Brainstorming with twigs

A branch with interesting twigs from the stinkwood that was pruned. When I started throwing the off cuts over the fence to get rid of them I noticed possibilities... not sure what possibilities though, so I kept some of them to play with, to see what I could see.

‘Scorpion’?

An interesting bunch of twigs that were pruned from the stinkwood. I watched it develop over the years while having coffee on the verandah. To my mind it bore a resemblance to the scorpions I was finding in the bath downstairs. To the logo of a potter that I noticed while a student.

Interesting bends

I rescued some branches so I could play with them.

Interesting twists and bends

After the pruning of the stinkwood I wanted to get rid of the branches. I started noticing all sorts of interesting configurations. The wood was quite bendy without breaking.

Pruning the stinkwood

Our view was getting smaller and smaller so we decided to prune the Stinkwood tree in front of the verandah. Sam was home and willing and able.

Scorpion?

In February last year (2013) I saw these scorpions in the white stinkwood tree.

They reminded me of the artist's mark of a, I think Nigerian, potter that I saw when I was a student. I thought the mark was wonderful in how it captured a visual essence of a scorpiion (nice spelling mistake!)

Patterns ... like elephant tracks

White Stinkwood in the morning - like elephant tracks

Elephant track in Imfolozi

First describe then explain ... first the 'what' then the 'why'. Does this mean that each blog post must have 2 paragraphs?

The White Stinkwood tree in front of the house provides perches and food for the birds and our early morning entertainment. We always have coffee and watch the sun rise and how the world wakes up. Staring at the stinkwood I noticed the twigs and the patterns that they make, and like when one stares at clouds and imagines all sorts of creatures, I see all sorts of things in these branches. I once saw a scorpion and it has now disappeared.

I think I knew that elephant tracks are like fingerprints, in that no two are the same and can be used to identify individuals, and Nunu confirmed it. I realised that these track patterns could be used as a reference when designing indigenous jewellery. A way of using elephants without being too explicit, which is one of the aims when trying to develop creative design; go beyond the obvious, beyond the cliche. Nunu then pointed out, to my delight, that the students have their own unique pattern references in the palm of their hands.