i finally got to putting together some of my samples

from my february trip

i made three books
and a few samples, too,

while (or in australian, whilst) teaching

the bottom book

was completed at

my wee residency at beautiful silks

and provided enormous entertainment for me

one long night

this stationers bound sample book

filled with silk and paper contact prints

and shifu and eucalyptus blooms,

in a fit of experimentation i dunked it into the wife.

well,

the wife is a wise and enormous vat of indigo

and my book came up gasping for air

going from sludge to blue

quickly

but also starting to sag and would have torn itself to bits

from the wife's good juice.

so i supported the thing

as she completed the color magic

then set up a drying system, which was no mean feat

considering the dry book weighs only an ounce or two,

but wet,

well she sagged under her own weight.

iowa flax case paper cover and various handmade and machine made papers,

and shifu

hold a lot of liquid.

so, once the color stabilized i began

the tedious blotting dry

and using a fan and a drying rack and many towels

all night long

she dried, stabilizing the spine and then the pages.

yesterday i sewed in all the loose bits and have a finished book

thanks to beautiful silks and the wife

also as i sorted out the work table
i unearthed a little book i made

years ago from scraps

from the trash at pbi

oh, and a feather and someone's measuring notes.

and took a picture

i, like jude, have been thinking

~of weave~

overexposed

in motion

focusing

and finally focused

spun paper, kami-ito,

and canada thistle paper

of course it is!

weave holds the universe together.