Heavy air

The 88-lb bale of Thai kozo arrived today. So did the 2 lb of kozo from Andrea via Peter and Donna, who taught a workshop at the Morgan today.

We finished a cook of Melissa's kozo leftover from her class (left) and stuff she left for us (right) on our snazzy new gas stove. Steve came in to take care of all the wiring and stuff for both the stove and the heat dryer, which I'll test tomorrow. It would be great if it worked, b/c that would speed up drying somewhat.

Cameron has been working NONSTOP tooling new moulds for us--they're all Korean-style, designed by Tom, and look fabulous. At least, I hope they do. He's been in the wood shop working on them so I don't know how it's going but he told me in writing today that they will get done tomorrow. He made these couching guides for me as well and routed out something that looked like a mystery to Tom and me but then he showed Tom that we had it all upside down and really he was teasing me by spelling my name completely wrong.

Yesterday I had coached Stephanie at the vat. This morning I helped Tom, and when Jim came in, I snagged him from his western vat of abaca and he spent a good long time making hanji. I loved that he had already studied my videos and that he is patient enough to just stick with it. He was dealing with a very hard vat: almost no formation aid and very little fiber. But he was a trooper. He even started to look like a Korean man at the vat.

Tom helped me load the press and then I started to dry sheets all over the available table surfaces. The rest I left, since I was so NOT in the mood for tons of manual labor. Susan reminded me it was the humidity. Plus, the new stove gives off crazy amounts of BTUs and raises the temperature perceptibly. Lee MacDonald also happened to stop by with his wife Anne Marie and son Cooper, who were on their way east on a college tour. They liked Oberlin and I pushed it hard. It was kind of crazy to have so many big paper people in one building: Tom, Lee, Peter, and Donna, but that's the kind of place the Morgan is.

I lucked out tonight, too: Tony was going to take me to Little Italy for dinner, but we took a detour first to the Art Museum. I had never been, but tonight happened to be a night they were open late. We even saw Marjorie, another board member and education director at the museum, giving a tour. They have a great collection and I loved seeing art by locals, including a lot of Oberlin faculty. I thought of Melissa, too, when I saw a piece by Masumi Hayashi. There are so many circles being traced and closed here in Cleveland.