this week my first solo book arts class met, 10 undergrads, one adult will join us next week. what a treat to teach book arts the way i want to. and what tremendous responsibility. and all i’m thinking about outside of class is alchemical processes, making thread, making ink, making paper. no surprise there, but the surprises come as i research local wild silk moths. here are a few hanging out on my last batch of square milkweed paper.

limns the place where i live, or at least almost touches the town line where my place is. funny, if the blue line was a bit closer, the dumps in town would have other restrictions, instead the town just lets them fester. it’s outrageous and i don’t photograph them.

one of winter’s wonders is the ability to see what some animals are up to. i sat down on the studio floor and found a whole new perspective.

here are the experiments with ink i made this fall. you see here mostly wilk grape ink, on my raw flax paper, on ols italian handmade cotton paper, on copy paper on newsprint, on strathmore. and strathmore with one coating of black walnut.

wild (fox) grape ink on those many papers

fox (wild) grape ink on the sketch book (michelle moode made it)

begin with raw flax…add indigo, coat with black walnut ink a few times and then wild grape. rich and luscious color.

the doings are scattered and various and keep my mind active. feeling better, but still not right. but it’s ok, we finally have some real winter snow again. YAY!