you and Maria
how's puppy?
cantha yes cantha....
glad " knowing " you
biester was originally made from the ashes from burnt and then ground up walnut husks, resulting in a yellow-brown powder; the old masters used bister/biester for washed drawings, pen drawings, sketches etc.
You can mix the powder with water to acquire ink or dip a wet brush directly in to the powder and use it to paint. So far the definition I found on a Dutch site
the blue bi(e)ster I used comes from a bottle, is artificial and has nothing to do with the original walnut bister, they only share their name. I can only guess at the ingredients. It's water soluble, so the fixing of the blue is very tricky and so far I have removed two bundles from last week's batch, one's a pale grey, the other slightly darker, are they blue? not really; will post images soonish