Wattles

I was going to say no to this show I'll be in early next year. But then I said yes. I also picked a Chinese zodiac animal that would be a challenge and then put it aside for a while until the due date got closer.

I ripped it out about three or four times as I tried to figure out the best way to get the protruding bits designed. There are so many approaches and then I realized, why not pretend it's functional by using the handle idea, but twisted, for the comb?

By the time the hard part was over, I had run out of the right color cords, so I had to take a break to dye some more with onion skins.

Each side looks different, of course.

The cork padding under the brass stand is drying under weights now. It goes into the mail tomorrow so my photog can shoot it before it goes to PA for the show. I am so glad to be able to focus on what's next, though my inkjet printer decided to torture me today by teasing me with multiple "empty" cartridges after I had gone to the store to get one replacement. Very whac-a-mole with the yellow empty, so I get that only to come home to black saying it's empty, and the magenta claiming the same!

My semester-long teaching turned into a special kind of torture this year, which made me think a lot about why students who get mad at teachers for marking them tardy when they are late grow up to be adults who refuse to believe the news or election results or any number of things that go against This Is How I Want The World To Be. Fortunately, after being dragged to the dean for marking students tardy when they are late (thankful also that my chair has my back), I got a wonderful email from a past Penland student.

Not in her 20s, Hellen was very focused and hardworking during class, a math person, and kept in touch with me over the years with very practical questions because she was actually continuing the work at home. Most recently, she got my milkweed zine and made milkweed paper. She shows her process very clearly, credits me, and admits she used a blender when I said not to for certain parts. But that was part of her learning, and she was only breaking her own blender's metal blades, not mine, not other students' tools. This reminded me that aside from the wonderful students I have had in class this semester, I have also had so many more throughout the years that I remain grateful for having met. So I will try to enter the holiday with that in mind and not just eat my feelings.