Wednesday, January 18, 2017

here and flax

a mild but windy stretch
of winter
has really assisted my barn 
in falling apart.
so weird to see the raw inside timbers outside.
the sky
when clear
has had odd clouds
and
sometimes just hanging out
little bits of rainbows.
trying to beat fiber with sticks
and the giant mallets at zone 4--
my hands hurt so much after using them
so 
i ordered these lovely
apple and maple ones
the last bit of my personal paper intensive
has been all about flax.
linen rag papers
below are off cuts from new painter's canvas
i pull lovely little samples
that are business card size.
driving one morning an owl watched as i 
stopped the car,
rummaged through all my stuff in a big basket
finally finding the camera,
and finally aiming, 
owl said, enough, and flew off.
(i think it was a barred owl)
always have your camera ready to grab when you're driving!
so here's the linum usitatissimum stash
(there are about 60 more large tan sheets in the drying stack at Z4) 
dark = linen canvas cloth
tan = cut flax fiber from belguim
white = one small tablecloth, minus decorative edges
(largest sheets are about 13 x 18)
flax and linen rag paper has a fierceness about it,
it's lovely to pull
makes a delicious scent in the vat
but dries tight and cockles easily
turning the edges into potato chips 
something to understand.
i like that it's not easy.
this little sheet below
is maybe my favorite paper from this winter
sits on nigel peake's drawn grid
holding pebbles from maine.

9 comments:

  1. ooooh, delicious flax and linen! sooooo happy for your time in zone 4. and HOORAY that you treated yourself to the mallets!! i love mine so much; glad that you took the plunge. xoxo

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  2. Your sky pictures always captivate me.
    The papers are beautiful.
    I'm often filling my pockets with pebbles; yours are lovely.

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  3. lovely papers, linen/flax has a mind of its own. We'll have to get some beach pebbles when you are here.

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  4. aimee, delicious papers! and those mallets. now we can make music someday.
    mo, yep. (grin)
    stephanie, sky's the limit. pebbles and papers, too.
    jean, oh, it sure does. YOU know. i can't wait to meet your ocean!

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  5. Such glorious paper you have made. xo

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  6. judy, now i've set it all out so i can see the month's work. it's pretty amazing.

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  7. V - nature is certainly;y doing its thing to take that barn apart - some of it will make good fire wood; and hopefully some will become other up cycled rustic stuff. The stones look grand on the paper. B

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  8. barry, my son ian would love for the wood to be used somehow, but i live in a place where there are SO many old barns coming down, it's just too hard to maintain them well in an economy like this one.

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