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Hands

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Domestic Robots

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All of the book making materials have arrived from Talas and Jonathan Talbot, including the special inkjet papers I ordered for the refurbished Epson 2200 that I bought. Papers from other sources began arriving yesterday. Have I ever mentioned my absolute passion for paper? I should write about it sometime...

Yesterday's delivery was from French � one of my all time favorite paper companies. The box weighs almost 20 lbs. Thick stacks of a heavy gray Packing Box Board speckled with multicolored bits were sandwiched in with reams of off white Butcher Paper that is delicate and mottled � so thin you can almost see through it. All of the French papers are recycled and acid free. They were doing it long before it was fashionable.

Any day now I should be getting the last paper order which includes two colors (white and softwhite) of my other favorite paper (and the paper of choice for many book artists) � Mohawk Superfine. I found a good source that sells small quantities in different sizes to the general public, as well as to commercial printers � Anchor Paper. They were great to deal with and so helpful!

I did some test prints yesterday using Somerset Velvet and Hahnemuhle Photo Matte from Talas. I tried the high resolution versions of the Teapot Cake and Cup Cakes from one of last week�s posts. At 16 inches by 12 inches the colors were practically dayglo � and the prints unbelievably beautiful � in fact, surreal. There is still fine tuning and calibration to be done, but ahhhhhhh....

A good day in the studio. I cleaned the Popular Science volumes and prepped various materials for all of the new books. I received a long package containing four yards of book cloth from Talas. One yard is the most luscious amazing olive green. I can�t wait to bind some books - I�ll have to make a dummy for the edition and test out the new cloth.

OK. The Birthday is over, the Review Binders (see post from 9/23) have been turned in, and now I have told our publisher that we will not be doing the books we had planned. I am feeling a huge sense of relief, accomplishment, and absolutely no regret (at least yet...). The focus is narrowing and this is good. I have been suffering from having too much on my plate and now it is scraped off. I'm going to go and take a short nap, then pick up my little cyborg from school, and have a puttery relaxed afternoon with her.

Here are some photos from the weekend festivities. Warning: large pictures ahead.

let them eat cake

I went with some girlfriends to see Holly Near Saturday night. It had been about 20 years... as the music and words washed over me, I ate them up like a big plate of comfort food -

"I do not separate my music from my heart nor do I separate my ideas from my daily life. I open my self up to learning as much as I can about humanity and this mysterious life experience, but I do not relate to political work as series of "causes". Moment by moment, I integrate what I learn into my personal life, personalizing my politics. It is from this personal place that I write my songs. I do not spend much time updating this site but from time to time I will add and subtract. Enjoy it...and then go outside or talk to real people."

For about 6 months now, I have been looking for a few good books to alter. Thursday night my husband was doing a little trash picking (Friday is big trash day in our neighborhood - mm, mm, good pickin�s) on our way home from our regular date and found a complete 10 volume set of the Popular Science encyclopedias from 1968. Perfect. I will use five as volumes and cannibalize the other five for parts and pieces.

Other than that, this weekend is the big 5 year birthday of the little cyborg. There are cakes to decorate, errands to run and presents to wrap...

I have to go and do a quick search now on "cleaning books".

Things to Say When You're Losing a Technical Argument
via jill/txt

A brilliant idea from Torill:
"There needs to be a workshop soon on female academics in cyberspace their research interests, their academic opportunities and their plans for the future. It needs to be somewhere nice and physically and aesthetically pleasing, it needs to include publishing fantastic articles by fantastic writers, inspired blogging on elegant websites and active network building in many a social event."