feeling all right!

i'm feeling all right!
and particularly grateful 
that this came today.
the summer HANDPAPERMAKING
with a review that i wrote 
about hiroko's amazing book Kigami and Kami-ito.
i was really happy
and honestly
a little scared, too,
when HP editor mina takahashi asked me to write this.
but i am so happy it's in print.
and proud to honor hiroko
who gave me a weekend of her precious time
teaching me paper spinning.
~~~
in today's mail came a wonderful,
colorful box
of overbeaten abaca scraps from 
helen heibert
who offered two boxes
to two artists who had creative solutions
for what could be done with them.
i'm tickled to try 
with these so much fun colors.
(i've always loved working from the scrap bin) 
and this will be especially fun with such spiffy scraps!
~~~
the last day for students was monday,
and already my wonderful t.a. lori
and i have been planning for next year.
in between, though,
we will have a nice summer break.
first thing, 
though,
is to finish my edition
NOVEMBER, A MAP
which i hope to write about here,
soon.

3 little things

1.
thank you all 
for your kind words
about NOVEMBER SONG
it was a year and more in the making
and has had 
the skilled hands of carol and mark (and me!) in the making
one copy is spoken for already.
spine detail
double gatefold, left opened, right closed.

~~~
2.
xxxxxxx
(for wendy)


~~~
and 
~~~

3.
three books +
the more i use these hands and this heart
to make sense of my walk on this earth,
well,
the more i learn
 these three books were made 
with dorothy, in human marks,
at longridge.
i've learned to honor something new
something bigger than me
to trust the way a teacher pushes me
~a leaf~
 knowing that work will sort itself out
into what i need to know
 so this little book
my own human marks
so like and unlike others'
somehow
 became this little experiment
which will now go to the loom's cotton warp.
i will weave a bit.
 this big book
the one in which i let myself work huge
and then threw water all over it
 frames that week for me
they are quite unlike my work,
in a sense
and very much my work
in another 
in the gutter
one finds little miracles 
some of the page spreads 
surprise me 
 i can see the starlings
though they were far from my thoughts
drawing
the cloth in these books
came from a thrift store: two blouses
i'll call this the caldwell binding.
simple and functional and appropriate for this 
sort of book.
i feel pulled into more work this summer
a few ideas in the stewpot,
a class (or three or four) to teach,
and a few friends
to visit
(look out!)
this morning it's very warm,
laundry's on the line.
something's in the works
puffs of hot wind gives it away. 
sometimes a thunderstorm claims this sort of day.
perhaps
my laundry will dry
first.