Just a pic -- august evenings

Going through photos I uploaded today, I came to this and noticed that there was a ferry on the horizon that I never saw when taking the photo. Or, I guess it's the ferry as the go on that route from Denmark to the west coast and Norway, but there are also real, fancy cruise ships in these waters during summer (the local morning paper even keep their readers update of all cruise ships passing through the strait or stopping by Helsingborg in a cruise log). Hopefully I'll have some more pics to show soon, but I'm partially busy with challenge projects so not making any promises.

The white spot on the right is one of several cows grazing in a field, by the way.

Time to do something with all that sea glass?

This is a batch of sea glass I found last time my sis and I were by the sea, must've been some weeks ago by now. Even picked up a piece of sea pottery.

The last two years or so I've taken up the habit of combing the beach for glass and pottery every time I've been down by the sea. Sometimes even forgetting to take photos, which is usually why I do by the sea. Sometimes I don't find much, sometimes I get a handful of shards, mostly white and some almost new, sharp and unfrosted -- while not as pretty, I pick up that too just to keep the beaches clean.

Add to that my collection of our own tumbled glass plus a few "sea glass" beads (= etched or tumbled glass beads sold as sea glass even though they're absolutely not). But of cause that's not as special as real sea glass/beach glass and sea pottery.

But now I have enough to more or less have to start thinking about what to do with it all. Most pieces aren't that special as they're plain frosted clear glass. But they're still sea glass and I don't want to "waste" it on mediocre projects. I love, love the pieces in this tutorial, but don't think there are enough big pieces of glass for me to use -- it might be better to tumble some broken glass for that. A few pieces are even smaller than a little finger nail (there's one piece I'm saving for a real metalsmith's bezel setting as the shape and size is so pretty).

Another idea along the line of the image transfers would be to add variegated metal leaf as I did with this cab or paint the back with some cool effect paint. But, again, it feels like ruining it and something that should be left to tumbled glass.

Beaded bezels would be too thick and I can't yet make metal bezels. Wirework isn't on the agenda right now. Drilling holes for stringing or chainmaille techniques doesn't really tempt me. WOrking them into embroideries might work, but I don't have any ideas yet to wow me into "sacrificing" a piece or more of the limited stash.

And still, while shooting down every idea I get, I would like to not just collect. Though sometimes I wonder if it's just that the maker part of me doesn't want the collector part to decide, maybe because collecting without a collector's goals and organized purpose is akin to hoarding and hoarding, we are told, is bad. Or at least not really good. Beaders can write about being hoarders and often it will continue with statements about daring to use a precious component or complaints or apologies for hoarding or saving something for "that special project". It's not something to brag about, not using components in the stash. But sometimes we should perhaps abandon that guilty feeling and just remember the joy of collecting these small treasures, just like we did as children. No one expected us then to use the little knick-knacks we gathered in a special box just for looking at, picking up and admiring. It's not wrong to buy supplies without the intent of using it. It can be beautiful just the way it is. It doesn't always need to be processed (förädlad) to get a value and justify the purchase [or in this case, the acquiring] of it.

It's not wrong to want to make something awesome with supplies, to be creative with something in order to enhance it. It's great! You make something that gives you a chance to showcase the special component, make it possible to carry it with you -- you deserve to feel good about doing it, about creating something really beautiful and/or meaningful from something you love. It's just that it's easy to make the opposite of right be wrong and define something as a supply makes it sound unfinished, incomplete, a part that can only become whole when put together with something else. It also makes it sound like you're a bad beader/crafter/artist for buying new things when you already have supply, as if supplies are interchangeable without specific characteristics and uses -- especially people that don't create themselves will let you know this! It's easy to feel guilty about spending money without using the things you buy (which, as said before, don't have value until you use them due to their definition). To feel stressed about a growing -- I'd say thriving! -- stash or about not having the urge to make those special components "complete".

But really, some things are beautiful as they are and shouldn't be seen as merely supplies, but objects to adore all in their own right. They are complete, they are wholes from the day we acquire them. And while a beader never has that bead she/he really needs and she/he sometimes even forget about some beads in the stash, just having a stash is more than just a practical thing. More that a cress physical resource for jewellery making and beadwork. It's not just about having the right supplies at hand for a project. Maybe you never used that bead you bought, but the colours have still inspired you -- many times over! Maybe you forgot a beautiful bead as you kept buying new ones, but one day you'll find it in the stash and it'll be just perfect for a project you're working on or it'll inspire a new design on a day when you feel like you've lost the mojo for good. Maybe just looking at the beads every now and then will make you happy -- for the beauty and feeling of the object itself, for memories of the person giving it to you, for your adoration of the bead maker. Maybe you one day will give it to someone who'll create something amazing with it and she wouldn't have been able to do that had you not gifted her with that particular bead or component at that particular time. Maybe you just need the rainbow of colours that's your bead stash to sort and touch in order to infuse yourself with creativity and inspiration or in order to relax and feel harmonious. Beads, ribbons, yarn, charms, design papers, effect paints -- all creative supplies have values far beyond merely its intended practical use. And you don't need to feel bad just because everyone and everything focuses on that particular, narrow value. You know better!

*

I should've stopped there, but just I just realised that a simple post showing some relatively so-so sea glass, a post mostly posted because I took a five minute break and wanted to write something to keep the blogging going, turned into something very different. How did that happen? Apparently it was an issue I had/have opinions on and feelings about...

*

UPDATE: Fun thing, today (the day after writing the text above)  I started finding reveal posts for the Bead Hoarders Blog Hop in my blog feed. Talk about interesting coincidences. Wonder if anyone participating in that hop read this -- before or after posting on their blogs -- and I wonder what it made them think... Should I note that it was a reaction to myself and my own feelings, not towards anything anyone else did, certainly not a reaction prompted by the blog hop? It's just a different perspective to alleviate guilt -- we all get fed guilt, especially females, in our society about what we do or don't do and how we look. I wanted to ease this particular little guilt a bit, remove a nagging, stressing feeling of "ought tos" from my mind. I wanted to free myself -- and I didn't know it until my fingers began writing this text!

Being one of those who are so bad at starting (see this post on start buttons and sparks),  I sure need challenges (from myself or someone else) and encouragements to get going. To rev up and set the ball rolling. The Bead Hoeaders Blog Hop could've been useful for me -- unless my creative drain and inert resistance would stall me and made me feel guilty about that too -- and I firmly believe that we need to challenge ourselves and push ourselves to pick something up and start doing instead of just thinking. I just wanted these two things, letting go of ideas about what one should do and "forcing" yourself to use something up, to be equally morally good and acceptable. Not for the latter to feel productive while the former is lazy and unproductive, passive/negative when taking the bull by the horn is active/positive. Both strategies alleviate the "guilt" of having unused supplies and all those energy-draining "I shoulds" as I see it. Sometimes we need to be active, sometimes we need to let go in order to feel good. It's all about where we are and what we're doing and feeling at the time. And for the "I shoulds" to not always be there as a constant reminder, a nagging gulit-tripping mom to make use feel bad for not doing something. That adds such unnecessary stress, albeit just a tiny one, a restless, negative undercurrent that can make you head into a negative spiral if you're at a point where you feel like you've lost your creativity and can't find the joy and positive energy in creating.

About the text, I added a few sentences and adjusted a couple of others as I wrote from the heart yesterday -- with a tired head. This is just a spontaneous text, not some well thought through manifesto or anything, but I still wanted to clarify and add important words that I didn't think of yesterday when I hadn't slept on it.

The seaside pendant -- an acrylic doodle

It's ages ago since I participated in a monthly challenge it feels like. This month I really wanted to get started on something and gathered info on challenges. One challenge that I instantly felt a connection to was the Art Bead Scene Blog challenge, featuring a painting by Franklin Carmichael called Jackknife Village. Living on a peninsula, always close to the sea, I really liked the landscape he conjured up on his canvas. While it doesn't really look like that around here, the image reminded me of the childhood vacations I spent in Bohuslän (google it and you'll get photos illustrating my point). It's pretty similar to the Bohus coastline. In other words, it was an image that wouldn't leave me.

Some weeks ago I felt compelled to paint a pendant with these images -- of the artwork and the childhood vacations -- in mind. I got out a 34 mm arte metal (i.e. blackened steel) pendant and started painting using white gesso that I tinted with acrylic paint. Now, the only small brushes I have are watercolour brushes as that's always been my favourite media when it comes to painting (ironically, Carmichaels painting is watercolour and I still didn't choose that myself for this project). No way I was going to ruin them with acrylic paint -- and besides, the brushes are made for heavy paints like oil and acrylics anyway. So I had to make due with some bigger craft quality brushes instead, which partially determined what style to paint in: it wasn't possible to paint any fine details so instead I opted for an impressionist style. The kind that just look like smudges of paint close up, but forms a dreamy landscape when you take a step or more back and admire it from some distance. I always did like impressionism as a teen.

It's really just a doodle, but a doodle I had a lot of fun working with. It might not be perfect, but I'm still pleased with it. While it might be hard to understand from seeing these photos, I must say it looks quite pretty in real life -- though of cause I see it through my own rose-tinted glasses right now.

So the challenge really inspired me, but unfortunately I also wanted to participate in it for real (and get a chance to win as they always have such lovely art bead prizes) and the pendant just didn't want to turn into a piece of finished jewellery (a bead strung on cord or chain doesn't qualify). So frustrating! The days went passed and I couldn't find anything useful in my stash. No blues or if I found any they were the wrong blues (pendant have a slightly lavender blue, most my blues are turquoise). Or the wrong finish: the pendant is so matte that any shiny bead detracts from the focal. The last day today and anything I did try failed. Everything conspired against me!

Wanting to at least do something with the pendant, I made this necklace which I doubt will be approved by the ABS team. But at least I did finish a project so I should feel good about myself anyway, even if I can't officially be part of the challenge this month.

The cord, by the way, is one that I've tea dyed myself. Tea dyeing might not be the best method of dyeing textiles as the tannins can weaken the fibres over the years, but it's easy and fun -- and you can experiment to get just the right hue. Like in this case: I let some cords steep longer than others which gave me range of hues to choose from when wanting to find a good match for the pendant. It looks a bit dark in the first two pics, but it really does match the cliffs in the pendant.

The necklace cord is simply made by doubling the cord, knotting a loop in one end and tying the loose ends to a metal button. Nice and simple. You just need a cord long enough, which was really just barely the case here.

Happy Midsummer's Eve!

It's midsummer's eve here in Sweden today. Quite decent weather too: windy, but pretty warm and it isn't raining. Yet. So I just wanting to take the time to wish everyone a great midsummer weekend with some random flower photos. Enjoy!

 Both the cultivated and the wild flowers are in full bloom.

Some of the free one spreading beyond where they were planted last year (the ceramic  troughs on the right). Pansies want to travel and see the world too!

More summer pics? How about the sea in sunshine from earlier this week?

And to end this post, going from day to night:

You can tell midsummer's been coming for some while. I took the photo below at midnight, facing north, a couple of days ago. Not using a tripod.

With that I wish you all a magical midsummer's night!

Sköna maj välkommen -- it's spring, it's green

It's finally come, the green and warm spring came with Valborg.

But first, let's set the mood right. The blackbirds -- and all the rest of the birds -- are singing every day and night (and I just saw the first bat of the year the other night! Yay!), which included yesterday when I took these pics. So let's add some birdsong, courtesy of  P2-fågeln.

 It was a really sunny day, which you can see in many of the photos below: the shadows were unbelievably sharp and dark -- and the grass unbelievably green. Then the sun sank into some clouds above the horizon so I'm afraid some of the latter photos turned out rather dark. But hopefully you can still see the landscape.

 (That's Halland in the background, on the other side of the Laholm bay/Laholmsbukten.)

 

 As you can see it's mostly the land that's green right now and not many of the trees. Something that's even more visible the the below photos.

 And of cause I had to get some boats on the photos. Big boats by the look of it.

 But we'll finish with something with a more serene colour palette. The sun beginning to set as I took two photos of the landscape with Kullen and Kullaberg in the horizon.

Drottninghall – traces of the Bronze Age

View of Southern Bjäre and the Kullen peninsula from Drottninghall

Almost two years ago, my sis and I walked down to Drottninghall and I took some pics, thinking of telling you the story of the place, but because this was in August, other things got in between and I never showed the photos or told about Drottninghall. Now a comment on another post made me remember the pics and why not post them now at once so I don't forget about it another two years?

I went to school in Västra Karup and remember how many times made little trips around the village (and also further away on Bjäre, places like the island of Hallands Väderö and the dramatic coastline at Hovs Hallar). One of the places we went once was Drottninghall. Here, while gazing over the village and seeing Kullen peninsula by the horizon, we were told the story of the footprints. According to legend they were the footprint of a queen who passed by. What queen and why she left the prints vary. One version claims it was queen Margareta (or Margaret I of Denmark as she's known in english) and that she either stepped out to admire the view or fell out of her carriage. The cup marks (skålgroparna) are said to be the paw prints of her dogs. This story would explain the name: Drottning means queen and hall or häll a slab of exposed rock.

Other stories claim that the footprints come from a ghost whom the priest "läste fast" ("read stuck") on the rock after he had very loudly haunted the village of Västra Karup. The prints are the only thing remaining of the ghost and the cup marks are the marks of his tears. Of cause, there was also a general belief in southern Sweden that cup marks were fairy mills and that you could perform magic or wish for luck by placing items in the hollows.

You can read more about these stories – in swedish – here. There you'll also find a good photo of the carvings, filled in with red paint which have faded now and is covered in lichen, making it harder to see the carvings. You can also find photos of them here.

We school kids were only told the most child-friendly story, the story of the queen, as far as I can remember. And of cause we were also told about the real history beyond local folklore, about how the cup marks, footprint carvings and grooves (sliprännor) are bronze age petroglyphs carved by people living here a long time ago during the south-scandinavian Bronze Age (1 800 – 500 BC). Some of our oldest ancestors.

(By the way, the little droppings are from the sheep that graze the little wedge of pasture between two of Bjäre's many roads that converge just below Drottninghall. Two of the culprits can be found in the photo below.)

Apart from the carvings there's also a burial mound from the same age nearby – pretty much behind the house in the middle of the picture below. It's named Revhögen och Rävhögen, the latter meaning the Fox Mound. Bjäre in general have many mounds, one of the mound densest places in Sweden, and there are of cause much folklore surrounding them. I'm afraid I don't have a good story about this particular mound, though. No trolls (otherwise very common), no buried viking king (the second most common folklore surrounding mounds), no treasures that can't be salvaged without horrendous punishments from dark powers, no burials over mysterious english princes.

No one knows exactly why the petroglyph sites were situated where they were. They're concentrated to a handful of places on Bjäre and Drottninghall is one of them. One archaeologist have put forward the idea that they were created along roads between settlements where perhaps people met or safety was needed. Most likely they were used in rituals, but we don't know how ritual places were chosen. One thing about this particular place, though, is the view – you know, the reason why the queen stepped out of her carriage here (unless she fell out, that is). Because of the hilly terrain you can get some fab views of the landscapes every here and there on Bjäre and this is one of the good spots. Just see the photos below.

Drottninghall is one of the stops on the Bjäre bronze age trail that was created some years ago. It's two trails, the northern and the southern trail, which you can walk/bike/drive along to experience some of the ancient monuments here on the peninsula. The places along the trails are marked out with signs like the one below. The square symbol is a prehistoric symbol used in Sweden and other countries to mark a noteworthy places (often, but not always, an ancient or historic place/monument/ruin). The petroglyph boat with the stars is a sign for the trail, the star arc reminding us that the trails were created as part of an EU project (cf. the PCL logo).

The lighthouse at Kullaberg

In northwestern Skåne or Scania as the region is known internationally, you'll find two peninsulas stretching out into Kattegatt (that's the name of the sea around here, for those not familiar with Scandinavian waters). I live on the northern most peninsula, Bjärehalvön or just Bjäre. From here you can often get a good view of the peninsula in the south, Kullen.

At the tip of Kullen, in the nature reserve of Kullaberg, there's a lighthouse, called simply Kullens fyr (Kullen's lighthouse). It's the most powerful lighthouse in all of Scandinavia and one of a dwindling number of swedish lighthouses that are still in use. I have never seen it close up, but I've seen the light all my life. I especially associate it with going home from my grandparents' or returning for the nearest town, Ängelholm, as there's a long stretch of road going through the flatter southern side of the peninsula, giving an impressive free view of much of Kullen, including the tip with the lighthouse.

So of cause I want to take photos of the lighthouse light. Do you know how hard that is? First of all, you don't want too much daylight, but it shouldn't be too dark as my camera doesn't like that and I don't have a tripod. Then you have to time the lights (one revolution takes about 7 seconds) and hit the button at the right time, taking into account the time it takes for the camera to react (varies with different cameras). Of cause you have to focus in advance and wait for the flash of light, preferrably pushing the button a fraction of a second too fast so you don't miss it. Needless to say, I'm not a good enough photographer to master this. This is the best I could do -- even when using the several-photos-in-a-row setting I don't know what's it called.

Most photos were failures, but there were a couple when I didn't see that I got some of the light before seeing the photos on the computer screen. A pin prick of light so tiny it didn't even show on the camera monitor. That's just catching the first or last glimpse of light so it doesn't exactly show that most-powerful-in-Scandinavia light flash. I was about to give up, go how and thaw my fingers up, when I made a last attempt. And guess what? I got the light! But had moved the camera so it's amost out of shot...

Better luck next time, huh?

~*~

PS! You can read more about the lighthouse on e. g. Wikipedia or, in Swedish, at Sjöfartsverket's website. Did you know that no less than the astronomer Tycho Brahe was the administrator of the lighthouse (Skåne/Scania being danish in those days)? Of cause, back then it wasn't the same lighthouse with such an impressive light as today: the current building was constructed in 1898.

Just got a new obsession: sea urchins

I mean, I've seen pics of sea urchin shells before and found them very pretty, but for some reason it wasn't until last night that I fell head over heel in love with them. I'm just totally fascinated by the shape, texture and colours now. They're so delicate and irresistable.

Before, I've mostly seen sea urchin spikes as jewellery materials, but now it's the shells (or tests, as it's also called) that have me captivated. As seen on my new sea urchin pinboard.

People all over the world seem to find sea uchins along the coastlines, but I have never seen even one around here. Are there no urchins on the beaches I visit (which, it could be added, are lining a bay and maybe sea urchins are found further out in the sea) or is it just that I look in the wrong place? From what I've read people have found them on or near the beach, not always diving for them but just picking them up. I find lots of seashells, stones, driftwood, trash, dead jellyfish (not that I pick that up!), seaweed, feathers, coins and occasionally some sea glass, but no sea urchins.

Not buying any right now as there are so many things I want to buy (and a very limited budget...), but sea urchins will go on my wishlist now.

Where I've been today

I'm not one to take a camera with me when I go somewhere and I don't have a modern mobile phone with a camera, but this time when we went to Helsingborg (where my dad is currently hospitalised, awaiting an operation) I couldn't resist taking a photo or two with my sister's phone camera.

So that's Helsingborg. With Denmark and Helsingör at the horizon. There probably are better views of the city, but this is the one we often see as we walk to the city centre. We took these photos (in the rain) from the parapets at Landborgen by Kärnan. A landborg is a kind of plataeu with a sudden drop, which can -- like in Helsingborg -- offer lovely vantage points.

As mentioned it was raining and my sis only have a tiny memory card in her phone so we didn't take any more pics (if you want more urban photos than my usual rural photo settings, se a post I made this winter: Båstad and Laholmsbukten). I added a filtre to the pic above to make it less chilly and dull -- which made want to do something with the first pics too:

Anyway, I did some shopping and while it was mostly food (read: chocolate and gräddbullar) and craft supplies etc, there was one find I wanted to share. Not today as I'm too tired to get out the camera (getting up at 6 again tomorrow, the harvest isn't over yet), but hopefully soon.

While uploading my photos from the mobile, I found a few other pics I've taken with her camera once when we were in the car together. We saw this fab sunset and as I was sitting on the right side of the car, I borrowed her camera to take a few snapshots. Through a dirty car window. While the car was in motion. These were part of that photo session:

This last phtos is taken between Vantinge and Förslöv. The other two are closer to home.

Not showing them because they're amazingly good or anything. But I kind of like the blur. If nothing else they might be fun photos to use as a base for digital art doodles or digital collages. And the dirty car window adds a certain touch to the pics, don't you think?