marching orders

i love march and november

for the way the landscape opens and you can see

really see 
the bones of the land.

here it means hard walking,

 in november risky hiking,
(hunting season).

in march it can be mud season

or, like now, a foot or so of good snow.

i haven't been on skis this winter

mostly an arthritis in my foot issue.

but i do get out a bit and tromp in my mighty sorels.

today i collected arbor vitae (white cedar) and fern fruiting bodies

for the prints i folded, built, wrapped and cooked this afternoon.
i cut up some paper for kami-ito.

in the mail came a couple of things, this:

 japanese indigo in a soft mattress of fine flax

ready for spinning

from two looms textiles

and socks.

and then naomi velasquez sent this tonight

because i'm headed to idaho to teach shifu

at the end of the month.

i'd love to meet you there!

~~~

in other news:

i have seed for the spring: 

indigo and flax.

oh joy,

oh rapture.

~~~

tomorrow my what is an image class meets 

to make paper...

images.

inventory

it's time for the reckoning, or in modern americanese: inventory.

i've taken a totally arbitrary approach here, 
picking photos from my desktop:

1. copper pipe marked by goldenrod leaves from a workshop years ago 

with india flint at long ridge farm.

it's resting on one of the stump looms.
the right kind of alchemy.

 2. linda marshall of washi arts is an amazing advocate for japanese paper

a fine friend 
and host who took care of me in vancouver last fall. 

she's a terrific guide for me, 

and provides all kinds of 

help for artists wanting to use 

really good papers.

 3. this book, 

Indigo Patterns 

was purchased this year by Owen D Young Library at St Lawrence University. 

it's a book i loved making, 

the cover is "shifu" with dyed pattern paper, 

linen paper, 

and slippery elm bark weft, linen paper warp. 

pages are indigo dyed pattern papers,

tacketed binding.

 4. my little Flax Notion edition sold out!

i loved making this one.
all flax.

 5. fern dust: 

i'm in a conversation with mari newell who also works with it.

and yes, it IS a thing.

 6. rocks. 

i love rocks, 

these are from jasper beach
and i love how shanna wraps lake michigan rocks. 

 7. milkweed. 

as ever my favorite ever paper that i've made, 

my fist edition done so long ago that my children 

(now 33 and 36) were in grade school while i made it. 

it's a generous and strong plant.

 8. we lost gwen this year, 

shown here in the foreground.

 unusually behind her pack 

 9. raw flax paper. 

absolutely nothing like it.

 10. i think this book, 
12 Moons, 
sold this year to Baylor University by Alicia Bailey 

(but maybe it was last year, sigh) 

shifu cover, silk endpapers, pages all botanical contact printed.

double pamphlet stitch binding.

 11. still contact printing mostly on paper, 

occasionally on shifu 
(which IS paper). 

mostly.

 12. my papermaking class. 

only one student in the bunch was an art major. 

the four adult students and i meet every so often to talk 
and make books. 

it's nifty. 

this group was such a blessing to me, 

keeping me thinking about papermaking. 

all autumn.

i started a post today and meant to go way elsewhere, 

but here we are instead. 

you all who read are blessings, too.

thank you, you are a joy.

please feel free to contact me through the website, 

blogger seems to be ignoring me here and out on others' sites, too.
as for from now until february 2 when hannah and i get on planes for california, 

i will be working on 

inventory
for CODEX .

reading design

i'm reading about two compelling things,

(when i'm not reading Phryne Fisher stories)

design and craft.

phryne i reserve for the very humid and hot days, in the afternoon

when my head feels enormous and mushy

especially after i did this

have you tried to walk or make paper or garden 

when your big toe is swollen and bruised

or hauled a fan up and down stairs (16) because you only have one?

i did, however, complete this chore first:

i felled a basswood that was growing in my perennial border

where it's not allowed.

sawing basswood takes almost no strength, 

such a pleasure to do this job quickly (the cutting, that is, stripping is still work).

i clip off the branches

and then stripped the bark leaving outer and inner bast intact, 

to send to Heather from PBI

who is sending me a trade.

grin. this is fun.

and basswood, well, it's delicious.

it doesn't smell or feel quite as lovely as slippery elm, 

which i still have to "weed" out of that border...you know,

the end of the border where it becomes forest?

i also made a little stack of 27 square flax papers

laying them flat to air dry without restraint.

(black cases hold typewriter and sewing machine)

as they dry they become dimensional

which always pleases me

stacking them is fun

especially when i can stack them on top of some shifu

that i dipped several times,

i lost track how many,

maybe 7 or so,

 in the vat.

and below is one of many dimensional pieces i made in Mary Hark's PBI class

flax with inclusions,

dipped in the same indigo vat,

see how the dye works on different fiber

and different numbers of dunks?

can you guess what the inclusions are?

so this morning,

toe feeling much better,

i worked in the mill for 2 1/2 hours

made a big stack of larger heavy flax sheets.

(i'm beginning to understand flax)

oh, 

and reading design and craft?

i'm still very much pursuing that, 

 today, after spending the early morning with this book

i went off to make paper.

a very good balance for me.

andrew's book is a treasure, teaching through stories. 

i read a a few pages,

go away mulling it over, and return to read and think some more. 

his understanding of the creative process, of problem solving, 

and building well designed and beautiful environments

combine teaching wisdom with caring wisdom.

i am learning so much--

a very good book.

flax cover

 i love how flax

is so strong,

beautiful,

useful,

 as fiber for rope, for thread, for fabric

but also for paper.

flax paper, 

not linen rag paper

but raw flax.

beaten and pulled by those papermakers who have "umph"

extra "umph" because this pulp has

personality, character, and

makes strong covers, 
perfect for decorative longstitch bindings.

 my first book with ecoprinted pages

autumn moon journal

6" x 8" x 1" 

32 ecodyed cotton pages, 4 signatures, flax cover  
spine sewn with waxed linen, 

a keith smith variation.

endpapers of lokta, spine lining of thistledown paper

(there's a thistledown moon, and a tiny kozo mend, too).
meant to be used however you wish
drawing in ink would be wonderful

this one's for sale

$125.00. postage paid in the u.s.

email me, vdbolyard at gmail dot com,
if you're interested.

springing, early

a lovely day. windy and sunny and warm--in the 40s and some bits of ground showing. i hung laundry out this morning. thinking of growing things; i'm not much of a gardener. there's a perennial border where i grow some plants i like. last year i cleared a spot to grow flax. i have done so several times before, but have never had the lovely white flowered flax that i purchased years ago from mrs. chase in (i think) maine. last year i grew a blue flowered variety, and the growing season was not flax friendly. 

my old computer died last fall and took along with it my pictures of the whole season. but here is the flax harvest retting. it's dry and ready to hackle in preparation for spinning or papermaking. the flax was short, and fine, and of poor quality.


on that same growing spot, i will spread some compost and manure, and will grow this year's crop, indigo. first, though, i need to rent a space in a friend's greenhouse and start seedlings. it's that time of year, and i'm ready to grow polygonum tinctorium, japanese indigo. i hope i can find a grower with extra space!


farmers buy and sell springing heifers (in the world of huge farms, i think that kind of exchange may be disappearing). i like the word springing.