Building The Bathroom

08 Jul 2022 Leave a comment

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , , , , , , ,

After finishing the bedrooms, we directed our attention next on the bathroom. We had a corner tub already, which we found for sale on the side of the road a few years previous for $200. The tub had been sitting in the forest and consequetly needed a good cleaning before we wrestled it up the stairs and into the space. Because of this affordable find, we had to redesign the bathroom somewhat since we had originally assumed we would have a regular rectangular tub. In fact, having this larger corner tub really simplified the arrangement of the space and probably saved us a bunch of time.

Building the frame for the corner tub. We also packed insulation around the underside so the water stays hot longer!

The main job involved in finishing the bathroom at this point was tiling. We obtained a certain amount of black slate tiles, mostly 1×2 foot tiles, and some scraps, from a friend’s leftover project. We weren’t sure if it would be enough tile, especially now that our corner tub redesign added more area that needed to be tiled, but another friend of ours who came visiting one day was excited to give us 100 square feet of almost exactly the same tile that he was no longer going to use at his place! It had a slightly different texture and colour, but was close enough to hardly tell at all. We hired Keith, a local tiler, because at this point, having speed, tools, and expertise sounded way better than our old ways of fumbling through these things ourselves. Since our job was relatively small, Keith even used up a bunch of scraps of backing board from other jobs.

We already had a basic sink from the recycling depot here, but another old friend noticed that we had used Mexican Talavera tiles around the base of our woodstove, and offerred us a hand painted Mexican sink which she just had hanging around her place… it is such a beautiful and perfect addition! We were planning on using the same Talavera tiles as the backsplash in the bathroom, and now the artistry and colour of the sink and tiles really looks amazing and lively with the neautrality of the black slate and white walls.

Gifted hand painted Mexican sink and talavera tiles purchased online from Mexico, black slate counter top and mahogany trim

Colin trimmed everything out with the mahogany that we obtained through a work trade 17 years ago, and which has become all the window sills in the bedrooms. The toilet* was installed in a little nook, with the wall of the shower on one side, and a framed linen closet on the other, which doubles as a hide away for some awkward venting pipes which coming through from the utility room. We used all the low grade t&g cedar for the walls around the toilet and cupboard, and added the multi-toned blue and grey theme on the wall of the bathroom around the door. Both the cupboard door and the main door are solid wood doors reclaimed from an old house that Colin’s Dad had in his salvaged collection for a long time. They came complete with the old fashioned glass door knobs.

The final plaster is one of the last things to be done. Tracy and I spent one lovely day mixing a small batch of natural clay plaster, the same as in all the rest of the house, and did the bathroom and the mud room. Little by little, our slow house building project was coming together.

The bathroom counter and drawers were built with the aid of our carpenter friend Pete, who also did all the kitchen units. We used yellow cedar for the frames (from the material left over for the windows) with the same blue and grey cedar inside them, and the green frog handles were purchased 5 years ago from the clearance bin at Lee Valley. At the time, we made a very imagined estimate of how many handles we might need for all the doors and cupboards in the house. We were one short. Luckily, the clearance bin still had frogs.

The bathroom really seems to be a small story full of serendipity, friendship, patience, salvaging, flexibility, and persistence. We didn’t have everything figured out and planned ahead of time. We found what we needed and made it work. We stayed open to change. We were not fixed on a certain outcome. Materials showed up, sometimes from over many many years. The bathroom has become my favourite room, especially in the morning with the main window on the eastern side.

*One thing I highly recommend for the bathroom- a bidet! We purchased a simple add-on bidet (Tushy!) and absolutely love it. Wayyyyy less toilet paper which is such a bonus for the septic system. Also for the trees. We use pieces of cloth for drying and just wash them.

Monarch Butterfly Super Shawl

20 Aug 2021 Leave a comment

by inspirationalvillage in Silver Circle Weaving Tags: , , ,

The annual Zoo-Islander Fashion Show was an online affair for 2021, titled Inside-Out. Fashion designers were encouraged to make a video of their creative wearables, which were then put together and released for audiences to watch from their own homes.

My creation this year was a simple piece- a singular piece in a way, but also five pieces that, by the magic of video, become unified. I decided to create a design based on the patterns and colours of the Monarch Butterfly, and as I developed the concept by learning more about the multi-generational cycle that completes the migratory route from Mexico to Canada, I was amazed at the delicacy and the resiliency of this very special butterfly.

There are many sites that describe the science of their cycle, and also conservation efforts towards creating Monarch corridors rich with milkweed, the only plant that can feed and sustain the caterpillar stage. I also found beautiful cultural signifigance with these butterflies, especially from the forests of Mexico where their presence has an even deeper meaning. Millions return to Mexico on Nov. 1 and 2, el Día de los Muertos — the Day of the Dead — when tradition holds the monarchs are the returning spirits of loved ones who have died.

This passage from Women Who Run With The Wolves summarized the main theme I wished to express with this woven piece.

“Butterfly Maiden is the female fertilizing force. Carrying the pollen from one place to another, she cross-fertilizes, just as the soul fertilizes mind with nightdreams, just as archtypes fertilize the mundane world. She is the center. She brings the opposites together by taking a little from here and putting it there. Transformation is no more complicated than that. This is what she teaches. This is how the butterfly does it. This is how the soul does it.

Butterfly Woman mends the erroneous idea that transformation is only for the tortured, the saintly, or only for the fabulously strong. The Self need not carry mountains to transform. A little is enough. A little goes a long way. A little changes much. The fertilizing force replaces the moving of mountains.” ~ Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D.

I hope you enjoy the video!

Final Clay Plaster, Part 1

09 Apr 2021 1 Comment

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , , , , ,

In January of 2020 we made a huge push to complete the middle floor of the addition, which are the bedrooms, hallway, and the connecting passage from the existing house. After finishing the ceiling and floors, we needed to complete the final clay plaster on the walls before we could build the closets and shelves and move in. In retrospect, moving into long awaited personal space a month before we were all ordered to stay home was a serious blessing. Our kids were now in grades 9 and 12 and completing their school year at home, so providing some study and private space was an immense step in handling the pandemic.

I have already described the details of mixing and applying clay plaster back in Sept 2011, when we completed the first half of the straw bale house~ read through Final Plastering for all those details. We used the same recipe, did the same procedure for colour sampling, and plastered alongside our friend and mentor Tracy Calvert once again.

We mixed up the estimated amount of plaster needed in 5 gallon buckets. The next day we started with the hallway, which we wanted to leave uncoloured and as bright as possible since it runs down the north side of the bedrooms. Working around all the swoopy sculpture definitely takes up more time! Tracy and I did the plastering, while Colin looked after keeping the plaster mixed and refilled into our work buckets, and doing the sponging and burnishing as the plaster dried slowly.

It took us one whole day to do the hallway, and two shorter days for each of the bedrooms. It is important to remember that the amount of open, large wall space is not so much a factor of how long it will take to complete, but rather the amount of windows, edges, and sculpture. Those are the features that slow down the process and thus require time management considerations of each person’s role, as the working areas of plaster need to be monitored for dryness so the completed area will have a uniform, continuous surface. It is also good to keep in mind the changes in colour as the plaster dries, so attempting to fix up areas that have already set will result in colour patchiness. We are very happy with these walls, the hallway is indeed nice and bright and the warm orange tones in the bedrooms are cozy.

We are looking forwards to completing the last section of the addition this year!

Finishing with Fir Flooring

11 Feb 2021 Leave a comment

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: ,

We decided that fir flooring would be the best material to use for the mid-floor bedrooms and the staircases that lead up to them as well as up to the top floor (the existing first half). We found 600 square feet of locally milled fir, 3/4inch by 5inch t&g, in ten foot lengths. It was very blonde, which was the only thing we felt we wanted to change.

We found an interesting technique on the internet which involved soaking steel wool in vinegar for awhile, and then using the strained vinegar as a stain on the fir. The steel turns the vinegar a deep red or brown colour, depending on how long it is left soaking. The vinegar then reacts with the tanins of the wood, turning it a varying shade of grey, brown, or red. The video we watched (and we found many!) showed comparisons of the vinegar mix on many different types of wood, which had a large variety of resulting colours.

We did a test patch after a week of soaking, and then again after another week as we wanted it to be darker. We decided in fact to do two coats with the vinegar. Coating the boards after with an oil stain also made the vinegar stain pop out and deepen the tones even more, and we did two coats with the oil stain as well. I did a lot of moving these boards around, using the open rafters of the ceilings as as place to lean many rows of boards in a organized way, trying to keep track of which ones had been stained once or twice!

The vinegar stain was a bit like a magic marker- it took about 20 minutes for the reaction to occur and the wood to deepen in colour.

It didn’t take too long to lay them down. I think we may have borrowed a floor stapler to make it even easier. The stairs were definitely a lot more work. Colin pre-glued up the stair treads with an unstained fir nosing, and then he glued up the rises (about 7 inches tall) and then glued them all down over the rough plywood stairs. The yellow fir nosing really helps with defining the edge of the stair.

I like how the darker tone makes the floor look old, and is also a nice contrast to the brightness of the ceiling and wall cedar which is quite yellow. We were so happy to find such a simple method of staining the fir.

Weaving for Zoo-Islander 2020

02 Feb 2021 Leave a comment

by inspirationalvillage in Silver Circle Weaving Tags: , ,

My second year of contributing to the Zoo-Islander Fashion show was inspired by the four elements- earth, fire, air, and water. I was drawn to create dresses, but I also ended up making shawls, capes, pants, a halter top, skirt, jacket, and a tunic style top- most of which were modified designs as I went along. My formula for designing the outfits was to start with a basic sense of the element, and gradually shift into a mixing up of elements into a more choatic creation, representing an evolution of the elements as they mix and mingle. The last outfit of each element is a transition into the next element.

Earth- starting with the simplest of design in earth tones, I felt these pants and shawl had a very hobbit-ish style. “I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay, small acts of kindness and love.” – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit.

Earth Goddess Cloak~ “Nature lives within her, entwined in divine beauty with all of nature. She is the seed that can grow into a beautiful forest, and every breath she takes is a new season of wonder.” – Lourdes Alexander

Rooted Dress~ “If we surrendered to earth’s intelligence we could rise up rooted, like trees.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

Starlight Tunic~ “Thus, when the lamp that lighted the traveller at first goes out, He feels awhile benighted, And looks around in fear and doubt. But soon, the prospect clearing, By cloudless starlight on he treads, And thinks no lamp so cheering As that light which heaven sheds.” – Charles Lamb

Fire- The first two shawls I regret that I didn’t capture the actual model in them! I began with the Candlelight Shawl~ the basic beginnings of fire captured as candles provide a light of sacred vigilance, of wakefulness in difficult times, drawing us closer to the divine balance of light and dark, drawing protection and courage while sitting in peace and commemoration.

Hearth fire~ Traditionally, the hearth was the heart of the home, where, in the time before electricity, winter was kept at bay and families gathered in the early darkening of the days to share stories and food. The Hearth was the center of the winter dormancy, blazing with hope for the returning of spring.

Embers~ “The burning embers within me burst into flame / My body becomes a fire lit torch. / Ho someone! Send for the mid-wife.” -Amrita Pritam

Fire Dance Dress~ “There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.” – Martha Graham

I was not able to find the appropriate quote for the transition fire/air outfit. For the Zoo-Islander fashion show, it had the lengthy title of “Quickly Melting Orange and Raspberry Gelato on a Hot Summer Day at the Beach”. It was in the fire portion of the collection, representing the heat and energy of the sun. Yesterday in my garden, I was so in love with the ripening peaches next to the towering pink tones of the hollyhocks, and I thought the title could also be “Peaches and Hollyhocks Ripening in the Garden Under a Bright Sun on a Beautiful Summer Day”. Celebrating the energy of the sun as it pumps life into our plants and bodies- fruit, food, and flowers… and yes gelato.

Beginning with the Breath Dress~ “Some old-fashioned things like fresh air and sunshine are hard to beat.”-Laura Ingalls Wilder

Wind Shawl~ “And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the wind longs to play with your hair.” -Khalil Gibran

Moth Wings~

There is a kind of white moth, I don’t know
what kind, that glimmers
by mid-May
in the forest, just
as the pink moccasin flowers
are rising.

If you notice anything,
it leads you to notice
more
and more.

From The Moths, by Mary Oliver

Waterfall Tunic (just as much air as water)~ “To trace the history of a river or a raindrop is also to trace the history of the soul, the history of the mind descending and arising in the body. In both, we constantly seek and stumble upon divinity, which like feeding the lake, and the spring becoming the waterfall, feeds, spills, falls, and feeds itself all over again.” – Gretel Ehrlich

River Dress~ “Across the wall of the world, /A river sings a beautiful song, /Come rest here by my side.”
-Maya Angelou , from On The Pulse Of Morning

Ocean Horizon Jacket~ “The deep roar of the ocean. The break of waves on farther shores that thought can find. The silent thunders of the deep. And among it, voices calling, and yet not voices, humming trillings, wordlings, and half articulated songs of thought.” -Douglas Adams

Sea Sparkle Dress~ “I felt the full breadth and depth of the ocean around the sphere of the Earth, back billions of years to the beginning of life, across all the passing lives and deaths, the endless waves of swimming joy and quiet losses of exquisite creatures with fins and fronds, tentacles and wings, colourful and transparent, tiny and huge, coming and going. There is nothing the ocean has not seen.” -Sally Andrew

Zoo-Islander 2020 took place Feb 29th, and I think it was our last major community event that took place before Covid came into our world. I am so grateful for these kinds of celebrations that we have created as a community, that have become precious memories of collective creative efforts that shape and define our lives… now that I have lived a whole year without these events, I am even more deeply moved by the priviledge of involvement. Zoo-Islander 2021 will be an online event happening at Easter. I am looking forwards to the next amazing gathering in the name of island fashion!

Internal Shear- T&G Cedar Walls

26 Jan 2021 1 Comment

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , , ,

All of the internal walls of our straw bale house are shear walls- meaning that they are constructed to be structural panels that can resist lateral forces acting on them. Lateral forces are those that are parallel to the plane of the wall, and are typically wind and seismic loads. In simple terms, lateral forces could push over parallel structural panels of a building were it not for perpendicular shear walls keeping them upright. In our case, the external structure of the 2×4 framing with bales stacked as infill for the walls, does not meet the structural requirements that protect against racking, particularly as we live in a high seismic event zone. Our structual engineer calculated that we needed 36feet by 8feet of shear wall, which amounted to all of the interior walls in our house. After building our walls with plywood on one side and a LOT of nails, as well as metal brackets from the foundation to the end of each wall and strapping over blocking in the ceiling rafters of the main room, we were good to go.

Mostly, these internal walls occur around the bedrooms, the utility room and staircase. The lower room of the house is basically one big open area, with shear walls separating the mudroom and utility room. We decided to buy some tongue and groove cedar and cover all the plywood with it, so we found a whole lift of 5inch wide cedar that was rather rough, meaning lots of knots (and knot holes) cracks, scrapes, scuff marks, discoloration, but in a general state of usability and affordable!

For the upstairs bedroom/hallway zone we pulled the best of the pile and used a clear natural stain product called Osmo as a finish. Luckily, with the solid plywood wall it really didn’t matter about the length of the wood. We finished the passage that connects to the upper house, which then took on a bit of a sauna feel, seeing as the ceiling is also cedar.

One of my original ideas for covering these walls was to use old pallet wood, and so to create a rustic, upcycled look by painting or colour staining the pallet material. This seemed like a good cheap option but ultimately we decided that it would be way too much work for the amount of wall we needed to cover. However I was still interested in adding a coloured stain to the cedar, which was all rather rough looking anyways. I experimented with creating multiple colour tones using blue, white, and grey water based stains from Saman, which was really easy to use and gave a nice palette. I prestained a whole bunch of boards, finished them afterwards with the same Osmo natural oil stain, and then assembled them on the walls from the mudroom, into the kitchen and then up the staircase on either side. Because the ceiling was made of uncoloured cedar, I decided to arrange the colour tones from dark at the bottom to light at the top, effectively fading into the clear boards before they hit the ceiling.

It was a fun experiment, and I think the blue, grey, and white palette creates a fun feature amoung the neutrality of the white/grey tone of the natural plaster which will cover the straw bale walls. I hadn’t really pre-thought the interior decor of this house, at least not as a priority, but as we move along into the finishing phases it is really fun to choose materials not only for their price and availability, but also for their attributes of atmosphere and tone.

We had a lot of this cedar leftover, so we also used it to finish some of the framed bathroom walls which create the toilet corner. Also, the we used it for the walls inside the utility room, which didn’t need to be beautiful, and despite the roughest boards being used in this room, looks surprisingly decent for a utility room.

Sculptural Walls

18 Jan 2021 Leave a comment

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , , , ,

The wonderful thing about natural plaster, whether it be on a cob wall or on straw bale walls, is the potential for creative sculpture. Cob is even more so, as 3-D shaping can be accentuated into the depth of the wall, while with straw bale, the sculpture tends to be more on the surface (unless one wants to cut into the bales). In the bedrooms and the hallway, we added some sculptural elements before applying the final plaster.

In the hallway, we had rather lumpy bales, which I managed to make less lumpy with the rough coats of plaster, but there still were definite hills. Either side of the opening that leads to the upper level of the house were really rather bulgy because of the small cavity within the framing that we rather awkwardly stuffed mini-bales into. We decided to build up a kind of crossing of flowing ribbonish lines that would frame the sides of the opening and go up and over the arch we had built at the top. These lines also widened out around the staircase landing, and down the length of the hallway. We drew lines on the wall with chalk and then used water and some clay slip to moisten the wall before beginning to add the cob.

In the bedrooms, each of the kids wanted to design and create their own sculptures, so we have a bird above one window, and a tree in the corner of the other room. We built a small half moon shaped shelf in our room that is wide enough to hold a tea light candle.

The sculptures look so much more effective when the final plaster is done, but that will have to be another post! The additions of the sculptures definitely makes the work of the final plaster a lot slower and more tedious, but in the end, having these personal touches of creativity enhances the intimacy of the house. Too much sculpture, I think, can be visually overwhelming, so finding a balance between a nice smoothly finished wall and a specific placement of sculptural detail is good to consider. However, considering how much work it is to build a house in the first place, I think it is equally important to take the creative opportunities when they arise- and cob/natural plaster is a wonderful way to incorporate such creative moments.

Reinventing Holidays

09 Jan 2021 Leave a comment

by inspirationalvillage in Lifestyle Tags: , ,

We took the opportunity to reinvent Christmas a little this year. With the absence of the usual fantastic community holiday events in our lives we felt the need to bring a new aspect of sharing and celebrating. So the idea of a Literary Festival took hold, and we chose 7 authors to create evening readings from Christmas day to New Years… paired with a dress code of course. Because dressing up is the most fun.

Starting with Christmas day, we read from the new book of short stories from the locally infamous Steve Dunsmuir, which we barely made it through for the teary laughter at times, and in pajamas of course. Then we listened to Thomas King, the first of his Massey lecture called The Truth About Stories, which gave us pause over the stories we believe and create and how they shape our actions in the world. We wore solid colours. Evening 3 was the much anticipated Douglas Adams, in which we listened to the BBC radio play of the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy- the tertiary phase… dressed in our best hats, coats and tails. Ahh, for the letting go of the imagination into the ridiculous! Author #4- Mary Oliver. Poetry was an essential requirement for the festival, and so we dressed a little like hippies and read from Mary Oliver’s selected poems, followed with some readings of our own poetic creations. Next we chose Barbara Kingsolver, whom we enjoy as a heart touching fiction writer, although we somehow settled on reading from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, essays on living on a farm and producing and consuming local food. Discussions on food sustainability ensued. We even watched David Attenbourough A Life On Our Planet afterwards… just to really get the point on the importance of dismantling much of the systemic corruption we live in. We decorated ourselves in plants and animals. Evening 6 was Noam Chomsky- a relatively unknown author in our house but inspred by the movie Captain Fantastic, (in which the family reads from and celebrated Noam Chomsky instead of Santa Claus) which was in itself inspiration for our reinvention of the holidays. We embarked on a 3 hour documentary of Manufacturing Consent, an eye opening pre-social media warning of the powers that invisibly feed us certain stories… hmmmm… feeling a little circular in content… we dressed fancy but by now we were beginning to wonder if 7 nights of this was a little long.

The Sword In The Stone

However, we had saved the best for last. Tolkien. And thus, on the night of the 31st, Tolkien Eve was created. We dressed as middle eartheners- Elven, Dwarvish, Rohanian, and Hobbit- thanks to all the past Halloween costumes in the house. We made a true hobbit feast- roasted (homegrown) squash, potatoes, turnip, beets, carrots; veggie sausages, cheese and bread, a bit of salmon. We ate the gingerbread recreation of the sword in the stone that the kids made. Then we read from… Guy Gavriel Kay. Our second most favourite fantasy writer. The Fionavar Tapestries are his most Tolkienish novels, and we got so entranced in Kay that we rather hastily read through an Unfinished Tale of Tolkien and then headed down to the new jam space to avoid falling into a sleepy, post-reading doze. Thus we made it into 2021 with instruments in hand, and elven cloaks on our backs.

It really felt like we touched a lot on the theme of mythology and the stories we bring into our realities. That what we belive about our world, ourselves and of the way we exist in this world, indeed also of our relationships to other humans, extends from these unspoken mythologies that can be passed down unknowingly, or knowingly, or without thought, concern or reality, but which in fact really does shape the entire culture of our communities. If there ever was a time to reinvent stuff, it is now. No matter what age or demographic we are in, even a small token of awareness and action has a ripple effect. Having the awareness to redirect our beliefs towards other humans, to the planet, to the sacred, to the well-being of all, is something we need to hugely embrace even if it means feeling vulnerable or uncomfortable. Conversation is important, open-minded discussions, expressions and art, lest we be apathied into this divided separation.

I certainly didn’t mean to write so much- so if you are still reading let me round out our holidays with beautiful walks, tub installation, tile floor finishing, and the Solstice sun hitting it’s height in the new house. We are deeply sad to miss all the gatherings, but we are grateful for all that we have, which is a lot, a huge amount in fact, of beautiful friends, nature, ocean, forest, food, family, dreams, jobs, health, water, air, earth, and fire. I wish such blessings on everyone.

Ceiling Layers

06 Jan 2021 Leave a comment

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , , , , , ,

Getting the ceiling finished was the next important step, allowing for lights to be turned on so we could work past daylight hours, and enabling us to finish the walls with the final plaster. We were also keen to get the insulation above our heads as soon as possible, since the cold space of the addition was effecting our heating abilities in the finished part.

We did the same as before, adding 10 inches of rock wool insulation in two layers- R14 and then R22, giving us a total value of R36 above our heads. Since the strawbale walls are somewhere around R35-40, it made sense to match that in the ceiling, even though it is way above code for this area, is twice as much work to install, and ups the cost of the insulation dramatically. We did the same in the first build and are incredibly happy with the heating and cooling effect of the high insulation.

Because of the changing angles of the rafters, pieces needed to be cut on varying matching angles to stay held in place. It is not a pleasant job, with the configuring of ladders and the rub of insulation across one’s head and face, but at least the rock wool is less irritating than fibreglass, and eventually it gets done and then it’s… done!!

Covering the whole ceiling with the vapour barrier afterwards is way better as a two person job. Crinkled and oddly stapled plastic is just annoying.

We had acquired (for a fairly cheap price) 5inch wide tongue and groove cedar in 10 foot lengths, which needed to be stained previous to being installed- we used a natural product called Osmo which is a Geman product of natural oils and waxes. The wood is quite varied in colour tone and has a fair amount of knots, but none the less is a beautiful material to use and the oil stain made it even more brilliant in tone. Because our rafters run the width of the house (15feet) but curve the length of the space (40 feet) we needed to put strapping across the rafters so the ceiling boards could go up in the same direction as the rafters. Initailly we thought we could find ceiling material that would flex a bit with the curve, and so run lengthwise, but without incurring the high cost of custom milling something thin enough to bend, we had to change plans.

We had round LED lights to set into the ceiling, and of course other required things like the bathroom fan, stove fan, and smoke detectors to work around. Having the ceilings done really changed the whole space!

Zoo-Islander Fashion Show 2019

02 Jan 2021 Leave a comment

by inspirationalvillage in Silver Circle Weaving Tags: , , , ,

Generally speaking, the Southern Gulf Islands are full of enterprising creative people, who are always keen to have an excuse to get together and stage uniquely islandish events thought up from quirky impulses that often spin into tradition. (Disclaimer for the other half of the Islanders who live here to hide away in introverted solitude and bliss!)

One such event birthed in 2017- Penders’ Zoo-Islander Fashion show. The original concept was inspired by the treasures of our small isle’s thrift store, the Nu-Tu-Yu, and the notion of abundant creative local fashion that need not come through the chains of factories and pollutant textile industry practices, but by that which exists already within reach of our rural setting. The idea was to invite members of the community to participate either by presenting a whole runway collection of outfits, volunteering to model for a designer, or merely to put together a single outfit and join in with a collective runway. Age, size, shape, material, theme, music, and application was not confined in anyway- and what we witnessed and created was a uproarous fury of chaos, surprise, and wonder, as familiar faces paraded by clothed in plastic bags, braziers, foam sculpture, space suits, leather warrior vests, garlands of salal, glow in the dark boots and gloves, wetsuits, and a wild carousel of wigged cabaret corsets.

The second year I found myself a model on 6 runways, stripping between them from steam punk to fortune teller, bio-luminescence to golden street attitude. The third year I hesitantly decided to attempt to weave a “few” outfits for a runway collection of my own. I ended up fitting 16 of my friends and family into variously constructed experiments of woven creative impulses and choreographing their display to 12 minutes of music scoured over for the perfect thematic fit.

The theme I was working with was Dusk to Dawn. The outfits followed the nightly timeline starting with the sunset, through era, style, and concept, right into the rise of the next morning.

  • Sunset Gaze
  • Sunset Gaze
  • Boho Poetry
  • Boho Poetry
  • Night Lights On Water
  • Night Lights On Water
  • Victorian Business
  • Victorian Business
  • Rave
  • Rave
  • Moon Goddess
  • Planetary Satelite
  • Aurora Borealis
  • Aurora Borealis
  • Pillow & Blanket
  • Pillow & Blanket
  • Cosmic Cloak
  • Cosmic Cloak
  • Rainbow Warrior
  • Rainbow Warrior
  • Midnight Mantle
  • Midnight Mantle
  • Hunter
  • Hunter
  • Early Morning Traveller Walking Through A Misty Birch Forest
  • Morning Songbirds
  • Morning Songbirds
  • New Day
  1. Sunset Gaze… inspired by the colours of sunset and the intention of heading out to watch the shifting play between the sky elements. Along the way this dress took on a bit of a 60’s mod feel.
  2. Boho Poetry- a vest I made a few years ago, but it didn’t fit me very well so I put it aside and didn’t know if it was wearable. I added beads to the long fringe and it turned into a bohemian outfit perfect for your Soho evening cafe poetry reading.
  3. Night Lights On Water… you can interpret that as a harbour in the city or a lake or ocean under the moon… we decided that she was on her way to a jazz club.
  4. Victorian Business- Stepping out of his carriage in his wool overcoat, he tips his hat to his driver as he heads across the cobblestone road to the dimly lit restaurant where he hopes his business partner has secured a table.
  5. Rave. I was interested in bringing in a sense of the big city and all the neon lights and reflective windows, and I ended up with this capelet and leg warmers. Worked fantastically with the black light, too!
  6. Moving from the world of human activity up into the night heavens with this Moon Goddess. Lots of raw silk and shifting hues. She also has a small satellite of her own, so it was a kind of planetary representation as well.
  7. Planetary Satellite, like if the moon had a moon, and maybe somewhere in the galaxy there is a moon with a moon, because really the possibilities are endless.
  8. Staying with the night sky, we had the Aurora Borealis float by in shimmering purples and greens. I made this last year with the aurora in mind, so it was an easy pick for the fashion show!
  9. Naturally at night we go to bed, so I made an outfit that represented a Pillow & Blanket. Often in the winter I will wrap a small wool blanket around myself in the evening, and so I made a small blanket in which to use for this outfit, and I made a little shrug with angora, linen and cotton, attempting to make it a little pillow like.
  10. Cosmic Cloak- I am always inspired by stars, galaxies, nebulas, black holes, and all that beautiful chaos that makes up our universe. Hidden by day, yet always present.
  11. Shifting into the dream realm, we have Rainbow Warrior… basically I wanted to make a kind of dress with rainbow yarn and white yarn meeting in the middle, but it reminded me of a knight’s tunic when I put it together, but it was for Geneva so I thought of Joan of Arc, and then I made rainbow gauntlets to go with it. Classic example of the weaving finding it’s own way with my ideas.
  12. Midnight Mantle- originally inspired by folklore images of a woman pulling a blanket of night across the sky, tucking us in for the night, this cloak took on a mystical and timeless realm. Made from recycled silk and cotton dresses ripped into strips.
  13. Hunter- what can I say, he wanted to wear a cloak and carry a bow. I am grateful that my 13 year old son was so keen on being in my runway. This cloak was the perfect use for a whole bunch of hand spun wool that I made and then tucked away a few years ago.
  14. Early Morning Traveller Walking Through A Misty Birch Forest. I was glad to have some more male representation. Variety is everything.
  15. Early dawn begins with the songs of all the Morning Songbirds… and so I represented chickadees, wrens, towhees, robins, and juncos in a jumble of multi-songbird colours.
  16. New Day ☀️ Because each night finally ends… and sometimes when I wake up there is a moment when the details of the day have not yet come to me, and I grasp the last threads of sleep with an awareness of the new days’ clear beginning. An uncluttered presence. This dress was woven using a white cotton fitted bedsheet torn into strips, with the elastic cut from the edge creating the wrapped belt.

Many of these pieces have been sold, deconstructed and reconstructed, or remain as strange concoctions packed down in the depths of storage. I am super grateful for the Zoo-Islander team who put all the details together so I could, along with a line-up of designers, let my imagination loose upon the residents of Pender Island.

Here is a video clip of my runway from Zoo-Islander 2019.

Windows and Doors

26 Dec 2020 Leave a comment

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , , , , ,

Installing the windows and doors is a major step of the house building process. It usually arrives after a very long time of quiet and perceived inaction, when in reality, the various components are being cut, sanded, constructed, fitted to glass, glued, nailed, oiled, and dried, all in a little hide-away shop which in our case, was down the road at a friends’ house. One of our favouite windows is a double paned, bevelled glass design that has been in the collection of my father-in-law for many years. We made a yellow cedar frame for it and set it within the day bed nook on the west side of the house.

Two huge 8 foot by 4 foot double pane windows were hauled from the recesses of the workshop, where they have been moved around and stored for some 10 years. The two windows, which are fir on the inside and metal clad on the outside, had been part of an even larger array of glass, built in place (for someone else’s house) with a set of double sliding glass doors which arrived on the island with a faulty metal track. The window company that had custom made them was required to make a new set, and the offer of free windows to us was not passed up. We cut the two window panels from the array and stored them in our quiver of building supplies ever since. We essentially re-built them into the south wall with fir double french doors in between them instead of sliding doors.

Similar to our first house, we used yellow cedar for the windows from the same wood salvaging supplier on the next island over from us, and fir for the doors. The spaces in which they fit needed to be shimmed, braced, and stuffed with insulation before the trim is set in place, and the windows finally become the imbedded and framed view we imagined from the beginning.

The doors can be more complicated, with wide sills at their feet needing to be installed, catches and locks set in the correct place, weather stripping attached, and the fine art of hanging them upon their hinges can be a painstaking task of patience. However, the details eventually get attended to and the house takes on a completely different feel of shelter- with a clearly defined boundary of inside versus outside.

Creating the Living Roof

08 Dec 2020 Leave a comment

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , , ,

The addition of the straw bale house also has a living roof on both sections of the house. With 4 foot overhangs on the south walls and 3 feet overhangs everywhere else, the two levels of the new section total 2,000 square feet of roof over 1,100 interior square feet. Both roof lines have an element of curvature over the 25′ sections running east/west, and are otherwise flat over the 15′ depth.

We elected to go for a torch on roof underneath our soil, rather than the pond liner that we used on the first build. Over that, we laid out the vapour barrier plastic and then rolled out the drain mat. Also at some point, Colin fitted the flashing over the lip of the roof in one foot sections. We also added drain rock to the roof sections that are under the overhang, and made gravel beds around the drains that funnel into the downspouts so those areas don’t get clogged up with dirt and roots.

Next was the job of loading soil onto both levels of roof. We had our friend and neighbour come over with his excavator, and he loaded up his bucket and lifted it onto the lowest corner of the roof. More friends and neighbours then transferred buckets of soil up to the second roof, also at the lowest point, which was then spread out by more amazing friends and neighbours. Our depth of soil was set at 3 inches, calculated by our building engineer as the weight capacity for the roof based on the framing structure we used. The soil type we used was simply a mix of local sand and soil.

I waited until the fall to begin planting, as I didn’t intend to do any watering. Mostly the plants collected were from the first roof we planted, which was rather fully grown and could use some thinning. Many of the local sedums were lifted from the rocks on either side of the house, but also we were gifted with succulents thinned from crowded patches from friends’ gardens. There were spaced about 4 inches apart, with each variety planted separately inside linear sections that I imagined flowing across the curves of the roof, so that eventually when they are filled in, the colour diversity of the plants as well as the flowering times and colours will show up as differentiated sections. Eventually it may be too time consuming to keep the plants inside their own sections and succulent chaos will rule. Each following spring and fall I have added to the planting, thus, it has taken 2 years to get the roof covered, although not filled in. 2,000 square feet is a lot of plants.

Varieties include- ice plant, sempervivum (hens and chicks), sedum spurium, broad leaved stonecrop, oregon stonecrop, spreading stone crop, and various other sedums of unknown names. These two new roof sections are visible from inside the house, as each floor is stacked like a terrace down the bedrock, which makes the prospect of design and colour more interesting. Our first living roof is not at all noticeable except from a place outside and to the east of the front door, which is not a highly used space, and so the plants on that section are rather unattended, which suits us just fine. I am happy knowing that the ground space our shelters occupy is not being wasted on the birds and insects that might have otherwise foraged for food in it’s space. Each morning I watch as the chickadees tumble all over the roof, and in the summer the bees cling to the range of variously flowering plants. It is reassuring to know that we can continue to provide habitat for those that live side by side us in this world, while we clear hillsides and raise buildings in the pursuit of comfort.

Second Coat Plaster- Filling and Detailing

09 Jul 2020 Leave a comment

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , , ,

Second coat of natural clay plaster

The second layer of plaster for this strawbale house consisted of layers of fills and details to level out the lumpiness of the bales, which was a result of not doing any trimming to the bales once they were installed. This is because of the orientation of the bales as they were stacked into the framing of the walls, which meant they were string side out and unable to be cut. (See this post for details!)

Generally the same process for second coat plastering applies that I described during the building of our first straw bale house (see this post…). The main difference here is that I did a round of filling in the sections that were significantly dippy, (which was generally around the perimeter of the bales), letting that dry, and then covering the walls fully with the attempt to keep the plaster thinner in the lumpy spots and thicker in the indented areas. If the plaster is too thick in the dips, it will crack too much as it dries. The window edges also had burlap which needed to be embedded into the second coat to keep the plaster from pulling away from the wood, and there was some extra shaping needed in the curves of the window openings as we couldn’t trim the bales ahead of time into the curves we wanted.

We created wire forms above the hallway openings to create a curved archway, which then needed two coats of plaster. We also plastered over the interior bedroom walls that are constructed with 2×4 framing and rock wool insulation covered in metal lath. The bottom of the upper story exterior walls needed flashing installed, which we plastered into the wall also using metal lath.

The final purpose of the second coat of plaster other than protection of the bales, is to create a surface that supports the final clay plaster, especially at all the various edges. Once the windows and doors were installed, more plastering details were attended to- wherever the clay plaster meets window sills, frames, counters, kickboards, ceiling boards, etc., there needs to be a tight edge to within 1/4 inch for the last layer to fill. This can be finicky and involve a lot of unique areas that need extra attention and thought, and will be different in each build.

  • Window details- outside flashing
  • setting mahogany sills
  • metal lath for plaster
  • rough plaster up to the sill apron

Creativity

12 May 2020 Leave a comment

by inspirationalvillage in Lifestyle Tags: , ,

Loving, loving loving, as the artist can love,

The poet in love with the world- All the senses adoring

All that is alive, courting the whole world with song,

Dancing, poetry, music, a huge passion for life

In the heart.

-Anais Nin

It is truth for me, that the creative spirit that gave form to this world is the same spirit that flows through the creation of everything still being created, by using the hands and thoughts of everyone of us.  Fostering my creative thinking is what propels me forwards, what keeps me in my aliveness.  Creativity is used everywhere, not just in the obvious artistic sense, but in the considerations we face everyday.  How we respond to any situation depends on our creativity and our ability to express ourselves.  It is emerging as the new “education”.  The amount of ways that I see my children create everyday is astounding- in fact, it really is all that they do with the given time of our homeschooling environment.  They create worlds of imagination, then create things to use in those worlds.

It was with the forces of creativity that the elements responded when they intermingled in the very beginnings of life, and it is the quality that will get us out of the many desperate situations that we find ourselves and our human family tangled up in.  For me, the essence of my spirit is what leads my creative thoughts, and it is my thoughts that lead my actions.  When I hear music, or read words, or look at images, it is the feelings that these moments create in my heart that draw me in or not. When I create music, or go out with my camera, or knit, weave, or spin, dance, sing or think up something for dinner, it is my inner stirrings of spirit that a I look for to lead me.  Some call it the Muse, really it can be called whatever you like.  It is an emotion displayed, a heart string, an expression of the spirit that resides in us all.  We just all use different tools, depending on what calls to us and what we have had the opportunity to practice with.  It’s personal and universal at the same time, whether we share it or not.  I give my deepest thanks to the doors that have opened for me, allowing me to explore the forms of creation that give me full expression about myself and this world we live in.

First Plaster Layers

29 Jan 2018 Leave a comment

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , , , , ,

With the baling done by September, our goal was to get the first layer of plaster on the bales before the winter rains began.  Plastering has to be done while the weather is still suitable for quick drying, since it is not advisable to have wet clay against the straw for long enough to develop mould.  The faster it dries, the better.  Because it was September when we started, we decided to make this first layer no thicker than 1/2 inch.  If it had been June, we would have taken the seasonal opportunity to fill the dips, which would mean much thicker plaster in some areas.  However, we will probably go around in the spring and add plaster just to the places that are dippy, so the next layer will begin to smooth out the surface of the walls.

Once the baling was done, there commenced the job of stuffing.  This entails going over each wall and looking for spaces that push through the bales, generally where one bale meets up against another bale.  All along the tops of the bales needed stuffing, and sometimes where the framing separates the bales.  Tucking in tight little twists of straw to fill these places becomes methodical but doesn’t take too much time.

After that, comes the messy job of applying clay slip to all exposed straw.  We collected waste clay trimmings from a pottery studio, and soaked it in buckets so it becomes soft and scoopable.  Then we mixed it with more water to dilute it to a thick chocolate milk consistency, using a paddle mixer.  It was thick enough to not drip very much off a dip stick.  I created a little wearable square bucket to hold the slip while I slapped it on the bales with a big brush and a gloved hand.  The bucket, equipped with old belts that went over my shoulders, could catch any excessive dripping and free up both my hands to massage the slip onto the straw.  It dries a much lighter colour of pink.

Then came plastering!  We used local clay from an excavation job on the island, pitt run sand, (also from the island) and all that straw we collected from the bale trimming.  We built a soaker pit from damaged straw bales, lining it with tarps and then filling it with clay and water to make it soft.  On tarps, we mixed 4 or 5 shovels of the soaked clay with 10 shovels of sand by rolling the tarps around and then foot mixing, adding water as we went to get a good consistency without allowing the mix to be sloppy.  Adding a few handfuls of straw (equivalent to 2 or 3 shovels)  soaked up a bit of water, so sometimes we would add a bit more if it became too stiff.  The test is to make a ball, and not have it ooze or slop, but also not have it be too stiff and crumbly.  The other test often comes from actually applying it, and becoming used to the ideal consistency while working with it.  The hands on experience of plastering generally becomes the best way to really learn!  We had to adjust things as we went- our ratios changed as we dug into our clay pile and found less high quality clay.  We noticed that our mixes were more silty, difficult to apply, and orange in hue instead of blue/grey.  It was a subtle change as we filled the soaker pit, but after a few mixes we realized we needed to amend our clay from a different pile we had saved.  (After so many years of natural building, we have all sorts of little and big piles of resources hanging around!)

The clay slip gets sprayed with water before applying the plaster, just lightly, not so that water runs down the wall but the slip turns darker in colour.  A handful of plaster is then smeared onto the wall with the heel of the hand, and massaged in so that it doesn’t peel back off.  Everyone finds their own method, but the important thing is that it isn’t too thick, or too thin, ideally the same thickness, and it doesn’t peel off! Our first group of plasterers were my son’s school class, a group of 24 kids ages 10-14.  They spent a whole day rotating in groups between mixing, plastering, and hiking around our part of the island while birding and geo-caching.  They got so much done!  We also had a visitor staying with us for two weeks, learning all the steps of plastering.  For the next month, we had a variety of friends and community people coming by for a few hours or a day to get their hands muddy on our walls.

Partially dried wall

We focused first on the north walls, and the places where there is less sunlight and wind movement.  Then we moved to the inside when the weather got rainier in October.  Luckily, the fall was generally sunny late into November, so when we finally got to the south walls, the warm sun was still shining most days.  We used a fan to help dry out some of the inside walls that weren’t getting much sun.

plaster over clay slip with insulation at the top covered with metal lath

Plastering the bales in this build was different than the last house we did because the bales were oriented differently- instead of placed like bricks and plastering the sides of the bales we have stood the bales up and plastering the faces of the bales, where the strings are.  In the last build, we trimmed the entire bale walls, shaping the curves of the windows and removing any shaggy straw, so the plaster went onto the evenly cut ends of the straw.  This time, we couldn’t do any trimming because of the baling twine, and the plaster went onto the length of the straw.  While we didn’t need to take the extra step of trimming, it was a little more challenging to apply the plaster.  The walls are more lumpy and will need some extra work in the plastering to get a nice smooth wall.  Smooth walls, of course, are a matter of aesthetic preference over function.  Maybe in the end we will incorporate more creative sculptural elements into our walls.

first coat plastered dried. Burlap will be plastered into the next layer of plaster.

This winter will be a time for these seed ideas to take root while the house building projects are on hold.  We can take some time to sit in the house and imagine the different possibilities for the next phases.  It can be frustrating at times to have to be patient, but often the results come with better decisions and a renewed sense of creativity following the flurry of building.

If you read all this and want to see more photos and more descriptions of plastering, please refer to my previous post on the last house we did~ Natural Plaster

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