Posts tagged research.
I’ve started collecting information for my next project. Everything is in the beginning stages right now, though I know it will focus on the relation between solar influences and life on Earth. I’ll post more as it comes along!
City Foraging With Nance Klehm
Yesterday, Carson invited me along on a guided plant walk through the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago. Nance Klehm led a huge group of plant enthusiasts through this very polished area, revealing all sorts of edible and medicinal plants. Mostly these plants were ordamental, lining streets and beautifying parks - though every now and then we stumbled on some very useful weeds.
As much as I’ve researched herbalism and plant identification, this walk proved to me how important field work is. You may know the name and description of a certain plant, but until you see it in front of you, how it grows, and how it tastes… you don’t know anything.
In Tom Brown’s Field Guide To Living With The Earth he recalls first realizing how sterile and trivial learning about plants from books can be. Observing how a plant thrives, how it feels, and how animals interact with it is far more rewarding. He would give his own name to plants he observed, feeling he had discovered them for the first time. I think I’ve never heard anything so beautiful.
Taxidermy: White-Throated Sparrow.
On Sunday, September 26th, I stumbled across the small undisturbed body of a bird. When you see animal remains in a city, they’re typically crushed beyond recognition; ran over, stepped on, dismembered, etc. (You become desensitized to road-kill, even disassociating it with the animal it once was.) Somehow even in death, this little bird had somehow evaded all these things. I sat near him for about a half hour, imagining where he might end up by the end of the day… In a trash can, in a landfill, in a dog. It seemed wrong to let this happen, though it happens everyday around us. I struggled with what to do, but ultimately it felt right to honor this little bird by preserving its body.
I identified this little bird as a White-Throated Sparrow and spent some time researching home taxidermy. To my surprise, I became much more comfortable with the idea of handling him after all this. After some pretty serious surgery, I cleaned his body and prepared it for mounting.
More pictures of that to come…
NEW SCANS!
My scanner has been at Clay’s for a couple months now, so I haven’t been able to post many new drawings… But! Last night I scanned like 20 pages of drawings and research, mostly related to the book I’m working on, Mountain Wilds.
So excited!
Making a Salve
When I started making tinctures last month (shown here…), I also began infusing some hazelnut oil with marshmallow root. They’ve all been sitting in a cabinet in the kitchen for weeks and it’s about that time to start using them!
I strained the infused oil into a small ceramic pitcher then placed it in to a pot of simmering water. Next I added about 2 tablespoons diced beeswax to the oil, waited for it to melt, then poured it into a couple of prepared containers. While the mixture was cooling I tried adding a pressed flower and a couple fern snippets… but after the beeswax solidified I realized no one would ever see them as harden beeswax is opaque…!
Marshmallow root is used topically to soothe irritated skin, stings, and burns. And yes, I’ve already applied it to the major sunburn I have where my glasses meet my nose. Ugh.
Among things I’ve been researching for Mountain Wilds have been herbal tinctures. Tinctures are herbal extracts made using alcohol as a solvent. Basically, you fill a jar halfway with dried plant material and fill the rest with vodka. You keep this sealed jar in a cool, dark place and give it a shake every day or so for up to six weeks. Finally you strain the alcohol into a amber bottle and you got yourself a tincture. The alcohol would have absorbed any of the medicinal properties of the plant material and can be used for the next year or two, a dropper full at a time. You can also make a salve by using a light oil instead of alcohol, but I’ll save that one for later…
Tinctures I started today include, Marshmallow Root, Burdock Root, Bay Leaf, Bee Pollen, Catnip, Slippery Elm Root, Wormwood, Clove, Calendula Petal, Sassafras Root, Valerian Root, and Rubbed Sage Leaf all in 80 proof vodka. Oh, and Marshmallow Root in Hazelnut Oil.
Expect an update in six weeks! Yay
Nicholas Culpeper, Pharmacopoeia Londinensis 1653… on eBay
$9,480.82 or, best offer.
“Three kinds of people mainly disease the people — priests, physicians and lawyers — priests disease matters belonging to their souls, physicians disease matters belonging to their bodies, and lawyers disease matters belonging to their estate.”
I WANT IT
Palmistry Findings.
Harry Clarke’s illustrations for Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination.
Found in the amazing Cline Library, Colorado Plateau Digital Archives.
(Thanks weirdfriends!)
