the last class was exciting
going deep
four days
13 humans
and blue fairy wrens
(among other feathered beings)
i love the variety
of needle books
my students had.
did i say i had 14 students in the two day class
12 in the four day class
and we worked.
we made and made and made
we shared
we built
we discovered how a few crinkles
can enhance the dullest of papers.
these folks kept saying "why not?"
and making my predictions
dust and ashes.
oh, i learned so much!
proving my predictions wrong
some came despite
difficult circumstances--
there were stories
involving
toilets and firearms and other things
some folks just took off
like sky writers,
you know,
those pilots who write letters
across the blue heavens.
many, many books were made
new spinners fell in love
with paper,
kozo and lokta
and some book artists
combined their learning from class one
with our class.
when natural dye pots were unavailable
we decided to make a few ecoprints instead.
when one said the red was colorfast
she was right
and then,
well,
my beautiful little canon
powershot
spurted from my pocket
into the rinse bucket.
so there are no more photos.
but
as a few come into my inbox
i will share them.
let me tell you this:
four days is entirely enough
to really get somewhere
with paper and shifu and books.
we ended with stationers bindings in classes one and three.
and they were all amazing.
THANK YOU ALL.
if i could hand pick students,
you would be the exact ones for me.
it was amazing,
toilet jokes and all.
a few more stories
may come along
as i try to get my brain
wrapped around back to school
and a dentist appointment
and then income tax forms.