gift of time

during this gift of time that i gave myself

avoiding traveling and instead doing some necessary things

i've cleaned. 

cleaned out the intensely untidy

and overstuffed closet in my studio.

which has lead to other things

as many cleaning projects do,

the bookshelves that hold equipment,

the unders- and overs- that also stashed "supplies"

mostly fiber in the form of

raw or prepared fiber

cloth

paper.

i found this little bag of madder root

that i bought from Trudy Van Stralen

the author of Indigo, Madder and Marigold

and

owner of Hilltop Wools

back in the 80's when I worked (briefly) for her. 

Trudy died in 2015, 

her business lives on run by her son, i believe.

i soaked them overnight or so 

and then cut them up a bit and then soaked more

 and cut them up again

nothing was longer than 1/2 inch by the time i was done, 

 i could have chopped them in the blender but i was tired of this work

and besides, i wanted to dye.

i'm not sure but i don't think i've ever done my very own madder dyepot.

i was once told by a *famous* (unnamed) dyer that madder goes bad after a while.

so i sent my newer bag off to a friend with good wishes for her to use it.

so in the ethers both tim mclaughlin and sarah swett recently became enamoured with madder.

i indulged myself after finding this old bag of 250 grams of madder.

i cooked on low heat, well under boiling, 

but i don't have a thermometer 

(well, i do, but can i find it?)

but it was a lovely color blood orange sanpellegrino 

stained the paint strainer bag

one little swath of kozo i just dipped in for a bit

part of my quest was to find fiber to dye so i can use my new tapestry pipe loom

with wool 

before i try the other stuff 

(do it proper first, gurl)

it was really almost red, 

but has oranged out some now.

meanwhile this was happening in the dining room 
while i unburdened all the containers, 

closet from hell, 

under the tables and etc.

there is an abundance that i wish i could be 

somewhat unburdened of.

this closet under the stairs is actually organized now.

this is the next big step after the fiber--

much fiber went to places--

the paper mills at home and at school,

some to recycle,

some to compost.

that box of bottles under my studio table is 40 years old

each bottle a lichen vat dye.

gifted to me by jean reynolds from cranberry lake.

in about 1980.

and my lovely partner has made a wagon from our trees he

marked for harvest

cut and hauled last winter. 

the sawyer came and made the boards

and it's now been screwed into a usable and "free" wagon.

a huge accomplishment.

home work

homework.

the best work.

(t)here and back again

 i received two men's robes

both cotton indigo that my friend found in japan

 i promptly washed them.

the lined one had accumulated years of dirt and dust which 

i washed once 

and rinsed at least a dozen times.

 both pieces dried on a very  hot day in a very 

short time.

are scented now with north country summer

not dust.

 the ikat patterning on the lined piece

 and the lining

 nearby

 the chimney brick with the lichen patterning sits in the sun

it has become the perch of some bird--lots of what we as kids used to call bird-do 

but still color that inspires me.

 i have been making some contact prints with the square flax sheets

and cloth, this is old cotton 

 here you can see a flax square

and the red daylily spent blossoms.

  the flax square still wet

 concrete steps are the perfect background, if narrow.

 and i made some more linen paper.

justaposition:

a.  plain raw flax paper                                           b. linen fabric, my sister's pants by Flax

c.  two sheets of the above with fabric inclusion    d. linen paper (made solely from above 

                                cloth 

 i decided to travel to maine

and then i undecided

 and took a happy walk yesterday evening

 overlooked by luna

 below that sky was the july harvest baled for the neighbor's cattle.

first time i ever remember it being cut almost on time.

evening shadows.

 two pair of little ruby throated hummingbirds played at the feeders 

this morning. 

 i'm wearing cotton socks on my feet today, 

celebrating happy respite from the humid heat.

over on fb i found a photo of two of my favorite australians

that i just had to share.

colleen and brian

collen of the astonishing hair, brian enwrapped in a hat and scarf,

probably needled by colleen.

and the title above? 

i was going to maine today.

but i decided not to. i love my maine family

i wanted to see them and 

see the ocean and

visit the arctic museum

but

i wanted to stay home, 

with the round bales and the hummingbirds

and the cresent moon

and the blessed cool weather, more.

i am off to make more prints and paper

and hang out my laundry and go to town

to resume mail delivery.

i'm home for a while.

tapestry changes

for many years the only weaving besides darning socks  i did was tapestry.

they were small,

less than seven inches in any dimension, most about three square inches.

i wove many one of a couple  little canvas stretcher frames

or sometimes on warp wrapped round a book.

i made dozens and dozens.

at first they sold for $35.

i used all kinds of weft yarns

everything from quiviut to raw flax.

and much wool and dmc embroidery floss.

i also made igolochkoys with a tiny punch needle

with silk and cotton thread which allowed

for imagery that was more complicated than my fairly thick warps allowed me to make.

i didn't make so many of these.

they often had animals on them,

celebrating my other passion,

the animals filling up my now fallingdownbarn.

every single one of these except the ones my dog Tater chewed on

is somewhere else, not in my possession.

the tapestry thread basket is still here

then came a period when i was studying shifu and making kami-ito

and books for my papers and stories and poems

and i wanted to make shifu books.

of course.

i was trying to make fringe-free discreet pages.

i was driving my subaru one summer when it came to me

(i know it was summer because i remember my bare legs under the steering wheel)

make a loom that is just warp and weft at once.

and is plain weave.

which is what tapestry is, except tapestry is scrunched together,

weft beaten down to completely cover the warp

but it's still plain weave.

anyway, make a loom--a stump loom.

                    side story: i later discovered that the amazing jim bassler

                    started making four selvedge pieces about when i did,

                    inspired by the same weavings. he wove with nettle, i with paper.

i went into the paper mill and found a 4 x 4 x 8 chunk left over from a deck project

i used in the paper press,

and very very carefully eyeballing,

and bearing in mind that i like odd numbers,

i hammered two parallel lines of small brads in the chunk of hemlock.

it's a tiny square, 17 brads in each side

and i took one long kami-ito thread and warped it and began weaving with a nice long needle.

well, my idea had been to make each unit or page with one piece of kami

but that proved too hard with this size

because of abrading the thread before I was complete with the weaving.

I later achieved this with goal a smaller stump loom that's now in the possession of a friend.

~~~

i've made more than dozens of shifu squares now. maybe hundreds.

pages for books.

little bags,

little stories,

patches on clothes,

a couple tsunobukuros

sometimes writing on the paper before it's spun

weaving in tales.
some dyed, some printed.

and now

in a return to those tapestry roots i guess

i'm taking an online class with sarah the magnificent

and her friend rebecca (also seemingly magnificent)

called fringeless.

i didn't know that this was coming when i told my PBI classes this history

more or less, you know how stories are,

and said that i really didn't want any fucking fringe.

i'd looked at old peruvian textiles trying to figure it all out

but i couldn't quite, but those ancient ones were calling to me

make it without fucking fringe.

or, as sarah says, fringeless. 
the side story: 

 my first weaving was fringeless.
pot holders.

one loop doesn't              

  count as fringe.

       my first tapestry was woven when i was 17.

  there was fringe. 
and beads,

and holes. 

    and linen! delicious linen.

     it was 1975 and i had a lot to learn.

      but i was smitten.

detail of how i solved the top fringe problem.

pretty clever for an untrained weaver.

this is my new pipe loom for fringeless,

the class

here she is with the warping jig taped in to see if it fits

i wonder where this will take me.

or if, 
in frustration because of computerese and my inability to understand it, 
i give up,

but i've constructed my loom, my jig, and have fly line.

i have yarn here, or if i need any i'll make it.

ready,

set,

weave.
 since beginning this post,
and because i don't have the heart to do more right now,

one of the dogs you sometimes see here, the orange and white setter,

our friend Gwen, has died.

i'm sad, but it's ok.
she was a fine bird dog and a good companion, 
my partner's best friend.

blue and yellow

 indigo and silk.

stitching on the indigo flax paper is making me so happy!

 working this surface is very different than sewing with linen or kami-ito

the silk is easy and wide.

you can see that one french knot made an appearance.

so far.

 little filaments all stuck together with seracin 

 there are little dots on the paper's surface

that showed up with the dyeing

i'm exploiting dot-ness.

 this double sheet was made at pbi.

the inclusions are rubberbands that were sliced when removing

from another of Mary's projects.

i'm happy to give them this new life

playing with their shapes and, of course, poking holes.

truly, more holes may appear.

and knots.

and stitches.

the heat we're having interferes with hot projects,

but i have made a bunch more big sheets of heavy flax.

going to bring them home today.

reading design

i'm reading about two compelling things,

(when i'm not reading Phryne Fisher stories)

design and craft.

phryne i reserve for the very humid and hot days, in the afternoon

when my head feels enormous and mushy

especially after i did this

have you tried to walk or make paper or garden 

when your big toe is swollen and bruised

or hauled a fan up and down stairs (16) because you only have one?

i did, however, complete this chore first:

i felled a basswood that was growing in my perennial border

where it's not allowed.

sawing basswood takes almost no strength, 

such a pleasure to do this job quickly (the cutting, that is, stripping is still work).

i clip off the branches

and then stripped the bark leaving outer and inner bast intact, 

to send to Heather from PBI

who is sending me a trade.

grin. this is fun.

and basswood, well, it's delicious.

it doesn't smell or feel quite as lovely as slippery elm, 

which i still have to "weed" out of that border...you know,

the end of the border where it becomes forest?

i also made a little stack of 27 square flax papers

laying them flat to air dry without restraint.

(black cases hold typewriter and sewing machine)

as they dry they become dimensional

which always pleases me

stacking them is fun

especially when i can stack them on top of some shifu

that i dipped several times,

i lost track how many,

maybe 7 or so,

 in the vat.

and below is one of many dimensional pieces i made in Mary Hark's PBI class

flax with inclusions,

dipped in the same indigo vat,

see how the dye works on different fiber

and different numbers of dunks?

can you guess what the inclusions are?

so this morning,

toe feeling much better,

i worked in the mill for 2 1/2 hours

made a big stack of larger heavy flax sheets.

(i'm beginning to understand flax)

oh, 

and reading design and craft?

i'm still very much pursuing that, 

 today, after spending the early morning with this book

i went off to make paper.

a very good balance for me.

andrew's book is a treasure, teaching through stories. 

i read a a few pages,

go away mulling it over, and return to read and think some more. 

his understanding of the creative process, of problem solving, 

and building well designed and beautiful environments

combine teaching wisdom with caring wisdom.

i am learning so much--

a very good book.