Art & the Environment : Sustainability and Slow Cloth

I just found this fun website with numerous free vintage knitting images---doesn't this one just spark your imagination?

And I have a few other links I want to highlight for you all----my brother, who lives in Juneau, Alaska is a board member of a local organization ---TURNING THE TIDES : "Turning the Tides is an Alaska-based nonprofit grass-roots organization composed of citizens, students, Alaska Natives, scientists, educators and musicians who are concerned with the health of the ocean. We promote ocean-friendly practices, clean-up efforts and waste reduction through various projects." He has created a visually appealing informative short online video OCEANS OF PLASTIC The film starts and ends--fittingly enough--with Alaskan Natives drumming and singing....



Since I spent much of last year creating cloth bags for BYOB (bring your own bag)---and replaced all our plastic bag consumption with cloth bags---the trick now is to always remember to have a cloth bag with me (!)--have you noticed how often businesses try to give you a plastic bag? Anyhow, my brother tells me the cloth bag I made for him is in the video---can you spot it? Hint: it has a bright pieced quilt pattern with black and white checks.

If you read my blog often you already know I have a love for our Mother Earth, and I am concerned with the current "climate crisis" facing all of us--in fact, I consider global warming/climate crisis to be the most pressing problem we all face. Much of my artwork reflects these concerns. Just scroll down here to my Jan 6th post about my "Homage to the Trees" small quilt for an example.

I recently found this great website THE STORY OF STUFF. "The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. "

This website--and her blog--are well worth a visit, and please watch her video and pass this on....as well as a succinct recap of how our consumerism adds to environmental problems, she has many good suggestions for actions all of us can take to help heal our planet.

How does this relate to knitting and craft? ah well, check out this blog---the The Red thread Studio--Slow Cloth, New Cloth, Art Cloth. For me, a sustainable lifestyle and the concept of SLOW CLOTH all go together.

The Big Holidaze and the Slow Coth Movement

As I stood in line at the PO today--waiting to mail off the last few boxes of presents--it hit me what is so stressful about December---the month has a BIG honking deadline. A deadline that many, many people in our nation "countdown to"---you know---the proverbial "only 10 days until Christmas" pressure. I know I felt relief to have all my presents done ( I made most of them) and sent or wrapped up. whew! I feel like I just finished a major term paper.

Now, I know that most of this pressure is self-induced---I decide whether to participate in Holiday gift giving and I decide whether to purchase or make the gifts---but also I know that holiday gift giving is expected of me by our culture and---more importantly---by my family. I am a person who enjoys giving gifts to others--but somehow--having that BIG deadline takes some of the fun out of it all, and I have to use some positive self-talk to keep from feeling too rushed and pressured to just "get it all done." Hey! I want another whole month so I can make the presents at my own pace...

Of course, I could have avoided the whole feeling pressured thing by starting to make all the presents in --say--August. This would have given me plenty of time---but, somehow in August I just don"t feel like making holiday presents just yet---just like I don't get in the mood to make holiday fruitcake or bake holiday cookies until after Thanksgiving. Starting holiday activities before Thanksgiving just does not feel right--and I hate it when stores put up their holiday decor in October! so why would I want to jump the gun and start holiday activities early?

Now to go hang the holiday decorations..and trim the tree...and bake cookies...and make eggnog--Oh dang! why is there always so much to do? Enough! I'm joining the SLOW CLOTH MOVEMENT as proposed on the blog Read Thread Studio.

Thanks to SharonB of the blog In a Minute Ago for sharing the notion of "slow cloth"---- which focuses on promoting textiles made through slow processes, such as hand quilting, hand knitting, hand-dyeing, etc. traditionally and throughout the world.

So, I'm now slowing down for what remains of the winter Holidaze.
And to slow us all down, here is a poem for the season:

Toward the Winter Solstice

by Timothy Steele

Although the roof is just a story high,

It dizzies me a little to look down.

I lariat-twirl the cord of Christmas lights

And cast it to the weeping birch’s crown;

A dowel into which I’ve screwed a hook

Enables me to reach, lift, drape, and twine

The cord among the boughs so that the bulbs

Will accent the tree’s elegant design.



Friends, passing home from work or shopping, pause

And call up commendations or critiques.

I make adjustments. Though a potpourri

Of Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jews, and Sikhs,

We all are conscious of the time of year;

We all enjoy its colorful displays

And keep some festival that mitigates

The dwindling warmth and compass of the days.



Some say that L.A. doesn’t suit the Yule,

But UPS vans now like magi make

Their present-laden rounds, while fallen leaves

Are gaily resurrected in their wake;

The desert lifts a full moon from the east

And issues a dry Santa Ana breeze,

And valets at chic restaurants will soon

Be tending flocks of cars and SUVs.



And as the neighborhoods sink into dusk

The fan palms scattered all across town stand

More calmly prominent, and this place seems

A vast oasis in the Holy Land.

This house might be a caravansary,

The tree a kind of cordial fountainhead

Of welcome, looped and decked with necklaces

And ceintures of green, yellow, blue, and red.



Some wonder if the star of Bethlehem

Occurred when Jupiter and Saturn crossed;

It’s comforting to look up from this roof

And feel that, while all changes, nothing’s lost,

To recollect that in antiquity

The winter solstice fell in Capricorn

And that, in the Orion Nebula,

From swirling gas, new stars are being born.

Holiday Blog Meme & Fruitcake

The folks at the inspiring website SEW, MAMA, SEW ! are sponsoring a holiday blog meme about traditions and gift-giving.

Gifts

• Do you have a favorite gift that you love to give?

One favorite gift I give every year is homemade fruitcake made with dried fruits.

• If you’re making gifts this year, what are you making? (Post photos if you have some!

I am making almost all my gifts--but my family reads this blog, so not photos here until after Christmas! (check back in early January)

• Name one thing on your personal wish list.

high on my list is : either YARN or a gift certificate to a yarn store
NEXT is : travel money ( or plane ticket) to visit my daughters

• Do you make and sell things that would make fantastic gifts?

Yes--I make bead crochet jewelry and fiber art brooches--available at my Esty shop:
Borealis Beads.

Traditions

• What is your favorite family holiday tradition?

Throwing a small Solstice "Return of the Light" celebration--with folk music, homemade cookies, fruitcake, eggnog, mulled wine and the lighting of my collection of over 40 white candles.

• What do you love most about the holiday season?

Making gifts

• What do you like least about the holiday season?

The commercialization of the holidays---which is why I make gifts each year--or only purchase handmade gifts---the only exception is when I purchase books as gifts or give a magazine subscription as a gift. This year I even made my holiday cards and gift tags.

• What is your favorite holiday food?

Homemade holiday cookies, of course! I make many of my family recipes--I think those handed-down-through-the-family cookie recipes are the best! I will be posting great cookie recipes here all month--so do check back.

• Do you have a great recipe to share?

Yes! Today I would like to share the homemade fruitcake recipe I have been making each year for over 30 years. Now, lest you turn up your nose and say "ew! I hate fruitcake!" I must tell you that this is no ordinary fruitcake! This is the fruitcake that avowed fruitcake haters love--- (once they can be persuaded to taste it)---so I call this recipe:

The Fruitcake Haters Holiday Fruitcake

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

1 big bottle brandy or rum
(one year I used very dark Jamaican rum --which my folks brought me from Jamaica---to soak the dried fruit in---and when we first tasted the cake we discovered --to our great disappointment!---the rum taste was so strong it was inedible. But when I told an elderly friend about this--she said--"Honey, you just but that fruitcake away until March and then try it." So we stuck the fruitcake in the back of the refrigerator for a few months and when we next tried it--that rum fruitcake was really delicious!)

About 7 -8 cups pitted, chopped, dried fruit
(I use a mixture of raisens, prunes, dates, dried cherries, dried pears, dried apples, dried peaches, dried apricots---all organic, natural and unsulphured if possible)
1/2-1 cup candied orange and lemon peels
(you can purchase these, but I make my own candied citrus fruit peels--recipe follows--these are great in other holiday goodies, also--so I make a big batch each year)
(Note: whatever you do --DO NOT use those commercial candied fruit mixes in the recipe--it ruins the recipe)
2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
2 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground mace
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup honey (or molasses for a dark cake)
1/2 cup softened butter
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4-1/2 cup brandy or apple

cheesecloth

Chop all the dried fruit and citrus peels into about 1/2 chunks---sometimes it easiest to cut the dried fruit with kitchen scissors---and place the fruit in a big bowl. Pour the brandy over the fruit--enough to cover the fruit totally. Cover this with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 3-4 days---the fruit will soak up all the brandy.
(Note: if you don't cook with alcohol, you may use apple juice to soak the fruit in)

After the alloted time, thoroughly drain the fruit in a strainer--but save the juices. Stir together the dry ingredients, pressing out any lumps. Cream honey, butter, and eggs. Then stir in the dry ingredients. Fold in the soaked fruit and the nuts, adding enough of the liquid from soaking the fruit to make a pourable batter (not too runny though--like a cake batter). If you don't have much fruit soaking liquid--use apple juice or brandy. (Note: there will be less batter than fruit--but it will be ok)

Grease breads pans and line the bottom with greased parchment paper. Pour batter into pans--filling only halfway.

Bake at 3oo degrees for about 3 hours with a pan of hot water on the bottom shelf of the oven. The tops will be golden brown and cracked and a toothpick will come out clean when they are done. Cool for 20 minutes in the pans before carefully removing. After the cakes are completely cooled pour brandy over them, and wrap each cake in cheesecloth you have soaked with the brandy. Seal up in tinfoil and place in the refrigerator to age. This fruitcake improves with age, but also can be eaten right away.


Grandma Beth's Candied Orange & Lemon Peels

My grandmother taught me to make these--when I was a teen. (thanks Gram!)

Thinly slice the peels from 6 organic oranges and 4 organic lemons.
Place in saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil---immediately pour the water off. REPEAT this step 3 times. Drain the peels thoroughly in a strainer.

Make a simple syrup of equal parts sugar and water (here use about 1/ 1/2 cups sugar to 1 1/2 cups water)---make enough syrup to just cover the peels. Mix the sugar and water in heavy bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil--once the sugar has dissolved add the peels. Cook on low heat for several hours until most of the syrup has been absorbed by the peels--do not get this to hot--you do not want the sugar to carmelize. Cover a few cookie sheets with wax paper--sprinkle sugar on the wax paper---remove the peels from the heat and carefully lay the hot peels out on the wax paper in a single layer to dry. Dry in the open air for about 2 days--then store airtight. Optional: roll the peels in sugar before drying.

These also make a great holiday candy ---just dip one end in melted chocolate chips and refrigerate until the chocolate is hard....ummm...

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Also---for you paper and collage artists out there---do check out this blog TEN TWO STUDIOS
As special treat for those who have supported her web sites she has created a countdown to Christmas that reveals a new surprise each day. Each day brings a new lovely FREE printable collage page of images...just in the month of December...

Blog Action Day

Today is BLOG ACTION DAY !

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you know --although I write primarily an art and crafting blog---I care passionately about our Mother Earth and how we treat Her. You may even know that I spent the first 6 months of this year following my pledge to "buy nothing new for 6 months" which impacted my habits and thinking about cultural consumerism--and my own consumerism.

You may also have seen my posts here on creating my own grocery bags (BYOB = Bring Your Own Bag) and using recycled sweaters to create handbags. I love to see the creative ways artists and crafters use recycled materials.

Here are some of my favorite online Earth loving and environmental blogs, artists concerned with the environment, and resources ---do check them out today.

Astronomy Picture of the Day (just a daily reminder of how beautiful the universe is)

Art For Housewives (great links to many artists using recycling in their art)

Ideal Bite : "Ideas for Green Living"

Quaker Earthcare Witness

The Compact : Buy Nothing New

The Garbage Day Project

Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping (great humor!)

Step It UP!

Treehugger

Grist (environmental humor and news)

David Suzuki Foundation

There are--of course many more--and over at the Blog Action Day blog I see that they have tracked more than 5000 blogs participating and writing about the environment today--so far--(and it is only 9:30 am where I live)--POWER to the internet!

Yet Another BYOB

In keeping with my penchant to be a multi-crafter artist, I continue to create BYOBs (Bring Your Own Bag)--despite how many of these we have around the house--I still find myself without one some days when I want to stop and just pick up a few bits of nice looking produce on the way home--I am still working on cultivating a habit of not leaving the house with a cloth bag in my purse or backpack.

I already had the lovely pink mola, and was pleased to see this polka dotted fabric (purchased on sale at a wonderful local fabric store--which is --sadly--going out of business) matched the pink mola so nicely. The mola is a traditional textile art form made by the Kuna People of Panama. Molas are hand made using a reverse applique technique. Several layers (usually two to seven) of different-coloured cloth (usually cotton) are sewn together; the design is then formed by cutting parts of each layer away. The edges of the layers are then sewn down; the finest molas have extremely fine stitching and are made using tiny needles.


and here is the back of the bag--which is lined with a nice bright green---all the fabric is heavy cottons, so the bag is washable.



TODAY'S QUOTE :
"Art will never be able to exist without nature." ---Pierre Bonnard

Time's Up for Buy Nothing New!

Some of you readers my know that 6 months ago I took a personal pledge--to not buy anything new for 6 months. Well, on August 1st--the 6 months is over. How did this pledge affect me? Well, to my surprise this pledge did not really force much of change to my lifestyle. I already mostly shopped at local thrift stores for many items--the biggest change was not buying new books, or yarn, or beads. The 2 areas I cheated (---just a little ;-) in were books and yarn. I did buy 3 new books (in 6 months! that is hardly nothing...for me--I used to buy 3 or 4 a month) and some yarn for projects. (Not all this yarn, but you get the picture....)

The other area I noticed was the thought process I went through on small impulse type purchases. At first, I would have to remind myself--even though I liked that cool drawing pen--I did not really need it? and besides--it was new--so a "no-no." Later, I could just look at goods for sale, and know I was just looking--and WOW! did I save $$$ by not buying all those impulse purchases??? Yep! plus---less clutter from needless stuff. I guess this was a good reminder that most of the stuff we think we need (or our culture tells us we need)--we can do without.

That said, I do have a small list of new things I plan to purchase--most having to do with recycling or alternatives modes of transportation, or my design business: bike racks for my bike (so I can carry groceries), this water bottle (so I can always carry filtered water from our tap), and a larger bed scanner and printer (for my design business), and a laptop (again for my business). But most other stuff I can do without---what a revelation!

Repurposed Vintage Tablecloth or BYOB

Still into sewing---this grocery/tote bag (BYOB= bring your own bag!) is made from a '50's vintage flea market table cloth---the table cloth had some holes, so I salvaged the good parts, and viola! a bag. It is lined with a lovely blue and yellow cotton print with bows...our household requested I create a larger grocery bag with two handles, (instead of one* see the bag below), so here it is.

This takes care of the proliferation of those large plastic grocery bags...but what to do about the clear plastic produce bags? we save them and stock our cloth bags with used ones...but they still seem to breed and multiply in the pantry---and washing them can be a pain--so here is a neat device for helping you wash out your used plastic bags in the dishwasher (assuming you have a dishwasher;-)--a Bag-e-wash! and a nice kitchen gadget for drying them ---a plastic bag dryer from reusablebags.com which is a great resource for all sorts of reusable bags, resuable water bottles and more. If anyone has any great ideas for something else to use in place of the clear plastic produce bags--do let me know!

A National Day of Climate Action

I was so excited by this nation-wide action that I wanted to help spread the word! On the Step It Up website you will find this letter from noted environmental author Bill McKibben:

Dear Friends—

This is an invitation to help start a movement--to take one spring day and use it to reshape the future. Those of us who know that climate change is the greatest threat civilization now faces have science on our side; we have economists and policy specialists, courageous mayors and governors, engineers with cool new technology.

But we don't have a movement—the largest rally yet held in the U.S. about global warming drew a thousand people. If we're going to make the kind of change we need in the short time left us, we need something that looks like the civil rights movement, and we need it now. Changing light bulbs just isn't enough.

So pitch in. A few of us are trying to organize a nationwide day of hundreds and hundreds of rallies on April 14. We hope to have gatherings in every state, and in many of America's most iconic places: on the levees in New Orleans, on top of the melting glaciers on Mt. Rainier, even underwater on the endangered coral reefs off Key West.

We need rallies outside churches, along the tide lines in our coastal cities, in cornfields and forests and on statehouse steps.

Every group will be saying the same thing: Step it up, Congress! Enact immediate cuts in carbon emissions, and pledge an 80% reduction by 2050. No half measures, no easy compromises-the time has come to take the real actions that can stabilize our climate.

As people gather, we'll link pictures of the protests together electronically via the web-before the weekend is out, we'll have the largest protest the country has ever seen, not in numbers but in extent. From every corner of the nation we'll start to shake things up.

By its very nature, this action needs all kinds of people to help out. We can't make it happen-it has to assemble itself.

Sign up to host an action. We'll coordinate the responses, introducing you to others from your area, and give you everything you need to be a leader, from banners to press releases.

You don't have to have ever done anything like this-you're not organizing a March on Washington, just a gathering of scores or hundreds in your town or neighborhood.

We need creativity, good humor, commitment. If you are active in a campus group or a church or a local environmental group or a garden society or a bike club-or if you just saw Al Gore's movie and want to do something-then we need you now.

And by now, we mean now.

The best science tells us we have ten years to fundamentally transform our economy and lead the world in the same direction or else, in the words of NASA's Jim Hansen, we will face a "totally different planet," one infinitely sadder and less flourishing.

The recent elections have given us an opening, and polling shows most Americans know there's a problem. But the forces of inertia and business-as-usual are still in control, and only our voices, united and loud, joyful and determined, can change that reality.

Please join us.

Bill McKibben

Knitting and Community

(I am still on vacation!) So far, what an enjoyable trip I am on! I am knitting away on each leg of the journey--nothing like train and jet travel and train stations and airports to help one catch up on knitting projects. I find I enjoy knitting while watching and listening to people (all strangers) in both train stations and airports. Knitting also seems a great way to break the ice---folks who would normally not notice me as they wait for their airplane--let along talk with me--now ask me: "What are you making?" and then we get nicely acquainted. Since I am convinced that alienation from others is one reason our country and culture is so seemingly neurotic and violent, I am pleased when my creativity sparks conversations with strangers in public spaces. Hooray for knitting! if it helps foster a sense of community--even in an airport.

Yesterday I was sitting in a small Cafe--above a a nice local independent Bookstore---enjoying some tea while I knit, and two women approached me with their knitting bags and said--"We just had our knitting group meeting downstairs--you should join us!" they seemed quite disappointed when I told them I did not live there, but was only visiting. Ah! we are now everywhere...no longer do we feel we must hide out at home in front of the telly--but we proudly knit in public! and then we talk to anyone who will listen about our knitting. Who knew that a knitting revival could make such a difference? (well, maybe Elizabeth Zimmerman knew this) I feel blessed to be able to help spread the word how knitting together can help heal our fractured culture.

My own needlecraft group--which meets once a month at my house---very often is a time of healing or supportive advice for one of us, as well as a place where we help each other with our knitting or other needlecraft. I have now begun to knit with my ritual morning coffee---knitting while awakening is quite a meditative process, and a pleasant way to begin the day. I like beginning the day with a project where I can see immediate tangible progress accomplished. (oh! look! another 2 inches knit!)

New Year Buy Nothing New Pledge

After much contemplative thought, I am pledging that in the first 6 months of 2007, I will buy nothing new. With the obvious exception of food, medicine, and new underwear--I pledge to buy nothing new until July 1st 2007.

I am lead to this pledge for many reasons--the foremost being a witness for change in our consumerism culture. With this in mind, I pledge to not only buy nothing new, but to talk and write about this action.

I first heard of this concept (lifestyle change?) in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle a year ago--here is the blog site of "The Compact"--the original buy-nothing-new group, which has inspired me to this action. And here is another quite fun blog on this subject: Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping.

A hint to me just how much we accept the buy-new-stuff-all-the-time messages of our culture was one reaction from my 28 year old daughter---"Wow, Mom, that is radical!" she said. Why is this pledge radical? and what does viewing this action as a radical step say about our culture?