a (her)story-- a book

an announcement:

i've prepared

with enormous help from carol blinn,

my dear friend, who slaved over this job

through the dark of winter

(special edition with original printed cover and shifu left, 

photographed cover with printed sample on the right)

who did ALL the work

while i just printed and wove and wrote the stuff.

a little book for australia

about my journey through shifu

and printing.

after long conversations with carol 

who is a long time letterpress printer and book designer

(warwick press)

and who is still my friend after this herculean effort to be done,

and alicia bailey from the abecedarin gallery

one of a handful of book arts galleries in the u.s.,

i decided to use the nomenclature

that the book arts community overwhelmingly preferred:

"botanical pressure prints*.

fortunately the only confusion

with the word shifu

is the martial art also called shifu.

sigh.

these will be available first in australia

and back in the states 

at the end of march, when i will put a button in the shop to order.

there is an edition of 50

with 12 special ones that have an original print for the cover

and a little shifu square inside.

below is one of the limited edition of 12 

complete with blue berry prints

should you wish to have a copy

the price will be posted soon, 

and you can let me know and i will set one 

aside for you.

(you'll have to wait until after OZ)

*botanical*

alchemy has a certain glamour.

here is a little much cooked pot of walnut ink

water & 

a short slurp of vinegar,

it's lovely stuff.
more botanical alchemy.

*botanical pressure print: specifically, what many of us once called eco prints, then later called contact prints; book artists find it useful to describe this print process on paper, because the term "contact print" is a photo process on paper. clear as mud, right? 

web

a web, 

if i were to spin one

the way ms. spider does,

it would include friends and book arts folks

from all around.

catherine michaelis and her husband bill moody

are friends i met through this world web.

they are artists, 

from washington,

on the other ocean.

my first stay on the pacific

was with these two lovely folks.

catheine has operated may day press for many years, 

and is now,

like my lovely friend carol j blinn 

(warwick press) 

making more one of a kind books, 

delving deeper into the world of artists' books

making more special small editions and unique books.

below you see catherine's most recent book, 

Beyond Blue

here's another shot

and

 what she wrote about it:

 The box is salmon leather that Bill made and I beaded it together. That was the whole reason to make that piece - for the salmon leather box! It is for a "box" show. The text is embroidered and wrapped around a seal knuckle bone. There is a "map" embroidered and beaded onto indigo dyed cotton and the box is also lined with the indigo dyed cotton, courtesy of your workshop!!!! Thanks for being excited about it! I want to just make salmon leather boxes now. . . 

Catherine wrote this little bit about the book for the show. 

Every box holds a story. That story may be known or yet to happen. The story for my box became known during its making, and began with a piece of salmon leather. Salmon are adaptable creatures; they are born in fresh water, but adjourn to the salty seas. Nearing the end of their life, they swim against the current back to where they were born to reproduce and die. The salmon from which this leather was made might have been on its return to the river, or on a runaway adventure into unknown depths and perils with the desire to embody the fierceness of Moby Dick, the TV fame of Flipper, or the allure of an Aegean mermaid. The story this box holds is none and all of these. It is told one stitch at a time, and strung into a semblance of meaning making. The point of the story is that whatever was once known was taken by the unceasing stealth of the Pacific tide, broken, and left for scavenging. There’s a map, for those wishing to find, but not be found.

the poem i haven't quoted here, but it is a 

very 

good 

poem.

~~~

catherine is serious about the embroidered book/box path that she is on,

she says that she will gladly accept commission work, 

along these lines, 

please contact her for a conversation.

~~~

therese swift-hahn sent this photo of me

from sandra brownlee's workshop this summer.

therese says it's the only photo she took in our workshop

it was great to share the table with therese

and great to look out the window

and see her spiraled by paper

as she worked in the meadow.

~~~

shanna leino sent me a new weight

 the woman knows how to make you want to enjoy

each step of the opening.

 i have two already

and always need one more.

now i have one more,

and it's yellow!

shanna will be at the guild of bookworkers 

annual meeting 

and selling tools, i believe.

here, again

the sky

 to the south and west was wild

and to the east,

here,

was quiet

 turning to this

that view--
turning

 i saw there was some action
where that white and bruised indigo meet

that's where the new place is!
and indeed there was a thunderstorm.

 back to the east there were 

delicious, qiuet

 i've been enjoying reading 
robert macfarlane, 
thinking about words and land

 many colors and threads,
mostly indigo and evergreen
around here, anyway.

~~~

continuing walking i find this 

 coyote berryeater has been by

 leaving notice all up and down the middle of the road

one for each night,

 walkers beware!

coyote is announcing stuff! 

 chamomile is richer than
i've ever seen it here before. 

 paths: coyote?

whitetail?

gray fox?

cottontal or showshoe hare?

 here, we got a paintwork

 strong color

 oh

 oh

 and then a second one showed up

 clouds lowered and a few drops hit
but i didn't get wet, not very.

looking down 
at my feet was a little bookish chunk of steel.

~~~

my wizard friend
carol blinn

presented me with this:

 a little book showcasing my paper

out of the blue

(and the press)

here it is with one of the latins newly named.

 at w.s.w. i took a chance on some weird pop.

  nifty bottles

and the flavors were curious
they say
BOTANICALLY BREWED
(so appropriate, maybe i should name my blog this!)

 and then this

became this

 a dye experiment

on spun lokta.
and then as i've been thinking and working 
with blossoms

i printed with daylily blossoms
the ones that drip rich magenta
syrup 
on the green leaves below 

so i contact printed/dyed on piece of case paper and 
teamed it up with indigo
and we'll see where they go 

 daylily and one lone hibiscus 
spent blossoms...
that weird experiment above?

we're half way through.

not a fan

i am definitely not a fan

of daylight savings time.

i go home

later now because of the new school

and a student i tutor

and it will be dark so early.

arrgh.

 so the week we just 

said goodbye to

was full.

many

 books came to my house:

 but by far

the most special was this one

another by carol blinn

guess what it's about!

 beaver are newly busy

over at the new place

 they get to work and nail the aspens

stealth chewers,

 better than a tupper lake logger.

 this startled me on my walk tonight

 all light and shadow

and edges

 two feed sacks on the

barbed wire

we had a big wind on friday

as the front moved through.

 a textile?

 a fence.

 and the six calves

separated from their mums

came trotting and snorting and asking

for a photo shoot

how could i not oblige?

another edge

in front of my pasture.

autumn today, really chilly

clear, sunny, hat and mittens weather

again.