getting it right

when you get something right

even if it's only to please yourself

it feels really good.

this one is pretty big.

and waits

 for someone to work into it.

maybe me, who knows.

 all 10.5 x 12 inches of it

and believe me if i could photograph it well

you would be hooting and hollering, too.

er, maybe not...

 contact prints

 and handmade flax, hemp

 more prints,

just a series of folios,

some gatefolds

and paper you can work into.

 this has been sitting on my work table

waiting for tweaking,

which i did today

just before i sewed it together. 

and because i had to show someone,

i'm showing  you.

november for certain

there's no reason this job isn't done

completely stripped and seed fiber separated.

(that milkweed again)

 the whole pile should be this

 but i have been otherwise occupied.

i've bruised my forearms on the beater at zone 4

after a long disentangling with pliers and my aforementioned arms

and fingers that escaped in rather good shape.

hemp sliver

beautiful stuff, it was hard to cut,

so i cut it into too long bits

and they ground around beautifully until

they

didn't anymore.

it may have taken me an hour to unscrew the keeper plates,

pull out a ton of hemp

haul out more,

and using pliers, haul out the rest

bruising up those forearms meanwhile.

 solace was available

 and some experiments are happening at home with the woven books

 and a simply lovely large and flat sketchbook

sometimes things go the right way.

students are busy, finishing up three projects.

one of our students is making a felted vovelle for her interpretive book.

she told me she knits (evidence: her scarf), crochets, sews, and felts,

so i suggested she might be interested in fiberarts and she said,

and i love this,

"oh, (pause) i didn't know that was a thing".

our students are loving learning, exploring and strengthening hand skills

as they make beautiful books and enclosures. 

~~~

i'm off to toronto tomorrow morning and back on sunday

(as long as my car issues keep working themselves out)

then it's thanksgiving week.

i won't see the class for almost 2 weeks. one of them said yesterday

this class needs to be another semester long.

so many of them love what we're doing!

washi and firewood

a beautiful surprise 

accompanied a stitched piece from jude

and i covered the work table with it.

almost all of the work disappeared,

but just like inside ourselves

we still have all the stuff, even if it's hidden

it isn't.

so i went out walking at sunset

at the new place

 the sky was behaving strangely over there

(it's on the edge of the wilderness which may explain why)

 it was warm as summer,

and quieter evening sounds, 

and a mad dash by a bunny and two ducks wings echoing that in the sky

indicate summer's ending.

 it also warm today.

  water here,

 is the drainage from trout lake

flowing through our land

is constantly altered by beaver work.

 someone left a message,

not the beavers,

 on the bridge rail.

 preparations have been made

for winter

 fire wood

 lots

 covered, my table still has loads of work.

i will uncover this

perhaps by spinning this right up into

kami-ito.

we are two thirds done with the project

for hand papermaking.

 100 sheets completed

 resting under another piece of thick washi

which came to me as 

wrapping

for a piece by chimani ricketts. 

reuse recycle upcycle sustainability.......

 all of it,

used to be how we humans managed our lives.

occasionally making something spectacularly beautiful

or singing a glorious song

or telling a story

that matters 

to the children

(ornery little beasts that they are, and 

yes i can say this as mom of two)

this rich delicious breathing mother earth

 here in the north country begins to think of rest.

winter is coming.
ducks fly, cottontails flee, blue jays call
and the pileated woodpecker who resides on our land
one of two from the summer,
makes us laugh.
tells us a story

printing paper and books

todd pattison is the president of the new england branch of the guild of bookworkers.

he is one of those people who is delightfully surprising.

last year i received in the mail a small book he made

with my contact printed paper as cover.

lizard spine, maybe?

filled with katie macgregor's light blue handmade papers.

an absolute surprise, i might add. 

i did a happy dance.

it's one of those things i tootled out to show

hannah and nicole

who came by on saturday

 after i met them friday

at caliban press

 where they are slu students, employees of caliban

learning the letterpress trade

 with mark mcmurray

hannah bravely asked me if she could see me working

something i always say no to

(but i said yes

thanks to fred, who has been plowing my driveway this winter

has had an effect on my doing unto others)

for a wee look at the doings in my dye kitchen. 

 the mill is closed down for the winter

so my wet studio is my kitchen right now.

and i tried printing on some old japanese papers

complete with worm holes...

in my kitchen sink

 i wash my wool socks 

my daughter hannah's knitting

 and the dining table acts as the bottom plate 

for pressing dyed papers.

the young women brought with them such positive energy

full of purpose.

it fed my soul somehow,

so it was a good two hours.

~~~

...and over at jasper's

church may indeed be in session.

though i've never spotted anyone there

during worship hours.