marcel again

there is a new marcel the shell with shoes on.

i could NOT wait to tell you all.

i ordered the book, too.

i love marcel

mostly because he is so unexpected

last year i read the sound of a wild snail eating

last summmer i heard two wild slugs eating.

 two students are working on books: one just made two star books.

the rainbow ribbon?

recycled from a present given me by a dear friend.

 she sat for the g.e.d. recently,

we're waiting for the news.

and some leaves have found home for the winter.

they're waiting for snow. 

it's fifty degrees out.
that's how this week has been.

reflection/introspection

sometimes a friend says it just right

"i have always watched your deep imagination. 

the places where you have one foot in the nine to five world, 

the other foot in the sacred earth that nourishes you, 

brings ideas to light and offers you such peace"

i took these photos through my house

standing east, looking west

at sunset

my feet on the sacred earth

luna

today's news: 

some sunshine, lots of amazing clouds and almost 60 degrees. no kidding.

something from ian, a new web presence! several tin cans is an anagram for his name.

i also received notification that my book actias luna is to be included in the upcoming 1000 artists' books by sandra salamony.

my old friend, poet jim cohn, has written about his sojurn in the north country and making paper here at wake robin. his delight in the paper covered windows is something i remember and share. i have his poems prairie falcon, which i treasure.

and i wrapped up a couple of bundles and put them in pickle juice. they'll stay there for a bit.

once all the leaves

flew south for winter

i found a treasure

 seen out the studio window

the same day 

sunset came on

with applause and fanfare

 to the west

and to the east

later i decided to

go to an opening

at the brush gallery at slu

i met the amazing andy and inga hamilton

and saw their installation

ELMENTALS, Bird

 a good artist's talk, like a conversation,

and wandered the gallery attentive to this 

positive thing going on.

and then i saw these: 

what you can't quite see is the tan paper i knew it was slippery elm

and the wings are pure aimee lee

yes, these are her birds

flown west and maybe north to visit

wow

the paper she made here

so i met inga and andy,

 excitedly asked them about how they found aimee.

turns out they met in belfast when she was there

doing a residency last year.

we had a chat later on, and it also turns out

that the brush folks and melissa know ian,

that "kid from north russell" 
who does amazing drawings

my firstborn

friends, books

he'll probably give me hell if he sees this:

my extremely talented printer friend mark mcmurray

at the oxford book fair 

yes, THAT oxford

the one with the spires and bells

not only is he talented, and a special collections librarian, 

he has purchased wake robin papers for caliban press books!

mark is my local person to bang around book art ideas with

as university acrhivist he's digital

 he gets his students printing letterpress as well.

sometimes he brings them to my mill to make paper.

his kind advice, which i have yet to follow:

"edition, edition. edition."

~~~

last summer 

i taught a couple of workshops in the 

pacific northwest

today i found this:

http://crowzenart.blogspot.com

thank you, jan.

~~~

my first natural dyeing was after college

at school (mid 70s) it was all procion or acid dyes. 

i learned natural dyeing in kentucky

from the anne mcginty guild and began messing around.

in the meantime i dyed bits and pieces with weird stuff

soil from a camping trip with hooligans, lichens,

raspberry "ink" ian and nate made and left in the fridge for years. 

 later i thought about making marks with rusty metal and weather...

so i wrapped a 55 gallon barrel in muslin, 

fed and watered it all one september, 

and made an amazing cloth. i did it again. 

i used it as book cloth, i sold some. time passed.

then i heard about india.

this is coming back to mark: when i show him 

the cloth he gives me feedback

so i play a bit with paper, too.

~~~ 

the next book will be 

bloodroot and violet

i think

three day weekend, 

whoopie!

full moon

 to the west

to the east

in my back yard

(on my mind

the next thing brewing)

and this violet

was blooming today

in my garden

11/9

so little

there is so little

left

after a day

of hooligans

 but before the day

the work day

 begins, 

there is

the magic

of fog

and warm

in november,

the bleak and bleary,

 (i have a secret)

this is my birth month

and i love the 

uncovering of the bones of the land

respite and wonder

early today

later,

 grapes burdening a birch

two moons

slamming into the 

strangeness of

daylight savings gone 

big wind doing it's job

stars in the grass

 prickly like me

 of the many, 

only a few are touched with scarlet

 emptiness

  emptying

 paper on the wind

my precious north woods

library jewelry

today and tomorrow are open studio days.

today i did grocery shopping and visited a couple artists.

fun.

bookwork of another kind:

 malcolm and mary ann owen

winged camel metalworks

connects you to their library collection

broaches live in this *case*

a repurposed book

 all kinds of stories, er, jewelry

 rings

my favorite, besides the tiny reader necklace

 home construction detail

 and this is where that hand lives

keeping the beam honest.

it's good to visit other studios

because i feel very isolated

so much of the time

mary ann and malcolm?

books, libraries, stories hold them together, too

(ps their teapots and clocks are to die for)

a wheel

 this window is on my neighbor's tractor shed

 and this is the little bit of japanese indigo

 that i planted in a pot

it weathered a tough summer

drought and flood in the pot

  now blossoming and setting seed

at school

a pathetic attempt

i wanted to see 

if i could raise any seed

a very rocky week at school. 

yay friday