still working out on the porch

here's a bit of very recent 
contact printing
for me
(not for the HP project)
 here
the top is a silk cloth
the bottom is three long papers and a book
 long paper detail
 wolseley's book snuck in
and i couldn't help taking a photo
of my little prints hanging out with a page from landmarks 3. 
while doing this i'm pulling together my summer journal
trying to complete it.
working on the porch in very sweet weather.
it's called daylilies and songbirds 
and
 it's got bird prints and contact prints
shifu and kami-ito,
and even some kitikata and cotton,
and day lily prints and maybe a snake print, too.
and i'm beginning to put in my summer notes.
next time the book should/might come first
so the notes can live in there
day by day.
i am pretty excited about this one.
and may even finish sewing up the shiny book.
i'm learning an honesty i didn't know before
while dealing with local color 
trees and folks
(greed neighbors not being neighborly)
on this lovely lovely day.

simple

simple gifts,
simple things:
a honey
house warming.
clair van vleit
who runs janus press taught this
simple structure tome in a class 
she taught at the paper trail in ottawa. 
a LONG time ago.
 using it with amazing paper deepens the experience of simple
this paper is rhubarb with abaca
a paper i have only once been able to duplicate.
simple old rhubarb
 hides its fiber
 and then the season for papermaking is past.
 like these little squares, 
also simple
 truly good work 
can be woven on the simplest of looms.
 i had thought to make a simple booklet
to explain a bit about shifu
and contact printing on papers,
 i wrote about it,
 and so a dummy appeared in my mail,
my designer, printer, and dear friend carol
and i have been cooking up a project
for me to share
with students and friends.
i'm heading to australia in a month.
teaching and traveling and being in
that
wonderful
place
for a short while.
 ~~~
i've been swamped and forgetting things
simple things that made me happy:
a new year greeting
from the cave
 and another
from jennifer
 with
a message i am loving, 
good madness.
 and i will continue
to make little things
 and bigger things.
simply.