Art Practice & Blackberry Ink & Glass Pen

   Yesterday, my art practice was a baby deer. I used watercolor paints and inks, and my black walnut ink. I wasn't crazy about the face-something is off on that so will try again soon. To not waste the paper I added a tree and grasses, and that mouse is there again haha Since these are practice pieces I am painting on both sides of the papers in this watercolor notebook.

This morning, while catching up on laundry, I grabbed the package of blackberries I bought at the store yesterday to make ink. I am really thinking in more primitive times people just made ink out of found organic materials to have something to write with. 

I went with the instructions in the book The Organic Artist. Crush a cup of berries, the riper and juicer the better, strain, add one teaspoon vinegar and 1 teaspoon salt per 1/2 cup. I just barely got a 1/2 cup with 12 ounces of berries.  The instructions said to let sit for a couple of days and then re strain-so I will do that.

  All the tools I used to make this were from my dye making stash. I did not have a medium size strainer so I used one with large holes and one fine strainer on top-both small strainers. I then transferred the pulp to a coffee filter.

 I wish I would of thought about ink making while living in the woods as we had a bounty of wild blackberries there.

Of course I had to try this out.  I added the vinegar and I had a fine pink himalayan salt so stirred that in, which dissolved very fast. This little dip pen is an illustrators pen, which works out nice for using with my watercolor paintings

I am pleased with the color

Speaking of pens, I did get reimbursed for the glass pen that just broke in half for no reason. I messaged the owner of the calligraphy site and shop about what happened, didn't ask for a refund-left it up to her.  This was during the holidays, she apologized, said she would send a replacement but I had bought her last one so she refunded the money. I appreciated that.

So I have been looking at a glass pen on amazon same price-around $20.00 that came with a nice wooden box. So I bought that one and it came on Monday. The box fits both pens, and it also came with a small ink bottle and a little glass pen rest.

Only thing that would have been nicer, is if the lid slid on the box in a groove instead of just sitting on top, but for $20.00 I am happy. I haven't tried out the new pen yet-it got high reviews on amazon. These are for craft and painting uses, the handblown glass pen from Germany I will use for my slow mail letters-it is so beautiful I will take a photo soon

 Last week I got a surprise in my mailbox from Scotland-Elle had sent out cards and then her mail service went on strike. The envelope was full of lovely stamps too-that is in my stamp stash already. I loved the stamps of the Queen especially Thank you Elle  Always fun to get "royal mail" in my mailbox

 I will enjoy this pretty card on my mantel til spring

Happy Mid Week

T Stands for Christmas Cards & Homemade Tamales

  Hoping this finds all of you that lost power during the arctic snow storm -  now having your electric back on. That is so difficult with frigid temperatures and no fireplace or woodstove for some heat. I do miss not having a working woodstove here at the lake house-and I would also be able to cook on it because this one has a flat top too.

  I wanted to share my lovely handmade Christmas cards and also a few others.

  This is the glass sliding door from the kitchen area into my computer slash weaving slash storage room-which gives me a lovely spot to tape up the cards. These are the cards that were not handmade.

This one below is the pretty card from Bleubeard and Elizabeth

and inside-cool stamps E and kitties

I love these vintage postcards, especially the wolf card-thanks much, I think there was one more item in the envelope too-I had already added these items to my mixed media folders before I took the photo.

Another favorite on this glass door was from my friend that meets me at the woods house to pack up Larry's scope repair shop Sorry about the flash this was the best photo of the bunch.

and this one is from my friend Cathy-sheep dressed up for winter. I love sheep and so does she-so this one had me smiling  Cathy hooks allot of rugs with wool strips-something my Mom had done when I was a little kid.

 I had a couple handmade cards and a very awesome fold out card which I had never seen before.

Isn't this first one adorable?? This card is from Rain in Canada

Perhaps some of you  may remember Agnes-or Aggie in Paris France? We reconnected again on google chat-she found me. Always loved her art. This is the inside of her card it is all folded-sorry I don't remember the name of this technique but is from Japan. Sadly she had something inside the card that didn't make it, or the large gnome sticker on the back of the envelope didn't make it through the mail, which was disappointing

This is the fold out card-isn't it too awesome?  From my slow mail friend Mary thank you

  All of these cards are sitting on the mantel with my gnomes and pottery pieces.

This beautiful card is from Carola-so pretty I love it with the cardinals and the flower. thank you so much.

And this lovely card came in the day before the storm hit here at the lake, so I was able to get it out of the mailbox beforehand. From May at Salty Pumpkin. This is so pretty with sparkles too.

May also included a few beautiful Christmas tags-thank you so much May

  I want to thank those of you that wanted to share handmade Christmas cards with me this year-something I enjoy doing for the holidays.

    Christmas Day was our first warmer day since the arctic blast came through. We made it to around 20 degrees F. Yesterday I grabbed my snow shovel and worked on getting the steps cleared and a little bit of the steep hill. It was really too cold for me to be working outdoors but knowing that Monday was a mail holiday, I needed to get my mail out of the box from a few days and also mail something. Since it was very cold outdoors, I ended up doing a little shoveling on the lower part of the hill and then just walked between the concrete wall and my car-carefully got myself up and down. Middle of this week coming up, we will have a warm up.

  Because of the storm I haven't been able to get the peanut brittles made for our friends, so they didn't visit either for the other goodies I made for them and it also wasn't safe to be on the wintry roads either. Hoping I can do that tomorrow (Monday).

 Larry is still having some issues from the operation-slow healing. We see the doctor on the 30th-and thankfully all the ice and snow should be gone by then as it is an hour drive or more each way.

  I did made us homemade tamales for Christmas eve and roasted cornish hens for Christmas day. Since my post is so long already I will detail the tamales later in the week-perhaps for Rain's Dinner Date These tamales were really delicious and I made the filling different this time.

For my drink share this week I have been drinking lots of decaf teas and coffee all week but haven't gotten another photo of those, but I also have in the frig this bottle of yummy eggnog that I will pour me a shot of later on tonight. I took this photo looking into my frig-haha to the right is a big pitcher of ice tea.

   I only need a shot of this-so delicious- it has allot of alcohol in it. This is my favorite brand for an egg nog with alcohol in it.

Happy T and new week everyone

Monday afternoon update:  I am very excited as I just got notice that the handblown glass dip pen from Germany is arriving tomorrow (Tuesday) I will need to be more careful with this one.

  As Iris had mentioned that she would probably break one of these glass pens-the one I have now from Japan just snapped in half when I was taking off the plastic protector for the point sigh-I taped it together so I could still use it for balance. I did get allot of writing accomplished so far-all the Christmas cards and all the postcards I am sending out, and also a few slow mail letters too. It still is working fine being taped together but still. 

I have kept it stored in this nice box along with that thick plastic ptotector- I think I will write a note to the company I bought this from-perhaps a weak point in the stem

T Stands for Tuesday-Getting to Look Allot Like Christmas

   Good morning Friends, ( I am posting a bit early this week)  

        T for Tuesday has come around again-time is passing by just too quickly this year for me, more so than some years. The older we age, at least for me, time seems to go faster which is odd to me since we are pretty much stay at home people now.

  Last year I didn't dig out my little tree because it and the ornaments are on the very very top of the stair case in the closet (that leads to the attic) in my craft room. That space is very full of storage containers of fabrics etc, and lots of bags of fibers for spinning. This year I decided to tackle this-and will rearrange for easier access when I put things back. It is time to go through my fiber stash and decide what I want to still spin, or perhaps felt down, or possibly try to sell on etsy.

 The large box that holds my tree is behind the row of tubs up by the ceiling, and the box of ornaments is up there to the left These tubs are all very heavy so was quite the project, and the steps are quite deep-however that does make them perfect for a storage space.

The crystal angel on top was my Moms, the elf is very old from the 50's that we picked up in Chicago during the  Christmas season-each of us kids got one-the theme that year in Chicago was elves.  When we lived at the woods house the little store usually had unique Christmas ornaments for sale-Larry picked up several fishing santas. The plastic santas were my Grandma's So this is a tree full of memory ornaments for me. Larry is Jewish so this is a better spot for me to enjoy.

   This year I placed it on my coffee table, so a perfect place to view while watching tv or reading

I put out the luminaries too with the little battery tea lights on the ledge of the wall of windows

  Going down another memory lane if you missed it I made a page for Art Journal Journey's theme by Jo of snowy winter here The page didn't start out that way but as I went through saved items it took on a life of it's own-smiles  It features CJ a bit and remembering our wolf family member Nikita

  This is the time of year that we are privileged to view the eagle pair that resides in this area  This first photo was taken Saturday morning-I stepped out the front door and really zoomed in-they sit across the road in the trees up there

and this photo I took the day before on Friday in the early afternoon. I had to look for the eagle-I heard the singing-as he/she was in a totally different spot. This might be the hen as she is larger than the male

 A week or so ago I received a surprise Christmas package from Mia. I was going to wait til Christmas so I would have something to open then-but why wait?? smiles  Mia always sends fun craft items-including papers which are much appreciated, teas, and in this package a lovely kitchen towel-some of her family is from Crete

Thank you Mia-hugs

For my drink share I have been enjoying an advent calendar of little boxes of teas. I remember a year or two ago I think it was CJ who had shared this and I thought that would be so nice for me to do. This one comes from England all the teas are organic, mostly herbal, green teas, rooibos and just a two or three with caffeine black tea, so it worked out for me. The tea bags can also give a second cup of tea, so the ones with caffeine I just do a small cup. I did think it was different that the numbers are not in order-probably part of the fun

Really nice tea bags

and my French Press coffee-in this keep hot bottle. When I went shopping last week at Wal mart I really stocked up on things so hopefully I won't need to go anymore til the end of the month-perhaps just some fresh items. I had a commuter mug for Larry on my list-didn't see them and then forgot about it before I checked out-most of the ones online have issues when you read the comments-the handles break off, or the the lids break etc-so that is still on my list.

I did finish making all of the Christmas cards last week, and placed them in our mailbox on Thursday. The international cards all went out on Monday of last week

  I am really in love still with my glass pen-which was made in Japan. I love beautiful tools so I have been browsing looking for one more. They are all a bit different in how fine they write. There are nice looking ones on Amazon's site but I don't want China made.      Looking on Etsy I found a shop with gorgeous pens-handmade in Germany here  Glassworks by Frank Liebmann Munich Germany

  This photo is the simplest of his pens he has others even more lovely All excellent reviews

  Well I fell in love with this one, like the shape better

  Enjoy your December and Happy T

T Stands for Tuesday

 It's time again for T and it's the last one for November this year already. The months seem to be flying by way too fast for me. Tuesdays we gather over at Bleubeard and Elizbeth's and share a drink related photo. Find link in my sidebar.

Have you all shopped til you dropped?  That used to be the saying when I was much younger. Ha Ha In my 20's I would shop at the malls during good Friday weekend I don't have anyone to shop for anymore, but I do use these sales online to buy clothes if we need them. This year Larry really needed new warm insulated hoodies for when he works outdoors, and His River Driver shirts from LL Bean are all worn out so bought him one of those too. I have been buying these shirts for almost 50 years now they are wool on the outside and cotton on the inside-very warm and cozy. This year they are quite pricey. 

Not much happening here, the weather has been very up and down with lots of fog too. We have enjoyed lots of water fowl-loons, mallards, other diving ducks, the blue heron is still here, the eagle pair visits almost every day now too, also flocks of Canada geese fly by in the mornings. We had a dove visit the bird seed one morning.

I have been working on making this year's Christmas cards over the last week. I just mailed out the international cards, and hope to start mailing the rest end of this week. These have been a fun creative project for me over the years, and they are different each year.

I wanted to share my new favorite dip pen. I was not familiar with these, and one of the sites (The Postman's Knock) that I have enjoyed learning from her tutorials and also for buying a few things had this glass pen. It's so beautiful and writes well-I am in love with it. It is not for calligraphy but for general writing like journals or slow mail letters. It is recommended to use thin and non permanent inks like my black walnut ink and also iron gall ink. I did also pick up a bottle of the iron gall ink. Just rinse the tip in water to clean  If you use a permanent ink it will be more difficult to clean

 These glass dip pens are all one piece and they are really beautiful-I could see it would be easy to have a collection of these beauties. I tried it out yesterday on a slow mail letter and it glides on the paper really  nice. Had so  much enjoyment writing with this pretty pen.

I didn't get allot of photos this week but here are a couple very early before sunrises

I took this one below early this morning from indoors.

Do you like to bake or make candies for Christmas? I have always enjoyed it allot through the years. Lately I make allot of different things and then give most of it away. I was able to get the melting chocolate and almond bark at Wal mart today-online it has been just too expensive.

Over the weekend I was in the mood for French Press coffee-so good this way.

Happy T and new week everyone.