Wednesday, July 30, 2014

morgan shenanigans and...

 mason and aimee
and julie mclaughlin's kozo dress
big ass paper, indeed! 
no, it will be displayed differently, 
but even armless
and legless 
you get a sense of the grace and beauty of this piece.
tiny beads accent 
 charity fitting out ugly girl's hair
calculating how to best display this indigo dyed piece,
another of julie's garments 
with a stairstep woven and dyed indigo bodice
 leftover body parts
(what can i say?)
aimee and mason curated this show,
mason is hanging it and was in charge of this catalog.
the back cover below
shows my latest hortus siccus book.
 i feel a bit like i'm 
on the cover of the rolling stone!
and am in the community of fine paper artists.
 where i stay when i'm here--
 the other half is a wonderful big paper mill
way behind the zebra hide
and this
rather important and famous artists' book
by bill drendel lives here.
i was delighted to find it.
it's handmade paper heaven here in cleveland. 

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

here in cleveland

being back in cleveland is grand.
i grew up on one end of a great lake 
by the niagara river, so this sort of place
feels very familiar.
cleveland is not far from my original home,
lewiston,
upriver from niagara falls.
so it's grand.
and aimee is here and so are the morganites.
our weekend eco/contact print class was amazing.
very high level of skill and commitment.
and i got to see melissa!
 bill wrapped several bundles in leaves
and brought fresh home grown indigo to share
we had some interesting results
and it's delightful to 
have indigo to play with.
 margaret experimented with folds
echoes
and cecile's hands holding her favorite squares
her hands know so much!
with charity (one of aimee's interns) in the background.
she blogged about our workshop here.
 the studio where i stay
is a cabinet of curiosities
i said hello to the drum
 and to the crazy thing
out the window 
old industrial + green looks fine
 and aimee in the paper mill
you can see the hanji vat just behind her left knee
draped in felts!
on thursday we begin our four day,
excitement!

Thursday, July 24, 2014

off to the races, er, cleveland!

 i'll be teaching this weekend
at the morgan conservatory 
and then again next week with aimee lee
and whilst there
 this show shall open
with work from several papermakers
using eastern papers/techniques
in their work
i'm honored to be in this group
and i've heard there will be a catalog.
and
this is the latest book, 
just sewn together
still nameless
another of the hortus siccus series.
a soft, 
landscape of a book
with drawing and stitching and shifu
and flax and cotton and silk
and egg!
it's a bit like
a sketchbook of the north country,
simple,
really. 

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

some (mostly) bast fiber

 this weekend i shall be
teaching at the morgan
first a 2 day paper class (making flax and abaca paper
and making contact/eco prints)
and then next week a 4 day class with aimee
 so i have fiber on my mind,
specifically bast fiber.
above it's some slippery elm.
the leaf and
inner bark
cordage
 one hollyhock showed up
a color i love
and it, too, has lovely bast fiber.
 i stripped a small branch
(elm, not hollyhock)
a twig really
and manipulated that fiber
making cordage the way
a skein of women
showed me...
liana in the ancient 80's,
from nalda to india to us at long ridge

i left it stark to show to
our students.
we'll talk about bark.
and textile-book connections.
 this one
is among my favorites.
crossovers between
fiber textile book
i started making some notes
on some already used lokta
what was i thinking?
so, here we go, again,
the intersection
between paper and textile and plant and mark...
i just tend to make a mess.
this is the table i am supposed to eat my meals upon.
supposed to.
so i will get myself back
to some planning. happy tuesday.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

dyeing to get ready

i've been dyeing and making books and
making numerous trips to the post office
and being a helper
to my sister
her shoulder is healing nicely.
.
some of my three layer silk
top piece dyed with fresh indigo last summer
and then
both dyed this week with st john's wort
and other stuff
all in paper bundles
and this bunch was ready for the next dyeing
those papers were grand.
roz shared a wonderful
interview with squeak carnwath
and she has this to say:
Artists are—I think of us as radio receivers. Our job is to be available, to accept information and to make it visible. And it works best when the information that we accept is the information we recognize as a part of our deeper self. We’re all individuals, but we’re also kind of the same. And it’s personal, but it can’t just be that. It can’t just be what I had for breakfast or what color hair I have. I think it has to be so that someone else can say, "That’s mine." The viewer has to be able to claim ownership.
making the edition
hortus siccus
board books, edition of 10
two spoken for
the boards were sanded 
by my students as service learning.
there is the occasional foldout or gatefold, depending.
 boards are poplar
or popple as they say  around here.
~~~
and lastly, 
there are a bunch of us who joined in
this book includes 
many, me, too. india
www.indiaflint.com provided a platform
for her students
to share what they do.
to honor them.
but perhaps she didn't realize this
was also a way to honor her right back.
then, another little blurb book:
and she's written a new one
it's one of my very favorites
it seems so bright and well developed and clear
and very very rich
more 
words of deeper knowing and dyeing, 
and some even about paper, yay!
this book is really wonderful.
this coming week i prep for two classes at the 
which will be fun!
mouse activity is more vigorous this summer
than ever, ever before. 
and then there's chipmunk relocation.
but i persevere!

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

the neighborhood

last night
i walked the ditch out front
muck boots but no muck
it's deeper than it used to be
and treacherous with
hidden rocks
the flowers were singing
color here! 
 i picked a basketful
and this morning's sunrise
again singing, this time by birds
this is a little lakeside place
near here
where the channel around
an island
flows shallow, 
then deep
a place for a canoe or two.
at the old general store
i stole my own image
 and jasper's place,
well, i've been by sunday
and there's no action that i can see
maybe it's a members only thing?

Sunday, July 13, 2014

happening busy

happening busy:
my sister had her shoulder replaced
meanwhile another health issue flared,
so a quick stay in hospital has become longer.
but
my amazing nephew visited to help his mum.
while the surgeon worked magic,
i got to spend hours talking, walking, eating and
playing catch up,
realizing how much i love this guy.
now we wait until she is ready.

november song, both copies,
have new homes, 
on different sides of the earth.
it is exceedingly wonderful
to sell important and good work.

work is being prepared for the eastern paper exhibition 
at the morgan.

other coptic books in the hortus siccus project 
are paginated, and waiting to be sewn.
these have special owners, 
and then a few
will be offered for sale.

messy old garage is 3/4 done with it's clean-up.

the new place progresses slowly, but it progresses.

cleveland classes are prepped
(mostly)
and i have been asked to teach two more,
one in my beloved maine,
another in ontario.

my work-work class is staying in the lovely school
i've come to like being a part of.
after years of an alternative site.
yay to all the news.

and in my heart
i have loved working more deeply.
thanks to dorothy's push.

i think i haven't touched my camera in several days.
but if i find i have, 
i will come back and post some photos.
whirlwind times.

Monday, July 7, 2014

rainy day

i love weather
the changes 
and these few pictures are NOT
are decidedly not what today is.
 anyway, fist cutting 
should be all done and gathered in
and new growth well underway
 but i loved these large square bales
(yes, i know they're not square)
taken in the early morning sunshine
here:
all good farmers got in their hay
even this youngster
but
this is how things look today
 only more gray and less
as the rain decrees.
 practicing with a horn bag pattern,
and amused by how my understanding is
different from jean's 
but they all work out
maybe it's like the plethora of ways
to make a potholder or a needle book?
anyway,
i'm putting the textblock together for this cover
 i stitched it to ecoprinted flax cave paper
this book will go 
directly 
to the morgan for a show
focused on eastern papermaking.

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