new web site

happy singing in blogland!

 borrowing aimee's heart to say

happy new website to the amazing

susan byrd

who is over at the byrd's nest

i'm not sure if sue knows that i have

rather a thing for birds' nests

but her new book is on the market

and i'm waiting for my copy to arrive.

 this made me a little nostalgic…

 and i pulled out some photos

of my first shifu book

spring walk

 a list of sights seen

on my frequent walks

around my old farm

i think this one is special

and have used it many times

to talk about how a book can come together

in a way that is just right.

spring walk. 

2009

autumn evening (right now)

2013.

~~~

books and play

susan's book

 i can barely wait until i have

this book in my hands

(i did get to read it electronically)

lucky me!

this book came recommended

in a roundabout way from glennis dolce.

and i am so happily reading, savoring each page

every page has wisdom, and is framing experience for me.

i've found that dr. kimmerer is a neighbor (almost) 

her ted talk spoke to my heart.

she brings students to cranberry lake, 

each summer. 

cranberry lake is where my son first swam, 

and where i discovered a book in their tiny library

about something called designer bookbinding.

and then i met sally smith, who spent summers there

and winters in london teaching bookbinding.

she was my first binding teacher.

circles, connections, and love.

~~~

 fetching the mail i found this little one

the chickadees love the ditch there

right by the raod

 on my new path home

 more path treasures

 and i was playing 

with shadows

and sunset

and leaves

we country folk have 

a need for amusement--

books and walks serve me well.

~~~

students this year have healthy funny bones 

and leave behind

reminders 

so do other folks...at home today

  i found three stashes

this one in a towel awaiting me by the tub.

there was a very sweet mention

of one of my hortus siccus books

by bryan from when he visited jean.

thank you!

singing shifu

my four selvedge lokta shifu

it's almost ready for us all,

a definitive work about my heart's delight!

A SONG OF PRAISE FOR SHIFU

here's my story:

a very long time ago i read an article

in (the sorely missed) journal fiberarts... it was about a paper textile

japanese made, called shifu.

 written by dorothy miller.

well, as a weaver and papermaker, i was captivated.

thus began my search for the elusive textile shifu.

not long after this event, i found that dorothy miller was teaching a class 

in indigo dyeing and in paper spinning for shifu.

so i made my way to that midwest fiber conference and spun and dyed.

thus began my journey.

 susan byrd's new book, A SONG OF PRAISE FOR SHIFU

will be available very soon for purchase.

i have been a privileged first reader.

 i have seen the faces of the weavers,

photographs of the ones

susan studied with.

 i have seen their brilliant hands

 spinning and weaving.

susan has asked me

to send you all to her site through the hot link above.

(or here)

her text is rich and detailed

the photographs, copious

the footnotes are worth a book of their own (almost).

this book kept ringing out peals of music

YES! YES!

as i read. 

~~~

now, here's really really good news:

this book is pricey

and the proceeds, all of them,

are going to the shifu weavers themselves.

susan is taking the book to japan

(the money, too)

a gift to her teachers, the traditional shifu weavers themselves.

amazing, a full circle.

another gift:

the first copies will have

samples.

amazing and beautiful samples

paper and shifu.

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!