found

i find things

some of them are totally unexpected.

papers-overlooked and left in the blotter sheets

money-dollars, but mostly change

jewelry-mostly my own, mostly earrings, mostly in weird places

like under the mailbox on the roadside

after the snow melted.

(see a pattern here?)

today i found both, an earring and a penny (tails)

i saw a glint of shiny in a dusty corner of my living room.

dusty.

and when i touched the shiny it was a gold earring, next to a penny.

it looked staged.

i know what this is

 ALICE 

found on a dried felt

i can't quite remember which alice, but alice

a little paper to identify alice's paper 

in a class.

flax kitchen papermaking continued this week.

my crazy drying set up on the counter

(which i was pleased to scrub off the indigo stain) 

and on top of the press?

the blotter sheets and a piece of flax i'd overlooked.

blotter sheets are old cotton letterhead 

letterhead: 

Newton Falls Paper Mill.

 isn't it nicely dimpled from such strange drying?

 i found alice the same day i found two seed pods

that the thaw revealed.

my yard and the back meadow are still snow covered, 

a few spots of earth emerging.

 out walking 

i'm keyed into milkweed

 the stem has split and you can see how strong the bast is

as it holds the stem together

 soft gold inside the pod,

looking a bit like an abandoned wild silk cocoon,

 the snow retreating from edges on my neighbor's little barn,

 it was a beautiful sunny day

 and as snow melts i find other signs,

 and i found this photo over on facebook.

this is theTAFA group I taught shifu to last March.

their funding source required them to teach shifu to their community

which they just completed.

my wonderful host Wendy Warren (top, left,1st)

 and 

Sue Ferarri (top, 3rd from right), 

their teacher,

 this group was an amazing class.

I loved teaching in a small public school on a hill near the ocean,

these folks deserve a special shout out for their dedication to fiber art.

and no, 

the edition is not complete.

yet.

edition brewing

these modest flax books 

edition of 7 

are what all that stitching and coloring and changing of rough flax into soft...

what all that has transformed into.

it's coming as soon as everything is sewn in/together.

i am really really excited.

it's a

FLAX NOTION

or two,

coming soon (relatively).

(on the table, my favorite self made bone folder and new handmade watercolors)

below zero again

the view on that really cold saturday.

see the solar panels? they cranked away, 

so the woodstove's morning fire plus the solar gain from windows

kept the house warm all day and through the night.

snow is about a foot deep.

stuff on the work table

 more experimenting

portable mess-making.

it seems to be what i do even though i think i'm organized,

see my old stump?

and the empty nalgene bottle, 

hydrate, hydrate.

 trails in the snow? 

 stitching holey indigo flax before burnishing.

indigo smudge

i probably had a bit too much pigment in the pulp, 

though the water seemed clear,

or almost.

upon reflection, that almost is the problem.

 crazy icicle growth

they are really curly

 on the 

 woodshed.

weekend photos for you
and for dear wendy, who continues to move
back to good health.
hugs.

what a week or so!

this march i am not traveling.

no trip to australia, or,

actually,

anywhere else.

this is fine, because i love march.

i love the weather changes, the way the land changes

bit by bit, and the birds return.

but i am missing australian friends

the australian landscape,

the kindness and big hearts of my friends there.

oh, and the sense of humor.

below is colleen jones with a friend in her installation.

i name them australian gothic.

 next is the shifu/paper work made by another australian friend, barb adams.

she makes amazing work.

see how her kami-ito turns into cloth turns into paper. 

 at home, or not far nearby,

 is a dear one some of you have a deep connection with.

wendy golden-levitt had surprise illness and surgery last weekend.

she pulled through well, 

but oh, my, out of the blue, surgery.

please send her your love and prayers for a speedy recovery.

 and even my big sister claudia had a health scare this week.

she's back home after a quick hospital overnight,

new meds taming the issue.

oh, my. 
and this morning on facebook 
another friend becky has a hernia
keeping her out of her studio.
beware the ides of march.
happy st patty's day.
whatever.
i still like march, though i'm sorry 
people are hurting.

and then there was a big snow.

big and heavy and wet and continuing for hours and hours

and hours

building up to an over my knees height.

and my subaru couldn't get through the blockade at the end of the driveway 

(snow plow detritus)

i could get outside, high step through, but it takes a lot of energy.

one trip to the mailbox was quite an adventure.

(my mailbox was severed from its post by the county plow)

on snowshoes it was easier 

and i'm surprised that i enjoy them so much.

 happily a prince came to the rescue on his orange steed 

over 18 miles on backroads to dig me out.

 i'm now between both homes keeping the fire going 

and dog care-giving for awhile.

and i'm stitiching.

and stitching.

 running stitch, 

 it's definitely more a walking stitch.

 i've stitched several, 30 or so, small sheets of my flax papers now. 

all that stitching has given me a notion.

an idea for a book edition of five.

today i'll begin putting them together.

unless the sunshine entices me outdoors.

 stiff, strong raw flax paper 

becomes soft and sueded with the stitching.

taming a potato chip of paper 

into a soft, almost pillowcase almost cloth,

continues to fascinate me.

this idea began years ago, and here it is again.

 i've used kami-ito, 

 cotton, silk and linen,

often waxing the thread.

 i like putting on my own candle-leftover beeswax.

it's very soft and scented with the labor 

of local bees,

 and who knew? 

the candles i buy are made from local beeswax

by my last winter book arts student randy merrill. 

i've been enjoying her candles for a couple of years now.

getting it right

when you get something right

even if it's only to please yourself

it feels really good.

this one is pretty big.

and waits

 for someone to work into it.

maybe me, who knows.

 all 10.5 x 12 inches of it

and believe me if i could photograph it well

you would be hooting and hollering, too.

er, maybe not...

 contact prints

 and handmade flax, hemp

 more prints,

just a series of folios,

some gatefolds

and paper you can work into.

 this has been sitting on my work table

waiting for tweaking,

which i did today

just before i sewed it together. 

and because i had to show someone,

i'm showing  you.

flax and roof

they arrived early most days,

between 7 and 8 and stayed until almost dark.

this is rudy

shortly before hauling up 4 x 8 foot metal roofing

and here is my old ark of a house 

in all her soft green glorious sheathing.

and then, well, rudy spoke with me about siding...

indoors i've been messing around with flax and stitch,

charlie's flax here with my stitching.

making lots of small papers

and reading this book which excites me no end.

i bought some old hemp from sri

which i love

and intend to put to good use.

closer,

notice the stitching here.

can you guess the stitching material?

notice these squares.

can you guess fiber and pigment?

they really look good together

these colors

i'd like a nice soft red with them.

actually, i'd like all the colors

sometimes.

i was a happy woman to order

and receive

a LOT of indigo

kitchen papermaking.

mould by britt quinlin, the paperwright

my next splurge will be a lot of flax.

i've used up almost all of the 10 pounds i ordered last fall.

and today there was a breakthrough of sorts

but i am too tired to mess around with blogger and pictures and stuff

so it'll have to wait some. 

i've offered a friend a book, but if she doesn't want it,

i may offer it up to you all. 

my first ever contest,

probably!