being there: Maiwa

 Maiwa was a watershed for me.

leaving Ottawa and arriving 'two' hours later in

vancouver surprised me, 

having three hours eaten by the time zones is a weird experience.

Linda (Washi Arts) picked me up and off we went to a seaside town closeby for lunch. 

found a weird skipper along the way.

 and then she took me to Granville Island, 

location of two of the three Maiwa Vancouver spots.

 notice the pedestrians...

 my air b&b was minimal

which was all i needed

(there were snacks, including bananas!) 

except the last night when the building's water got turned off...

and was a close walk to:

restaurants

Granville Island

the buses

which I learned to use!

and then wednesday morning arrived, 

and so did I, early as usual.

above crows greeted and guided me

and inside there was treasure

some chemistry

 and dyestuff

 Elys, who drove me home several days, my table partner

and myself monitored our dyepots

first one: madder (yay yay yay)

we worked with simple math porportions to prep

then dye our samples.

 things to remember

and we started another dyepot

and another

and another

it was fantastic.

the repetition and wonder of it all

reinforced learning and remembering.

our final learning was indigo, three types of vats,

and then we did our own thing for a day.

 all samples were placed

in an orderly fashion for us to 

quietly and with concentration

take one from each.

two kinds of wool yarn here,

Sophena explaining how to arrange them for us to easily sort.

 and cloth, protein and cellulose,

wool, silk, rayon, hemp, cotton, linen 

 and there was indigo 

10 dips

 and personal exploration projects.

in front is Charllotte and behind Sophena

mother and daughter who work beautifully together.

not their first rodeo.

 the Maiwa staff was delightful and full of talent, 

knowledge, 

and were always always there for the students.

Linda picked me up after class and took me to see town and eat supper.

 my wonderful hostess Linda Marshall

catching the pretties.

 we foraged for supper

and it was delicious!

returning home on a red eye flight, 

from 11:30 in Vancouver to 7ish in Montreal and

a 17 minute flight later to Ottawa, 

and then a drive home, 

a shower thankfully, 

and a meal 

and then back to school to teach my papermaking class just after noon...well, 

i did it. 

wednesday night i finally caught up on sleep-

12 hours, delicious!

sometimes it's difficult to write the words that will tell the tale.

i go on about the time traveling, 

the inconvenience and embarrassment of no apartment water,

the fun of a restaurant that calls itself by what i so naturally do,

but i can hardly capture

the personality of 16 students that constitute a well orchestrated class,

the noted and much appreciated kindness and courtesy of Canada,

of Vancouver,

and the wealth of knowledge 

freely shared for the love of the thing itself.

natural dye, fiber, good living, family.

how a community can thrive all exemplified 

in a small business that serves

as well as inspires.

i have not mentioned all the folks who inspired me, 

here are more:

Linda and Linda, Sachi, Tim, Liberty, the list continues

but here I'll stop. 

and I will end with this:

when I am inspired to be a better

maker

artist

human

I know I've been place in the right place at the right time.

Thank you Maiwa.