story

i hesitate to retell this, but i think it might be important.

i heard of an auction to help with japan relief. many artists, mostly potters, donated pieces. i saw that rowland and chinami ricketts had both donated pieces, rowland a magnificent indigo piece and chinami a silk and paper scarf. most of the work started well above anything i could afford, but chinami's scarf started at three hundred dollars. well. i took a huge leap and put a bid out, thinking it would never happen, it was way above what i can comfortably afford, but giving money is about sacrifice isn't it? time passed and when i went to look at the site i found all the auctions done and i had no clue what happened. while i was at the reading conference, i got a call from the organizer of the auction, who was on her way to japan the next day, saying my email address was incorrect so she googled and found me. my bid was the top one. so that's how i got the scarf. but there's more. when rowland sent it, he remembered i had emailed him about indigo seed. he sent seed and the scarf. he and chinami were unable to donate cash, but like me they made a sacrifice: their work. so far, i have been able to make back about a third of the cost of the scarf. rowland and i agreed that the sacrifices we all made might make this little bit of cash stretch when it is used in japan. and two flats of indigo have been started in north russell.