morgan shenanigans and...

 mason and aimee

and julie mclaughlin's kozo dress

big ass paper, indeed! 

no, it will be displayed differently, 

but even armless

and legless 

you get a sense of the grace and beauty of this piece.

tiny beads accent 

 charity fitting out ugly girl's hair
calculating how to best display this indigo dyed piece,

another of julie's garments 

with a stairstep woven and dyed indigo bodice

 leftover body parts

(what can i say?)

aimee and mason curated this show,

mason is hanging it and was in charge of this catalog.

the back cover below

shows my latest hortus siccus book.

 i feel a bit like i'm 

on the cover of the rolling stone!
and am in the community of fine paper artists.

 where i stay when i'm here--

 the other half is a wonderful big paper mill

way behind the zebra hide

and this

rather important and famous artists' book

by bill drendel lives here.

i was delighted to find it.

it's handmade paper heaven here in cleveland. 

here in cleveland

being back in cleveland is grand.

i grew up on one end of a great lake 

by the niagara river, so this sort of place

feels very familiar.

cleveland is not far from my original home,

lewiston,

upriver from niagara falls.

so it's grand.

and aimee is here and so are the morganites.

our weekend eco/contact print class was amazing.

very high level of skill and commitment.

and i got to see melissa!

 bill wrapped several bundles in leaves

and brought fresh home grown indigo to share
we had some interesting results
and it's delightful to 
have indigo to play with.

 margaret experimented with folds

echoes

and cecile's hands holding her favorite squares

her hands know so much!

with charity (one of aimee's interns) in the background.

she blogged about our workshop here.

 the studio where i stay

is a cabinet of curiosities

i said hello to the drum

 and to the crazy thing

out the window 
old industrial + green looks fine

 and aimee in the paper mill

you can see the hanji vat just behind her left knee
draped in felts!
on thursday we begin our four day,
excitement!

off to the races, er, cleveland!

 i'll be teaching this weekend

at the morgan conservatory 

and then again next week with aimee lee

and whilst there

 this show shall open

with work from several papermakers

using eastern papers/techniques

in their work

i'm honored to be in this group

and i've heard there will be a catalog.

and

this is the latest book, 

just sewn together

still nameless

another of the hortus siccus series.

a soft, 

landscape of a book

with drawing and stitching and shifu

and flax and cotton and silk

and egg!

it's a bit like

a sketchbook of the north country,

simple,

really. 

some (mostly) bast fiber

 this weekend i shall be

teaching at the morgan

first a 2 day paper class (making flax and abaca paper

and making contact/eco prints)

and then next week a 4 day class with aimee

 so i have fiber on my mind,

specifically bast fiber.

above it's some slippery elm.

the leaf and

inner bark

cordage

 one hollyhock showed up

a color i love

and it, too, has lovely bast fiber.

 i stripped a small branch

(elm, not hollyhock)

a twig really

and manipulated that fiber

making cordage the way

a skein of women

showed me...

liana in the ancient 80's,

from nalda to india to us at long ridge

i left it stark to show to

our students.

we'll talk about bark.

and textile-book connections.

 this one

is among my favorites.

crossovers between

fiber textile book

i started making some notes

on some already used lokta

what was i thinking?

so, here we go, again,

the intersection

between paper and textile and plant and mark...

i just tend to make a mess.

this is the table i am supposed to eat my meals upon.

supposed to.

so i will get myself back

to some planning. happy tuesday.

dyeing to get ready

i've been dyeing and making books and

making numerous trips to the post office

and being a helper

to my sister

her shoulder is healing nicely.

.

some of my three layer silk

top piece dyed with fresh indigo last summer

and then

both dyed this week with st john's wort

and other stuff

all in paper bundles

and this bunch was ready for the next dyeing

those papers were grand.

roz shared a wonderful

interview with squeak carnwath

and she has this to say:

Artists are—I think of us as radio receivers. Our job is to be available, to accept information and to make it visible. And it works best when the information that we accept is the information we recognize as a part of our deeper self. We’re all individuals, but we’re also kind of the same. And it’s personal, but it can’t just be that. It can’t just be what I had for breakfast or what color hair I have. I think it has to be so that someone else can say, "That’s mine." The viewer has to be able to claim ownership.

making the edition

hortus siccus

board books, edition of 10
two spoken for

the boards were sanded 

by my students as service learning.
there is the occasional foldout or gatefold, depending.

 boards are poplar
or popple as they say  around here.

~~~

and lastly, 

there are a bunch of us who joined in

this book includes 

many, me, too. india

www.indiaflint.com provided a platform

for her students

to share what they do.

to honor them.

but perhaps she didn't realize this

was also a way to honor her right back.

then, another little blurb book:

and she's written a new one

it's one of my very favorites

it seems so bright and well developed and clear

and very very rich

more 
words of deeper knowing and dyeing, 

and some even about paper, yay!

this book is really wonderful.

this coming week i prep for two classes at the 

MORGAN CONSERVATORY

which will be fun!

mouse activity is more vigorous this summer
than ever, ever before. 
and then there's chipmunk relocation.
but i persevere!

the neighborhood

last night

i walked the ditch out front

muck boots but no muck

it's deeper than it used to be

and treacherous with

hidden rocks

the flowers were singing

color here! 

 i picked a basketful

and this morning's sunrise

again singing, this time by birds

this is a little lakeside place

near here

where the channel around

an island

flows shallow, 

then deep

a place for a canoe or two.

at the old general store

i stole my own image

 and jasper's place,

well, i've been by sunday

and there's no action that i can see

maybe it's a members only thing?

happening busy

happening busy:

my sister had her shoulder replaced

meanwhile another health issue flared,

so a quick stay in hospital has become longer.

but

my amazing nephew visited to help his mum.

while the surgeon worked magic,

i got to spend hours talking, walking, eating and

playing catch up,

realizing how much i love this guy.

now we wait until she is ready.

november song, both copies,

have new homes, 

on different sides of the earth.

it is exceedingly wonderful

to sell important and good work.

work is being prepared for the eastern paper exhibition 

at the morgan.

other coptic books in the hortus siccus project 

are paginated, and waiting to be sewn.

these have special owners, 

and then a few

will be offered for sale.

messy old garage is 3/4 done with it's clean-up.

the new place progresses slowly, but it progresses.

cleveland classes are prepped

(mostly)

and i have been asked to teach two more,

one in my beloved maine,

another in ontario.

my work-work class is staying in the lovely school

i've come to like being a part of.

after years of an alternative site.

yay to all the news.

and in my heart

i have loved working more deeply.

thanks to dorothy's push.

i think i haven't touched my camera in several days.

but if i find i have, 

i will come back and post some photos.

whirlwind times.

rainy day

i love weather

the changes 

and these few pictures are NOT

are decidedly not what today is.

 anyway, fist cutting 

should be all done and gathered in

and new growth well underway

 but i loved these large square bales

(yes, i know they're not square)

taken in the early morning sunshine

here:

all good farmers got in their hay

even this youngster

but

this is how things look today

 only more gray and less

as the rain decrees.

 practicing with a horn bag pattern,

and amused by how my understanding is

different from jean's 

but they all work out

maybe it's like the plethora of ways

to make a potholder or a needle book?

anyway,

i'm putting the textblock together for this cover

 i stitched it to ecoprinted flax cave paper

this book will go 

directly 

to the morgan for a show

focused on eastern papermaking.