feeling all right!

i'm feeling all right!

and particularly grateful 

that this came today.

the summer HANDPAPERMAKING

with a review that i wrote 

about hiroko's amazing book Kigami and Kami-ito.

i was really happy

and honestly

a little scared, too,

when HP editor mina takahashi asked me to write this.

but i am so happy it's in print.

and proud to honor hiroko
who gave me a weekend of her precious time
teaching me paper spinning.

~~~

in today's mail came a wonderful,

colorful box

of overbeaten abaca scraps from 
helen heibert

who offered two boxes

to two artists who had creative solutions

for what could be done with them.

i'm tickled to try 
with these so much fun colors.
(i've always loved working from the scrap bin) 
and this will be especially fun with such spiffy scraps!

~~~

the last day for students was monday,

and already my wonderful t.a. lori

and i have been planning for next year.

in between, though,

we will have a nice summer break.

first thing, 

though,

is to finish my edition

NOVEMBER, A MAP

which i hope to write about here,

soon.

3 little things

1.

thank you all 

for your kind words

about NOVEMBER SONG

it was a year and more in the making

and has had 

the skilled hands of carol and mark (and me!) in the making

one copy is spoken for already.

spine detail

double gatefold, left opened, right closed.

~~~

2.

xxxxxxx

(for wendy)

~~~

and 

~~~

3.

three books +

the more i use these hands and this heart

to make sense of my walk on this earth,

well,

the more i learn

 these three books were made 

with dorothy, in human marks,

at longridge.

i've learned to honor something new

something bigger than me

to trust the way a teacher pushes me

~a leaf~

 knowing that work will sort itself out

into what i need to know

 so this little book

my own human marks

so like and unlike others'
somehow

 became this little experiment

which will now go to the loom's cotton warp.
i will weave a bit.

 this big book

the one in which i let myself work huge

and then threw water all over it

 frames that week for me

they are quite unlike my work,

in a sense

and very much my work

in another 

in the gutter

one finds little miracles 

some of the page spreads 

surprise me 

 i can see the starlings

though they were far from my thoughts

drawing

the cloth in these books

came from a thrift store: two blouses

i'll call this the caldwell binding.

simple and functional and appropriate for this 

sort of book.

i feel pulled into more work this summer

a few ideas in the stewpot,

a class (or three or four) to teach,

and a few friends

to visit

(look out!)

this morning it's very warm,

laundry's on the line.

something's in the works

puffs of hot wind gives it away. 

sometimes a thunderstorm claims this sort of day.

perhaps

my laundry will dry

first.

settling, now

 i look through dyed shifu

into the sky

where a spruce and a maple 

take up air space

and this morning

i'm threading heddles

guarded by my best friend

a long warp on my little loom

cotton for shifu

 surrounded by the heat of northern summer

the colours of australia

 tiny packets of threads

from roz's class

 and my little hidey sack

how they look in the mottled summer light

this flax paper is waiting

my working into it's strong surface

 a few things to think about

high summer

hot

stormy

insectful

blessed.

back in my body

i'm feeling like last night's long normal rest

has placed me back in my body again.

there was a real disjunction

summer-winter-summer

and a hemisphere and 9000 miles (give or take)

and back home to the foothills

 wild grapevine, the ultimate opportunist

 wendy chased this one...and it returns

dawn and dusk

enjoying cut grass in the yard 

 drunken bale

 this composition reminds me of nigel peake's drawing

 round

 and around

 i thought it was another bird, but it's not

 under the bird

 hot ears during early morning walks

 there is high summer happening!