just a sample of my new collectionok so I have been collecting doilies for the past four weeks in anticipation of this experiment, which is singularly fantastic because I have always loathed doilies, while being paradoxically aware of the amount of effort inherent to even the dodgiest doilie's creation. i sortof see doilies and all that crochet-y handiwork as documents of time as spent by another generation (and this one)... while awaiting the next task, while emptying the mind of the last one, of late nights and cold days... they really do something to me on the level of time spent, compressed into a document, or a product, which is sortof non-essential, and not really valued once it is created (esp. by the next generation... like me..).
so. in this spirit, I've been collecting doilies while I've been at Banff with the intention of using them fo this moss design experiement. moss, like a doilie, grows slowly. is intricate. is simple yet difficult. intrigues me.
moss-collection location of choicethe moss thing. sofie sent me a link a while back about moss graffiti, via heavypetal. The ethic of this technique slots right into the sense of temporality and the organic that I've been toying around with of late. was thinking that i would like to do moss-ish things - moss against the sky - in the trees around here, as moss is such a big part of the ecosystem.. a primary groundcover, even. It comes in first, sets up on the bare rock and begins a much much larger cycle of growth, ending in the montane and alpine forests as seen around this place. hurrah for moss.
moss de-sticked, de-stoned and ready to blend..so yes I went ahead and collected some moss from an open drain, and blended it within an inch of its life with buttermilk, sugar and water. I then selected seven sacrificial doilies and soaked them is the moss soup. I stretched some across embroidery frames, and left some as is, with the intention of tying them or situating them somewheres, somehow... an excellent day. my studio now smells slightly unsettling, however.. sortof moss/buttermilk cross, with a dash of soil....
moss and buttermilk - ready for souping
moss soupthe main unknown with this experiment - no actually it's all unknown - I don't even know if the recipie will work... is: how long does moss take to grow? I am here for another two and a bit weeks, and I am not at all sure that moss should be expected to grow to the point of covering my doilie-skeletons by this time... could not find this information anywhere, not even in the Mr Fletcher's moss growing guide ... hmmm.. fingers crossed.
some of the doilies post-moss-soup-soaking, stretched across frames, ready for their adventure in the woods.
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