How This is Done

It's been so long, I've forgotten how to make a post here. Three years about. I'll put up a picture of the coptic blank journals I made for a while, that 'while' I was not writing, not drawing.

The colorful covers are from hand marbled silk I created in the very early 90's, when I was marbling, when I was a member of the world marbler's guild. Or maybe it was the late 80's? For the journals, I also made prints on hand made Tibetan Lokta paper with a wonderful natural permanent printing ink from Wales - Caligo safe wash relief inks, by Cranfeld. I absolutely love carving out the designs for the prints.

The dragon with the rose is one of my drawings I created for use as a label for the powdered incense I made (called "Red Dragon") and packaged in small round tins and sold for awhile during the era of shops filled with crystals and herbs. The dragon is printed on elephant dung paper

I'm not making the coptic books now. It's quite hard on the wrists. They make wonderful gifts and I now have many blank art journals with pages of lovely heavy duty hemp paper to draw and write on when I am able to do so. That's what inspired the making of the coptic blank journals - I couldn't afford the commercial bound art journals. The journals using lighter weight pages are made from paper made from sugarcane. The books are bound with hemp twine.

Charlie Gillett's Sound of the World forum is no longer accessible. It's been 10 years since he died - 17 March 2010. For nearly 2 decades he, the music he loved and shared with the world, inspired me, this blog - even influenced my travels and created deep friendships.  It was in the discovery of the absence of the forum, this decade, that I looked for my blog after a long while, years even, of not looking at it to see if this blog still existed. It does. Somewhat.

It's time to find and fill my ink pens again and quit worrying that I don't (or perhaps, didn't) add color to my ink drawings. As for writing a poem, they have very little to do with time or one's relationship with time in other than cadence.

Solstice

here's to a

Happy Solstice

keeping warm
through this longest night.

-------

scrolling

words rose from the page like smoke

sweet smoke from an ember tipped wand

scented smoke from a warm glowing ember

chapter upon chapter
the ruby tipped wand

made light of the page
in the unlit room

words curled like smoke

caressed the ceiling
leaned back

kissed the window

the page turned
 words gripped the page
like tallies of worth
with talons distended

the ceiling fell

in a puff of smoke

a few last wisps 

clung to the glass

of the night darkened window

the ember paled leaving
an ashen tipped stick
in its stead

.......

Elephant Dung Paper

This is an ink drawing on elephant dung paper of Libbs and her three chickens and me making rosewater. I love drawing with ink and old bendy nibs on elephant dung paper. It is impossible to assume control and each hand made sheet is so individual and subtly beautiful it feels almost superfluous to draw on even though it asks to be touched.  Most of all - it makes me laugh at the silliness of taking one's small self oh so seriously whilst next to the noble elephant and its dung. Far too much seriousness lately. As quick as can do and without thinking...

crazy legs

wispy arms

caverns are always dark

turtle eggs

frost that harms

icicles stick up and bark

soups hot

butter's cold

lettuce wilted 

now I'm old

surprise surprise

it's a party day

tomorrow will also go away

creatures get comfort

the sky is bold

i am blue when i am cold

resurgence is dignified

lying sucks

i am broke without any bucks

lottie is fat

jack is mean

percy's a poet

a bean can be green

this is silly

no it's not

what is silly

is to sit and rot

the world is crazy

maybe it's alway been

when the way of the world

is the way of men

if you go to the store

with an unkept look

the clerks will follow you

like you are a crook

if you have no money

and struggle to pay

you will forget to look

at the sky each day

if you don't laugh

and forget to play

a miserable life

will come your way

when will you laugh

at the people who snoop

in other's business

because theirs is poop

if you obsess over

liars and cheats

you'll end up bitter

they'll get all the sweets

meditate on the divine

burn incense and precious oils

say this is mine

leave the trashy to their spoils

stay free of the critic

and wary of the leach

be they idiot or psychic

they do well in speech

tell the universe

you are stuck, uninspired

you've lost your purse 

in the sludge you are mired

know this is temporary

there's no ghost to give

talk to a fairy

wake up and live

it is better to try

and end with a mess

than to sit and to cry

over somebody else's mess. basically.

it is now late in the day

and early in the evening

what's better than a play

to set the bells ringing

ring ring ring ring

take a trolley to the park

ding dang dung ding

sing a song in the dark

the end

and now to click on the 'publish' button and don't look at this till tomorrow. But wait, here's a link (which must be copied and pasted) to the Thai Elephant Conservation Center. Click on the 'Process'  tab at the top to see how elephant paper is made:

http://www.elephantdungpaper.com/fact.html

....