Belated but still heart lodged

We went from lovely summer to low temps almost as soon as Julie and Mike left for Iowa this week. But I promised some Big Ass Paper process images. Here, hogging the vat. The screen is already inside, on the floor of the vat, and Julie (in green) is standing on it to keep it from floating up.

Then everyone has to work together to bring the entire screen evenly to the surface of the water,

and then slowly raise it up until the water line has been broken (it's HEAVY, so this is no easy feat, even with 11 people (8 is the minimum).

Eventually, the slurry is carefully rocked in a circle from corner, to edge to corner to edge,

 to corner,

 edge, corner, edge  (it drains on the way, so it gets to be a smaller pool of water as it travels),

This whole process requires lots of strength, flexibility, teamwork, ability to follow instruction, and being okay with getting wet.

Eventually the whole screen is raised up to drain,

like this! And then walked over to prop up so the sagging middle doesn't touch the ground. In warm, sunny weather, they dry in half a day and then you can make more sheets after peeling them off the screens. As hard as the work was, I miss being in the studio to make stuff. These days: all admin, all networking, though I've already met so many wonderful people. I've been in meetings on Tuesday and all day today, and yesterday got to meet two ceramic artists, a sculptor, and a people connector, plus a few other people who walked by on the street. A lot of these people double as teachers as well. And even got to hear some nice music after a museum visit last night. More hours, more sleep, and more fruit/vegetables would be lovely, but it will all even out eventually.