Ways to measure growth

I'm back, or I left. Back to 'real life' and the 'real world' while leaving Haystack and Maine. What an incredible fortnight, which nourished me exactly as I needed. This is duck #1.

I didn't bring dyestuff, I don't know why. Maybe to avoid the jinx of overconfidence that I would need it? So I bought walnut ink at the store, which gave a nice color but entirely the wrong finish—too dull.

So I dunked it into the indigo vat (there seems always to be one when I am at Haystack, and this time, the entire campus was in it!). I still didn't like how lifeless the brown was, though I enjoyed the two tones, so that ended soon.

The midnight tone was rich because of the walnut underneath, and then a friend came by in the shape of duck #2. Pre-dyed persimmon cords: his tail is spot-persimmon-dyed washi from Paper Connection that was corded and his face is made from cords persimmon dyed and unwound in Korea.

Desserts were rich and plentiful. The pumpkin chip cookies at lunch were my favorite.

Yoko was an incredible technical assistant in the clay studio and encouraged me to do it for the first time! I found some wonderful people there, including one I had met last summer at Penland. No surprise, we had two metal folks from Penland in the group as well.

Saturday is always lobster picnic on the rocks. I loved watching people pound their dinner on the rocks to access.

The weather had been dreadful for the first few days, very cold and rainy, but this day and evening were ideal.

A domesticated duck, solo, swam out to say hello. My fabulous roommate Naomi pointed it out while we were eating and we all laughed.

On Sunday, we saw a very intense show by Wendy Maruyama at the winter office about the Japanese internment in this country. I could barely stay in the gallery because of how heavy the emotion was.

We were driving away when Yoko exclaimed, "A luna moth!" She has hawk eyes: it was just on a stick in the windy wind on the side of the road. Carolanne turned her car around so we could say hello.

The real duck inspired duck #3 (she's at the very right) and I finished duck #4 (indigo-dyed cords, unwound, plus a bit of Korean persimmon cords on the head) just in time to relax my hands a bit on the final day. Big ideas brewing, really big. My fingertips got so hard from weaving that my phone no longer recognized them as fingers and I had to use the softer part of my finger pads. Though the reception was so poor that I was fortunate to be fairly shielded from even needing electronic devices for communication.

More as I get my head and body together, as there is so much to share. In the meantime, huge gratitude to Haystack for making this gem of a residency. And it's here to stay, so be sure to apply next year!