Paper and indigo in Baltimore

Once I got to Baltimore after an unexpected night spent next to Dulles, I went straight to meet Zofia, who is an adjunct teaching papermaking at MICA. I had learned in Minneapolis about Kyle Van Horn's dry boxes, so I wanted to take a look at the studio.

Always love wide shallow sinks in a paper studio, and look at all the storage below!

Clotheslines that I believe can retract but are high enough to leave as is.

Beater room with a Reina beater

Across from the beater

Two Lee McDonald presses, and both have catchment trays for water.

This is hilarious and the perfect little nook for refrigeration. After lunch with Rosa, I finally got to lay down and rest for the afternoon before going next door for dinner.

The next day I joined Rosa and her interns to harvest indigo seeds (yes, I helped, but I also took lots of photos because I know how useful it is to have working shots and you can't shoot and work at the same time).

She showed everyone what to look for in terms of how ripe the seed was and it was a beautiful day to work outside.

There is one row of indigo on this urban farm, which also grows food and flowers and who knows what else (I saw remnants of peppers, greens, and marigolds).

This will eventually become seed for Blue Light Junction to sell.

They bundled up the harvest to throw into the back of the car that I was driving for Rosa.

Outside of Blue Light Junction

I was glad to finally visit BLJ after so many years hearing about it from Rosa. A very special and beautiful place, created with so much love and mindfulness.

Rosa showed me the garden next door. That night, I drove to the burbs to see Kelsey and was happy to be so close to a Korean supermarket, where I stocked up a bit. The next morning, we took a long walk that destroyed my hip but I was excited to see a fox cross a big road.

I was so sleep deprived all week but managed to do the drive home in one day, remembering on the way that I would be heading through Pittsburgh, so I reached out quickly to Runxiao to see if she was around. We met at the Carnegie museum and I couldn't believe she had just finished a whole conference she organized and listening to her workload, I felt like, this is a friend who can truly understand me. She travels so much more than me and much further distances, but is always so cheerful and supportive when I see her. Then I missed one exit and was caught for 30 min in the snarl of Pittsburgh's ridiculous roads. A few days later, I gave a lecture and demo, and then a lecture nights later zooming into a Korean hanji seminar. I have one more public event this Wed at Kent State before I can finally be free of presenting myself to the world until January.