quietly creating

Barbara Wanhill

recent posts

  • Did you lose this?

    I have to give my parents credit for blasting through their 50s with such energy and conviction. (Or perhaps they were very good at hiding it.) So far, I haven’t felt as successful.

    At the end of March, we rented a well-appointed Airbnb cabin in a forest in the mountains. It was 3 days of very limited device use (a couple times to check the weather and once to deal with a pet sitting minor emergency… a bit more time to take photos on a few walks, to document our accommodation, to record my spinning progress).

    During one of our outings to explore the property, we waded through ruminant pruned shrubs and I was admiring the Kinnikinnick while wondering if a bear or moose would crash through the trees when I stumbled across an antler:

    March 27, 2024. B. Wanhill. iPhone 13. Edited with Pixelmator Pro.

    When I got back from our mini-staycation, (of course) I posted the photo to the ‘Gram and let people know that I was going to continue my new device free lifestyle for the foreseeable near future. This lasted less than 10 days.

    I’ve been thinking about this unexpectedly peaceful antler encounter and the juxtaposition with my return to the consumption-driven digital world so quickly.

    I feel this is no longer an exceptional experience. I know very few people who can navigate this world without digital accommodation. And yet, I wonder if it is contributing to my overall feeling of unwellness as I age.

    Answers to questions sometimes appear when we let the problem sit for a bit. So, I’m still quietly creating: to combat the increasing chaotic activity of work and the news cycle; to make room for slower thinking; to exercise the chance to ruminate on creative possibilities and attend to something that doesn’t (as far as I know) care what I think about it.

  • 100 days of spindle spinning

    Since December 1st, I’ve been participating in an Instagram driven maker challenge hosted by Drea Renee Knits, using spinning spindles. As I am prone to do with some things – especially in the winter and when the temperature drops to -34ºC – I have jumped right in. So much for promising myself I would spend maybe 5-10 minutes a day on this!

    Along with the Turkish spindles I had renewed my interest in this past summer, I have recently acquired a couple of supported spindles. So far, the one in particular, created by Helen Mawdsley, has both captivated and confounded me – I’m a beginner spinner all over again!

    To start, Youtube videos were helpful; however, I soon found I needed more help, so signed up for a subscription to School of Sweet Georgia. Under the virtual guidance of Debbie Held, I have gained some greater insights into this beautiful way of making yarn.

    Below are some images of the beautiful wooden tools I have acquired and the resulting yarns I am slowly developing. I am hoping that my interest with this will continue to hold after this challenge and winter ends.

    My collection of spinning spindles. January 24, 2024.
    This Sci-Fi Turkish spindle by Scott Snyder has been a favourite for several years.
    Scottish Dealgans by Scott Snyder (bottom) and Fox Mountain Spindles (top).
    My first supported spindle by Helen Mawdsley. At first I thought it was going to be too heavy, but it has quickly become my favourite. The customer support I have received from Helen has also been fantastic.
    Small samples of plied yarns all spun on spindles. The lightest one shows how lofty supported spindle yarn is.

  • Abstract Advent 2023

    In December, I took a break from all things botanical and spent some of my spare time participating in #abstractadvent, an annual art challenge developed and hosted by art pedagogy. This was my third year participating and I found it more difficult than previous years. I began to create visual narratives each day and my format was larger than previous (each day was approximately 11.5 cm/4.5″ square). I also developed my theme using characters I cut out of a shipping bag from the art pedagogy shop. I paired all of this with watercolour details illustrating each day’s chosen shape. Finally, Letraset was used to loosely refer to the story line which was often informed by daily events or the characters themselves. For someone who is comfortable with drawing, all this different media was tricky to put together in a cohesive way!

    Near the end, it became a daily work-in-progress effort, with catching up on weekends. I did succeed in finishing and I’m pleased with these tiny collages – considering work was hectic, celebrations were being prepared and I was coming up with ideas fairly quickly.

    In order to fully participate in this and have my work seen by others on Instagram, I needed to use a hashtag – something I had given up with my personal account.

    So, I scrambled to develop a new public account. You can find my daily challenge work here: @an_uncertain_satellite (story about the name for another time or not at all). I am also participating in #100daysofspindlespinning developed by @dreareneeknits and I’ve found this return to small amounts of fibre spinning each day very rewarding. In the new year, I hope to share some of my progress with this.

    Best wishes, whoever is reading, for a peaceful, hopeful and creative New Year.

    Images above: Mixed media collage. B. Wanhill, December 1-24, 2023.