Haystack Part Three

There is entirely too much to show but I'm going to try to share a fraction of what my students were up to. Michele got really into cyanotype on her handmade paper, as well as dyeing already developed prints. That cutout is from the Fab Lab's laser cutter.

Michele trained early on as a seamstress and I loved that she pulled out a sewing machine and had no fears sewing paper (hanji here).

She also flattened tons of bottle caps and trapped them between sheets that she heavily worked, whether through wax, dye, or other surface design.

Katie has a grad certificate from the Iowa Center for the Book, and I was worried at first that she would correct all of my mistakes, but instead she turned out to be so helpful and funny, with so many insights about a million different topics. We bonded early when she stayed late at night with my Lisa (my TA) and me while we cooked a bunch of kozo. She was determined to learn to cord and twine, and I was really pleased that she did.

Katie also had a lot of fun with the dyes we made and used, with lovely subtle effects (like avocado on the big base sheet of hanji, with the coffee mug 'stains' made by painting persimmon juice on the bottom of the actual mug).

I came in one morning late in the session and Katie had clearly been very busy using suminagashi techniques on her lovely kozo circles.

Lauren came with a plaster mold from which she tested lots of different paper fibers to make these wonderful birds.

Her tablemate Shelly was wonderfully methodical about practicing each technique, with lots of dye samples and thread and bark lace. I especially liked that she didn't think she'd be into the latter, but then really took to it.

Lauren reminded everyone else how fun suminagashi can be, and spent many nights in the studio doing things like punching tiny holes out of hanji and using joomchi to fuse them to other sheets (this would have made me totally insane but I was impressed by her dedication to soldier on).

Another mix of Shelly's (background, including the cast bark lace dyed with hand ground sumi ink) and Lauren's (foreground) work

Peggy was also great at trying each technique, and got very far with the basketry. I showed her how to start the finish but for the show and tell she liked keeping the ends visible, which she had dyed with red onion skins (the greenish color) and brazilwood (magenta color). She experimented endlessly with new materials as well as what she brought with her and was generous sharing things like wasp nest pieces.

Susan was also busy making lots of sheets, and made some lovely weavings with paper thread that she made and dyed. She was one of the few who attempted to bridle a book together and I enjoyed using one of her hardware store tools to do small scale papermaking at home.

Jona and Mary Ellen shared a table so this is a mashup!

I'm too tired to reorient these images, but they're supposed to be portrait style. Mary Ellen knew immediately that she wanted to work with maps, and went early on to the Fab Lab to come up with this shopbot-cut foam in the shape of Deer Isle's topography.

She first tried to cast it with kozo paper she had made on the deck, but we hadn't had a particularly aggressive or long beat, so there were too many long fibers that distracted from the map.

Then she switched to using hanji that was much finer, made by a great Korean papermaker. She added watercolor to test.

Finally, she got a nice balance of color and relief. I so admired her commitment to seeing each test through, and taking the risks (because it meant tearing up all of her paper).

Jona also used the Fab Lab to laser cut the fun foam that I provided for everyone to make a stencil in the shape of Iceland (again, this is NOT the orientation it should be!). She used dogbane fiber to make the island shape.

Jona also GOT the cording and paper yarn/thread making immediately, and then made a bunch of knitted, crocheted, and woven samples.

Here is Jona's wasp nest (courtesy of Peggy) paper, using pigmented abaca.

Lisa was very busy making sure that everything ran smoothly in the studio (which, for those of you who know about the labor and heavy lifting of keeping a paper studio clean, is significant), but managed to make and dye lots of paper.

Here's her brazilwood-dyed crab!

Here is the dry studio (the wet studio past that, and the deck after that) cleaned up for studio walk throughs on our final night. The best compliment was when a woman said she had walked through all of the studios and said that the energy in ours felt very good, warm, and positive.

Haystack Part Two, belated

I've been out and about every single day and night, so I can't even keep up on what happened weeks ago! Haystack has already zoomed out of focus, but here's an attempt to grab it by the tail. Back on the papermaking deck.

Seaweed inclusions in abaca

 Calligraphy ink on bark lace

 Katie with her heavily joomchied hanji

 Peggy got cord making immediately!

 Michele collected, donated, and chopped avocado seeds for dye

 Jona's station, with brazilwood-dyed hanji and lots of other goodies

 Michele had this lichen form cut at the Fab Lab

 I love Peggy's handwriting—these are her dye samples

 Saturday night, lobster picnic, always

 Jona holds her dyed hanji, Susan admires

 Susan couching paper

 I dyed two bundles of hanji cords with brazilwood

 Sunsets, beautiful, always

 The teaching board grows

 Sunset from a boat

 SEALS from a boat!! If it wasn't so loud, we could have gotten closer

 Jona is such a pro, though I have found the Icelandic artists at Haystack to always be wonderful.

 Mary Ellen was busy making these for all of us with bark lace

 My dye sample sheet in progress

 Lauren cast lots of birds and lace

 Mary Ellen made this topographical map out of paper using the Fab Lab (more on that later)

 Katie's nighttime production: suminagashi on kozo

 I tried to finish the last of the pulp so that the vats were empty so things got crazy at the end

Jona's thread tearing was very popular! More to come.

Haystack Part One

I'm still not completely re-adjusted and would love more sleep, but here we go, back into the life of a human plugged into devices, online. Somehow, Lisa (my hardy TA) and I survived two car accidents in two days on the way to Haystack. I know, crazy, let's not talk about it anymore. This is the tiny bridge that means we're almost there.

My view from my room, the ocean lapping every day, lobster boats going out after dawn. I wish I could have slept more but I was overstimulated.

A neighbor on the deck on Faculty Row.

We stripped old dogbane that I had harvested last fall for bast fiber on the first morning. No papermaking until Day 2.

Some of us separated seeds and fluff from pods (and the central piece in each pod was also removed). The 'waste' from our class went to the non-traditional basketry class, which was happy to receive scraps and such throughout the session.

This was sea algae mailed from coastal Virginia to test. Mostly we used it for inclusions and at the end I did a quick chop in the beater but there's no way it could have held up as a sheet without stronger fibers.

The full moon and adjacent moon nights were spectacular. SO BRIGHT at night.

We began with two days of socialist papermaking (no name tags, the brilliant idea of Frank Brannon). It sets the tone in the best way possible. Mostly we only worked in the morning because the sun and heat got unbearable afterwards. Part Two after some sleep!

All of a sudden

This book has been sitting around for probably over a year, waiting to be finished. Under massive pressure, I managed to complete packing for many different travel segments, do a bunch of admin, meet Judy for lunch, load my car, AND finish this book! Tomorrow will demand more stamina than I may possess: an 8-hour drive, unloading the entire contents into a different vehicle, riding with 23 dresses, 3 books, 4 ducks, and 2 teapot on the train and subway, walking to my photographer, and then riding out to see my niece.

My biggest wish is for a great night's sleep. See you on the other side.

West Coast for a fleeting week

I flew home two nights ago after a brief visit to California. After a July 4th parade in Ohio, I flew with my sweetie for a mini-vacation in San Francisco for two nights. Tam was able to meet us, which helped SO much because she is much more qualified to be a tour guide than me. Then I rode to Oakland to teach a hanji craft class on the Mills College campus.

The course was actually for Middlebury's School of Korean, which operates at Mills during the summer because the Vermont campus is maxed out with eight other language schools. Mills is home to the Arabic, Italian, and Korean schools.

The second group of students was quiet but intent on making very involved creations. Did I mention that this is an immersion program? This meant that my lectures, instruction, and handouts were all in Korean. I've taught Koreans in Korean, but this was a whole new challenge, teaching without the luxury of lapsing into English, to a mixed group of levels—a few were complete beginners and I'm not sure how well I did at reading eyes, signing, or drawing pictures, but I think everyone got something out of it.

Campus is beautiful and very peaceful, especially when school is out! After teaching, Helena visited for dinner and an evening cup of tap water (I had nothing else to offer in the apartment since I was only staying for a night myself). Richard picked me up in the morning for tea and a drive back to San Francisco for a luncheon of textile artists and appreciators at Barbara's beautiful home.

After packing everything up again, with the addition of Richard's homemade raspberry jam and some leftover homemade biscotti from lunch, I rode to Davis. The train was stuck at Berkeley for half an hour due to police activity on the tracks ahead, which gave me time to catch up on what was happening in the world, which was a thousand percent heartbreaking and horrifying. But I finally was able to relax for two nights in sunny Sacramento, visiting with two friends who now live minutes away from each other. I always feel like no time at all has passed when I see Katherine, and especially appreciate her counsel, which is even more valuable during transition points like this one. Steph just returned from her Fulbright year in Korea and we talked for hours about her experience and her plans to open a hanji store in the US.

I'm pausing briefly now to pack the BIG load for Maine. I have just one more day before the drive to NY, and then journey to Haystack at the end of the week. I can't wait for the cooler temperatures, ocean, and magic of that place.

Procrastination is the best motivator

I could have done this for months, but I guess I needed the pressure of leaving town to finally do it! This is my teapot getting ready for some persimmon juice.

It was old kakishibu from powder that had coagulated and was in my fridge since last year, which I put into the blender with boiled water and alcohol.

Before smoothing the chunkiness

After, and in the drying process. So glad to be able to check something off of my list!