Cool nights

I turned my house upside down for about 24 hours, looking for these Chinese papercuts. Six of them were taken from the group for a small edition of books.

For the prior edition, I had to cut the original dummy apart, which I don't think I've ever done after bridling. Here are the pieces of the binding after surgery.

The cutest couple at the Fuller Craft Museum! They came to visit and do some joomchi on my Boston trip #2 (thanks to Lisa for sharing the pic).

And thanks to Philip for this picture from his collection of woven and lacquered paper objects. I'm wrestling with my syllabus right now since class begins in a week and I was shocked by how cool it got last night. It's real back to school weather.

Stefan shot my new editions, which you can see here (first 8 pictures). In New York I saw my high school English teacher and when complaining about my grantwriting workload, she said, So your work is like a cancer researcher, where you go from grant to grant? I never thought of it like that, but grant cycles are pretty endless. I will be trapped under a few big deadlines for the next month+. Here we go!

Up and down the east coast

Last week we were finishing up the papermaking class in Boston. Ellen is holding the board so that Gunta can brush the pressed sheet onto it to dry.

This is probably where I'm showing how much color is in the water after soaking onion skins (generously donated by Gunta), before cooking. It's all on top of Michelle's bark lace in progress where the screen is being used as a weight to keep everything from flying since the fans were on all class to mitigate the heat (she is at far right).

Ania did a lot of bark manipulation and loved getting into amate.

The clothesline to dry dyed papers and thread was way too close to the fridge but it's all about making do.

Jesse had already ordered a Swedish bobbin winder I think; most of these students got the hang of it even though it was clamped to a not entirely stable surface.

Molly is practicing with a cookie tray of sorts, practicing the wave formation with just water.

Since I got back to NY from Boston, I've done a lot but pretty much none of the work that I "should" be doing (administrative, grant writing, syllabus revising). Tomorrow I drive back up to teach for a two-hour slot, though people can come at any time to drop in and learn joomchi at the Fuller Craft Museum. Then I'll brave Friday afternoon traffic to attempt a visit to view Korean objects at the Peabody Essex Museum. I'm afraid I won't make it, given how congested it will be, but I'll try! Otherwise, seeing these beautiful lacquered hanji cups will have to wait until December.

Lovely summer Boston days

I knew from the moment I got my entire class in the room that it was going to be a fabulous, wonderful group. Here I am with Ania, Ellen, and Gunta. We did dinner after Day 1 so we all bonded early.

I taught cord making on Day 1, too, so Molly came on the next day with her hair done the way we make paper cord.

A very happy group even though the classroom is sweltering.

Today they'll see how the dried sheets look. I have to rush off to class now; it is a great delight.