before Codex, briefly

the weather

 is all the news here, 

constant temp swings (60 degrees in a little over 24 hours!)

and today warning like crazy...

it's winter.

i   hope i can get to syracuse to catch the plane to get to san francisco for Codex

with no snow to deal with along rt. 81, the snow belt. 

maybe i should make a magic gut parka 

(and below wonderful needles 

pre-historic and beautiful.

from all over the world

we were stitching.)

shift back to now-- 

here's the stump loom with one of my own deer bone folders

doing double duty as shed stick.

this is the stump loom i wove the pages on.

for this book 

here is the interior of a one of my new shifu books.

 made from old kozo ledger pages from japan.

 this was a precious gift

and the final book, 

3 x 6 x 1/2 in

i'm in a rush, 

and hoping that if you're coming to Codex, 

you'll stop and visit me at table #190.Cod

many books

in the making

while winter deepens.

out back

i make artists' books, 

but i'm most certainly not an edition binder, 

i don't have anything like the skills or the dedication. 

but i do like putting my work into a book. 

or my work being a book. 

or whatever.

a stack of indigo hemp papers sandwiched by shifu

which binding style suits best?

i'm prepping for Codex,

and happily my daughter hannah's generous boss jane gave her leave

to accompany me to san francisco.

a happy lively and springy wee book, flax and hemp

so there is paper everywhere, 

shifu, 

threads, 

even some pva and a huge piece of african bark cloth

as well as a couple of yards of black wool to sew into a tablecloth.

huge bark cloth sheet

covering cloth cut

 boards glued, covered, weighted, drying

bags have been ordered and arrived, and a receipt book still to be procured.

but this is what i've learned:

the more i make, the more i dive in,

the more ideas come and the bolder i become.

paper everywhere.

ideas everywhere.

books everywhere.

shifu, too.

 the silk slot and tab book came together, 

after years of gestation there's an edition of three

you can't rush some things.

almost 9K stitches.

 i was given a little miracle found growing on the woodpile.

colored like the bark cloth

 meanwhile outdoors the deep freeze has set in

and a snowstorm predicted today

 on the stove the pot of dye gets intermittent use

 and the left "ink spots" 

from the spoon resting on the stove

are nifty.

squeaky up the road, there*

mysterious canine prints going up my driveway

probably coyote

looking out the early morning kitchen window

seeing four new boulders

become

deer

yep, later on i found evidence:

feet

bed and there were other things...

using shanna weights to hold down the silk for my book

thousands of stitches

see the bottom leather, that turquoise?

colors on the back-of-the-house-fix.

hemlock board.

great soft color

the dummy 

and two more books in the works

have you ever tried to get colors to behave with a stupid camera?

the hemstitched borders are all taupe/grey. 

not lavender.

no matter how much i tweaked the color, hue, brightness, tone, value... 

i couldn't come close.

but this book is coming along.

there should and edition of three when I'm all done.

this is the original triple woven silk.

you can see where the three layers are snagged together.

see the pattern dimples?

keeping it all straight:

dye on the back burner,

'soupper' on the front. 

bookish came to my house.

 these little stitched images are judith's iconography

and todd brought me his wild grape (fox grape) ink in the world's best bottle.

since these photos we have had real winter settle in.

a foot of snow and deep cold, under zero, but not below minus 10.

it is pretty 'sharp', 

and breathing outside hurt this morning.

~~~

* a friend quoted, referring to one of my neighbors.