Back east for a new class

I had to go into hyper making mode before I left for New York but that really strained my hands. It was very, don't walk at all and then suddenly run a marathon behavior. Which was stupid but naturally desperate. So much that my hands have wanted to make but have not had time to do. This is an extra.

Well, more of a test, to make holes on the sides of the basket for a purpose that didn't look right so now it's the anchor to a new-old book. Here it is after a dip in my friend's indigo vat. Plus some hanji thread that got dipped as well for future pages.

This one I did a while back and meant to ship to my photographer and then it never happened so I'll lump it into the shoot next week. It has three versions.

This one started a long long time ago and it finally got done, which is a relief.

It is made of several deconstructed dresses and then one whole intact one inside.

This was the big monster piece that haunted me for a good long time. It started with trying to make a pot to match an old lid. Which is the reverse direction, the lid is always made AFTER the pot. Notice the cord coming out of the side of the bottom surface (not the center cords that will get clipped and shoved inside).

That becomes the upper bill to the duck and boy was this a ridiculous idea. Meaning, I was adamant about the entire thing being connected. But that means that as I turn the duck over and over to build, the entire pot has to turn with it.

This wasn't exactly the silhouette I initially envisioned but at this point I realized that that would be so much more work that it was better to try first to see if it works before being so ambitious (meaning, cap the attempts at limbs in this iteration).

Please note glass egg.

I didn't have lead shot and figured this is much more hilarious, even if you can't see it. Egg as counterweight!

See that the lower bill is not attached and has to support the pot at just the right place or the whole thing topples (partly because the egg is not in the best direction but by the time I realized that, it was too late to make changes unless they were drastic).

By now, my hands are screaming and yet once you get to a point like this there is so much momentum you have to keep going.

This started one way and then became a lid, too.

Then I tried the cursed pot after the lid, which fairly quickly became not the right match at all. I was going to name the lid, "where's my pot duck" but worried that would be taken the wrong way.

And then I kept going and going....it originally only had one handle and then I doubled and then all kinds of shenanigans late into the night.

I had to take a day and a half off between turning the lid because my hands got so battered that I dropped berries and walnuts all over the place 3x while making breakfast. It was scary to have lost that much control and fortunately I listened to a close one who said I had to take a day off.

In between the end of my last wonderful class and twining in earnest, I had to use up the leftover fiber as fast as I could and so I got busy with some basic beaten bark.

That, along with something like 10 books are waiting at home to be finished, transformed into the next iteration. For now, needing rest after two days of driving so that I can prep for class. Very glad to have Tatiana as co-teacher for the new class that we made, so simple and yet so much: comparing hanji and washi making in the same space. It will be good to leave my computer behind for several days of sweaty labor.