marching orders

i love march and november

for the way the landscape opens and you can see

really see 
the bones of the land.

here it means hard walking,

 in november risky hiking,
(hunting season).

in march it can be mud season

or, like now, a foot or so of good snow.

i haven't been on skis this winter

mostly an arthritis in my foot issue.

but i do get out a bit and tromp in my mighty sorels.

today i collected arbor vitae (white cedar) and fern fruiting bodies

for the prints i folded, built, wrapped and cooked this afternoon.
i cut up some paper for kami-ito.

in the mail came a couple of things, this:

 japanese indigo in a soft mattress of fine flax

ready for spinning

from two looms textiles

and socks.

and then naomi velasquez sent this tonight

because i'm headed to idaho to teach shifu

at the end of the month.

i'd love to meet you there!

~~~

in other news:

i have seed for the spring: 

indigo and flax.

oh joy,

oh rapture.

~~~

tomorrow my what is an image class meets 

to make paper...

images.

inventory

it's time for the reckoning, or in modern americanese: inventory.

i've taken a totally arbitrary approach here, 
picking photos from my desktop:

1. copper pipe marked by goldenrod leaves from a workshop years ago 

with india flint at long ridge farm.

it's resting on one of the stump looms.
the right kind of alchemy.

 2. linda marshall of washi arts is an amazing advocate for japanese paper

a fine friend 
and host who took care of me in vancouver last fall. 

she's a terrific guide for me, 

and provides all kinds of 

help for artists wanting to use 

really good papers.

 3. this book, 

Indigo Patterns 

was purchased this year by Owen D Young Library at St Lawrence University. 

it's a book i loved making, 

the cover is "shifu" with dyed pattern paper, 

linen paper, 

and slippery elm bark weft, linen paper warp. 

pages are indigo dyed pattern papers,

tacketed binding.

 4. my little Flax Notion edition sold out!

i loved making this one.
all flax.

 5. fern dust: 

i'm in a conversation with mari newell who also works with it.

and yes, it IS a thing.

 6. rocks. 

i love rocks, 

these are from jasper beach
and i love how shanna wraps lake michigan rocks. 

 7. milkweed. 

as ever my favorite ever paper that i've made, 

my fist edition done so long ago that my children 

(now 33 and 36) were in grade school while i made it. 

it's a generous and strong plant.

 8. we lost gwen this year, 

shown here in the foreground.

 unusually behind her pack 

 9. raw flax paper. 

absolutely nothing like it.

 10. i think this book, 
12 Moons, 
sold this year to Baylor University by Alicia Bailey 

(but maybe it was last year, sigh) 

shifu cover, silk endpapers, pages all botanical contact printed.

double pamphlet stitch binding.

 11. still contact printing mostly on paper, 

occasionally on shifu 
(which IS paper). 

mostly.

 12. my papermaking class. 

only one student in the bunch was an art major. 

the four adult students and i meet every so often to talk 
and make books. 

it's nifty. 

this group was such a blessing to me, 

keeping me thinking about papermaking. 

all autumn.

i started a post today and meant to go way elsewhere, 

but here we are instead. 

you all who read are blessings, too.

thank you, you are a joy.

please feel free to contact me through the website, 

blogger seems to be ignoring me here and out on others' sites, too.
as for from now until february 2 when hannah and i get on planes for california, 

i will be working on 

inventory
for CODEX .