friday aimee thoughts

it's friday. 

one more week of hooligans. then some wrap up at work, then my summer begins. 

today is cool and sunny and lovely lovely lovely

twined gourds 

made from aimee's first korean hanji 

and inked hanji 

 last night aimee came for a rather thrown together me, talk, supper, and tea. 

she brought me a little present, two actually.

we talked and talked and poor wendy whined as stormy weather made her nervous.

i slept well, very well.

wednesday i rode a horse, modeling for a student,

who rode longer...and smiled. from her heart.

horses, hanji, talk, friendship.

 something's brewing

viola flowers,

a few other flowers, bloodroot, aluminum, steel and vinegar are all a part of it. 

i think.

class at the Morgan Conservatory

should you have any inkling of joining us at the morgan, 

there are links below to the morgan and to the facebook pictures, etc. 

i would love to have you join me!

cleveland, are you ready for paper spinners? 

 i'm teaching what i'm calling 

north country shifu 

at the morgan conservatory on june 25 and 26.

lokta and cotton 

a page from "changed"

North Country Shifu is an experimental workshop in which you will explore

the gentle art of cutting, spinning, and weaving and dyeing kozo. We will

experiment using drop spindles, and bobbin winders (acting as spinning

wheels) to spin cut kozo, and then weave on different simple looms. You

will experiment with a natural dyes including black walnut. The Morgan

Conservatory has been growing Kozo for the ...past five years in their

garden and you will have the chance to work with some Kozo paper that was

grown, harvested, beaten and pulled into sheets right here in Cleveland.

At the end of the workshop you will leave with a sampling of spun, woven,

and dyed kozo. This is a class for sampling, for beginners, or for more

experienced weavers come with a warped loom and weave with your spun kozo.

You can register online at

http://morganconservatory.org/tabs_paper_pp.html or by calling

216-361-9255. You can also see the event on facebook at

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=112554105490735

if you have any questions, contact the morgan, or me.

new tools

she always wraps things in this thread

 i knew they were coming

two new tools 

little fat leather weights

just the right size for my small bookwork 

so i scattered some of my stuff with them

just for fun 

they smell delicious

thank you shanna. 

www.talasonline.com

www.strikemetals.com

dairy princess parade

 st. lawrence county has lots of: cows and trees

 a scary day

 canton's dairy princess day, 

a little before the crowds arrived

 seriously. a dairy princess

 the princesses

 made in vermont but very good cheddar

 stuff i don't eat

 our guy: frederick remington and his rushton canoe

 !!!!!

 the local feed store

and some ducks willy nilly

this looked to be one of the few totally home made booths, sad to say.

a busy saturday.

 i went home and napped. 

twice. overnight in the woods wore me out.

in and out of the woods

 we took our class, or rather some of our students, into the woods. two stayed overnight with us. our sister program joined us, they had four overnighters. four adults, six teens, and a camp to ready for the summer school kids.

 "our" camp is part of a boy scout camp.

 the biggest job is putting in the dock, and the morning we did this, the temperature started out in the low 40s. by this time, mid morning, it was still cold, but the 50s are a bit better.

one student said his heart was beating hard, racing from the cold.

he was a wee bit worried, but i reassured him.

i didn't go in.

 a camp-themed textile

 this is a stuff sack, from the 70s

 beautifully sewn

 patches from summer trips, camping, in the u.s. northeast and canada

a funky treasure, something i might have made. but i didn't.

adirondack...

...chair.

tomorrow we spend a day and overnight 

readying camp for summer school camping.

the weather has moderated. 

windy, cool 

this means the black/deer flies and mosquitoes 

will be somewhat suppressed. 

this student just finished his chair.

a variation on a theme.

31 days

two more views for those who have interest

can't find my best photos.

sigh

31 days, (i think 33 pages altogether)
 lokta shifu pages, sewn on vellum and laced into a limp vellum structure. 

thick vellum cover was dyed to resemble a summer landscape. 

each day of august i made a page to record the day. 

10 days of puppy sitting the beautiful, demanding tess, not fun. 

not one night's sleep during those days.

this sculptural book feels good in the hands.

a journey with claudia

 journeying 

 a thin silver thread

do you see?

the sun found it this morning

before we went to the mountains.

look!

a snail trail. 

over driveway. still evidence 

of determination, haphazard, of travel.

how can it throw caution to the wind

throw itself into the small small movement

one millimeter at a time.

i would give up, i would not see

that unbelievable goal

mapped on summer asphalt and dirt. 

antidote

 this book was made to mark 31 days of august

 each shifu page is a place holder, a day keeper

 some are paintings, or in this case a "dyeing".

a list within a list, keeping time

then i was contemplating, along with some others, dots.

thank you everyone for the antidotes.

i am ok, struggling is a good thing, in my book, 

but that doesn't mean i like it.

struggling/joy

how can spring, 

so filled with the songs of birds

many i can't identify

how can spring

be so hard?

storms destroy

inner storms, too

bodies rebel

yet are so familiar 

is it that joy has disappeared?

it is the muggy, fudzy wet greeness?

is it despair that pushes at my skin until i say

yes, yes.

sorting out threads, saving some, giving some up. 

and the thursday oriole, first i've ever seen here,

i hope may return.