having students who stay late after class
or who come to work in the studio
on other days
makes me really happy.
book arts does that.
at home i've had a second pot of black walnut
on the stove for several days,
dyeing up some cotton tubular yarn
and deep ,dark, delicious silk.
drying quickly in the heat
and then there's this silk
i love making small sample sheets
and i bought a copy of this catalog
which includes india's work.
and all of the linen suit paper is pulled, pressed, dried,
some of it pigmented,
shown here in the last pile of blotters and books.
and here are some lake superior agates
some have eyes
lace
and lanscapes inside
the flax suit, linen rag papers
natural, yellow ochre, st lawrence riverside woods earth
here they all are
a big harvest from a blazer and pants
not counted,
not my habit to count
and here's a gift
that i've taken apart in preparation for spinning
details like glued on tiny notes
sort of post-it notes (two of them)
and a paper thread sewing up the signature
one page rehabbed by gluing on a new paper.
a sort of white out.
not throwing or xing out
taking apart a book, even a simple account book,
is extremely instructive.
it's a lovely gift from a friend
who understands my love of these old books
which i use for kami-ito making.
it was 85 degrees here,
in town it was 87.
predicted to be hotter yet tomorrow.
ugh.
