Ollie Fern

also apparently Port Townsend is a magical mustelid wonderland of some kind?

Oh, this was just pure (incredible) luck! I took a walk around the waterfront and saw an animal streak past in the distance, and my brain immediately lit up with “UNUSUAL MAMMAL ALERT” 😂😂😂

Aha! Thank you so much!

just the handsomest little hunter!

Maybe a long-tailed weasel?

big weekend for mustelids

saw a BEAUTIFUL WEASEL

Someone told me the local river otters will haul up halibut as big as they are!

camera screen showing ariver otter (in the sea) with a large fish with big fanlike orange-tipped fins with brown and white striping

the otters were eating some very flamboyant fish; maybe sculpin, but what manner of sculpin?

we’re gay ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

BEE

Shimmery textured silk scarf printed with terns and sandpipers in blue cyanotype

The same scarf fluttering in the wind

A closeup of more sandpipers printed on the reverse of the scarf

The shorebird art scarf is finished! Cyanotypes from my photographs of sandpipers and terns in flight, on artisan-handwoven mulberry silk, completely hand-sewn by me. This one turned out more of a sky blue.

I’m in awe of what they did with the materials! It gave me lots of ideas, too!

Thank you so much for choosing to spend your evening at the workshop, being a wonderful class, and making such gorgeous designs!

The Cyanotype Workshop: Printing on Cotton 8/13/25 — PIANO NOBILE Print a beautiful, one-of-a-kind organic cotton bandana, and explore the wonder of cyanotype! No experience is needed to enjoy this historic printmaking method. It’s easy, yet rich with creative possi...

I’m teaching a public cyanotype workshop on 8/13, btw! It’ll be my last scarf workshop until December. We make both a big soft organic cotton scarf and a watercolor paper print, and learn techniques for making art with shadows. www.studiopianonobile.com/shop/the-cya...

And they all had such distinctive perspectives on what they wanted to create; it made me really want to see their respective interior designs!

I’ve wanted to try knitwear! The materials do need to be natural, and wool is tricky because the natural oils resist the emulsion. (Once the busy summer season is over I’m going to try scouring some wool gauze with Orvus.) I’m also playing with raindrop paper!

A blue cotton scarf with flowers, leaves, and lichens on top arranged in a pattern

A cyanotype (blue and white) printed scarf with an intricate and complex pattern of flowers and leaves, and the silhouette of a chicken in the center

A blue cotton scarf with ferns, leaves, flowers, string, and tiny plant matter arranged on top in an intricate pattern

A blue scarf with butterfly wings, willow buds, ferns, lichens, pearls, and beads arranged in a design on top

Last night’s workshop was amazing? I taught a private cyanotype class for a group of interior designers from JAS, and the intricate patterns they created were beyond stunning. The arrangements were so pretty, I almost didn’t want to remove them so we could finish the scarves.

Ooh, like what? (I’ve been working on prints on bisque-fired ceramic, but haven’t gotten the technique quite right yet.)

oooooooo

Thank you very much!!

ohhhh the frown

Cyanotype print on silk of a great blue heron

A little work in progress, featuring my friend the heron

A long blue and white silk scarf with a fluttering rippled shape, cyanotype printed with photographs of trumpeter swans in flight

Another view of the scarf

My tribute to the trumpeter swans. I love our weird colossal winged winter visitors.

THE SWANS ARE FINISHED
(cyanotype on mulberry silk, completely hand-sewn, from my photographs of trumpeter swans in the Skagit Valley)

I’ve been quiet because I was frantically catching up on prep for all of the events in the last two weeks, having unexpectedly lost time earlier this month; everything was absolutely great and I’ve spent the last day and a half sleeping.

I’m glad I had a chance to photograph the egret and fish satin scarf before it went home with a kind person at Making Local last weekend. I loved making it and hope to make another piece along those lines at some point, probably in fall when I have time and energy to work with satin again.

This was at Piano Nobile in the Phinney Center during Phinneywood Art Walk, which was super lovely.

A row of cyanotype-printed silk scarves with images of wildlife

Closeup of silk scarves cyanotype-printed with snow geese, a little blue butterfly, a great egret and fish, a heron and fish, and bank swallows flocking

Closeup of the egret silk scarf, depicting a great egret and its reflection on one side and an underwater photograph of a school of fish on the other

Some recent cyanotype silk pieces! I’m really proud of the big two-sided egret scarf, which I sewed by hand. It’s on silk satin, so had to be hemmed before printing to prevent fraying, which is always a little nerve-wracking.

U