Through the incredible generosity of Ricë Freeman-Zachery, I am now the owner of all these stamps. Wow. What a kickstart to my new venture in book arts.

My first carved alphabet stamps. I’m filling in the missing stamps from the vintage collection Ricë gave me.

Do you see why I’m totally in love with this woman now? She has become my new mentor. I’ve been learning from her blog and her YouTube videos. And she’s funky and cool and unabashedly human and funny as hell.

I was thinking about my problems with finding a new mentor and teacher, and while I certainly don’t believe that the universe caused harm to John and Suzanne in order to steer me in the right direction, sometimes it seems that when you’re frustrated and impatient that you’re blocked, maybe you just need to chill out and wait. That somebody or something to rev you up may be a minute away. Maybe if I had gone to Italy, I wouldn’t have headed in this direction. Who knows?

Maybe I am destined to go to Italy another time, with another teacher. God knows some interesting coincidences have come to my attention in that area. Such as a pamphlet given to me in an art quilt class at Art & Soul offering classes in journaling and collage and such, which happened to be about an Italy tourism business run by the same couple who have been sending me emails about Slow Food related trips. Well, I didn’t know that the teacher of the class I was taking was going to be teaching in Orvieto next year with these folks.

So today, since it’s good for me to always have some exciting art venture to look forward to, I registered for a week-long class with Daniel Essig at John C. Campbell Folk School to make wooden books. I justify it this way - I don’t have to stinking justify it, man. It’s the way it is. I am an artist, and this is energy coming in. Last fall, a professor counseled me that all my energy was going out, and I needed to find the way to let it in. Or something like that. It was not being replenished, and I was deflating. I really think that she was right.

I loved making them. It was easy and relaxing. A bit stinky, but I’ve never been one to care about that much. After a few days of soaking, the cattails and bulrush smelled sort of like a cross between a barn and a swamp. The instructors were easy-going and fun to listen and talk to. Everyone in the class, which was only five students and two teachers, was laid back. We got a lot of personal attention and a lot of insights into life around Brasstown and Murphy, North Carolina.

First, I made a wide-brimmed garden hat entirely out of cattail leaves. We used hat forms. They were useful in pinning the weaving close together and keeping the size and shape intact while the hat dried. The cattails separated a lot when they dried.

The next hat was a bowler (derby) hat made entirely out of bulrush. This was soft and pliable to work with, and allowed a tighter, more controlled weave.

In the meantime, I was working on a five-strand raffia braid to sew into a raffia hat. As badly as I wanted to make a fedora, my fingers had a different opinion. I needed 8-10 yards of braid for the hat. I had an awkward time with the braiding and on Thursday morning I woke up with numb hands.

So I decided to give up the raffia hat and make another hat, this time out of cattails and bulrush, with a flat top and short brim. I also decided to weave an inkle band, so that I could switch off to a different activity when my body told me that it had had enough. I’ve woven inkle bands for several years, so I was more interested in learning the basketry techniques. However, it was good to get a refresher on the inkle loom since it has been a while, and I enjoyed weaving on the porch of Keith House late Thursday afternoon. Part of the appeal of the inkle loom is its portability. The design was based on the colors I brought and a walk on a path between a road and a meadow with wild mustard and white and purple violets.

My classmates wove the two hats in the front of this photo. My final hat is drying in the back. More photos later.

I was blessed by the Easter Bunny…

Because he really liked our Easter bonnets.