home and small things

using home as studio as livelihood is such a different concept 

than decor.

decor.

when i was teaching one secretary ran everything in the front office, 

from kids to announcements to parents to basketball questions

with grace and patience and no-nonsense when necessary,

she educated me in what that was.

i guess i didn't really know.

i live in a house (part time in two, actually) 

that gets things done in it.

i'm reminded of a quote dorothy sayers quoted: births and death and bridal nights

referring to beds and bedding.

for me it's the house, tables and kitchen stove...

i use it for making stuff. 

right now there's old black walnut dye being cooked down thicker 

for ink/mark making.

in the kitchen. 

in designated dyepots.

~~~

yesterday i found this:

well, almost this, 

it was full and the mold pudding thing on the top, about a half inch thick.

up close it smelled like, er, black walnut and mold. 

 i took it off carefully and 

placed it on a piece of paper to make a print

 printing process.

(i posted this on instagram and folks thought it was a muffin, 

which tickles me)

 the resulting print and the books i'm working with right now.

 here's the black walnut cooking down 

and some flax sheets, 

painted with pigment and me overdyeing first with walnut

(not very strong)

and with whatever else I make. we'll see.

i'll make them richer and deeper and stronger and then size them.

 it's the aftermath of bringing home new learning and integrating it into practice 

and knowledge that is fascinating.

my summer paper and book arts class at SLU didn't fill, 

so I have an almost free month.

except for a toronto trip and dog minding on a long weekend.

flax is on the way and here I go.

whoopie!

and i, 

who have eschewed "on-line learning" for all time

am *thinking* about this one with sarah.

there are some things i need to learn.

probably MANY things.

PBIers in my classes will recognize my aversion to *fucking fringe*.

I only want fringe once in a while.

mostly not, 

especially when shifu is being a page or a page spread.

so i may do this to learn better methodology. 

wishing it started tomorrow!

PBI: the second bit

 Mary Hark is one of my papermaking heroes.

she prepared the paper studio for us by hanging beautiful Ghanaian indigo textiles

 and her sample table was festooned with gorgeous papers and other treasures.

i didn't take a before photo, 

but below is how it looked after three days, 

when much paper had gone home with other people. 

 love this turtle motif

and after we had paper air drying on screens 

you can see these wise cloths presiding.

we made dimensional and thick flax paper in Mary's class

 Mary read from this book, which i found online and is a treasure for sure

 the screen mends around Ox Bow made me happy

 so did the closest lavatory to the paper studio

located in the glass studio

 Mary presenting the flowering indigo vat to us.

 the right hand indigo dyeing is my shifu.

 it got three indigo and one black walnut immersions, 

shown here oxidizing after the first indigo

 there is an OxBow bathroom fairy who left us flowers

 Untying shibori

Giselle's dots/holes

 Mary continued spinning kami-ito after taking my class

 our two classes did seem to complement each other

 Mary was generous with ideas about color and texture in and on our 

paper.

and we responded with enthusiasm, 

despite continual rain and cool weather, 

so that drying was a true challenge.

 Andrea of course was helping orchestrate the paper magic.

 Many of us in Mary's class made a little edition of "quilt squares"

which were dyed in the indigo vat

 and tied corner to corner

 to make our class auction piece 

(PBI auctions support scholarship students, 

of which I was once one before blogging and this inter world)

 it's a long piece

 and John DeMerritt's class built a home for it

 a lovely presentation box.

I heard it raised more than $1000 in the auction!

 GO US!!!

this!

Erin Fletcher embroidered the title on the box

Did I mention they made this box in ONE day?

 a piece Mary wrote for an edition for Minnesota Center for Book Arts

that I loved.

 the second class presentation show and tell night

 Beatrice Cordon's class cut up a lot of stuff and made stories 

 they had a fantastic time, much laughter was heard from their classroom.

 our table

 Chela Metzger's class

 of course there was printed work, which i seem to have not photographed.

 from my class, and completed in John's, a shifu portfolio!

 and later that night we visited the studios of OxBow staff,

all of whom appear to be crazy artists, too.

 and back home I found I had energy again.

i've spent lots of time in the yard and garden tidying and hauling and making beautiful

and at Home we had a tiny adventure. 

we came upon a child of god he was... 

he was...

a garter snake eating a leopard frog.

i was so excited I barely got a photo.

 snake was only about 24 inches long, and this frog was going to fill up an empty gut for sure.