friends, books

he'll probably give me hell if he sees this:
my extremely talented printer friend mark mcmurray
at the oxford book fair 
yes, THAT oxford
the one with the spires and bells
not only is he talented, and a special collections librarian, 
he has purchased wake robin papers for caliban press books!
mark is my local person to bang around book art ideas with
as university acrhivist he's digital
 he gets his students printing letterpress as well.
sometimes he brings them to my mill to make paper.
his kind advice, which i have yet to follow:
"edition, edition. edition."
~~~
last summer 
i taught a couple of workshops in the 
pacific northwest
today i found this:
thank you, jan.
~~~
my first natural dyeing was after college
at school (mid 70s) it was all procion or acid dyes. 
i learned natural dyeing in kentucky
from the anne mcginty guild and began messing around.
in the meantime i dyed bits and pieces with weird stuff
soil from a camping trip with hooligans, lichens,
raspberry "ink" ian and nate made and left in the fridge for years. 
 later i thought about making marks with rusty metal and weather...
so i wrapped a 55 gallon barrel in muslin, 
fed and watered it all one september, 
and made an amazing cloth. i did it again. 
i used it as book cloth, i sold some. time passed.
then i heard about india.
this is coming back to mark: when i show him 
the cloth he gives me feedback
so i play a bit with paper, too.
~~~ 
the next book will be 
bloodroot and violet
i think
three day weekend, 
whoopie!