i’m thinking of what happens when you enrich your cloth or paper with layers of dye and color and marks, how a skein of boring medium blue commercial crochet cotton can become something beautiful after an hour in the hot pot with a bunch of plants and metal and then perhaps an after dunk in the black walnut pot. richness occurs. then it’s open season for sewing and assembling.

how the table looked before this round of dyeing

in the studio i’m dyeing and using plants, papers, fabrics, natural dyestuffs, metals, and taking advantage of lovely fresh staghorn sumac, local white bedstraw (which i just learned isn’t lady’s bedstraw but another invasive), black eyed susan, dandelion, thistle varieties, wild apple, aspen, grey dogwood, blackberry, milkweed, and on and on goes the list, ending with wild carrot. a little freshness goes a long way, plus i gather and freeze some garden lilies, too

white bedstraw roots…guess who their cousin is

leena from riihivilla has experimented with bedstraw roots, but because of all the effort, madder is the way to go. this palm-sized cluster (and i have small hands) is the most i’ve ever seen at once in my experience uprooting, usually you just find the thin red roots. what lived above this cluster was a healthy perennial cluster of delicate leaves on hearty stems. this is clean and drying and i will try using it.

the same day this one stopped on the road and listened to me, cocking their head as rained down the complements

wonderful catalog from an old john wolseley exhibition that is full of writing, image, ideas with layers of richness and translucent overlays.

i have loved john wolsely’s work since i first saw it in the 2016 book which i enjoyed at a secret lovely spot in the otways--sadly i never saw the exhibition. john has, however, expanded his work into the world of artists’ books. my friend colleen sent me this link here. he gives a tutorial for an origami/one page wonder book structure and he is brilliant in teaching how to compose image and text. this is the structure i almost always teach, giving credit to my teacher claire van vliet. recently my dear friend carol blinn (warwick press) has been sending me delightful pandemic one page wonders. carol also made for me a small book that houses several of my papers in a cover also by me. the magic (and elbow grease) is hers:

the pup got this into her mouth and removed the clasp which i'll repair.. i read that puppies in their eighth month are teenagers which i can affirm is true.

and i’m wrapping this up, finally. i had written almost an entire post when it disappeared so this one feels disjointed and unsettled. i hate it when something happens without warning. I promise if i’ve forgotten anything i’ll come back sooner than i have been. but anyway, these are the happenings, at least some of them. it’s a rainy sunday and almost time for lunch. i wish you a plentiful harvest, we are eating the very best cucumbers i’ve ever had from the garden. that and some local alpine style cheese is my latest favorite thing to lunch on.

writing about shifu for papermaker’s tears.