the elders speak

it feels like tired summer, 

the cicadas and crickets chorus their endsong: 

summer:

the elders are listening. 

maurice kenney wrote this

he said at a reading that he wrote this before his morning coffee.

i think i've loved bear since reading this.

i saw a bear lumber quickly across the road where i walk

behind my place last summer.

is summer this bear?

this bear

by Judy Serebrin

is beautiful, 

having landed in my arms today.

below is what might have been

 wild plum fruit leather

sadly not successful.

below is today's table

full of grace

from fiona dempster and barry smith

reminding me to celebrate world day of peace

september 21.

i will share this message with my new class, 

six of whom i met on wednesday.

 judy martin's poem

pigments from heidi in washington

 and below

milkweed in aimee's book

 and what am i working on?

(besides syllabus and lesson plans and dyeing and spinning and foraging and observing miracles like wild plums growing here?)

 a new edition

 collagraph 

covered with bark cloth, 

linen thread text.

 this is the dummy where i work out the kinks.

 hopefully it will be done soon.

happy week, 

and a beautiful beautiful moon to sleep under.

turning

the season is going gold

and there are marvels in our sky

holy moly

scared off the neighbors

days shorter with nights crowding into them.

~~~

a neighbor pulled in and said

would you let me know if you see my bull.

he's really sweet, a black cross, but he jumps fences.

never seen anything like it,

he's after apples.

there are windfalls around the trees,

a wealth of good food and soon cider.

i said, of course!

living in the country...

~~~

then there's this stuff,

i've collected it before, 

but in the GREAT studio CLEAN of 2018

it resurfaced, like the madder and so much else.

and i've been focussed on flax paper 

so...

fern dust.

after researching this is what i've found 

(botanists, can you add more?)

"there are thin, brown, paper-like scales covering the newly emerging fiddleheads. 

the scales fall off as the fiddlehead grows and elongates... 

the brown paper-like covering..."

a soft rosy tints the raw flax

with tiny dark bits

sheet formation is irregular because i was pouring the pulp

in my sink

in a modified method using rubber bands and one of Britt Quinlin's moulds

in the horrid humid heat

while outside the clothes hang no longer drying in the new rain.

it makes me irritable. 

here is a drying sheet with the last little bit of fern dust until next spring

2/3 raw flax beaten just over an hour

1/3 fiddlehead fern dust, blendered.

if it wasn't so hard to gather i'd make paper with just that dust.

the Maine Cooperative Extension online calls it 

"papery covering on the emerging fiddleheads"

i call it fern dust.

~~~

i've written my syllabus for my fall class. it looks like a hill with a few words and a star.

~~~

i have a bunch of nephews, one sends me wonderful stuff. 

like a red fox skin he prepped himself

or a walrus tusk chip.

my nephew gathered some earth for me many years ago.

it's from the hill behind his childhood house

and is typical for the Niagara Gorge.

i will make some colorant with it soon.

there's a wee class in soil painting this week at the VIC,

i'm going to go and be a student.

maybe soils will be a part of my fall class...

~~~

and AIMEE'S new book is available!!!

well, both of them are,

but the one i'm particularly revved about is her milkweed paper primer.
(the other one is more than amazing)

it's fantastic and affordable and you must order one. 

go for the deluxe!

while you're there, go looking around her site.

you will be amazed.
~~~

leaving and arriving

elsewhere.

michigan to be exact.

some samples i put together this week

that beautiful indigo wool above tied the wonderful

sarah swett tapestry into a nifty bundle.

 the tapestry and the yarn are all that textile can be.

that sort of textile, that is (wool).

 i moved the remains of two chimneys elsewhere,

tidying the yard.

 and this came from catherine 

 such surprise

 unfolding and blossoming

 a lovely thing from a fine friend.

and a gift from the ostrich ferns

waiting to be worked

somehow.

as i get ready to leave tomorrow nerves kick in,
the drive, the teaching, the whatevers...
and aimee talked sense to me, which was just what i needed.
on the road at 5 AM tomorrow, across ontario to ox bow and PBI.

barns and oats insurance

the elements are having their way with my barn

some boards still hold integrity, 

some not

next to my mare mist's old stall

lies some evidence of occupation

or at least of eating.

 hay mow diamonds

dazzle on these august days

 and i made a few summer prints

these colors softened some

from the morning light

 just enough for one book

 i went over to my classroom today

and found that the floors were newly waxed

i barefooted it to my room

and worked for 40 minutes

and slunk away

before the custodian found me.

 one amish farm's oats against the cold

  looking up

(ian spent some quality time with our old barn)

 and here

thinking of all the turmoil of the last few weeks.

now i am home

getting used to sleeping at the new place

while i live

still

in the old one.

it should feel weird, but it's ok.

 today i listened to some podcasts,

after rediscovering the one aimee did of me for

full tilt bookbinding.

it was pretty fine

and i now know that

susan mills is doing a really great job.

susan was in my women's studio workshop class.

many thanks to all of you

for your kindnesses while i managed this challenging fortnight

 on the sidelines supporting my kids

through the loss of their father.

i let them know of all your kindnesses.

it matters.

walking another

this is my north country.

there is still some snow around.

you can see lake ontario on the left, 

and the st. lawrence river emptying out the all great lakes 

on the right is lake champlain

where the white is are the adirondacks

there's a ridge of sorts from below the st lawrence 

running sw to ne. those are my foothills.

 i walked gwen last night.

she doesn't behave like wendy did, 

she is enamored of birds 

as she should be.

i've gotten some treats in the mail lately

 this envelope was filled with goodies, 

but i particularly loved this graphic

enhanced by aimee

the sample of aimee's fused paper to fabric made me chuckle.

 and this packet from beautiful silks arrived.

 lest i get the big head

the macbook won't in any way allow me to upsideright this

but you can read my title there

sideways and roped in with marion-made strings.

(i can add that marion is wonderful, too.)

my very own 

favorite 

goofy 

thingie
with reflection

 until gwen and i returned home

as the sunset.

 last weekend i met in person

the wonderful and witty lee thompson

and forgot to provide a link.

also, i forgot to link todd and sharon pattison.

good fibrations

this is

genevieve nordmark's 12.

about dyeing cotton fiber sourced from firehose (see it in the background)

for papermaking.

theh natural dyes were

sourced from maiwa.www.maiwa.com

i love hearing from folks in the paper world.

a couple of summers ago i met the amazing genevieve nordmark.

she had fallen in love. with handpapermaking.

 genevieve tried to make it up here to make plant papers...

and may still, hopefully.

she enrolled in a master's program at the esf at syracuse university

she's studying paper 

 she understands the chemistry and physics of fiber and paper.
having a tiny bit of exposure to the industrial side of papermaking
i can only begin to imagine how thoroughly she 
"gets paper".

 genevieve recently contacted me about conducting an interview.

(more about that later)

here's her latest blog post
 on the fiber wire 
about her experiments with natural dyeing on pulp
here.

 and here, 

 here are some photos of the little book

an edition of six

 that she sent me.

 i love this book, and i love how her mind

organized this work

in a much more methodical and scientific way
than i would have. 
it is a 

a fine book.

i like looking through it, over and over, actually!
~~~

susan byrd's video of working the kozo into it's pre-spun stage

is visible on facebook
at the paper threads, yarns, and textiles place

~~~ 

in other paper/fiber news:

aimee lee is teaching a winter class at oberlin

she and i are planning to teach

fiber, paper, textile, book, spirit again this year

at the morgan conservarory. 
the dates aren't confirmed just yet.
~~~

melissa's show

is something i wish i could see. 

she's been exploring milkweed in a huge way.

~~~
it's been cold and wintry and snowy and north country wonderful
lately

they call it lake effect 

big snows blowing off the great lakes
(in this case, lake ontario)

  it's time for a ski!