Category Archives for Drawing

Marble Galls

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I spent all morning studying Andricus Kollari, the tiny parasitic wasp whose eggs cause the marble oak galls on both scrubby oaks growing beside my own Egg.  The life cycle of the wasp requires the presence of a Turkey oak which first grew in the UK before the last glacial period around 110,000 years ago and was reintroduced in 1735 as an ornamental tree. Nearby Exbury Gardens has its own mature examples.
‘The developing spherical galls mature in August and each has a central chamber, with a single female wasp larva of an asexual generation, which emerges through a ‘woodworm-like’ hole as an adult winged gall-wasp in September. These asexual females lay unfertilized eggs in the embryonic bud leaves of the Turkey oak, with galls slowly developing during winter, and visible in March and April as small oval structures between the bud scales, looking like ant’s eggs.  The emerging adult gall-wasps in spring are the sexual generation, producing both males and females, which fly to the common oaks to initiate the formation of the summer marble gall.’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andricus_kollari

By 1830 the galls were a concern in the new Forest, where it was thought that they reduced acorn production sufficiently to have an adverse effect on Pannage* This year there was a huge crop of both galls and acorns. Beadle drawings use ink made from the galls.  *ref. my blog of January 22nd.

The Gall is more often seen than its wasp, which is just 1.5 - 2mm in length.

The Gall is more often seen than its wasp, which is just 1.5 – 2mm in length.

Ice Lines

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The upper limit of the tide was defined by a rippling line of thin clear ice, where the saline water, fingering the same flat marshy river bank for three hours of slack water, froze at its extremities. A weak morning sun was enough to melt the evidence quickly away.

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Gall Harvest

A small oak opposite the egg has a rich crop of galls to harvest. I will use them to make a dye for my clothing and to create an ink for drawing as the first step toward understanding the cultural and environmental importance of the tree in this particular riverscape.

Oaks can have many different species of gall growing on a single tree. These were made by the species of parasitic wasp andricus kollari and resemble marbles in size and shape.

Oaks can have many different species of gall growing on a single tree. These were made by the species of parasitic wasp andricus kollari and resemble marbles in size and shape.

Flying Saucers

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Rock and roll is today’s soundtrack as the Egg is pushed and tugged by cool blustery winds. I am tucked up inside, drawing an oak leaf with clusters of small circular raised discs on the underside that look like tiny flying saucers. The internet informs me that these are ‘jumping oak galls’ (or spangle galls) and each one has the larva of a small stingless wasp tucked up inside too. They usually detach themselves from the leaf and jump like mexican jumping beans upon hitting the ground – just a few centimetres to carry them off into leaf litter where they pupate. I am folding my leaf into a small specimen container in case I can observe an emerging wasp next April.

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Spangle galls at 200 times magnification.

Spangle galls at 200 times magnification.

Ochre Springs

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Oily looking ferrous reds stain the greyer mud of the marsh edges at different locations within the immediate Parish bounds. University of Southampton research concludes these are ‘ochre springs’ of ferrous hydroxide colloids emerging from alluvial sediment and the clays, marls and gravel of the later Eocene period 33 million years ago. This brush with the geological strata will continue to colour my thoughts.

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Some Tide Lines

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The water of the Beaulieu River etches its own tide lines into its enclosing banks of flora;  the stems of the grasses have a fine coating of alluvial clay whilst the leaf line on the blackthorn is also clearly drawn by saline stream.

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Quartet

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Individual blackberries collected from around the Egg were drawn by scraping through an ink wash created from their own juices.  Twenty preserved berries (suspended in methanol) have been rendered in this way and a random quartet are here chosen to represent the group.

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Cause & Effect

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Rain water has been ingressing the Egg for some time and has been the active agent in creating the work on canvas  ‘Stained Sun Shield’ (above), representing seven showers passing through the western red cedar shell during August. The source of the drips (Main Leak) was today the first focus for a week of remedial attention designed to weather proof the Egg for the challenges of WInter to come.

Egg Builder Paul Baker inspecting the exterior Egg shell prior to treatment.

Egg Builder Paul Baker inspecting the exterior shell prior to treatment.

Blackberry Reds

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I washed dyes extracted from the juice of blackberries onto paper boards. The brighter hue is made from pure blackberry and is very fugitive. In a few moths it will fade to a pale washed out blue. The darker colour was created with the addition of lye, which according to the seventeenth century botanist Culpepper made a permanent black for colouring the hair. I enjoy the reciprocity between their relative warmth and degree of transience.