Leaves to snow and ice

This was my Halloween activity, trying to sort through old jewelry marketing halftone blocks, test printing some. It was good to be back on a letterpress after so long.

The next day my students had a field trip to make paper.

 They were so cold even though the heat was on, as per usual.

But everyone survived and made a lot of paper since it was a smaller class and they could almost have a vat per student.

Back home, I bound together a book made of gift papers from Velma, always so satisfying!

This was an old print done on flat twined hanji years ago, which I found and then took apart and twined into something else.

And then tests for a new/old book for an application. This was the version with inkjet printed text.

This one is with pencil as text, which got too smudgy and dingy grey because the lead was so soft.

But it's always good to confirm suspicions about how a thing will turn out by actually doing it.

Now I have a bunch of info from testing the width of the strips, using pen or pencil or printer, and using different types of hanji. Meanwhile, I've been raking for the past two weeks and then the snow dumped. I unfortunately got scammed by a snowplow company (according to another plowing neighbor down the street), so I was also out shoveling the pile they left right on the sidewalk. Now I have to sort out if I eat the money from the first half of the contract, fight to get it back, or see how it goes for the next few months before switching to another service. Joys of home ownership strike year-round as there is also a mysterious spot growing on the ceiling upstairs, so I have to find someone willing to go into the attic to diagnose it as I am too scared to do it myself.

I also had a friend visit from sunny California and got buried by applications. I feel like I'm still trying desperately to catch up to a place I thought I'd be, but it may be time to give up the idea of that schedule where I'm somehow done with everything.