Ink, A New Medium

 Ink, A New Medium

Last Christmas, we met our oldest son’s family in Oxford, UK for a school event for one of the grandsons.

While we were there, I discovered a wonderful store with pens and inks.

My husband bought me the Inkvent 2023, a collection of 25 Diamine inks in an advent calendar.

Getting through customs two times to continue our travels, was an interesting challenge as the customs agents in both airports checked the number of ounces allowed for travel, a total of 24 tiny sealed bottles with 12ml, plus a larger sealed bottle with 30ml.

They fit well within the allowance, and also fit into the airport’s small-size baggie after I took them all out of their beautiful advent calendar packaging.

In favor of simplifying my travel, I finally ditched the shaped plastic holder and perforated advent doors for the inks.

I have started trying out the inks with various dip pens and nibs.  Needing more practice, I am using a simple ink pen to dip as I discover how much ink is needed.

My trial below includes writing on several strips of paper plus the entire Meditation Drawing and is actually from only one dip into the ink.

I look forward to when I gain more control with the wider shaped nibs for more decorative flourishes.

© 2024 Kathryn Hardage 

My Folk-Art Style Christmas Tree

My Folk-Art Style Christmas Tree

I have always loved the feeling of the faded folk-art style and colors.

Here is a fabric Christmas tree which I made a few years ago.

© 2023 Kathryn Hardage

Finishing Projects

It is always fun to start a new project, and I always have several works-in-progress.

As I rotate my attention, I move forward on everything little by little.

At some point, various projects near their finishing points.

Sometimes a project does not get finished for years.

That is the case with my socks.

I brought them with me when I moved to Portugal almost three years ago.

I finally figured out how to repair a mistake I made, so now they are wearable.

I even made a small matching cowl, really just a collar, to wear with them.

Sometimes I have a basic idea of what I want to make, but because I cannot figure it out at the time, it becomes something else.

That is the case with the long red waffle fabric nightgown I wanted.

Instead, I made a robe and pajama pants.

A couple of years later, I figured out how to convert them into a long nightgown.

It is a different design than I envisioned, but it works just fine.

A wonderful sock yarn with a variegated color scheme has become a shawl.

I created a new texture by doubling two of the colors, grey and blue, with heavier yarn.

The sock yarn, in purples, stands out as a more delicate look, creating a wonderful striped effect.

I love using my tuning fork as an original idea for a shawl pin for it.

Even though I was impatient to wear each of these projects, they all got completed in their own time.

I enjoy the many iterations a project will assume as I play with ideas for the fabric or yarn.

At some point, I find a beginning point, and even with multiple variations, a finishing point, as well.

© 2023 Kathryn Hardage 

Canning for the season

Canning for the Season

I brought my canners with me when I moved to Portugal.

I am doing both Boiling Water Bath Canning and Pressure Canning.

While I was living in the US, I learned to preserve fruits, vegetables, soups and stews and meats and mushrooms through canning.

It is part of my collection of sustainability skills, because that is the closest I was able to get to growing up in the country.

I used the Ball Bluebook Canning Guide.

Now, I can look up any combination of ingredients on-line and discover how to can them.

Last year, I canned tomato salsa, peaches, plums, and strawberries.

This year, I have canned Spicey Chicken Soup,  and oranges in honey water.

My current project is cinnamon apple slices and peaches in honey water.

This will be followed by a beef and vegetable soup, also pork-sauerkraut-mushroom, some form of pickling for cabbage, and a fruit combo involving the mango which is part of the fruit and produce box from the grocery store.

Later this season, I will can tomato salsa, but with stronger onions.

There is a particular feeling of abundance when I put up several months of food through canning.

Also, although I enjoy cooking, I do not enjoy doing it every night.

This lets me cook several different meals in advance, and have the convenience of Meals in Jars which I have made myself.

My husband used to chop everything by hand while we were living off-grid.

Back on grid, we use a food processor, excpet for the tomatoes which we prefer chunky.

We stripped corn off the cob with a mandolin, three cobs per pint.

That was futile, since we ate it almost before there was anything left to can.

I enjoy the flexibility of the soups and stews.

I can add a quarter cup of beans, stronger spices, onions, celery, whatever I want for flavor and nutrition.

It is fun to add more variety to my favorites.

I enjoy the seasonal aspect of canning, although in Portugal, there is more year-round produce.

© 2023 Kathryn Hardage 

Sewing a Coat

I was so excited to sign up for a course in how to sew a classic coat.

I traveled to Brighton, UK, making arrangements to stay in a nearby B&B, so I could walk back and forth to the class location.

There were sixteen of us in the class, each of us with space to spread out the pattern and to sew it.

My first challenge was to sort out the pattern pieces for muslin (called calico in UK and Europe) and lining.

We learned how to make three kinds of pockets.  

Here is my single welt style.

Here is my “double-welted” style in progress.

Here are my three pocket samples: Double-welt, single-welt and patch pocket samples.

Here is my unlined coat mock-up, with collar, lapels and sleeves.

We walked to a fabric store to choose our coat fabric.

Since I was flying home, I will buy my coat fabric here in Portugal.

During the course, several ladies said they were grateful for the experienced sewists to give us all encouragement.

I am so grateful for the excellent instruction.

It will take me a while to process all of it and to make the coat after I finish the lining for my mock-up.

© 2023 Kathryn Hardage 

Yarn in Germany

I travelled to Hannover, Germany to see a museum exhibit and to take a test ride on a lightweight, foldable ebike.

The museum exhibit was in Norden, a three hour train ride away.

I had booked roundtrip tickets.

When I went to the restaurant to get take-away, I  found out the trains were on strike.

I confirmed that on their website.

I rested in my beautiful air b&b the next day.

I went to my scheduled ebike test ride, only to find the location had been changed.

I redirected myself to the new location, which turned out to be farther than expected once I got to the new train station.

I got tired walking to the new location and called the person who was to give me the test ride.

He assured me that I was close.

Not close enough.

He rode the bike to where I had decided that I could not walk any further.

He adjusted the bike to my height.

Not low enough.

It bumped my “lady parts”.

He adjusted it lower.

By then, I was “gun shy”, and did not get on the bike correctly.

I fell off and cried.

He rode his bike back to the factory and got the van to take me back to my train stop.

I backtracked to the original location and set up my tea and sketch at a local cafe to calm down.

After that I went next door to a yarn shop.

The owner found me the ideal textured yarn and weighed a finished scarf.

I bought three skeins.

It matches my fabric perfectly.

Even though my trip did not happen the way I planned, I was able to adjust and calm down.

There were too many factors beyond my control for me to feel bad about myself.

I had a lovely location to continue my daily writing and drawing.

I had lots of help whenever I needed it for redirection.

I got to know a bit about a new city and a new country.

I did not let these disappointments in my plans influence the next leg of my journey.

© 2023 Kathryn Hardage 

Playing with a dip pen

Playing with a dip pen

This is my first experience writing with a dip pen.

I learned to write with a fountain pen, using ink cartridges, in the fifth grade.

This was after practicing cursive handwriting in third and foruth grades with a pencil.

I remember we were told to get cartridge ink pens after experimenting with regular fountain pens which drew ink up from an ink bottle.

I am not sure where we learned to do that.  

I do not remember any spilled ink bottles at school, just lots of blotting with the cartridge ink pens.

At any rate, I admire calligraphers so very much.

I have tried writing with chisel felt tip calligraphy pens.

I like the thick and thin lines.

Even with calligraphy writing tablets, I have not applied my disiplined practice habits from learning music to learning calligraphy.

I just have fun making up my own letter styles.

However, the temptation of the different nibs has caught my attention.

I ordered a couple of different sets, and my husband surprised me with a set from the local papelaria, (stationary and art supply shop in our town of Coimbra, Portugal).

It is always fun to stop in and see what fun art toys they have.

He went back for writing ink.

So today, I opened up that bottle of ink, took out the simplest dip pen which I ordered, by Bic, and tried it out.

Slow, slow handwriting.

I can still feel the heat in that temporary classroom building at my elementary school in Houston, Texas.

I can see the unpainted, dusty floorboards, kind of a reflected green from the insitutional paint on the walls.

I can smell the dust as we all bent over our lined writing tablets, trying to protect them from our sweaty arms, and I couldn’t get the  “r” just right.

Today, I feel the pressure of my pen against the strips of watercolor paper I tore off the bottom of another project.

I hear the scratching of it, and I feel the need to maintain the pressure of the pen.

I am carving letters into the paper.

This is not a casual act.

It requires concentration and feeling of presence.

I can see that this practice will involve more than playing with a new art supply.

I am not sure where it will take me.

Deeper, for sure.

© 2023 Kathryn Hardage 

Tea and sketch

My walk to the dentist’s office got me there early, so I went to the ever available cafe, where ever you go in Portugal, next door, for tea.

© 2022 Kathryn Hardage

Meditative yarn disentangling

Just add meditation music and stay calm…

One of many tiny yarn balls…

Available for a continuing project.

Tea and Sketch in Lisbon

Last month, we travelled from Coimbra to Lisbon.

While I was waiting for the Museum of Modern Art to open, I found a cafe at the back of the Betrand Bookshop.

I love the shape of their large teapots.

This is an ideal spot, as it is in a quiet street perpendicular to two busier streets.

Behind me, is the busy street entrance to the Bertrand Bookshop.

At the end of the block in front on me is the busy street one block over from the entrance to the Museum.

I was grateful for the quiet here, before and after my museum visit, in this pleasant quiet spot, as I waited for my husband to join me after his visit to the Marine Museum.

© 2022 Kathryn Hardage