Wednesday, January 30, 2019

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

Saturday, January 19, 2019

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.

Friday, January 11, 2019

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.

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