a gift of summer in fall

i have continued making paper with hemp and linen and earth pigments. 

managing drying at home can be tedious

using blotters and weights helps, but oh for a dry box!

these are hemp (the indigo) and hemp plus linen (the pale with threads) 
and i like their strength and presence.
making small sheets 
(about 5 x 8 inches) 
gives me a chance to really enjoy these slow draining pulps
without pulling out my hair in waiting frustration.
which is what i do when i move to larger sheets.
sunday i made 12 x 14 size, 
not large, 
but 
oh
so
slow.

meanwhile i decided i would buy 
a heavier jenkins turkish drop spindle
for kami-ito making.
it's a pretty thing.

and the next photo is a bit humbling, but...

you need to see and understand the mistakes which are signposts of learning 

or re-learning.

because i have to practice skills i haven't used for years.

(this reminds me of driving standard again after years of automatic.)

but when you scrutinize less

you can see some interesting things here:

all recycled book except the thread.

book cloth was gifted.

pages were failed silkscreen prints

foraged from the trash can at school.

board recycled from another use.

and it was a way to stretch myself:

lots of sewing

four needles

estimating thread lengths

gluing the bookcloth

guling the endsheets

double or not the attachments to boards

pagination: how to keep the green, blue, yellow, and white interesting

so you want to turn the pages.

i like setting up challenges for myself.

and learning that i have to keep that sewing pattern

right so the book is not an embarrassment.

yesterday i was stunned by this

and this

we are having such warm weather

that we can have windows wide open at night

and it's sunny and so different to have this wonderful time.