Caroline Ross

Drawing, Illustration, Ancient Materials, @foundandground

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Want to help stop marine micro plastic waste? Living on the water, waste plastic is a glaring issue, but barely visible plastic is the more harmful polutant. Manchester Uni have done excellent research on it this year. The largest source of ingestible, minute plastic particles is our washing. There is much we can do. 1: wash things less frequently, sponge off when possible. 2: wear and use natural fibres. 3: place all synthetics (such as underwear and mxed fibre clothes) into a bag like this Guppyfriend, which catches up to 90% of the microplastic fibres. 🐟 It wasn’t cheap but it is working and I am so glad I bought it. So here’s a picture of those actual fibres building up in the bag. Easy to see how these get eaten by aquatic creatures. When there’s more, you scoop them into the rubbish, not rinse them away obviously... 🐟 I have no link to this company, just did a bunch of research when I was feeling depressed about yet another whale with a stomachful of plastic, and the news that microplastic waste had been found in human flesh. Sadness and anger do not need to lead to apathy, they can lead to action, or even better, non-doing. Just check out @gretathunberg for instance. . #microplastics #ecology #marineecology #reduceplasticwaste #washing #guppyfriend #smallchanges

Refurb Saturday. I am moving pretty much all my outdoors gear and bushcraft clothes, as well as my ordinary clothes, over to natural fibres and mendable fabrics. Also they do not shed harmful microfibres into the marine environment. Most of my stuff is natural fibres anyway, but there’s more that can be done. Around the fire, so-called ‘technical’ fabrics fail immediately- scorching, getting holes from sparks, and losing waterproof qualities with dirt. Since I train in a damp country, often in the rain, I still need to be dry. Waxed cotton really does this. So here’s my latest haul from the excellent vintage gear shop Clobber in Bournemouth (Pokesdown to be accurate). I have been shopping there for 20 years. Richard sells online and can often find that thing you’re looking for... He has great leather bags, military coats, wool tweed menswear and beautiful wool jumpers, amongst all the vintage dresses. Www.vintageclobber.com 🌳 It is not true what the retailers say: you can wash and clean waxed cotton coats effectively. I have refined my method over years. Right now these coats are in a cold wash with only a small amount of Ecover wash liquid. The wax does not melt and if you turn the garments inside put they do not wrinkle as much. Once they are dry they will be mended then rewaxed with a soft rag and a good wax product, there’s a wide choice. After this I will hang them up and use my hairdryer to melt and even out the wax. It is the only time the hairdryer ever sees the light in my home. The coats get smooth and shiny at this point and look good as new. This method removes all the oils and grime from the linings and collar, as well as any musty smells, but does no harm to the waxed cotton itself. I will post progress here. 🌳 There’s a longish coat ready for my Winter Challenge @joescraft in February, a neat Barbour motorbike style jacket that needs a bit of tlc, and a huge ex-army cotton cape / tarp thing that is going to become the outdoor ubergarment of my dreams, as well as an impromptu ground sheet for my recycled vintage fur sleeping bag -work in progress. 🌳 #bushcraft #outdoorgear #refurb #waxedcotton #mending #cleaning #reusing #barbour #waterproofing

Bigger is better, right? I use these all the time. Minute Opinel, very sharp and handy, bought from my excellent local store @rangertradingpost . Even tinier vintage penknife from the Saturday Market at Weymouth, which has lits of great vintage fishing gear too. It was fun to refurb, makes a great ginger knife for teas and drinks. Folding scissors, perfect when making cordage or cutting dressings for cuts. Total weight, less than my emergency bar of chocolate. . #tiny #theoddofsmallthings #knives #scissors #bushcraft #edc

Frosty boat moments. . #boatlife #deck #rope #mooringrope #frost #hoarfrost

Birch bark appreciation society day two. One of the first tubs I ever made, years ago @joescraft from bark we foraged there in the woods. I didn’t realise then that I’d get addicted to making these little things. Hazel lid, rawhide cord, bark sewn with synthetic sinew, it’s currently housing charcoal for when drawing en plein air. I thinknit is aging really nicely. I have since shown many folks how to make these, and well as ash bark containers. There’s another trip in the planning stage now... more on this soon. . #birchbark #traditionalmaterials #naturalartmaterials #bushcraft #box #tub #handmade #woodcraft #craft

More experiments in birch bark, with ochres, terre verte, chalk paint, accentuating the natural figures of the bark itself. . #traditionalmaterials #naturalpaint #naturalartmaterials #birchbark #ochre #terreverte #sketch #drawing #painting #womanandtree

Last birch bark fix of the day. Locally foraged bark painted with ochres only from @clearwellcaves This is where to get the deepest, brightest iron ochres found in the country. Ian the Freeminer there told me he saw receipts in the archives, when on holiday in Italy and visiting the Vatican, for ‘Rossa Inglesi’ from the painting of the Sistine Chapel. He said when he saw the colour he knows so well from mining, washing, grinding and grading it daily, that the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He new the exact hue and tone. I asked him if he’d told this great story to his local newspaper at least, but he hadn’t yet. This ‘English Red’ is what I buy from him even now, and has been mined for 4500 years continuously, by hand, and for 2000 years just with deer antler picks, by men of The Forest of Dean. Here are all four main ochre colours (red, brown, purple and yellow) made into watercolours with cherry tree gum and honey from my friends, and painted with sticks from the riverbank. The figures are ancestors, somehow. . #ochre #clearwellcaves #birchbark #painting #drawing #naturalartmaterials #watercolour #naturalpaint #ancestors

Tricky. The freshly foraged birch bark curled inside-out even when pressed down with weights for some time. However, the oak gall ink paintings went well, suiting the sketching of people amongst trees using feather brushes to paint. Learned much about the materials as well. . #traditionalmaterials #birchbark #naturalartmaterials #oakgallink #featherbrush #painting #drawing #foraged

Today is the first of a couple of birch bark appreciation days for me here. First up some photos from experimental lo-tech drawings I did earlier this year on both bought and locally foraged bark, using ochre watercolours mixed in mussel shells left over from the local crows’ dinners. Drawing was done with sharpened sticks from the riverbank bushes. Here’s the tabula rasa, and the colour palette test strip. . #birchbark #painting #drawing #ochre #naturalartmaterials #watercolour # #colourpalette #traditionalmaterials #naturalpaint

Two more memories from Sussex: a hollow magnificent ancient yew tree in the flint wall churchyard, and many oak galls collected on that walk, here drying at home later. . #oakgall #yewtree #hollowtree #yew #foraging #naturalartmaterials #sussex

Sussex flint walls. So many different styles of setting the stones, this is one I hadn’t seen before, the tiny in-filling with razor sharp shards of flint waste-shards. Church wall on pilgrimage with @pilgrimtrust in January 2018. . #sussex #flint #wall #historicbuildingmaterials

Worth being up before dawn to see the bones of winter trees revealed at Tooting Bec in early light. Still acclimatising to this early morning teaching T’ai Chi lark... after a lifetime of evening practice. Good to change habits sometimes. . #wintertrees #trees #silhouette #lookup #tootingbec #foundfractals

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