Working on another canvas, paper-making and painting on hessian

I'm not going to be defeated 

by my errors, mistakes or failures. 

Thursday morning I had an appointment in 

the morning with a Psychologist and in the afternoon

I worked at The BACH from 1.00-4.30 pm

 so it wasn't until Friday I had time to rinse out the cooked fibre

 I was amazed at how black the ginger went. 

Must be the sodium hydroxide.

I used vinegar to neutralise the caustic soda when rinsing.

I took a lot of water to rinse the fibre clean

so I used my homemade water recycling system

 which involves a couple of rubbish bins

an piece of hosing and the discharged 

water from washing laundry 

(of which I always have)

The pulp is now ready for pulverising

Where is that insinkerator when I need it!

Guess I just have to do it in batches

using my other "leaky" food processor bowl..

...and of course, my trusty supervisor, Kaeli 

....she goes everywhere I go!

My niece asked me if I'd like to go for a walk 

up Mt. Parahaki. in the afternoon with her.

 I didn't really feel up to it (blood tests show my iron's low)

but I knew it would be good for me to get out

and I didn't want to let Kristen down

so decided to use it to my advantage, take my camera

and take photos along the way.

You can see them HERE.

It was lovely, so beautiful among all the

 native bush...the ferns and palm trees

I'm so glad I went and I found some 

art inspiration along the way!

Time: 4 hours (29 March) 

paper-making and photography

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Saturday 30th

 I brushed on some gesso on a piece of

 scrap-booking paper and mixed up this 

pale yellow paint for stamping some words

This is for the blotched-up canvas

I want/need something to remind me to

keep my mind on GOOD things.

More to come...

I didn't want to waste the paint so I used the

 rest of it on an A4 sized piece of hessian.

I've got a plan for this..so watch this space!

I also did a bit of repair work on the mask

just waiting for it to dry so I can took a mold

Sunday 31..got more ginger cooking

 It smells terrible but without the caustic soda

 it would take ages to soften

I found I lost a certain amount of the pulp through my colander so decided with the next batch to used some fine fabric. I couldn't find any muslin in my stash but thought this fine weave mesh type of fabric would work just as well. And it does! I'm off to celebrate Miss R's 20th birthday shortly. She's up from Hamilton for the Long Weekend (Easter)...so best go ice her cake. I look forward to working more on the canvas and hessian... maybe when we get back after dinner?? We will see....

Time: 3 hours (30/31 March)