beaver pond ice
today is sunday, november 14, 2010. i posted my first blog piece sunday, november 15, 2009. one year (almost). in that counting much has happened in my life. today, i want to say thank you to all of you who visit, to those of you who have had the time to leave a comment, to those of you who take the time to think about what i'm writing about. to make things. to challenge, to laugh, to experiment, to understand what it means to love this mother earth we all share. i am not much of a writer, but i am someone who ponders things. and this is what i'm pondering today. a year. a reckoning. movement through a life, mine, and yours. 
like these snow geese, i may still have a thing or two to say.
have i said how much i love november? it's because, among other things, it's my birth month.
I love your shifu squares. Congratulations on your show.
ReplyDelete(I met you at PBI this summer and I enjoy your work and your blog. I am an art teacher in NYC and I teach children to make prints, paper and books as well as a general art curriculum. Right now I am making quilts with my fourth graders and I tell them we are making Merz because we studied the collages of Kurt Schwitters as well as the quilts of Gees Bend, Alabama.)
On Friday evening I went to The Center for Book Arts in New York City to a book arts lounge with Aimee Lee demonstrating Joomchi and Hanji cording. So inspiring. I hope your Collie chooses me!
Linda
Hi from Europe ! I love your blogs, your interesting creation ...
ReplyDeleteare the geese helping to beat the paper pulp for you, what a wonderful thing that would be.
ReplyDeletei would so much appreciate a small shifu square, or even a teeny bit of spun lokta so that i can feel it's life.
have a very enjoyable birth month, it is good to stop and ponder on cycles.
i can't believe it's been a year already! FLEW. yay that you have this space and that you created something so very velma out of it. there's no place like it online and that's why i love to visit. also, before i read all of it, i thought the picture of the cut paper was bean sprouts that you were going to snap the ends off of! haha.
ReplyDeletelinda, thanks for coming! i had a great time w/all of you friday night.
i enjoy your blog and think about all the meaningful things you say. would love a dyed shifu square. thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI love those snow geese. November is the birth month of my youngest daughter and her daughter so it is special for me as well.
ReplyDeleteReally enjoy what you do and would love anything of yours.
How lovely that your birth month is November, Velma! And I, too, thought they were bean sprouts! hahahahah...I LOVE your little shifu squares--they are wonderful and I love that Wendy will help you pick a name!! Big hugs. Cait
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your anniversary! I'd love a chance to throw my name into the dog's water bowl for a chance at one of your dyed shifu squares. You can reach me via my blog http://artfuldreamer(dot)blogspot(dot)com. BTW, I was thinking bean sprouts as well. LOL!
ReplyDeleteBeen enjoying looking at your work and it has me thinking I might try to make some paper of my own. Would love to have a shifu square, plain or dyed, to try printing on...
ReplyDeleteNovember is my birth month too! Are you Scorpio or Sagittarius? (I am Sagittarius.) It is a blessed time to be born. A lovely month for pondering as Mother Earth and all her inhabitants prepare for the silence of the approaching winter.
ReplyDeleteVelma, I am grateful for your insights, words, photos, and creative work - they have touched my soul deeply. And I am grateful to have "found" you again (after Clayton). Thank you for sharing your passion and your gifts with us. I will always be a weaver, but I am now creating books because of you! You are so right: weaving, books, spinning, etc...it's all fiber. A little dyed shifu square would certainly delight my creative muse.
i'm not greedy [after all, i already HAVE a little shifu piece from you!] just wanted to say that i've enjoyed getting to know you through these pages
ReplyDeleteand even more
meeting up in Toronto
and of course
looking forward to playing together in the paper vat and over a cauldron next year
xo
Funny geese photo- just their behinds!! I just reached a little over hundred followers on my blog, I guess its time for me to do a giveaway, too. In the meantime, if Wendy the adorable Border Collie picks me, I'd love a dyed square. Happy birth month. I love November, too, for its browns and golds and coppers... and earthy compost smells.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you did decide to start a blog, you share a wonderful perspective and gift...dyed if I should be so lucky!
ReplyDeletecongratulations,velma and happy birthday, too. I think you are a great writer because you put your heart into it and let it show. Of course I'd be delighted if wendy choose my name but think we will be sharing some shifu in the future.
ReplyDeletefound my way here from Spirit Cloth. I'm trying to figure out what shifu is ... it looks like a type of woven fiber ...? Btw, Wendy is beautiful! and Nov. is my birth month also.
ReplyDeleteI'm very happy you started blogging Velma - there's always something beautiful or thoughtful in your blog. If Wendy the wonder dog drew my name I'd love a dyed square of shifu! Happy birthday month as well.
ReplyDeleteI love reading your blog and following your projects and ponderings...I'd love a square of shifu...happy birthday to you also!
ReplyDeleteHappy November from Australia where we are looking forward to summer.
ReplyDeleteI have just started reading your blog. It is very uplifting.
wow... a year already? congratulations... you say you aren't a writer... well you write what we want to know about your work. i have learned so much here. i love fibers and processes. you are very generous with the sharing of your process. so thank you for being generous with this square of shifu... if i win it, it will remind me of the book you made for wendy... most amazing story ever. thank you for that as well.
ReplyDeleteV-bet you can't believe that a year has gone by and that you have connected with so many gifted, not so gifted and slightly nutsoid people who in some small way have become part of your art community. The first time I learnt about shifu was in Calgary. I just could not believe the patience and delicate touch of the artist to take such a delicate material and turn it into something stong and meaningful. What I like about your work is that you take the strong natural fibres, break them down , reconstitute them into paper, slice them and then waeve - creatively nutsoid - I am in awe. B
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed reading your blog and your have introduced me to many new things. so please enter me in your giveaway.
ReplyDeletejust a year???? seems i've known you forever.
ReplyDeletethe beaver pond photo is very evocative.
happy blogaversay.
Happy 1st blog anniversary. I enjoy seeing what you are creating and what is going on in your life. Thank you for sharing with us. If Wendy should choose me, I would like dyed shifu. I imagine you are not surprised to hear that.
ReplyDeleteShe Whose Comment Disappeared wishes you and your blog a wonderful birth month! I treasure my wee shifu square.
ReplyDeletedamn and blast, melissa, i hate it when it happens to me. blogger is often hexed. maybe because it's free?
ReplyDeleteoh, and thank you! are you in retreat?
ReplyDelete