into work

 just color

 yesterday the mail brought

papers from aimee

the bottom two of milkweed 

 the crescent could not be caught

this morning

as i un-pressed a stack

of ecoprinted arches

another dozen sheets for fall

 virgin can lids sometimes surprise me!

 leftovers for the compost

printed last year

can you guess the plant?

to become a substrate for asao's moon

a piece for his upcoming shifu exhibit.
fall brings thoughts of weaving for me,
follow this to read 
a thoughtful piece about my 
blogfriend joanne kaar.

handswork

i can't tell you how many ecoprints

i've made,

on paper, mostly

but on textiles, too.

ecoprints for caliban press

this morning's work

i can only say that it's a lot.

this has been my pattern,

make as many variations on a theme as i can think of.

then move on.

miniature tapestries, igolochkoys, small editions of booklets

yarn (oh, how much wool i spun)

my hands love making these things. 

there are processes i don't like: felt making is not for me.

there are others that continue to compel me:

pulling sheets of paper

spinning a thread

sewing a seam

plain weave. 

just plain weave.

plain weave is enough to weave a life around and through.

~~~

there are related things my hands only liked doing,

ripping out a seam

braiding my horse's mane for a show

folding paper

nailing a board.

all liked well enough.

(indigo on shifu and daylily paper, and habu paper, spun)
~~~
but i have always been grateful for my small,
serviceable,
one tendon repaired,

beginning to be arthritic

hands

and the things they know.

it IS hot, and humid

what was i thinking when

i wrote a friend today:

it's hot, but thankfully not humid.

fool!

it IS hot AND humid!

 this was the ecoprinting

that resulted from

a prunus shrub and st john's wort

amazing bits of blue and green

 the neighbor got a few bales in so far

 i walked before sunrise and oh,

how i miss my best friend

 life is lonely without wendy

i notice it now so much.

 yesterday i spotted a brilliance

lapis flashing quick! quick! quick!

so just after the sun rose

i waited by the box

where they are nesting.

waiting and watching me

who was across the road

inside a bush

my neighbors all know

that i do some odd things.

lurking in the front yard

camera in hand

before the farm machinery start up

yep. it's me.

~~~

grand news!

i heard from susan byrd today

(sort of perfect for a woman who

 started her day with an eastern bluebird family)

that her book on shifu

has been announced (i knew it was at the publisher)

A Song of Praise for Shifu

YAY!

habu love

i was grounded last night by a good, long 

phone conversation with aimee.

so

when i looked at the work out this morning (before i go to work)

 it didn't look as hopeless as i'd been feeling

 little eucalyptus pages

 and this, THIS amazing paper and silk

habu yarn.

i could tell you how much i love this yarn,

but you can see, perhaps what a quirky personality it has

but you have to touch it

to really understand.

 i'm not a knitter,

crochet is the technique i prefer

so this little odd elk bone hook

that i made with jim croft

is getting her test run.

i think this is a new book.

things to delight the eye

during the week of this full delicious moon:

ecoprint on lokta and cotton shifu over ecoprint with...

...a relative of madder: lady's bedstraw
(gallium verum)

ecoprint tree mamma and moon for valerie

bart visited school on friday
(bernese mountain dog)

and for fun, a starling dance on roof peak

movement study

finale!
week wrap up: big changes afoot!

a watcher

 when i brought her into my house, into my bedroom

15 years ago, 

i felt her presence.

i grew to love her, 

after i grew to fear her no more.

 rosa rugosa i planted here

 on linen

part of a bundle like this:

 which has handmade

abaca, from some time ago,

when i did an edition of white paper

saved

for a rainy day

you can see
(well, maybe you can't see)

the ecoprints came out

very well, 

from pastel to deep

purple, charcoal, and dots

of rose from staghorn sumac berries

gathered at the new place.

hunker down, all, and safety to you.

busy times

despite me keeping space

marking time here and not there

i am busy.

 washing the rugs

 a short stack for india

 color

 colour

 sky

 wendy continues to run 

i said run! 

 a little dyepot with bundles

 maples and others

 spotlit

 a sunbleached fenceline

 my poem for the bloodroot and violet book

home from the show

 one of the bundles 

linen and paper

silk from that pot

we are like seeddown

silky

windblown

fruit.