Last night I stayed up far too late taking rubbings from honeycomb. Sometimes especially when I am very tired I have no thought in my head about why I am doing what I’m doing. The task in hand was to try and take a rubbing from the comb that indicates its structure without destroying it.
The process was succesful to some extent. The black of the Stones wax block was not subltle enough to evoke the delicacy of the comb. I tried Sennalier oil pastels, they were too soft. Painting over both surfaces with shaggy ink cap ink produced more satisfying surfaces that showed some of the lightness of the structure. To edge closer to the lightness of the surface I am aiming for will require finer paper, perhaps chinese practice paper or some kind of transparent fibrous tissue paper; something without too much of its own character.
Staying up half the night was not sensible. At dawn I awoke and tried to scramble into my clothes to head for DJCAD. It wasn’t going to happen. My shoulders felt like molten lead, heavy but burning hot. I stumbled to the bathroom, opening the bedroom door allowed the golden light of the sunrise to embrace me. This is what I was trying to emulate last night. I grabbed my phone took several photographs wishing I know how to modify the capture, better and headed back to bed. At 11 with a cold cup of tea beside me I was forced to admit defeat. Dundee would have to do without me today. The task now is to regroup and figure out how best to use today effectively at home. Lifting the cold tea to my mouth I reflect that driving would be difficult with so little control over floppy dead weight arms, I must forget about preparing boards and concentrate on the bits of my body that will respond to my wishes.
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