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!

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.

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)

i’m messing about with… not boats but cocoons.

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.