The batik is finally finished, covered with wax, and now it’s time to remove it and reveal the bright colors underneath. There are several ways to do this. Some artists, especially in Indonesia, boil the wax out of the fabric. This has the advantage of having the wax rise to the top, and when it…
It has been three months to the day now since I flew off of Star while riding up on the trails behind my house. It was a slow recovery. I got used to using a walker, a cane, and gradually climbing up the hill again where I go in the warm months to just be,…
Vanilla is still miffed at me for having someone else feed him while I was in recovery. He has been very grouchy, but on this visit, he took an apple from Henry, which is a big accomplishment. The hot sun blazes down on the Day Lilies and Star and Vanilla search for shade and cool…
The warm spring sun in May rarely shines for all the rain. The meadows and pastures are green and thick. When the sun shines it is heaven and I remember wondering how I would face the challenge of keeping Star and Vanilla well cared for and get my dye buckets ready for the summer dyeing…
Here is a batik tutorial video clip from 2015.
The dashboard of my car had a tiny plastic cow sitting on it, a jersey cow. I knew right away Dick had set it there….. He had left some other days and I still keep one up in the bedroom. I met Dick in Ashfield, Mass after his new herd of jersey cows broke out…
It was Saturday morning that I went out to the barn and my llama Vanilla lay in his stall, and did not bother to come to eat his grain. This has never happened. He’s always had a very healthy appetite, and when I saw that I knew he was very sick. He did get up….
Silk Painting and the Fence Star, my pony, has been so good about respecting the one line white poly tape fences that I put up and move frequently. This gives her new sections of grass. She happily eats within the area and there is a line at the edge where eaten to uneaten grass meet….
And then I started a fire. I had set up the old hot plate with the double boiler in the room so that kids could do batik. I had carefully put down plastic around a couple dye buckets so that we could try the process. It was supposed to be simple and rewarding and the…
The wind swirled into the south window as my husband Dick and I stood in the upstairs of our old tenant house with my Mom and Dad. This house stood up the hill from our farmhouse and had been abandoned for years. Built in the 1800s, rumor had it that once it was a…