i have bones around the house. they whisper: impermanance. all things must pass. sometimes i make things from bones, not often, tools for work. using bone seems appropriate.

floppy vessel, growing larger, crocheted net

these fern fruiting bodies remind me of the yarn above.

exploring the stuff of place, that which is found in a place, fascinates me. besides the floppy thing, i’ve begun to fashion a form from these fruiting bodies (which are new fronds), trying to imagine where it will go, if anywhere.

caliban press asked me for some iron-red paper, (and a job of dyeing some other papers). so this is one beater full of gorgeous cotton that became 38 12 x 18 inch sheets. this plus the boco printed papers made for several days of out-of-my-own-head-space work. i could be skillful, make something for a client, and generate income, and it was all work my body understands, deeply satisfying. i want to say it was easy, but that’s not quite correct, it was instead familiar, comfortable, challenging, and not particularly creative. becoming skillfull by frequent and long practice. and i should add that at 65 i now need to pace myself. so that milkweed pulp in the fridge has been hand beaten, but beaten over several days sparing my arthritic hands. working smarter.

i bought this collection from stephen at sri, four old weaving draft books. it’s fascinating to read these. i have no japanese, but looking at the draft plans i can understand, i can read weave. there is a temptation to disbind and spin and weave these books into cloth to further the cycle, but they are too precious as they are.

little river has become another kind of highway

haddock skin completely scraped and pinned to dry

my hands arent very big, but the fish was

i check the grocer’s fish counter, and one day there was a large haddock on offer. as it was large, i froze it for later. later came and i thawed it, and skinned it, cooked the meat and put the skin in soapy water in the fridge to clean later. i don’t much like handling meat, but i find the skin way less daunting. over a series of days i scaled the outer skin, then cleaned away the fat and flesh from the inside. between the sessions i kept the skin in soapy cold water in the fridge. hot water plus fish skin = dissolve. once clean i stretched it and pinned it on plastic covered foam core to dry. this skin is one of five i’ve processed and is by far the largest.

before we got much snow i was harvesting green plants in protected spots, this was early in january. outside it now looks like the river photos above, very very snowy. three weeks or so of very very cold slowed down dyeing, and so other things got done (though not housework).

i gave my bookish friends some shifu tutoring, above is a bit of their work. judith is a knitter, so… and todd remembranced a special shell with shifu. it seems i don’t have a photo of my third friend’s work.

i saw just last night that pbi (paper and book intensive) 2022 has been cancelled. and codex 8 (i think it’s 8) is still running as of today. i’m prepping for codex, making lots of new botanical contact printed papers, a few new books, and some work, and if all goes well i’ll be there in april. but who knows with this crazy world pandemic? i am grateful to be healthy and able to cope with the aloneness of the now world. and codex? if you can get to san francisco in april you might stop in for a gander. it’s amazing.

last weekend i took an online class with loree ovens, who works with washi and konnyaku and color to make amazing large artworks and even tiny wonderful bags-this was a bag class. what you can’t see or imagine is how this feels. the washi is painted and coated with konnyaku and crinkled and dried and there are repeats of these steps. then we built little envelopes. what i liked best was all of the possibilities and how that paper feels. it’s strong and beautiful and will last as long as it needs to. here you see it with a fox leg bone and deer leg bones made into folders and a crochet hook. i like hanging out with bones. i like working with bone, too.

i wanted to check in with you who venture over here, to say hey and to show you what i’m up to. i’ve been finding instagram easy to post pretty regularly on, but it’s nowhere as cool as sitting with you and really sharing. take care all of you and be safe.