Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Cattail book

It's always a wave of emotions when a project is completed.
 
Questions surface. Answers are incomplete or nonexistent.
 
For example:
 Why was it necessary to make a book - the cover, the pages, the print and story about the cattail?
 
Hummm... gee...
Well, I can tell you the story of it -
It started off with making some cattail paper... and then the
book maker in me wanted to figure out how to put single sheets into book
form without harming the deckle edges.
 Paper painter wanted to try a few things (always the recycler, 
she wanted to use a Trader Joe's bag, for the environmental touch).
Printer figured it needed a print (which she now knows is tricky with acrylics).
The last piece was the story. For this there was no in-house resident muse, or at least one who was willing to step forward to do the job
(we are going to have to work on that!).
But you do have to love the Internet.
All you have to do is type in "cattail poem" and up pops all kinds of connections.
Like a moth drawn to a flame I found Jaime K. Reasor who penned a poem called Cattail.
Within the day I had permission from the author.
Add a simple closure and my book was complete.
 
I would highly recommend visiting Jaime's site:
 
and checking out her newest book: Sacred Reciprocity: Courting the Beloved in Everyday Life
Published by Hiraeth Press 2012
 
her talent and gifts will be immediately apparent.
Her words carefully chosen and used.
You will see why it was perfect.

 
 

 
 



 
 



Nothing to do now except to make paper.
The rest seems to flow along naturally... like water down a stream bed.



 
 

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Monoprinting


I rushed out last night to catch the last of the leaves before the frost.
No.... I am not ready for bare trees yet!
I scuffled through the leaves on the ground, dried and brittle.
I jumped trying to reach the ones still on the trees.
There's so many things I wanted to try, I wailed!
Willow, big leaf maple, horsetail, tansy, silver leaf maples, nine bark, lilac,
with a little shelf liner and fun foam to spice it up.
Later I scanned them in and tried different filters in Photoshop.
It only makes me want to do more.
I guess there's always ivy, sword fern and cedar.