This commonplace is a celebration of that miracle fiber Linum usitatissimum, or flax.

Following in the tradition of commonplace books, this lively book was made with my handmade raw flax and hemp papers, Awagami kozo washi, and Nepalese lokta papers. The tiny flax papers were colored with earth ochres and indigo, and the story was inkjet printed on kozo. Lokta kami-ito (paper thread) was prepared, hand spun, then stitched by me, which changes the ‘hand’ of those papers. The pamphlet binding was sewn with a fine linen bookbinding thread.

The edition took about 50 years to fully assemble, and it concludes with the fibers harvested from one stalk of vintage flax from the first plot of flax that I grew from fine Swedish seed in Star Lake, NY in 1981. The flax and hemp papers were all made by me, the kozo is from Japan, and the kami-ito was hand spun by me from Nepalese lokta paper. All of the small papers were pigmented with indigo or earth ochres, hand pulled by me in my old farmhouse kitchen.
* Edition of eight March, 2022 Velma Bolyard, wake robin, Canton NY *