all of this winter has been messy and mixed up, from the weather (of course) to the animals, to the students, to myself. i want to make things, and am beginning to find my way through. paper saves me, over and over, but so do friends.
my friend kathy from the star lake days, uses my papers for a prayer flag
so good to reconnect with dear friends, to find however much we change, we are still ourveryselves.
surprise in the mail
inside the box
alisa golden made this wonderful edition with my papers, and sent me one.
alisa golden introduced herself to me at codex last winter, and she took hannah and i out and about and on a studio visit. (yes, that alisa golden-of the many wonderful how-to books and the many more wonderful artists’ books)
cocoons from the woodpile
i’m messing about with… not boats but cocoons.
wild silk tussock moth cocoon
between realizing these may be worth experimenting with, and making some milkweed paper, and cleaning out the studio and storeroom at school, and readying for the first class (thursday, yikes!) and dealing with the sinusitis, and the ice and no snow…it’s discouraging.
sarah’s tapestry with my kami-ito as background
again, my work becomes part of another’s…and so my lokta kami-ito becomes the home for pigment filters from jodi gear that sarah spins into kami-ito and my kami gets to show it off. how’s that for nifty and a blessing and a good thing, despite all my grousing about being a wee bit miserable and taking antibiotics and… oh, geesh, i forgot, i have to have a mamogram…it’s been 5 years…drat!
ho hum, life is lovely and weird and full of little joys (thank you aimee, and kathy, and alisa and sarah and jodi…all except kathy met because of the ethers. and kathy, well we lived in the same small adirondack town for several years. we were so odd, that we walked around the lake every day that we could, in all weathers, sometimes twice. it was a burly, hilly walk. but oh the love…and it’s always love that sustains, love and the making of things essential, useful, lovely, and amazing.
next month i go off to maiwa for tim mclaughlin’s ink workshop. february break. lucky, lucky me.