handswork

i can't tell you how many ecoprints

i've made,

on paper, mostly

but on textiles, too.

ecoprints for caliban press

this morning's work

i can only say that it's a lot.

this has been my pattern,

make as many variations on a theme as i can think of.

then move on.

miniature tapestries, igolochkoys, small editions of booklets

yarn (oh, how much wool i spun)

my hands love making these things. 

there are processes i don't like: felt making is not for me.

there are others that continue to compel me:

pulling sheets of paper

spinning a thread

sewing a seam

plain weave. 

just plain weave.

plain weave is enough to weave a life around and through.

~~~

there are related things my hands only liked doing,

ripping out a seam

braiding my horse's mane for a show

folding paper

nailing a board.

all liked well enough.

(indigo on shifu and daylily paper, and habu paper, spun)
~~~
but i have always been grateful for my small,
serviceable,
one tendon repaired,

beginning to be arthritic

hands

and the things they know.

hands/love

celebrating love is a strange concept to me, especially if your practice is love. and yet we set aside tomorrow as a day to remember love. the ones we love. to remember. i celebrate my tiny family of three. all the time. we are non traditional, non conventional in many ways. i am grateful for that.

ian at work at bullseye glass

(wonky pixels when enlarged)

hannah at work on knitting

the silent (ian and hannah will chuckle) one

this week hand/eye online came out with a new edition, including a new piece by wendy golden levitt. her work encompasses love on many levels, love and healing. that is her very strong gift. many fiber artists' works are assists in the work these children do.

 these hands working on wendy's book. 

you can see some other signs of love there, a heart, a moon.

gathered from the earth and pulped

 and sheetformed

 and stitched

 and knotted 

and spun 

and woven into a book.