still catching up

yesterday there was a starling in my kitchen, misguided into the old chimney,

one that rudy removed the top part of.

that starling comes from a long line of starling spring chimney nest makers.

it didn't like the kitchen after i opened the chimney nipple.

it did like flying away.

there have been mice, too, there big fat ones

living high off the hog in my bag of black eyed susan seed. 

they went outside 

(and undoubtedly came back in through some hidey hole).

 two days in the yard,

trimming, raking, 

picking up branches, leaves, mortar, bricks and nasty sharp pieces of metal roof offcuts.

i found these yard sticks.

objects to contemplate, and whittle.

rosa rugosa, 

wild black raspberry, 

rose of some sort that i replanted from the old milkhouse to my house.

 and this is the final pile, almost, 

i added another 30 or so sheets

of the paper I've made that's still here 

since the election.

THAT election.

 there are stories here. 

the pink sheets were a dark red shirt

that belonged to a friend's deceased husband.

creamy yellow is milkweed seed fiber from gin petty.

the little boxes are full of tiny sheets, mostly flax, colored with earth pigments.

there are sheets that are large and long and tiny and lots between.

a plethora of paper.

this would make a tiny library of books, perhaps.

i was hesitant at first, trying things, and then it all 

just

took 

off. 

now i have some books to make, 

but first, 

a sampler for my "records".

~~~

and in local news, 

the atv'ers are trying to get riding on roads legalized.

currently this is against nys law.

(atv makers say they're not designed for road use which is, 

instead, quite dangerous)

their reasoning: 

 getting from trail to trail on the roads between. 

where they propose to have a trail speed limit of 25 mph.

these are multi-use trails

shared with people riding horses, bikes, but mostly humans on foot  

and in winter, snowmobiles and skiers and snowshoers.

i hate the snow machines, noisy and stinky,but they don't ruin trails.

atv's on our fragile public lands will cause erosion amongst other abominations.

loose ends

 some things to catch up on:

i used to blog pretty often,

now i seem to forget.

but i do love this, as i understand, outdated mode.

the last two days i was out in my yard making some order

out of the chaos of february's new roof construction

and 

many storms-worth of broken trees.

i do have some stamina but i can't go flat out all day every day like i used to.

there are little green sharp roof off-cuts that I keep finding, 

those and roofing screws.

 and lots of broken asphalt shingles to clean up.

sticks and leaves and mortar and brick pieces everywhere.

in the house prep for pbi continues.

i have two copies of this little gem left, Flax Notion.

I've had good feedback from the folks who purchased a copy.

if you would like one of these that remain, 

drop an email...

i'm searching for one or two of these,

Good Wood Looms.

if you have one in great shape you'd like to sell, 

please let me know.

this photo was sitting on the desktop somehow dredged up from the depths.

it's a shifu/basket book that now lives with a book binder friend.

i love giving a book a basket to live in.

 below is a famous basket.

holding my prepped kozo being spun into kami-ito. 

 and almost the last of the roof snow

slid with a big noise off the porch roof.

(yes, i jumped) 

i'm still unused to the shedding activity and resulting noise of this roof.

the soaked and heavy chunks were not going to be moved,

i couldn't, i tried,

 so they stayed there for a few days. 

see that tangle of green?

the lightning rods and their grounding wires were frozen in for a couple months.

the rods and the 'knit' wire are copper.

rudy removed four of them and two chimneys when the roof was done.

he also removed a silly cupola from the garage.

all this debris is mine to clean up, so that's what I'm doing outside.

it's uphill work!

jude is making an even richer resource over at 
spirit cloth.
her blogging continues to inspire me as she revinvents 
what a blog is and how it works.

all the things by hand

all the things.

the first time i heard this phrase

was in michelle moode's beautiful letterpress book

PARTICULAR.

it was index item #1.

the first thing was all the things.

 i handle this book,

handle, the touch or the feel of something held in the hands

this book

haptic knowledge

anyway, it has delights and puzzles quietly presented.

The whole world is a series of miracles,  but we’re so used to them we call them ordinary things. Hans Christian Anderson I've been thinking about the intelligence of  our hands, how they become smarter with practice, like our brains do. unmoored, by shanna leino  i've read over and over. it's a small poem, not many words, but about big things. the care she took as she stitched this exquisite spine   the monoprints on silk... see her tiny stitches? an exit in SLU's print studio with my favorite cheesecloth drying after being washed out.

i'm not quite sure why it is

but for me the things that have meaning

are the things made by hands that have knowledge,

and also are my favorites

for (whatever/all the) reasons.

in last summer's seattle workshop

my students' hands all together could indeed have ruled the world,

with exquisite intelligence, grace, and love.

hazel and gabby

 an envelope came recently that held this rich 

surprise:

 Banks of the Dogbane by sarah swett

a hand sized tapestry (3 x 3") rich in simple detail

and texture

 woven on handspun linen

 i love this thing.

 over on the next farm this structure

was never honored by finishing

or by use

 now it's failing

i believe it was intended for hay storage 

for these bovines.

why leave it undone, 

a public testament to failure of some kind?

i watched them build it, but then it was ignored.

these cows don't seem to care. 

the lovely little brown calf stands out in this black and white crowd.

a lilac burl

from my garden.

enhanced by me cleaning and oiling it,

rolling it around in my hands with pleasure and love

handling it into another use

(maybe an awl?)

 a beautiful handwoven hemp textile

hand spun hemp on a cotton warp

found by my dear friend who allowed me to buy it

at mjolk in toronto.

 tiny waxed linen crocheted basket by Nina Payne

a gift from a gifted friend.

 shanna's lake michigan rocks

beautiful and useful.

 a little natural history book nest i made

two feathers on a shifu page and a seaweed float/bladder

 milkweed bast becoming thread

 ginkgo message

from therese

and words from the wise.

i'm reading a new book: 

Craeft by alexander langlands

which may help me understand (or perhaps just frame)

my thoughts on hand work.

all the handwork.

hoosie

i have amazing children.

today i'm showing you ian's recent house drawing which

 appeared on facebook this morning. 

i see it as a wee bit different, 

and though we haven't discussed it yet,

there seems to be a change of some kind.

there is a wonderful flatness that is anything but flat

a volume or a geometry happening here.

and an amazing building.

another hoosie.

and here, again,

because i love my first-born

trees and barns and landscape for this now city-dwelling man

who eeks out a living doing

drawing and carpentry.

my children, 

ian stevens

hannah stevens

amazing human beans.

WOWZA!

what a trip.

i left at 5:15 AM last thursday after having my power go out at home

and sleeping elsewhere and packing in a windstorm

and drove almost straight through to bar harbor.

i was early to the yellow schoolhouse.

mt desert island's historical association publishes 

Chebacco every year.

this year Hannah wrote an article for it. 

so i attended the launch, met nice people,

and saw my nephew Rich MacDonald, who co-authored a piece in this issue!

kudos to the family!

Hannah, archivist at College of the Atlantic, invited Yaniv Korman

who prompted her resurgence in interest

in COA's historic Sunken Garden.

hannah, her friend tyler piebes of low tide glass and i had a sidestreet cafe supper.

i stayed at hannah's place.

the floor was moving, or so I thought,

but it was internal vibration from 10 hours of driving.

(and maybe the wine?)

friday we drove down the coast to freeport where we shopped,

and then to portland and our nifty air B&B.

tyler cooked us chicken curry. 

saturday was fun and the kids met up with my great neice.

and then sunday arrived  and the book arts bazaar.

oh, my.
this wonderful young woman 
(i've lost her name) made this garment
on Black Friday.
hardwarestore drop cloth and silkscreen,
i didn't catch her name, but she had this radiant
happiness, and liked my work, too!
well, i liked hers.
and another young woman came by to tell me she likes my work.
this is amazing to me.
i caught up with friends, todd and nancy, becky, nancy, jill
had a terrific table mate on one side who made
incredible books,
alas,
no photos.

i have her permission to post these,
and please, if you happen to come by here,
send me your name!!!

and i have to say i get so tickled to read something like this:

I love it when someone wants to make paper.
and i am a professor, i guess,
melissa said so, but this student has said it, so it must be true.
adjunct is fine by me.
it's snowed on and off all day today.
i love april and it 
so
 is 
NOT 
cruel.

FLAX Notion finally for sale

many of you have been interested in this little edition. 

before i take it along with me to the Book Arts Bazaar

i would like to offer it to my online friends.

there are 7 only.

 some of you know the story already,

but here are the pages, the "text".

your copy will of course be signed.

i took the photos before i remembered to do that little chore. 

this is the separate colophon that accompanies the book.

FLAX NOTION

Flax Notion is about a little love affair with flax.

These papers were pulled in the winter of 2017-18 by Velma Bolyard in her kitchen.

While most papermakers would snort at such foolishness, Velma found it easier to work at home, 

comfortably dressed and in Birkenstocks, than at the mill at SLU.

The cover is a heavy flax sheet, inner papers are a lighter weight.

This raw fiber flax was beaten in a Valley Beater for over an hour, 

and hauled home in yogurt quart jugs.

Papers were carefully pulled using Lee MacDonald moulds in a dishpan in the sink, 

pressed in my mill Wake Robin with the Aardvark Press,

 and carefully restraint dried utilizing old Newton Falls Paper Mill 

cotton letterhead paper for blotters, with lots more pressure from an old book press. 

Little papers were all stitched with beeswaxed linen thread which changed their ‘handle’, 

and stitched on pages so you can touch them.

The plain flax sheet was stitched with my handspun lokta kami-ito, 

the scarlet colored with a Japanese bengara ink stick and scarlet linen, 

the blue pigmented with Maiwa indigo and sewn with linen, 

and the gold with a mix of yellow and red ochers and gold linen. 

The three pigments used were obtained in Vancouver and Melbourne, 

and the changes in the flax paper from all that stitching is what this book is all about.

This tiny edition of 7 (and one for me) celebrates the wonderful snowy winter,

sensuous flax, 

and many, many stitches.

Velma Bolyard at Wake Robin Papers

North Russell NY

FLAX NOTION

FLAX NOTION is available after the fair,

but I will reserve a few for readers who ask.

$85

i'll invoice you, if you email me.

vdbolyard@gmail.com

Flax Notion

coming soon 

Flax Notion

an artist's book 

a flax book, colored and stitched 

holding many hours of touch.

flax

linen

lokta kami-ito

bengara ink

indigo

yellow and red ochers

and stitches stitches stitches 

 working

edition of 7

1 artists' copy 

 and flax *candies*