classes are over finally for this semester. (grading still to be done.) teaching in person during covid is getting to be something i can do almost comfortably. the last two weeks of class were really really long. and hard. i put in one 8.5 hour studio day, probably the first time since public school, and i wonder how i ever did it all thosse years (one reason was the amazing lori.) i’ve been working away making prints mostly on awagami papers. awagami has many lovely papers that are designed for printers, and these are particularly wonderful in the boco pot.

this is the ‘rough’ side of a kozo, a closeup of the wonderful texture as well as the color and shape definition.

here’s emma wearing my partners retired very boro overalls

i co-taught this class with melissa schulenberg and we had sustainability program, first year program and “other” students. 12 of them, a lot for our modest papermill.

out the door you can see it’s still fall, they’re making botanical papers here. on a table in the back is the retted flax ready for the next steps in prep. above the closet are bags of clothing and paper offcuts.

our class prepping flax grown at the sustainability farm and retted by us.

we started out at the sustainability farm collecting plants beginning with my old friend milkweed. we went on to many other plants, then to rag and recycling fine papers (off cuts from the print studio and caliban press), the last week we taught two simple book structures, and then students could make books using theit dummies as models. we made a LOT of paper.

i don’t exhibit much, and i’m not too interested in self-promotion, but i did send two prints to japan last (maybe) august. mostly i wanted to see how my eco/boco prints would fare in the presence of “real” printmaking. all prints had to be made on japanese paper a4 in size. of the almost 2k entries, one of mine got an honorable mention (there were maybe 50 of these). i’d say it’s a win for the dyers!

i love autumsn, thought the ticks were fearsome, i never got a bit, but many crawlers. i explored around here more and found this hole in the place where i falso found a lot of the fern fruiting bodies above. i didn’t fall in.

on my walks which are really looking a lot like my prints i have found exciting and sometimes poignant things… and also, ever more sadly three women friends lost their husbands this autumn. so very hard. i attended two services online, a covid experience that was surprisingly real.

mysterious ring of power found on the roadside

this ring caused quite a stir on instagram and facebook. the amazing jill osgood hunted down the source: it’s a cupcake topper. who knew?

dyed fingertips with cleaned up ring of power (i refuse to call it a cupcake topper)

meanwhile in australia there is a velma lamb living at wooly saint pippin farm. i’m very flattered to have a sweet little girl named for me. thanks you colleen and brian. i’m glad she has a good appetite.

the first goat i fell in love with when i lived in kentucky was called helen. her human, connie, named her for a friend. one day i came to her farm and watched eggs incubating, and beginning to hatch. later on one of these became the velma chicken. the first time i visited my partner’s former dairy farm a holstein with a yellow ‘velma’ ear tag greeted me. my crazy name…

so many challenges this winter have kept me busy doing small and large tasks. teaching mostly, and making prints and storing away ideas for books made with the fall boco prints. i’ve edited my writing for two articles for the legacy press, who graciously deal with crazy non-academic writers like me. i walk as often as i can up and down my newish road, getting to know the plants, sounds, smells, birds, and watching the tiny changes.

the river through the trees and wintertime shadows

announcing…ta ta…

my foster babies, 12 cocoons arrived this week from maine, to be incubated in the fridge until late april.

i’m counting blessings again, after a couple of very tough years, both personally and universally. i have so much to be thankful for, so many dear ones, and so much wonder in my life. i send you all early solstice greeting and wishes for wonders of your own.

it’s october as the land turns towards winter i alternatively work work work or snuggle in with a book, handwork, or an idea to mull and stew over. i am a fall person, loving the changes except one: loosing light.

was it just two weeks or so ago that i found these few indigo plants that survived the sad flooding and dumping out of the two long boxes i planted them in. these were a delightful surprise, so i managed to make a tiny bit of cloth and yarn wear blue, pale turquoise, but blue. i used the fresh leaf, salt, water and finger mushing method, and had some reasonable results. most exciting was coloring a small precious hank of my handspu wild tussock moth silk.

this is the lot, or most…the next day i found another two tiny plants and added those leaves.

wild north country silk about 22 inches long

so, while i had imagined indigo dyeing this fall, and then the flood, and then giving up, finding these few plants was a gift and the tiny amount of indigo was also a gift.

i found a crow skeleton that had wings and feet, a backbone and a skull still intact. it was pretty far gone and still rotting when i brought it in the house. but it is now my precious precious thing.

the last photo is treasure: milkweed fiber, gifted to me by sarah swett, she of the many tapestries that speak of, well, the best word i can choose is joy. and these fibers are potential string, paper, baskets, it’s up to me. what a joy!