ink and beeswax

black raspberry sludge

 i cooked and cooked those raspberries

low heat, many hours, added vinegar

and now there's a pint of ink

fun work!

 there are little black raspberry marks around the place

and outside

 only a few juicy ones left.

many dried ones on the canes

since it was such a generous year,

the birds had plenty.

and the coyotes,

who leave their scat in insulting spots

(for fun, they are coyotes)

are lush with seeds.

 i had a huge amount of "dirty" beeswax to deal with

after the cupboard, 

honeycomb 

and ant 

disaster.

so in the spirit of making hay

 i decided to stack the cloth that was covered in "dirty wax"

maybe you can see how thick it was

(there were thick "drips" as well)

to make a sandwich and transfer wax 

and "dirt"

 to a piece of case paper

i'd readied for a book

the stack included three pieces of abaca 

i'd made long ago

that had pigment issues.

 ok, so it was like this:

brown paper, white cotton pillowcase

abaca

case paper

beeswaxed cotton cloth-the straining cloth 

(the other half of the pillowcase)

 cotton cloth

 brown paper...

anyway a BIG sandwich

got ironed.

 a lot.

 as the thick wax dispersed into the various layers

as did the "dirt".

 i reduced the sandwich

 to this

 and this

and this and

 refolded the case

 used the various parts for signatures

 and folded it back.

  there was way too much bulk.

i cut much of the stationer's binding away

 and was left

 with a rather neat little cover

 i will sew it up today

 and make the final

rather sticky

beeswax and ant 

book.