seeds and lace

happy new year! rabbit rabbit.

skins

......................................scarred
.

.....................................tainted



......................................shriveled



......................................raw


1.pomegranate 2.clementine 3.apple 4.avocado seed

late beginnings

Early last September, dear wonderful Barbara gave me a dozen eggs fresh from her chickens at home. Sam I Am lays the green eggs. I love all of them so and tried to save the eggshells. Their colors and shapes are so pretty to look at, even the broken ones...





I tried wrapping one of the eggshells but it did not turn out right at all. Felt like i was suffocating it. They are beautiful naked as is, aren't they?

---
Today i meet again the guy who reminds me of K. It's been years. Did not recognize him at first but his voice sounded familiar, only louder than what i remembered. He looked changed and not so much like K anymore.

It was good to be home for the holidays and be with the family even though i kept telling people how exhausting it was. My cousins are more and more heroic to me. I wish for more time together with them and my sisters. Soygu looking younger with Sharrlyn and my parents have stopped aging. Called home after driving back late Friday night to let them know we've arrived safely, and i could hear the noise and chatter in the background. Next morning, i woke up thinking of everyone and feeling so lonely. I especially miss my sisters and cousins. Don't want them to ever grow old.

tamarind bloom

The inner veinery of tamarind pods that Conor @ RedCatBlackCat sent me earlier this year.

Look what else my good old buddy saved for me after eating the sweet sour tamarind pulp:


Tamarind seeds! Click for larger image to see the lovely blue gem among the pebble of seeds. As if everything else isn't enough already. :).

I love it all, Conor. *You* are wonderful. The red dragonflies on the card you sent have also been flying in my head lately...


I have these around me as i am finishing up with my promise spoons. Want to do something with the tamarind veinery afterwards. i wonder what.

i think i'm going somewhere with this

an old print torn to strips

So this weekend i have started printing again. Took out some old plates from college years and also some more recent ones that i started last year a couple of years ago. Look how neat my table is. No nasty hair.



(before)

Cat, your hair is everywhere here.

---
And this print i thought was horrible is okay after all...

hang in there

Today, another horrible printing day. Could not get any of the chine colle pieces to work the way i wanted them to with the thread or the hair. I keep smelling sour dried orange peel under my nose. yuck. Not at all pleasant-smelling like the dried pomelo. Maybe that is why the day isn't going well. too many rotten peels around. bleh. j.k. nothing is rotting here. just in the process of drying and changing.

Ahead for this month:

*take time (!) working on the copper plates!!! no quick fix laziness.

*sketch out the works for the hair, bowls and fruits
(not necessary to mix everything together though)

*trails time :)!

still

dried orange sewn, 2007

Not making much progress. still fumbling, making small things and lost in the head. Thinking of cradles, vessels and wrapping self.


2006/2007 + recently dried

pink avocados

acrylic on dried avocado skin, not halves of each other, work in progress

pomstars and moons

Went home for Chinese New Year's (2.07.08) and helped myself to all the pomelos my parents had in the house. They were so sweet and plump, i ate them all by myself very quickly. so so juicy and not bitter at all. I kept their skin to dry. love the colors.





That big one waiting to be eaten. It is roughly the size of a fat head, i think.



Here it has been devoured and drying quite nicely.





But the smaller ones that were dried earlier don't look too hot right now. Sadly, i had to throw away two other ones because they got rotted by mold from too much moisture on the inside. I tried to salvage what i had left by toasting them in the toaster oven for a quick fix. But i don't think i'll do that again. They look hurt and damaged.

tiny lovely

I was going to wait to post about this but i just can't wait. Finally caught some good daylight yesterday and got to take the pictures.

Look what i received in the mail last Monday!


...arrived just like that, so raw and delicate...love the little clasp on the box...

It is from *Erin*, whom i have yet to meet in person but whose presence has already touched me ever so deeply. Thank you, Erin, for this, and for magically appearing into my life. :).



[click for a closer peek]



I think of the hands that went into tearing these pieces and pieces of paper that look like fine leather and feathers...



and then underneath all that softness...



...a dragonfly i've been looking for, and a tiny tiny lovely blooming:



I saw it and it speaks to me ever so softly, echoing my thoughts.



and the dragonfly...like the one my dad had caught for me to fly with when i was little, because where i was born, there were no toy stores around at the time.


the dragonfly in silent prayers...

trailing

So i've been out on the trails again today. It's so stupid that it took me four years to discovered these nature trails right on campus where i work. But i guess better late than never. I was lamenting how i wish i could have discovered them at least earlier this spring/summer instead of right now when winter is about to set in.

But today, having come across various beautiful dried things, i think this new autumn beginning on the trails is not so bad at all...(thanks to Marjojo and Catherine for their writing/commenting on the beauty of being outside at this time of the year. It prompted me to quit moping around the house and finally go out for a walk like i keep saying i would).



Found these dried stalks last week when i was on one of the trails. I love them little pellet things bunched up together like that to become leaves.


...in a vase i made sometime in 2004, vase size appx. 5.7 x 9.7 cm

more dried things

Except for the dried orange peel and the papier mache bowls, these have all been collected this past spring and summer. Ironic, isn't it? since these dried fallen things are probably more often associated with autumn and winter. But there are things falling and dying all the time.

While waiting for the clayballs to dry last month, i had been shaving some tree branches picked up at the parks nearby. I am saving the wood shavings for making more papier mache things.

After the branches were shaved, they were cut into these little wooden pieces:



Look how they relate to my orange nipples painting [still work in progress]:



It was actually from the painting that i thought to cut them up so you could see the perfect dotted center.



I like salvaging these things that would have been just left to fade away. like the fact that even though they are essentially dead, they still exist and you can still see how beautiful they are.