winter to summer and back again

the last class was exciting

going deep

four days

13 humans

and blue fairy wrens

(among other feathered beings)

 i love the variety 

 of needle books

my students had.

did i say i had 14 students in the two day class

12 in the four day class

and we worked.

 we made and made and made

 we shared

 we built

 we discovered how a few crinkles

can enhance the dullest of papers.

 these folks kept saying "why not?"

and making my predictions

dust and ashes.

oh, i learned so much! 

 proving my predictions wrong

 some came despite

difficult circumstances--

 there were stories

involving 

toilets and firearms and other things

 some folks just took off

like sky writers,

you know,

those pilots who write letters

across the blue heavens.

 many, many books were made

 new spinners fell in love

with paper,

kozo and lokta

 and some book artists 

combined their learning from class one

with our class.

when natural dye pots were unavailable

we decided to make a few ecoprints instead.

when one said the red was colorfast

she was right

 and then,

well,

my beautiful little canon

powershot

spurted from my pocket

into the rinse bucket.

so there are no more photos.

but

as a few come into my inbox

i will share them.

let me tell you this:

four days is entirely enough

to really get somewhere

with paper and shifu and books.

we ended with stationers bindings in classes one and three.

and they were all amazing.

THANK YOU ALL.

if i could hand pick students, 

you would be the exact ones for me.

it was amazing,

toilet jokes and all.

a few more stories

may come along

as i try to get my brain

wrapped around back to school

and a dentist appointment

and then income tax forms.