november for certain

there's no reason this job isn't done

completely stripped and seed fiber separated.

(that milkweed again)

 the whole pile should be this

 but i have been otherwise occupied.

i've bruised my forearms on the beater at zone 4

after a long disentangling with pliers and my aforementioned arms

and fingers that escaped in rather good shape.

hemp sliver

beautiful stuff, it was hard to cut,

so i cut it into too long bits

and they ground around beautifully until

they

didn't anymore.

it may have taken me an hour to unscrew the keeper plates,

pull out a ton of hemp

haul out more,

and using pliers, haul out the rest

bruising up those forearms meanwhile.

 solace was available

 and some experiments are happening at home with the woven books

 and a simply lovely large and flat sketchbook

sometimes things go the right way.

students are busy, finishing up three projects.

one of our students is making a felted vovelle for her interpretive book.

she told me she knits (evidence: her scarf), crochets, sews, and felts,

so i suggested she might be interested in fiberarts and she said,

and i love this,

"oh, (pause) i didn't know that was a thing".

our students are loving learning, exploring and strengthening hand skills

as they make beautiful books and enclosures. 

~~~

i'm off to toronto tomorrow morning and back on sunday

(as long as my car issues keep working themselves out)

then it's thanksgiving week.

i won't see the class for almost 2 weeks. one of them said yesterday

this class needs to be another semester long.

so many of them love what we're doing!

spring things!

i've added a button on the shop page
(hannah did all the work)

for you to order the little book about shifu and printing,

if you wish.

hannah has it here and at the new site (which i haven't yet sorted out).

i've sent out one already

and the paypal thing is working.

(thank you, betsy!)

i seem to have emerged from a funk

a change,

a tilting,

and now, well now

i have my sea legs

for a bit.

i returned to the place i call home last night:

 and this was above the little porch.

 it was beautiful.

the night was full of frogs songs 

and the sound of a few birds, 

woodcock, my favorite.

in the night, 
for the second one running

i was awakened around 3:00

by a loud bird sound

i think.

one or two calls

and that was all.

am i dreaming owl hunts?

 and we went out this morning 
to this marsh.

found a new emergence.

 i was thinking turtle thoughts

wondering how it is to be
turtle with the thick reptilian armor

while this soft human skin was feasted

by mosquitoes.

no worries,

escape happened fast.

 no turtles.

yet. 

two events are coming up for me:

UPSTATE NEW YORK WAYZGOOSE
on june 4th,
come by the vendor tables and say HEY!

~~~

then retirement

a special wedding, then

August  20-21

I will be teaching at the Morgan Conservatory
Native Species: Ecoprinting
making prints from the Morgan's ecosystem

~~~

August 26th 

NEGBW MINI-CONFERENCE:

INSPIRED BY NATURE

Spend a weekend in Northern Maine with a community of local artists working in the field of bookbinding, book arts, paper making and calligraphy. 

at the
Cobscook Community Learning Center 
10 Commissary Point Road

Trescott, ME 04652

The CCLC is located  in Trescott Township, Maine, between the towns of Whiting and Lubec in the Cobscook Bay region of Downeast Maine. 
this is a venue 
that is beautiful, wonderful.

(i can send you a pdf of this event 
or you can contact the north east branch of the guild of bookworkers...
if i was more adept i could attach the pdf...)
sigh.
~~~

one of the things, 
including the new website,
and a collaboration with a special friend
are what i'm doing this summer.
~~~
and
~~~
November, A Map is almost sold out.
i will be taking a few to rochester with me.
i have recently been told that several universities
now have my artists books in their special collections
and you can see that information 
if you hunt under the publications at the top bar. 
PHEW!
~~~