i finally got to putting together some of my samples
from my february trip
i made three books
and a few samples, too,
while (or in australian, whilst) teaching
the bottom book
was completed at
and provided enormous entertainment for me
one long night
this stationers bound sample book
filled with silk and paper contact prints
and shifu and eucalyptus blooms,
in a fit of experimentation i dunked it into the wife.
well,
the wife is a wise and enormous vat of indigo
and my book came up gasping for air
going from sludge to blue
quickly
but also starting to sag and would have torn itself to bits
from the wife's good juice.
so i supported the thing
as she completed the color magic
then set up a drying system, which was no mean feat
considering the dry book weighs only an ounce or two,
but wet,
well she sagged under her own weight.
iowa flax case paper cover and various handmade and machine made papers,
and shifu
hold a lot of liquid.
so, once the color stabilized i began
the tedious blotting dry
and using a fan and a drying rack and many towels
all night long
she dried, stabilizing the spine and then the pages.
yesterday i sewed in all the loose bits and have a finished book
also as i sorted out the work table
i unearthed a little book i made
years ago from scraps
oh, and a feather and someone's measuring notes.
and took a picture
i, like jude, have been thinking
~of weave~
overexposed
in motion
focusing
and finally focused
spun paper, kami-ito,
and canada thistle paper
of course it is!
weave holds the universe together.