Day 2, for the 3rd time

I know, I always have a shot like this. But the shower-classroom never changes.

Interestingly, this group seems to prefer smaller dimensions for their paper. Usually people like BIG sheets. This makes my life easier because we can load the small drybox without any problem. Also, less pulp being zoomed through.

Today they did some lamination with thread inclusions and water-soluble crayon transfers. I showed them a bunch of paper in the morning to ease them into the day, because I knew we were all tired from the first day.

Oberlin's new kozo plants! Located in front of the side of the library. Babies from the Morgan. I like the tall one very much.

I forgot to lock up so I took a walk instead of driving. January has been strangely warm but it makes these walks easier. Tomorrow: beating more kozo, but this time it's the stuff they scraped yesterday. And some attempts to beat cattail (knowing it works better in the beater, but wanting them to have some rougher fibers for inclusions into a vat).

I am quickly realizing that I don't have the time anymore to do the things I used to be able to handle all at once. This includes teaching, correspondence, prepping for future gigs (whether teaching, exhibiting, or whatnot), hustling for future gigs, making art, feeding myself, and cleaning up. That's the basic list. Not sure what is going to fall by the wayside, though they've been falling all the while in the grand process of learning my limits. Time to put my feet in the air for a bit!

Begin again

Oberlin, the January satellite of the Morgan, in a way.

Half the class scrapes kozo, while the other half

de-seeds milkweed coma.

Beating in an echo chamber is always loud.

The reward after processing all the kozo and milkweed (plus I cooked cattail all afternoon), and beating for almost half an hour: each student got one sheet of paper! Yes, I went over on time. But it was because I couldn't resist letting them make paper on day 1. The very end of day 1. 16 days to go!

Closing down

Right before I left for NY, I got this in the mail from Edith, an under 10 book maker! I love it and am hoping that it serves as an able beacon through the coming year, a year that I have for some reason been looking forward to since this one started. I think it's going to be great.

After preparing for yesterday's flight to Hopkins, I still feel very ambivalent about where home is. This was a perfect day in Central Park, walking from the east side to the west side, and feeling deep peace on my right side (the side closest to the reservoir). The ducks were all very still, heads buried in their bodies. Hoping for more walks along the water with duck companions—not only for the new year, but for the rest of my years.

Zap

The Morgan has some paper at 188 Galerie in Manhattan. The plainest of the bunch with my shadow falling on it is our hanji. I saw them after taking a walk with Tatiana, after we had brunch with Lisa, last week. Rain, rain, rain, but the best catching up with friends that I have had in a while. I've been getting lots of acupuncture, really intense stuff—the kind that hurts the entire time, no napping at all. Fingers crossed that I'll get some relief from the ongoing back pain from the car accident (I really did not think it would go this long, but I also forget that thousands of pounds of metal and plastic ramming into you at a certain speed can't NOT do some damage).

To cheer me while I attempt to re-center and slow my pace, as 2016 is going to be another whirlwind, I bought this perfect straw shoe for myself! It was a couple of dollars at a library benefit sale and I had to have it. I am also reading light mystery for the first time, after three friends recommended the activity, and that has been wonderful. Today I go back for more treatment; the electric current is pretty strong and the needles are long. But I feel changes and see them, too.

Fresh katazome

Kristen and my show is now closed. We took down the line floats a few hours before it was officially over just to make the best use of my time and to avoid any potential damage (we all have PTSD around two of these being shattered). All packed! My four are now safely tucked into a closet at home after some serious re-arranging. Getting a big apt and then allowing myself to fill it feels dangerous, having been someone who moves so often. But then I think, why not use all this closet space?

Kata Kata, the wife and husband duo of Chie Takai and Matsunaga Takeshi, has been in town for a fabulous visit hosted by their gallery, the Verne Collection. Chie's father Nobuyuki Takai is a former student of the late great Keisuke Serizawa, a national treasure of stencil dyeing—katazome. The calendar above is by Serizawa.

This absolutely stunning linen noren is by Nobuyuki Takai, right in the entrance of the Verne Collection. Kata Kata's show (with pieces by the elder Takai and Serizawa as well) opened Saturday night to a packed crowd. I wanted it so badly but could not afford it. Instead, I bought two vertical tengui that I liked—these hand 'towels' are very affordable. I recommend a visit for anyone in the area because it's a beautiful show where you can actually consider buying the art.

Here is my newly installed faux noren! That made me very happy on Sunday morning before Kata Kata's big event at the Morgan where they were demonstrating their stencil technique on fabric and paper.

This is only one portion of the display at the Morgan.

A big crowd, as always: the Verne Collection has a loyal audience who is really engaged with how their art is produced. They have laid out a long piece of fabric on the table and will use rice paste to push through a stencil to create a resist. The one suspended taught was the sample they already prepared two days prior.

They had already prepared the dye powder with funori (a seaweed that will prevent the color from seeping out the back of the fabric), and applied it with a brush. In the meantime, Chie gave us a nice history of tengui and here she is showing how anyone working outdoors would cover their heads for some protection from the sun and to wipe sweat.

They had also prepared samples on washi and Morgan hanji of a big bear with a fish for people to color in themselves. Charity is working on hers before they all get soaked in water to dissolve the resist. In the case of paper, soybean milk is used as the resist.

Here is the actual stencil for the image. They are traditionally made with layers of strong handmade paper and persimmon juice, and waterproofed with natural lacquer. There is a mesh attached to the back to keep the bits on the same plane and aid in the process of laying down the resist. The cut out areas will all be white.

Here is the first layer of color on the fabric. They will take it back to Japan to finish applying the other colors, and then will mail it back to us as a gift! The bamboo supports have tiny needles at the ends to hold the fabric taut.

I love these tools. The needle points are very tiny but very sharp!

Each end of the fabric is held in place with a simple but effective nailed bar.

When everything was over, we helped pack up (it was basically a pop-up show that was up and down in less than a day). This tape from Japan is great for packing, because it's strong enough but will release easily off of plastic. We will scheme about how to get it because all of the Morgan staff was coveting it. After we finished that, Tom invited us to his warehouse for drinks and a tour, and then some of us headed to Miega for a Korean dinner. Kata Kata arrived this morning at the Morgan to buy more paper, which they will test in Japan, and pick up the last of their things before they fly back to Japan tomorrow. This has been a super packed and intense program fall for the Morgan (and there were two classes running the day of the demo, too: calligraphy and letterpress), so we are all happy to be done for the season.

In exactly a week, I'll be back in NY to regroup before 2016 begins with another Oberlin intensive. My ducks are going out into the world now that the show has come down, and I will, too.

Sorting

This year's botanical yield was less varied than two years ago but I did learn a lot. I realized that I still was unwilling to make my whole stash available to myself to use, so tonight I pulled full sheets so I know that at least one exists for each test from 2013 and 2015. I still have some cordgrass in a pot that needs to be rinsed but haven't been able to get to it after my hip went out yesterday while vacuuming. I unloaded the rest of my paper from last week and some of it is loaded with residual carborundum from grinding the Valley beater knives, others big failures, but it was good to finally have done a bunch of papermaking after all the teaching, training, and programming.

I hate to cut back on papermaking with the plants I have remaining, but my body really needs a break. So maybe I'll do ONE last batch of the grass and cook some dogbane pods before calling it a year. Next year: Paper Book Intensive! The catalog is up and I am so excited.

Looking up

I had acupuncture and an unexpected wonderful walk outside around a lake I never knew about nearby with friends yesterday. At the end, I saw this! By Debbie Apple-Presser, a local artist and colleague and wonderful person all around. She makes art from what we normally consider junk. Grateful for her and all of you!

Real thanksgiving

I unloaded the drybox yesterday and knew everyone would love their papers. These are Melanie's, now packaged and in the mail to her.

And Kyle's stash! I still can't get over how generous one plant can be. And this isn't even the entire spectrum of possible papers. I don't teach Melissa's scraping to get white fibers technique because we'd all lose our minds, and there isn't enough time. But you can see them regardless, amidst the color.

I worked until past 8pm yesterday, steaming and stripping Amsonia. I only stopped because I would have been the last one and I don't trust my key to unlock the door to leave. I then had what felt exactly like food poisoning but was probably a huge sign from my body to REST, so I'll skip the studio today in favor of bed and fasting.

Starring milkweed

From one harvest to another! Here are Charity, Kyle, and Radha as they turn bundles upside down to retie to prevent mold. This was when there was a manageable amount of stripped kozo. Now the back of the studio looks like a kozo explosion and we just gave up on hanging things to dry. We haven't even finished stripping everything.

After a very long day of programming (kids, then open studio), Tony took me out for Korean food. This was what we were supposed to do late in August when I got hit by another car instead. Hoping to reset bad memories by making new, better ones.

Friday was devoted to prepping for my weekend milkweed class, which was a great success. I spent a while trying to figure out the studio setup because it was all conjecture as to how much fiber my students would actually prep. In a panic, I trimmed, steamed, and stripped some green stalks and soaked them in water and soda ash to have something to show in a later stage when students arrived the next morning. Here are Pam, Jacinta, and Linda as they dry strip milkweed bast. I think there were about five full buckets of these stalks standing when we started, and then at least three huge bundles laying on tables. There were still a bunch when we finished, but they processed a lot more than it seemed (two pots). We did trim and finish stripping all the green bast, though, and ended up with three pots of that.

Melanie, Jane, and Kyle are at the pod station where they open pods to access seeds and silks, and then carefully pull the seeds off of the silks to make beautiful coma paper (one pot). The fluff goes from white to yellow as soon as soda ash is added. They also hand beat some green bast, and I cooked a big pot of burst pods and messiness (aka pods I'd rather not deal with) to experiment. I usually don't use the pod husks themselves because they don't provide great fiber, but it was an excellent way to get a totally different pulp with less work, dark brown with lots of black seed bits. I deleted one step of classes that I always cover, which is introductions/class expectations, but it was out of worry that we had so little time—I wanted students to work, not sit and talk with idle hands. I figured they'd get to know each other as they sat and worked and talked.

I stayed an extra couple of hours to cook our bounty at the end of the first day, and came early on Sunday to rinse batches and start picking before we beat and beat and beat. THANK GOODNESS the Valley is back in commission! That made life a lot easier. We ended up with so much more pulp than imagined, with plenty left for people to take home and experiment with. It was a cold weekend, with our first snow of the season, but I was impressed by how well everyone braved the chill to get tons of paper made. It was such a good group: no stragglers or whiners; everyone worked hard. Pam shared ginger candy in the morning and Jane cooked a pot of black bean lentil soup with garnishes for everyone that we enjoyed on Sunday for lunch with baguettes from Linda and za'atar bread and date cookies from Melanie. It's unusual to have a group like this, and a joy amidst the physical strain of trying to squeeze so much into a brief weekend.

Melanie's post is on the left and Pam's on the right (the Morgan has started to sell pellons to people who want their own, finally!). There were six different vats going, all varied parts of the plant harvested at different stages of the plant's life cycle, and we had so much that we didn't need any of the buffer fibers that were on hand just in case. I can't wait to see them all emerge from the drybox! I also can't wait to get some of my own papermaking done this week now that my official teaching for the year is done. Hoping to do iris, dock, milkweed, and Amsonia this week (dogbane I'll save for later), and thankful for this year's harvests.

Flattened

Friday, we had visitors from SUNY Fredonia. Tim brought his students to harvest, strip, scrape, and tour the Morgan. Jill in the green hat is a fellow teacher and did the Iowa program and is friends with Radha, so she had a fun first visit.

We only got through half of the Japanese kozo but it was picked quite well. I've never had such a clean batch! I'm a little concerned that the rest won't get cleaned as quickly or as well, but that's just life. The naginata got this batch to a lovely cloud.

Charity, Kyle, and Radha gave lovely presentations that night during the worst weather and dazzled us all with their artwork. I'm so glad that this is our team now!

Lisa managed to get a few dips in the hanji vat before flying home on Saturday morning. I trained Kyle a little before the scores of people descended for the harvest, which included a custom tour for the Secret Tea Society.

The steams were a little slow in getting underway but it was really cold the first day. We had very eager and helpful volunteers, though!

 scraping

 beating

Susan trimmed more iris leaves after she did some kozo work.

Cleaned white bark

 Day two was sunny and much warmer,

 so scraping stations moved outside

Still lots left to steam, strip, and dry. But a nice harvest after a good growing season. No time to rest, though: still hanji to make, fiber to prep, and a milkweed class to teach this weekend!

Ow, our backs

WINDY today, very. Lisa, Kyle, and I all picked kozo today (Lisa worked for the longest, with the worst tweezers. Tools are everything. Everything!). Our pile of gold has been growing, though we're only halfway through. The TV cameraman returned this morning to do a shoot as well.

We knew we were way behind on harvesting, so we ran out in the afternoon to work. This is Lisa's first harvest.

Kyle's, too! There are only 3 loppers anyway. I wish we had sickles—maybe we'll get those for next year. I find it very weird to not be able to hold onto the thing you are cutting down with one hand. I was also pulling weeds as we went. It got so dark that we were mixing up kozo and regular mulberry (not the end of the world). We got very hungry quickly, so Susan was kind enough to order pizza for us before we took down the flapping tent and closed up for the night. Lisa and I went to an art opening as well but I sat in the corner most of the time.

Tomorrow is a monster day. Trimming, steaming, prepping for a visit of college kids from Fredonia + prepping the hanji vat + beating kozo by hand and naginata + hanji pulling + visitor tour + more harvesting + evening event for Charity, Radha, and Kyle to present their artwork + collapse. Whee!