One after another

Last weekend was the Festival of the Forks (because the two branches of the Kalamazoo River fork right here in Albion).

It included a car show! I saw the sign and was so tired I didn't want to go, but then my housemate was going so I got my clothes and shoes back on to take a gander.

We also went to Marshall to visit their very lovely farmers market, and to run errands. While walking downtown, we passed the American Museum of Magic.

I can't remember anymore when I did this but it's nice to have dirty and big studio space to be able to ink and drip and dry. What comes afterwards, not sure, but there's another big seamed sheet waiting.

This week I finally got to pick out a big enough table for my hanji vat!! After phones calls and emails and the wrong table delivered, it finally arrived on the day that they also sent the plumber to deal with the floor drain that was no longer working. After we looked at furniture in the old high school building, we looked at the office of one of the guys helping us and we were so impressed by his paint swatches! He said often people can't see the color from those tiny chips, so he painted all of these paint tray liners for bigger samples.

It's not easy to deal with an entire college that uses SO many different paint colors and finishes for their many, many properties (inside, outside, etc.). It's also very hard when you have students who don't understand (or maybe care) about how to properly paint. These are samples of what happens when you don't wash the paintbrush.

Meanwhile, tiny things going on in the studio. Slow slow slow but it's hard to be motivated in all of this heat. What is with this summer solstice weather on the autumn equinox? Well, we know what's going on but it's still distressing.

Yesterday the Nature Center director finally had time to take me around some trails to look for milkweed patches and we also visited the student farm. They grow and sell to the dining hall and also sell surplus at the student center on two afternoons a week.

I knew these would probably be bad but it's hard not to wish that we could make use of these awful invasives. The autumn olive is more promising (top) than the privet (bottom) but I'm not holding my breath. I did a little batch of milkweed but was dripping sweat and hid out in the cool studio until my radio interview in Korea, and then for a couple hours after that. Today I'll try to fill the vat (it's set up!) but also get to visit a local Valley beater!!