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Rock People : newest addition

 

With  garden space again I was motivated to scour several beaches to finally come up with these two rocks and turn them this way and that until the emerging character felt 'right' and then, thoughtfully, begin to paint it.  The face gave me gender and name - Joe.  He's outdoors now beside the Chilean potato vine.

 

 

 

The rest is a repost giving some history of rock people in my life.

There are rock people here and there throughout my home and garden and I would like to introduce a few.

This is Art who lives in the kitchen and sometimes gets in the way when I need a paper towel.  He has his name written on the bottom along with my initials (do sign your work! it does make a difference) but there is no date recorded which means he is old, possibly one of the originals from back in the Ontario days eighteen or more years ago.
 
This is Stu who may look a lot like Art but they have totally different personalities:  Art is quite complacent whereas Stu, who joined the household in '93, sits on the computer table (he is just posing here on the end of the keyboard - an end I never have used but guess some people must need the numbers repeated over there - because the light was better) and takes quite seriously his job of watching the screen and/or anchoring the notes that blow across the room when the window is open.

Back in the kitchen again (which often doubles as a studio it facing south and east) is this couple.  That's either Percy or Perry - I can't tell which because his name has a smear of blue paint and the '99 date tells me he became a resident a number of houses ago but which place exactly, I cannot remember, ditto with his name. 

He was the first character to take on more colour:  most were - and continue to be - black and white with perhaps a bit of colour in a flower or scarf and lips.  He lounges on the deck in the summer but for the winter he - and Betsy - come indoors.  She joined us in Feb 06; the addition of the month delights me for some reason, maybe it's the thought of knowing I made such a sunning lady in February which is when we have our flower count here in Victoria.  Had I made her in February in a Toronto year it would have meant something quite different!

There are several rock people in the garden and I might photograph them when I do the last autumn harvest.  They tend to stay out year round and I give them a cleaning and touch-up with paint in the early spring.

The dolls (hmmm, funny how they became "dolls" as I start to describe how to make them;  maybe it is because as 'people' they 'make themselves' but since I did have to have a part and assist in the construction this is the 'doll' part) are flattish rocks, as you can see.  If you have made dolls you likely realize how the doll can take part in the process of its construction and understand when I say it takes me time and consideration to find the right two stones to make each character.

When I made larger characters and had them on the steps of my house and  people would stop and ask to buy them, a neighbour offered to bring me a bunch of rocks so I could make more.  He had a truck. He brought me quite a lot of rocks.  I only found ten that suited and made five 'people'.  I don't think he understood.

Anyway, the dolls are two complementary stones which I glue together after - again - placing the head this way and that on the body until it feels and looks right.  Then they get painted (with acrylics) - face first, then clothes;  that's the order in which it must happen.  Sometimes I know the name as I am painting;  sometimes it comes later but I won't sign my initials until I hear the name and record it.  And the date.  Maybe, from now on, the month as well.

I saw a nice body rock on the sidewalk during a morning walk last week and did not collect it then but I know where it is and could get it and see if any of the rocks from past beach trips suit as a head;  or I could take the body rock to the ocean and stroll around........

The above is a post I did several years ago.  A recent mention about Pet Rocks on CBC Radio had me googling for details because I did remember them but .... not much about them.  Turns out they were a fad for a few months in 1975/76 and I was 'under construction' with Middle Son at that time so my attention was elsewhere.  The Net provided wonderful information about their creator etc. 

And got me thinking about the Rock People who continue to share home-space with me.  As re-posted thanks to the magnificent, magical Web.

Dolls. Day 7 doll .....

.... will post it here when it exists.

Dolls : Day 6 doll

 

(re-post;  part of the series)

This is Doll,  Day 6.  Made seven months after Day 5 doll.  

She is made from the piece of weaving I did on a backstrap loom  using my vibrantly overspun yarn.

Her arms are a length of Greek braiding again done from the handspun.

The head was uncarded fleece hand-felted around a rock with slight features added at the time of felting.

I don't know if she is finished but she is posted here and now because I could not get the sense if more was needed or if it was knowing when to stop.  So I stopped. 

I had thought hair and black boots and even a minimum of facial features.  But I stopped.

So here she is. 

Counting dolly . Day 5 doll

I got thinking about the ways of counting rows and what would suit me in this respect.....one thing led to another......

My love of dolls came up with the figure, twisted and tied with five-ply white jute, the ply unraveled to suggest dress or apron.  Nine knots on each leg.  One leg for the ones; the other leg for the tens.  A clothespeg marker for each.  Forty-five rows are indicated, counting from the top.  The size of those clothespins do not suit - I need something larger. 

Then I got to thinking that Dolly could be used for counting other things.  A calendar wouldn't work - too awkward having 31 knots for days on a leg.  Maybe a way of showing a child how many 'sleeps' to a birthday or Christmas or school starting.  Perhaps an indication of weight loss or merits gained.  Hmmm.  Any suggestions?

Dolls : Day 4 doll

(re-post  from Sept 2008)

I went to the ocean for Day 4 doll.  After much combing of the beach, this piece of wood that had drifted from I know not where, or even from what kind of tree it originated, presented itself as Doll 4.  The stone came later;  I remembered I had put stones in the glove drawer from a long ago beach jaunt and this was one of them and this was Doll 4 face....waiting.....

Here she is......

Unsure how to dress her.....then linen seemed right....and with tabs like those on garments made for paper dolls.

Freeform machine stitching for detail - and outline - you'll see why in a moment.

The head was adjusted until this position felt right although I wanted a more balanced, tilted angle:  doll did not.

And features on face.....  No.  A definite no.  I considered trying out eyes etc. on the back of the head but I didn't even bother to go get the paints.
A lethargy sets in when one is willing to listen but then thinks to stop hearing.....

This is her everyday dress, the one worn to go out in public.

The reason for the outline stitching is this:

...the casual everyday dress, the one in which there would be no hesitation (there would never be a hesitation and thus the usefulness of an everyday casual dress) to drop to knees and hug a muddy grandchild or climb on a fence to reach down an apple or forget and wipe hands on skirt for whatever reason or sort through the dollar box at a garage sale....no hesitation to do any or all of these things and therefore no regret.

The comic paper dress would be cotton, of course.

Adventures of a Homebody

This book used to be in the library and on Google books for free.  Things have changed.  Of course.  But I have just discovered that this blog post from Jan 26 2010  still has a link that works that lets it be read for free.  

 

You can read this book here on Google Books for free.

It is a selection of weekly columns I wrote across thirteen years ( 1977-1990) for the Georgetown Independent. (152 in this book)

I enjoyed doing them for many reasons :  a record of that time of  kids and homes and a husband and - well, adventures; a motivation to express in words with a weekly deadline;  public exposure in small town(s) Ontario and wider horizons when the columns appeared in publications like Reader's Digest and Homemakers magazine and on CBC  Radio's Fresh Air Neighbourly News; the Homebody book came into existence during that time; there still is  ongoing feedback as the book is in libraries,  doctor's offices,  restaurants, shops and on Google Books.

It has been nearly twenty years since I wrote the last Homefree column but the experience has had a lasting effect.

For years the deadline of Friday at noon would give me pause until I remembered - and that was before I could shoot off copy via email;  the column was delivered to the newspaper office by hand.

And a way of seeing develops when you write a column over a period of time -  a heightened awareness, somehow. 

In a way this blog has filled the space of that column. 

 

(And today I have written this blog since January 2003)

INFINITE SWITCH

 

It was a most unusual stove.  I thought it only had two burners - what a lovely excuse for not cooking at times.

The stove was in one of those used appliance stores, (on Queen Street East in Toronto), that has stoves and refrigerators and washers and dryers literally "tucked" into place.

A wringer washer and two freezers upended on each other had to be moved so I could get near to the stove.  And it was only when I had asked the price and about delivery charges that the owner decided I was  a serious buyer and moved a fridge out of the way so I could stand in front of the stove and open the oven door.

This was when I discovered that there were the normal four burners - they slid out of the way under the oven.  The oven was at eye level - such a logical height for an oven -  and had a glass door.  I'd never watched a cake of mine rise.  Maybe I could discover why my muffins didn't!

A large two-tiered storage unit swung neatly out from under the burners.  The entire stove was stainless steel and glass.

If you are the type of person who becomes attached to inanimate objects then you will understand my sweaty palms and quickened heart beat.  It was love at first sight between me and that stove.

But things were not to go smoothly.  The problem was not in the ritual of buying.  The difficulty was in understanding how the stove worked.  And making it do so.

The owner did not even bother to answer when I asked if there was an instruction booklet with the stove.

"I'll show you how she works," he said.

I may possibly, one day, forget the stove. (I haven't, obviously!)  I will never forget the seller of the stove.  His name was Norm, no names changed to protect anyone.

He had a growth out of the corner of his mouth that smoked - I guess it was a cigarette but it bore little resemblance to the neat white cylinders that come in packs.  And, of course, the smoke rising kept one eye permanently squinted.

It's hard to carry on a conversation with someone who talks without moving his lips, who appears to be in a perpetual wink, who shouts, and who is more stubborn than I am.

Norm showed me how the stove worked.  Learning to fly a plane will be a breeze compared to the learning of how to operate the appliance.

The stove was delivered.  It wouldn't work.  At least not all of it.  At least not all the time.

The delivery men phoned the store.  I could hear Norm shouting clear across the kitchen. "Just push the infinite switch!" he kept saying.

We had had a bit of a discussion about this "infinite switch" when he was showing me how to work the stove in the store.  I may one day come across an infinite switch that is logical and actually does something.  But the little dial that tells how long meat should be cooked on my lovely stove is not an infinite switch and twirling it a million times is not the reason the stove does or does not work.

Norm finally got so mad at the delivery men saying they had pushed the infinite switch but the stove still wasn't working properly that he had them lug the heavy thing back to the store.  It would have been easier, quicker, simpler for him to come to the stove, but, no, the stove had to go back to him.

Time passed.  No stove.  No call from Norm.  I finally had to give in and phone him - pressure from a family tired of eating meals that could be made without a stove.

"She's been sitting here waiting for you," he said. "Nothing the matter.  Like I said.  Just push the infinite switch.  Come and check her out before I deliver her again."

I went.  I checked.  She - uh - it worked.

A few weeks later the erratic behaviour started again.  In spite of the guarantee I bypassed Norm and had a friend, an electrician, look at it.  He found the problem in the timing system. (And simplified how to use the stove.)

I never got enough nerve to phone Norm and tell him.  But I take great delight in operating that stove without ever, ever, pushing the infinite switch.

from Adventures of a Homebody   circa 1983

Dolls : Gallery

(click on photos to enlarge:  click again and scroll around for more detail)

English pedlar dolls.  Base is wooden clothes peg.  1/12 scale   Fascinatingly finicky and detailed;  most satisfying.

 House Sol Gallery Christmas show  Georgetown Ontario  1970's

Ballerina  appox. 24 inches tall  Beads at joints.  Very pose-able ; more than once has shifted position and startled a mere human.

Georgetown, Ontario  1970's

Mermaid  approx 18 inches tall  Beads at joints.  The beaded piece of fabric could not have been anything else but a mermaid's bodice.

Georgetown,  Ontario  1970's

Rock people.  Sunbathers.  Almost - but not quite - too hot to knit.

Victoria  BC  1990's

Cheerful knitter.  Scarf or shawl pin.
Made from the top of a wellington boot.
She brings smiles.

Victoria BC  2007

Balloon doll.  The intent was to have her knitting but she seemed content to meditate instead;  which suited her gradual return to the moment.

Victoria  BC  2008

Millie   12 inches high (to scale she says she's a full six feet)  Knit from tapestry wool (she chose the colors), the blonde hair I put on her was removed within twenty minutes and that was when the quirky smile appeared.  She wears  a mohair shawl with a pin made from a round of wellington boot rubber; but don't tell her that - she thinks it's  black gold.

Victoria  BC  2008

(Millie evolving)

Knotted from a piece of interfacing material the simplicity - and purity - of this doll touched my spirit. 

Victoria  BC  2008

The Family.  Father  and mother and son and twins-to-be.  Linen,  felted lining, joined at base with french knots.  They are more flat than round; cookie-cutter'ed in the best sense of being representational.

Victoria  BC  2008

Dolls: Day 3 doll

 (re-post; part of the series)

I have  been on quite a journey this morning.  When I began to make Day 3 doll I did not expect the extent of this.  I knew I wanted to make a universal doll - and for weeks I have been considering just what this would mean - a doll with ethnic dress, and, if so, from how many countries;  the plainest and simplest of dolls to represent the globe, and, if so, how to indicate the representation without having to explain (or at least explain minimally);  perhaps collect dolls from many countries who look like they had traveled long and far and turn them into one symbolic one.....

Then a map came to mind.  Yes!!!  I wanted to make a doll from a map.   A large map.  I was at a garage sale given by a teacher and she had ooodles of school supplies but no map.  No large pliable map that would have rolled down in front of a classroom.  Darn.  But if  such a thing had been there it would have been a) a collectible with a collectible  asking price  b) likely already sold to the first person at the garage sale  which was not me but I would have been told about it  c) even if I were the first person the map would have to have been very ratty and very cheap for me to even consider cutting it up into a doll - and even then it would have been a hard decision.  A week or so ago this presented:

It is old but not a collectible (at least those people ahead of me at the sale did not think so.)  It is paper but I thought it would work just fine.

You can see the original dollar price;  I paid a quarter.

It is a map of Canada but it includes the world.
I hadn't expected that - I did not unfold it at the sale - and found this feature quite chummy and very Canadian.  If it had only contained Canada there would have been a "Sorry" somewhere on the map and an explanation.

I've been thinking on how to make a doll with it.

This morning I got it out and started. 

Now I did make notes as I went along and planned to give a detailed account of what I did and what I thought and what I felt.

I changed my mind.  Much of a muchness and, as I said, it was quite a journey:  memories were evoked of ancestors and places visited and friends from countries I have not visited and food I love from countries I have and have not visited and place names and shapes of countries and colours of countries and how living in certain countries has influenced my life and .....  you know exactly what I mean. 

Also I had planned to stitch the map doll onto a piece of foamy blanket as backing and then maybe pad it a bit but I must have put the foamy blanket in the bag with other 'stuff' and taken it to the neighbourhood FREE place. Which turned out just fine (as always) because the paper map would have been too stiff to stitch and I had just come across the roll of corrugated lightweight cardboard at a sale last weekend and it worked for what I wanted.

Here it is.   Day 3 doll.  Respectfully submitted.

Dolls. Day 2 Doll

When I decided to make a doll using leaves and stems and other tree  bits  the choices for materials were many and many were considered (rather idly, in fact) but then, in that wonderfully inexplicable way, the green nut from the hazel tree dropped (not literally) to hand (I had to pick it up  and the squirrels who think that tree is their territory were nearby watching) and I knew it was right for head of doll.  The leaves came awhile later. 
It's a baby doll. 

And this is what he grew up to be.  He looks a bit like a warrior but I think he is a shepherd whose gentle nature has had to learn to brave the elements and this gives him a rather fierce outlook.  He is constructed of sweet chestnut leaves, seed and dangles.

Notice his companion.

(click on photo to enlarge)