Nest Making

Birds are great weavers of nests. Recently, some young people and I tried to figure out how the birds do it by constructing our own nests out of clay, sticks, wool, moss and a variety of fibres. We designed beautiful eggs with plasticene. New species of birds were hatched from vibrant imaginations. I am always amazed at what can emerge out of the magic of the creative process.

Happy Year of the Ox!

Two loved ones in my family are celebrating birthdays in March that are exactly a week apart and both were born in the year of the ox 36 years apart. In honour of their special year we had a party last night and I made an ox cake. I used a recipe for snickerdoodle cookies for the legs, horns, ears and tail. Hot milk sponge cake makes up the forehead and haunches and fudge brownie fills in the rest.

I remember a dream that I had a while ago about doing work with a shaman somewhere in South America and I was given the job to make a cake to get the ritual started. There was a sense of honour in the task. I had the same feeling while creating this lovely creature for my family and friends. I wonder what the eating of the ox will inspire?

Celtic Roots Festival Art Work

For a week or so every January or February I am hard at work with a now familiar creative task. Since 1993, I have created a design to celebrate the Earth, Air, Fire, Water: Celtic Roots Festival. This is number 17 in the series. A slide show of the all of the work is available on the Celtic Festival website.

In getting started I am guided by the four elements that take form as human or animal. Sometimes there is a theme that needs expressing. This year speaks of "the scattering" of Celtic people throughout the world. I started with the image of a house and gave it the wings of the geese to suggest a house taking flight. The roof suggests furrows in a field, making reference to scattering and taking root.

The animals, ox, goose, dragons feeding the hearth and the fish all speak to me of home in Huron County a place where many found themselves after scattering. Lake Huron and the agricultural land continue to be a valuable resource and a part of our natural heritage.

And so, the act of scattering becomes taking root in a new place called home.

My Stars

It is Valentine's Day and instead of sharing hearts I am sharing my stars. I started rug hooking early this summer while travelling around Nova Scotia. While touring shops on a rainy day in Pictou I found a rug hooking kit by Deanne Fitzpatrick and subsequently became hooked on rug hooking. On our way home while passing through Amherst, Nova Scotia we stopped at Deanne's downtown studio on Electric Street. It is an inspiring place and so is Deanne.

At Christmas time I began making stars as gifts. Choosing colour is about intuitively responding from one section to the next. Most of my wool has come from Deanne's shop where you can order online as well as from The Rug Line in Hensall, Ontario. Recently, my mom has become enthused about rug hooking and has been spending time in second hand stores looking for wool clothing to recycle into rugs. She has had great success. We have also discovered there is a herstory of rug hookers on my mom's side of the family. My grandmother was a rug hooker and so was my great grandmother. There exists in the family a rug hook that my great grandmother used. It made by my great grandfather from the bone handle of a fork.

About Encaustic

About a year ago I began experimenting again with encaustic medium-- a mix of beeswax and damar resin. I had first used it in university but decided to learn more and take a workshop with encaustic and mixed media artist, Andrea Bird. The workshop resulted in transforming my working process from mixed media and acrylic painting to one of wax, oil paint and heat. It offers the texture that I love and a luminescent quality that I have yet to see in any other medium. I can continue to incorporate collage as well as scratch and scrape into the surface, transfer images and add oil stick to enhance the rich colour quality. Every layer is fused with a blow torch or heat gun. Even this can produce inspiring results.

The paintings in the slide show below are from this year's body of work.

Encaustic Paintings

Communication

This blog is inspired by my word for the year, communication drawn from Angel Cards by Innerlinks. My purpose is to celebrate and communicate the creative energy that I see in the world.

On New Years Eve I gather with family and friends and make Chinese dumplings. Making food together is a great way to celebrate. It creates an aura of welcome and comfort especially for those that are new to the party as they don aprons and roll, cut and flatten dough into discs to envelope the mix of ground pork, ginger, onion, garlic and shredded nappa cabbage. These tasty pockets are steamed or boiled and served with Jiaozi sauce, a mix of tamari, garlic, sesame oil, rice vinegar and sesame seeds. The energy of celebration continues as the dumplings are consumed into the New Year accompanied by non verbal expressions of gustatory pleasure.

This recipe is reprinted with permission from page 268 of the cookbook Extending the Table...A World Community Cookbook by Joetta Handrich Schlabach.

Pork Filled Chinese Dumplings
(China)
Makes 75 dumplings

Dough for Dumpling Skins
(I often find that I need to make 2 batches of this to cover the amount of filling)
Stir with chopsticks or wooden spoon 3 minutes
2c. cold water (500ml)
6c. flour (1.5L)
Dough will initially be dry and crumbly; Knead about 5 minutes until smooth. Cover with damp cloth and rest 15-30 minutes. Roll into long rope about 1-inch diameter (2.5cm). Cut into 1 inch lengths (2.5cm) and shape into balls. Flatten with fingers and roll out on board into very thin disks, about 3 1/2 inches in diameter (8cm). If dough sticks, sprinkle board with flour. Lay disks on lightly floured board or table, not overlapping (they stick together easily). If several people are working together, one can immediately begin stuffing and cooking skins, while another continues shaping and rolling dough.

Filling
1 1/2lb. ground pork or beef, or a combination (750g), mixed with
1/1/2T onion or green onion, minced (20mL)
1/2-1t.ginger root, minced (2-5mL)
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
(I always use more garlic and ginger than this)

Add:
1-2 T. soy sauce (15-30ml)
2T. sesame oil (30)ml
1 egg (optional)

Finely shred, to consistency of coleslaw:
1-1 1/4 large heads of Chinese cabbage (sometimes called Nappa)

After shredding , squeeze out all excess water. Add cabbage to meat mixture and beat until mixture is pasty. (Filling can be made ahead of time and refrigerated.)

Stuffing Skins:
To stuff skins, place 1 heaping teaspoon filling on each disk.Use fingertips to dampen edges of skin with a little water. Fold disk firmly over filling and press and roll edges together to form half moon. Set on lightly floured or oiled board or plate until ready to cook; Jiaozi should not touch each other so they do not stick.

Cooking:
Fill large saucepan or soup pot half full of water. Bring to a boil. Add dumplings, 10-15 at a time. Bring to a boil. Add 3/4 c. cool water (175ml). Bring to a boil. Add 3/4 c. cool water (175ml). Bring to a boil. Add a third 3/4 c. water (175ml). Bring to a boil. Scoop out Jiaozi with slotted spoon.
(This year one of our cooks used 3 tangerines as reminders of each addition of cool water)

Dumplings will be firm and creamy white, and are best served while still piping hot. Often one person continues cooking while the group begins to eat. If not eaten immediately, keep cooked Jiaozi warm in covered dish, overlapping as little as possible to keep from sticking together. Serve Jiaozi in bowls, with small dishes of Jiaozi sauce or Simple Jiaozi Dip. Slices of fresh fruit or vegetables complete the meal.

Jiaozi Sauce
(China)
Makes about 1 cup (250ml)

Mix:
1c soy sauce (250ml)
1/4-1T Tabasco pepper sauce (1-5ml)+!
3 cloves garlic, minced
2t. sugar (10ml)
4t. vinegar (20ml)
2T sesame oil (30ml)
1/4 c. Toasted Sesame Seeds (50ml)


Photos are courtesy of enthusiastic party photographers Pam Hanington and Karen Melady.