violet snow

i've seen this before

but today, i know

 it's turkey!

(there were tracks)

they've been foraging on

 wild grapes, so abundant

 last fall

and then 

 above and below

lives

a reflection 

 fine walk

a mild winter day

gray and quiet

play habu

 playing with habu yarn on the stump

 i had to put paper behind the warp to see it

 it changes a bit with the lighting

 but the paper and nylon thread is amazing

i love this furry little square

but didn't until i 

added the piece of paper

winter color

i have been complaining

of the winter

and the dreary.

this morning

 just past sunrise

 my driveway

swathed in 

 the inside of a shell

or a cecropia

swimming in blushing air

until it changed

this afternoon

 these clouds

like tapestry

ushered in the

weather change

 there was a bit of ice 

on the drainage

and one calf.

i asked where is the other?

in the freezer, he replied.

lion's pelt

the pages all hemstitched

all 

and sections placed

india calls this silk

lion's pelt

so appropriate

so i have two of these books

my exemplar and the lions pelt

just beginning

ready for the story

an eye, jude?

te he

magic on lion pelt

learning magic thread

it's tricky

aimee yarn

also tricky 

the stump. 

the mac.

work.

strings.

third snow day this winter.

 almost snowless, 

but the ice was treacherous.

seeing

 in this bleak 

weird winter

 vision shifts

 i search for red

my foil for sadness

what or who

has collected

these

 in anticipation of

slim pickings

a touch of blue and red

  wait

 the road seems to wait for winter

which is playing games 

for sure

 vision shifts

  wild vine

still has a few 

grapes

just blue

row by row

 inch by inch

india's threads 

climb 

a delectable mountain

choosing correctly

 walking often solves many problems for me

personal. political. design.

in the last week or so,

amidst other concerns

i've been able to think through

the what of several pieces

 seeing this problem 

through the camera's eye

was so much clearer

i chose the blanket 

over whip stitch

it's clear in the pictures

once i weeded,

 two folios were picked out,

stitching's equivalent of back weaving

but no stitch is wasted in learning

just a little bit of string.

i now have several hours of blanket stitch

on the eight folios.

process

 the process of how a book becomes is

fraught with tiny decisions 

and then i placed

maybe arbitrarily

the one piece of silk that was 

just over 16" x 20" 

 and did a bit of math

and thought about page spread size 

and divided the cloth into eight 5" x 8" pages

which would be folded into

pages that were 4" x 5"

i then cut the attachment slots

 in this case the dummy was quite small

so i played with some silver oddments

to see how they are on the silk 

a nifty thread in natural and dyed with copper 

and a few other alchemies

the first cut

on this stuff i love so much 

was the hardest

more to come...

at the press and around

printmaking and letterpress collaborators

mark and melissa 

 i was mesmerized

 as i watched melissa schulenburg

 and mark mcmurray

make prints on a letterpress 

 for a broadside

 melissa designed the block

and mark the typography

and mark is printing

and melissa inking

as a part of a series

i can't wait to see all of them together

~~~

wendy and i

went grocery shopping BEFORE

the print shop visit

on the road there was a deer carcass being eaten

 by a hawk and several ravens

they were unhappy when i stopped, 

turned around for a quick photo

when i first drove by there was much activity, 

four or five ravens, one hawk

 the appropriateness 

of birds getting their winter lunch

knowing it's not free.