some (mostly) bast fiber

 this weekend i shall be
teaching at the morgan
first a 2 day paper class (making flax and abaca paper
and making contact/eco prints)
and then next week a 4 day class with aimee
 so i have fiber on my mind,
specifically bast fiber.
above it's some slippery elm.
the leaf and
inner bark
cordage
 one hollyhock showed up
a color i love
and it, too, has lovely bast fiber.
 i stripped a small branch
(elm, not hollyhock)
a twig really
and manipulated that fiber
making cordage the way
a skein of women
showed me...
liana in the ancient 80's,
from nalda to india to us at long ridge

i left it stark to show to
our students.
we'll talk about bark.
and textile-book connections.
 this one
is among my favorites.
crossovers between
fiber textile book
i started making some notes
on some already used lokta
what was i thinking?
so, here we go, again,
the intersection
between paper and textile and plant and mark...
i just tend to make a mess.
this is the table i am supposed to eat my meals upon.
supposed to.
so i will get myself back
to some planning. happy tuesday.