Melt some butter and get out the garlic press—this week I
have been making what I’m confident are the last two vegetables for my "Fall
Stew" piece. Yes, it has been a long,
drawn-out process, but the slow process of making all the vegetables means I
get to savor each contribution. I got to
thinking about Amy Hamilton from the Core Farms CSA. We used to travel to Musgrave Orchard each
week to pick up our basket of summer vegetables before our schedule just became
to erratic to be able to plan on receiving vegetables each week. Now we rely on the Bloomington Community Farmer’s Market. Anyway, I remember how much she enjoyed
describing the different characteristics of each garlic variety they grew.
I learned that there were many varieties and
that they were either soft or hard necked, which helped guide my design. I prefer the hard neck varieties over the
grocery-story soft neck versions. The
hard neck garlic heads don’t store as well, but they are more flavorful and
complex, just like a nice red wine. They
feature a single row of toes around a central core, as opposed to the jumbled
toes of the soft neck variety. I made
three heads by first making small felted balls.
I stuffed small clumps of sheep’s wool that I got from Gale Hale (but I
think she got it from Nancy Kreuger).
Last summer I invested a huge amount of time washing and cleaning and
now I’m able to use the beautiful white fleece.
I stuff clumps into Grandma’s old nylons (the ones with holes) and tie
knots off between the clumps. A trip
through the washer and dryer and a snip next to each clump releases a soft
felted ball about an inch in diameter. I
needle felted the balls into toes and shaped them into the garlic head. I’m really pleased with how they turned out!
My final choice for vegetable to fill the last space on the
piece was inspired by a birthday party I went to last week. My friend Cinny had her sixtieth birthday
party at her home in Brown County, and Dawn Adams gave me a tour of the
property. I was struck by the sea of
purple turnip tops that act as a cover crop to retain soil and nutrients. The richly colored tops were shielded a tiny
bit of green that survived the ravages of the cold snap we had in early
January. I couldn’t see the white bottoms,
but I knew they were there, drawing from the deep tap roots that stabilized the
soil. I’m always up for a sign from the
universe, so when I needed my own cover crop to fill in the last space in my
weaving I knew it had to be turnips! I
can’t tell you how happy I will be attach my bushel basket of vegetables to the
weaving and call it done!
The other project that has been keeping me busy for most of
the week was working on costumes for Sounds of South. This was my first full week of going into the
costume studio every day. With the help
of my sewing and glueing faeries, Nancy Riggert and Misti Hays, we have made
great strides on the boy’s vintage circus costumes. As
of Friday I have designed twenty of the twenty-five male costumes in the
current SOS group. I fully understand
that there will be a new crop of freshman joining in the spring, but for now
I’m looking forward to celebrating the complete set of the male costumes by the
end of the coming week. I should even
have made a pretty good dent in the girl’s costumes too. I’ll post the images of some of my favorite
costumes next time.
It has been a good week, but I ran out of pie around midweek
and have gone three days now without pie.
I think I need Werner Herzog to narrate a documentary on my pie
struggles. On the bright side, we’re one
trimester away from a summer vacation!
Until next week,
Martina Celerin
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