July?!

A fantastic group of ten women at Peters Valley, making paper, making things out of paper, telling incredible stories, and sharing strawberries. Terrible wifi/wireless, so I'll wait until I get to NY soon to share more. YAY for a lovely group.

Duck in kaki

The duck is in NYC to be photographed and I warned my photographer that he may laugh out loud when he opens the package. In the meantime, I am working on grants for next year to help keep me in town, but also desperately avoiding the grant writing work because, well, it's grant writing. Other distractions include weather, an opening tonight at the Morgan, and prep for traveling east next week.

But here is some eye candy that I keep forgetting to share, a photo shoot by Ricky at the Morgan in the winter.

First melted day

It's always a treat to have Julie in town. She was showing her kimono, on loan from its new owner, to my apprentices, explaining bits of how she made it. Genius new body of work.

Milkweed is back, strong and hardy and huge as ever!! Makes me very happy in anticipation of the fall harvest.

The indigo did not sprout as well as our tororo, but we still have some. Now, just a matter of where in the world we will transplant them.

The dahlias are sooooo gorgeous and make me happy every time I see the pops of color.

The marigolds are so easy and happy; so plentiful.

Not the best proportions, but the duck is done! I finished the kakishibu coats today and packed it to ship out to NYC along with my gourds for my photographer to shoot. My new computer also arrived today, and it's going to take forEVER to learn my way around it and get it and my life synced. In the meantime, the real summer has started to hit and I have been sweating all day, ew. Lemon water started in glass pitcher in the fridge, which is drastic for me (I usually only drink room temperature water). I need to figure out where to place window units in the new home + must buy fans, but it all seems so hard to do when I'm also sorting out how to run the Asian papermaking in a full-throttle summer Morgan season in between out-of-town teaching gigs.

I have to remember to breathe.

So long

Paper sculpture from the final show and tell before everyone scattered back out into the world.

Mason has gotten really into excavators this trip. I'm glad he got some of his own work done.

Our little bit of real estate in the show and tell. I tried to shoot everything else but it was all moving so quickly that I only got a few things in focus.

I think this was the showstopper: Patricia's incredible prints. She is a force of nature and a remarkable artist. She bought Morgan hanji and made some lovely prints (not these). I especially love how she made the bottom series with two different wood blocks moving from left to right and right to left.

Couldn't tear myself away!

Madison worked so hard getting the hang of both a flat weave and a circular base with the jiseung techniques.

Not that you can tell with this lighting, but they are all ceramic owls!

Cori, the assistant in the printmaking class, also did some lovely prints (the pink ones) onto Morgan hanji!

The metals classes made some lovely samples and jewelry.

I'm bummed I was so busy and sick that I couldn't visit the powder printing glass class, but at least I got to see some finished pieces.

More paper sculpture from Liz's class!

The photo class was team taught so that it involved writing as well as images.

Very playful wood.

Embroidered paper.

More wood!

And more shots from Kristen's printmaking class. She did a lovely print onto Morgan hanji that I can't wait to unpack the proof of when I get back to the Morgan tomorrow (if my health allows it). We made good time back, though I think my car needs new brakes (eek). Now it's time for Penland withdrawal while being flung back into work. Two more weeks, and then back on the road for the next class!

By a paper thread

Cynthia Bringle's work in her gallery. I'm taking three of her pieces home with me.

Toilet paper coming out of a jiseung basket! Going into the auction tonight.

Mason has gotten into bulldozers since arriving to work in a studio across from a construction site.

Jessica took to the grass slippers part of the basketry book.

My duck has been watching the whole time.

Jessica moved to the floor to do the sole weaving (all with kraft paper).

Pellons in their final drying stages; yesterday was our final wet pulling morning.

Lots of these, and grateful for the storm holding off so we could dry for longer.

Dana's lovely sample book ...

Jessica's frog! She has had a lot of fun and I have had even more watching things come to life in her hands.

Richard's little menagerie that he gifted to me, all made of paper he made in class! We've had blood, sweat, and tears, but in the end I hope it was worth it. I've come down with some miserable something or other in my throat and sinuses, so I've had to skip out here and there to lay down, but looking forward to tonight's auction.

New birdwings, says Velma

Rich sewing bark thread on bark lace wrapped around a container.

We had visitors yesterday, and Priscilla, a student who took my class years ago in Asheville, showed us her drop spindle skills (mine are not worth mentioning).

One of my FAVORITE studio props.

Hellen's mobius strip now coated with persimmon dye.

Francesca's first bead!

Deb with her lovely joomchi flower drawings.

Patricia's woodblock prints on Morgan hanji; she says it works great! Looks wonderful. So gratifying to start to see the process through the full cycle of making and use. This is from the printmaking class, adjacent to the paper sculpture class. I really like those instructors and they have sent both of their classes to me for paper talks.

Metal sculpture outside the print studio.

More metal sculpture, but I'm fed so well here that I no longer snack between meals, and haven't even eaten potato chips when they're served!

In the meantime, I finally overcame the head of my duck.

And then I kept going (with the lovely indigo shirt that Velma mailed to me here!).

But then I realized that ducks don't have very long necks at all, so I had to rush and start the body already! On some suminagashi-ed paper. We found out yesterday that my last grandparent passed. I haven't had time to process, and was thinking this morning about how insane it is that these days, this kind of news can arrive via text (as a function of the poor phone reception here). She went quickly and peacefully, so for that we are all grateful. My mother left for Korea immediately, and I'm wondering if I'll get to the wings of this duck by the time I leave Penland. But it's the perfect time and place to be quiet, at least.