action 3: extending and seeking

I read the action and looked out my window to sheets of rain. Comical. After months of working at home, and just being at home more than usual, I craved to escape. This action felt like it was telling me to leave, and my first reaction was to go outdoors. But it was dreadful outside. A bit overwhelmed with my workload for the day, I pushed on to more pressing tasks. I finished my other coursework and job-work and tried to leave the weekend to my loved ones. I did a bit of coursework… but helped brew beer, and spent time with family.

On Sunday I had had enough, I wanted to leave my house. My expectations for the day shifted, and I felt trapped. Instead of letting that define my day, or my space, I strove to find productivity and creativity there. I read the list of terms on the ‘what is it to make?’ pdf, and the first thing that jumped out to me was to Have Someone Do Something. I had it. I thought of a bag of cedar bark in storage in my apartment (an oversized tote in a repurposed murphy bed designated for “crafts”). My boyfriend had collected it years ago for paper-making from Piers Island, but never got around to it. I decided that it was time. He was keen, and we made moves.

I took the bark out, and began to tear it into pieces. Though I know I want to experiment more with paper making, and eventually would love to make a lantern, this was purely action-driven. The paper was getting made by Wednesday morning. Back to the ground — where I was sitting with my pile of bark. Our puppy Millie quickly found me to check out the scene. Finding me playing with bark, a favorite pastime of hers, she promptly took was was hers, the bark, out of my hands, and ambled over to her bed. Where she collapsed and proceeded to rip the bark strips into smaller pieces. She was helping!

Eyes blurry, and back aching, I filled a basin with water, and soaked the bark overnight to process in the morning. The next day, I tended to the bubbling pot on the stove of Tide laundry detergent (what we had on hand), the cedar, and some water. I checked on it periodically during morning class for the 3.5 hours that it took for the fibres begin to break away from their prior structure. I yearned for the aroma of cedar, for the sweet, pungent, damp earthiness of it. Instead, my apartment was saturated with Tide. A bit of a punch in the gut, honestly. If you’re wondering, I wouldn’t go that route again. I’d instead opt for lye or soda ash, but I digress.

That evening, Kevin took the soaked, boiled, and rinsed cedar out in our back alley to smash the life out of it. Now, I wasn’t there — I was prepping for the next step upstairs — but I’m told it was quite a sight. He was, after all, sledgehammering a pile of mushy wood on top of a sheet of plywood with a 4ft long sledge. In the dark. Can’t deny his dedication though. He came back with a glistening face and a readiness to tackle the next step.

Making the deckle was another feat. Well, not so much a feat. As I forgot to buy staples to secure aluminum mesh to the frame, a late night duct tape run was in order. We made it work.

In the end, we learned that we have much to learn. We spoke about forms we could experiment in making, and other textures to try. It was a great exercise, but now it’d be really cool to do it more. And to do it differently.

We ended up with 10, three inch squares of paper. They are brown, small, and filled with texture. They feel rough, but they are delicate.

Before the making began, I thought that I may focus on ecological literacy and relational design. I now concede that this was much more skewed towards the latter, though I still feel as though both elements played a part.

I did not photograph this process. At all. I spoke with Zach about this at our one-on-one. I felt a little burnt out from all the documentation of action 2, and didn’t want to take away from the experience. Admittedly, I am the same way in general. I take very few photos, as I feel disinterested in my phone/camera when I’m in my day-to-day. I hope to get better at that.

I will attempt to scan the paper and upload it here, though for some reason, my computer and wordpress are at odds with me trying to upload images.

Ultimately, I learned more from my conversation with Zach than directly from this action, though that deserves an entry alone. Moving forward, I am excited to see what comes. So thank you, all of you, for being a part of the process.

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