Happy Samhain

I love autumn!

Mists are on the moors like a thick wool blanket.

 Pumpkins sit atop fence posts along the drive.

Their toothy smiles on rakish tilt.

 

Heaps of leaves below the trees.

Perfect for foot dragging and scuffling.

 

I have been making paper with cedar bark, cattail stems,

and repurposed sumi-e practice sheets in the company of good friends.

 

With the winds threatening to scatter the leaves

it was a scurry to eco-print.

Soft tones for some,

Good color on others.

Time to play with collage and sumi-e too.

Yes, this is how the days were recently spent.

Retirement is lovely.

 

 

 

Maybe there's still time today to put a dye bath on the stove

and cook up some mushrooms?

Boil and bubble,

spoon and cudgel.

Maybe the dye would finally stick

to paper and cloth

like it does under my fingernails?

 

Maybe if I add this little spell:

 

"Within this happy circle

may no evil come,

but love and peace and happiness

make up our daily sum."

 

Don't take away my woodstove!

It was a blustery, windy, weekend with an extra day to linger longer. It's surprising what thoughts and ideas can percolate up when you sip your tea next to a warm, woodstove. Frankly, they have to be BIG thoughts to move one's self from the cozy reach of a woodstove. The cats agree. But move I did. To the kitchen, as it was far too cold and damp in the greenhouse to play there. With blender whirling and play things strewn from one end to the other - I made paper! I made 37 sheets of cotton and cattail fluff paper (4 x 6") using my funny little technique and the simplest of equipment. Some of the papers started their drying time on plywood boards, some on my dehydrator screens and a few on plexiglass.  I fretted that the paper wouldn't dry fast enough so I could continue to play the rest of the weekend. I was wrong. Within minutes (next to the wood stove - smile) they were ready. Just for security I left them laying across the mitten rack above the woodstove for a little more curing.  The ones on plexiglass came out so smooth, perfect for text images.

As the weekend progressed the joy continued - I used the paper to make a loose leaf book of my photos of... smile wink, blink... more on that later. Question - Did the housecleaning get done ? In a word, No.  But the laundry did and food got on the table. So! Two out of three domestic goddess duties did get done for which I hope will bank some credit so I may continue to play.



















 

The Muse Took a Turn

 I was happily carving away on my speedy cut stamps making all manner of pods and seeds for printing on tea bags and handmade paper with the hopes it could become a book.  I was going to call it Seeds, Pods and Papavers. Actually I did call it that. It was almost to completetion when the muse ran through the studio giggling and laughing with excitement.  She excitedly showed me how to use the printer to put my photographs on my very own handmade paper as previously decribed in the last blog. Well, she totally twitterpaited me. See what more came of it:

The wood round on handmade paper is unbelievable to the touch.

What will become of these I have no idea,

but what I do know is... the Muse...

she totally bumped me off my carved stamp track.

Now, Seeds, Pods and Papavers, poor thing, waits for final approval.

It seems to need a little something more.

I loved carving the stamps, and printing them on the tea bags giving me that

luscious brown I love - especially as autumn draws near.

I was pleased that adding Golden Gel Medium over the back

didn't make it sticky like Modge Podge would have.

But there's just something about the light colored

 handmade paper printed sheets inside

that makes me pause.

And there's something about the back too

that needs a little more - hummm... but what?

And where is the Muse?

She's not helping at all!

She is off  printing more of my photographs on more handmade paper. 

This time the paper has cattail fluff in it. (Gorgeous, even if I do say so myself!) 

I have added some more tea bag pieces to the white areas on the back and cover since these pictures... mostly I am still waiting for the muse to return.

She will return, right?

If I am patient, right?

Handmade paper meets photographs

I got brave. I put a tiny amount of rubber cement on the edges of my handmade paper and placed them onto  a sheet of card stock. Then with hands folded in prayer ran the whole works through the printer. It worked!!! Soon pages of my photographs on HANDMADE PAPER were forming up on my work table.

I could hardly contain myself. I couldn't stop there! I had to create a book.

It is due in part to Velma Bolyard of Wake Robin blog.

She came out from New York to give a lecture

and workshop for the Puget Sound Books Artists in Tacoma. 

I so clearly remember the excitement with which she shared her joy

at being able to make every aspect of her books -

the dying, the paper making, the shifu spinning, the weaving, the binding.

She shared her knowledge and joy with others and they in turn shared later

all the beautiful papers and projects they had

made in and as a result of the workshop. 

May the ripple continue to travel outward.