Yesterday's Textiles and Tea featured a hugely inventive weaver, writer, math major and bilingual experimenter in textiles, clay and printmaking.
Never met a loom she didn't like -- see the inkle loom up there? She's experimenting with inking her weaving to make prints from it too. And as you see, she's interested too in 3D effects. She's Canadian, in Quebec, and a true talent.
Check her website, too.
Meanwhile, at home, experiments were happening, too. I've been wanting to try making a little radiant heater using tealights and clay pots, so I tried it.
First with one pot, Then two, with hole in the smaller inner one covered with a coin. That worked better.
Now I need tealights, having used the two Diwali ones, and I'm thinking of making a hundred hour candle using Crisco. I'll pick some up this afternoon and we'll see.
The idea is just to create a little nonelectric radiant heat, though you extinguish the candles when you're not present, don't leave them unattended, usual precaution. As you see, the fireplace is a safe surface to try this on.
There's a huge range of videos about this, from hellbent engineers with rods and bolts and gantries and flyover hinged flanges snd I dunnowhatelse, all the way to a lovely old English bloke peacefully making a simple two pot one to keep his greenhouse from freezing. All men, I noticed.
The experiment was paused when Gary came over with the latest gleanings from his plants for me.
Now prepped and frozen for future veggie pancakes or something.
And I did a drawing
Speaking of the weaver who does math above, just a reminder of who taught the west a lot of what we know about math and astronomy
And before I leave you, here's a great cute overload
Happy day everyone, cook on if you're in the midst of Thanksgiving, be relieved if you aren't, but either way, enjoy your day, oops, I'm a poet and I don't noet.
Thanks for the smile at the end! I admire the creatives who do what I cannot. The weaving is lovely.
ReplyDeleteIt was one of those times when you feel you're in the presence of great ability, beyond what you can experience. She's amazing and still young, many years yet.
DeleteThe DIY radiant heater sounds intriguing!
ReplyDeleteIt's all over the place. A simple old idea gone viral. I like the simplicity. If it works, even better.
DeleteI have to comment about the work of those Arabic speaking scientists. It is a pet peeve of mine that the Maya who were amazing mathematicians who came up with zero on their own and who were incredible astronomers are so often ignored when it comes to giving kudos.
ReplyDeleteOf course- they did not use the wheel except on toys (!) which is interesting.
We probably have no idea of the amazing discoveries made by people all over the world, now lost to time.
Good luck with your little heater! I imagine it will be a very nice thing to have around. And now I'm off to turn down the flame under my broth and to start boiling eggs to make the deviled ones that everyone must have around here for a satisfying Thanksgiving.
Excellent point about the Mayan scholars, thank you. Deviled eggs? There are all kinds of family requirements at Thanksgiving!
DeleteI can’t re ember now exactly how Sue did her tealight heater trick, but I do remember that it left a very sooty residue.
ReplyDeleteIsn't that the name of a band?
DeleteI've actually heard of using clay pots and tea candles as heaters. My grandpa may have done something like that in his ice shanty while fishing.
ReplyDeleteSounds like exactly the right handy heater for that situation. No batteries nor power issues.
DeleteHappy Thanksgiving!
ReplyDeleteThe photo of wee knitter is a smile maker.
I couldn't tie my shoes well at her age. :)
Isn't she lovely? The cat seems to agree.
DeleteI’ve seen those heaters before. Great for a small room when the power is out!
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking chilly bathroom.
DeleteWe've seen those tealight and plant pot heaters described somewhere else but no one has quantifed how much heat it represents in a cold room (F's office for instance where she has the rug and i just curl up on the end of the desk. Maybe I should campaign for one of those on my end of the desk.) We will be interested to have your assessment of effectiveness as, say, a cat warmer.
ReplyDeleteI think open flames inside stacked clay pots and an interested kitty might not be a good mix. I had to ban candles when kitty Boud tried to juggle the flames. And don't ask about the table fountain she diverted onto the sofa..
DeleteWe tried that little tea light clay pot heater a couple of years ago when the power went out during the winter. Works best in a small room I think which we weren't in. We found we needed to be near it. It didn't warm up the room but it did provide some warmth. If I had to rely on it I'd set it up next to wherever I was sitting.
ReplyDeleteYes, that was my idea. It's a very small heat source. I was thinking about warming up the bathroom, that kind of room size.
DeleteWe are all going to have to try different things for heating our homes I fear.
ReplyDeleteI couldn’t imagine you would get heaps of heat but who knows. It might just be enough. Thankfully I have two fireplaces one of which I can use to cook as well as heat the house.
That weaver is a talented lass! I've seen variations of the clay pot heater all over Youtube.
ReplyDeleteI saw - somewhere - that you can even heat up food on the 'heater' like you're experimenting with, something to keep in mind should the power ever be out for an extended period of time.
ReplyDeleteYes, I believe you can cook over it. Like those solid fuel little things you use camping. But since I have a gas stove, it's unlikely that I'll lose gas power short of an earthquake. Still good to know these things.
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