Heavenly

Two blobs of cleaned milkweed, and two more of uncleaned milkweed (the lower one was beaten better), after my flurry of night beating yesterday.

The two cleaned batches filled the vat nicely, though there was a pang when I realized I spent a LOT of time preparing the fiber, to only get one charge. That's okay. Those 22 sheets are precious.

I was so shocked that the very first sheet I couched of the clean milkweed went down perfectly: no bubbles, no tears, no stretching, no tears. I've never had that experience when starting a hanji post. So dreamy!

YES, there are some air bubbles, but they are really quite minor. It was a beautiful, beautiful post.

I charged with the uncleaned fiber after lunch. Allie and Jill came over to watch, and then they also watched me fall down from squatting (so more like sitting on my butt, rather than falling from a height) while trying to load the post into the press. It fell but it was already low to the ground and horizontal, so not disastrous. The disaster was believing the gauge, because it came out so overpressed that I panicked and poured water onto it, rather than spraying slowly. That was enough force to shift the pressed fibers into a weird pattern. I can see it in every sheet but it's not the end of the world. YOU LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY.

This has been my dream for five years, if not more. Today it happened! I got to fill my hanji vat with 100% milkweed. Some has already dried and I love it 100%.