hot weather around autumnal equinox

having students who stay late after class

or who come to work in the studio 

on other days

makes me really happy.

 book arts does that.

 at home i've had a second pot of black walnut

on the stove for several days,

dyeing up some cotton tubular yarn

and deep ,dark, delicious silk.

 drying quickly in the heat

and then there's this silk

 i love making small sample sheets

 and i bought a copy of this catalog

which includes india's work.

 and all of the linen suit paper is pulled, pressed, dried,

some of it pigmented,

shown here in the last pile of blotters and books.

 and here are some lake superior agates

some have eyes

 lace

and lanscapes inside

 the flax suit, linen rag papers

natural, yellow ochre, st lawrence riverside woods earth

 here they all are

a big harvest from a blazer and pants

not counted, 

not my habit to count

 and here's a gift 

that i've taken apart in preparation for spinning

 details like glued on tiny notes

sort of post-it notes (two of them)

and a paper thread sewing up the signature

 one page rehabbed by gluing on a new paper.

a sort of white out.

 not throwing or xing out

 taking apart a book, even a simple account book, 

is extremely instructive.

it's a lovely gift from a friend

who understands my love of these old books

which i use for kami-ito making.

it was 85 degrees here, 

in town it was 87.

predicted to be hotter yet tomorrow.

ugh.