Small batches...

I have come to the notion that time at the cottage is a time of small making.

And perhaps as they say, from little things big things grow. I hope some things do grow from the small making I managed whilst away.

Having enjoyed our cove wanders and the marvellous rusty bits and pieces that we gleaned along the way, I suddenly remembered that I could use some of the pieces to rust-stain paper. I rushed into doing it with some very strong tea, and realised half way through I had probably forgotten how I used to do it, but went ahead anyway.

I tried a few different papers.

And quite a few different rusty bits.

And by the time I got to these postcards, I remembered I sometimes wet down the paper before dripping tea all over it, so gave that a try as well. Better late than never.

I knew I wouldn't be packing all that gorgeous rustiness to bring back, and I think that a few pieces of paper, made with their marks, is a nice way to bring there to here . A bit like taking the rubbings of the cottage's stone walls.

Along a very similar vein,  there was no way I could pack some of my very large stones with their double joined up markings, so I chose to do some abstractions of the lines in my notebook, to think about using in some other ways at some other time.

Small moments of making.

We arrived back in Maleny very early this morning and got to bed about 1.30am.  The day has been spent quietly pottering this way and that, unpacking, sorting, washing, writing lists of things to remember to do, and generally taking it gently.