I'm going to pretend that I haven't neglected this record for the last three months and finish the tale of Michigan in Oct/Nov 2024. I still live with these pieces and don't know what's next but loved making them.
My phone can't get any of these colors right but I got as much as I could out of the prereduced indigo vat, and a lot of these ended up in a book I made in Dec. I also got several test sheets done of beautiful silky hanji by my teacher/national treasure Shin Hyun-se, prepped to knit for an edition.
When hanging my show, Katie wisely called Indigo to help, who was a past intern and now at special collections in the library at Kalamazoo College. She knew how to knit, and was a math major, so she not only tested swatches for me but also figured out a good way to calculate roughly how much paper I need for X number of knitted pages. I've never editioned a knitted book before, so this is hugely helpful.
Tori was a standout intern who helped me all over the place, in the paper studio, running the beater, and in the letterpress studio. Somehow for my very last day, she was able to set a poem that I wrote that morning (I wish I had more time to edit it but sometimes you just have to go with what you have) in time to print.
I felt super rusty since I haven't printed in years, but it was great to have easy access to the shop plus lots of great help. We printed plenty for the edition, including lots of test sheets so that I can practice knitting, then holding two together while knitting in the ends of each line of text into each page.
Then I figured, while the type is set, why not print a quick unique book with the paper I had made the previous weekend. And then another intern distributed the type while Katie cleaned the press! I felt like a total princess, having escaped pretty much all of the hard work.
Then I had to get cleaned up for the show opening, and was so happy to see
Esther and
Veronica arrive with flowers and big hugs.
Pati and
Tim showed up soon afterwards, and
Anne and Kevin also made the trip, which was an extra treat because they had just made the trip earlier for my lecture at Western Michigan University.
I hadn't yet packed up all of my stuff with the idea that people might want to see bits of the process. I probably should have just packed it but I am a sucker for showing everyone everything. The great thing about having so many friends around is that they helped me pack up and then took all of my studio stuff in their cars since I'd be joining them the next day. Amazing!
The next morning, I was up before sunrise and hit the road. It was beautiful to watch it appear as I drove an hour east to start the second part of this year's Milkweed Residency. I had packed weeks prior for extremely cold temps but it was instead very warm! Here are Esther and Pati in the horse pasture as we gather milkweed.
Esther & Veronica wanted pods but I wanted stalks; here is Veronica helping get some of those.
Overdressed for the warmth!
I did my two-in-one cook & steam batch (where I basically cook in soda ash and then strip, and then don't have to do another cook later) in the wheelbarrow to try and 1. raise the cookpot to meet the outlet and 2. create a windbreak. The gloves are to prevent mostly me from accidentally running into it.
This year, Veronica really wanted to make us pho, and it was not only perfect, but it lasted us many meals! We had it for breakfast the next day, and the day after that! When I got home, I used a modified version of her recipe at least twice, which is brilliant and delicious.
She also took great pics as always; so nice to have a true photographer in the bunch with a real camera. Except I never brush my hair and am always running around in handmade pants. This is my favorite activity: warming myself at the fire while enjoying Pati's company.
I was super worn out from over two weeks working daily in the Kalamazoo studio, so I begged off of beating and papermaking this time, so I take no responsibility for what happened to this batch of coma that E&V had processed during last year's residency! They didn't chunk it the way I usually do, so the fiber stayed super buoyant and filled with bubbles, making foam paper.
But still okay enough to make sheets, Vietnamese style.
Since Veronica is teaching now in VT, I gave her my Korean apron because I'm tired of people in this country using aprons with such poor ergonomics (heavy, pulling on the back of the neck).
Pati had them use Evolon to dry, which worked great, and I was amazed by how fragile the paper was. You can't write on it, it just tears. But a good exercise, and they still retained the silkiness of the original fiber.
I worked on my bast batch for days and finally on my last day got it all back into my small pot and used rain water to rinse it. I took it home and left it in the fridge from early Nov to early Jan, and did nothing to it save squeeze out water. It just sat in the pot for two months before I took it to Oberlin and donated it to my students for their tiny milkweed batch. Made lovely sheets.
We did lots of group shots but this is the only one where my hair is not totally out of control. Another wonderful celebration of milkweed, food, friends, art, books, and paper!
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