september is always so busy!

the second day of peace paper at zone 4
drew and jana set students up to prep cloth
here a multitude of retired t shirts
color batched into the hollander and ready for papermaking.
z4's little valley beater
(drew says it's the best one in the country)
makes short work of a pound of t-shirt
actually about 20 minutes or less per load. 
 below, combining peace paper blurb, military uniforms from drew's work with veterans
and our sophomore seminar (melissa and me doing book arts)
 intergenerational chopping
in the print shop at slu.
 and then sheet forming.
our class really became quite skilled.
in the background is tom lascall 
who lives here and always lends a hand when peace paper is in town.
 the paper production line
 sara lynch and her friend viola came by
and made a couple of sheets
sara is an artist/potter from potsdam, 
she taught me a bit about clay last summer
 we dried paper in the dry box and by hanging the pressed papers on their felts 
 a full mill
 on the home front
we had the sawyer in to make boards from the trees
m. felled last winter
practicing forest health
and making lumber.
 the piles of drying lumber 
are behind the extra firewood (look between the two front stacks).
 saturday afternoon/evening and sunday morning we unloaded 
two wagons of lumber
mostly white pine, but also
oak, ash, black cherry, and poplar.
 pallets sourced from local businesses
are the bases for our drying stacks
 and where, oh where, are the final stacks?
if your body was as weary as mine was
after 6 hours of helping (and i was only the helper)
you'd have forgotten that photo, too!
back home i made some kami-ito
steamed it
and wove a small long cloth
for a tsunobukuro
 grapes for size comparison.
 and then i made a second one
with only one strand of linen sewing the seams.
 if you have Hirokos' book you will have seen her set up for cutting kozo
and Susan's shows it as well.
my set up included shanna leino's leather weights
which serve to hold the sheet while cutting
and serve and a hand rest for my left hand
which gets mighty tired holding down that straightedge.



 i kept a candle lit to keep me focused and happy
i love the smell of beeswax.
 and am almost ready to use these covers i made
years ago with local jeweler and bead maker 
mary harding.
and today i get to teach again with melissa
book arts
and we get to see and touch all our beautiful new paper.
Share