Kakishibu is a natural persimmon dye from Japan that imparts a wonderful warm brown tone to paper and cloth. Today, I have created the front and back covers with window and landscape images. (The front cover is to your left.) I have stitched a window in places on all facing and cover pages. The kakishibu had been brushed on earlier in the day and set in the sun to deepen the color. I have been a little out of my comfort zone and the process is unpredictable and things I originally planned haven't turned out as fantastic as I had hoped.
The instructor, Heather Allen Hietala, assures us that the beauty of this tannin is the deepening of color throughout the days, weeks, and even years to come. Tomorrow, we will do a coptic stitch to bind the text block to our wonderful covers.
I am not too discouraged yet. We made lots of practice papers which I can make something with on my own. Being in a workshop sometimes is inhibiting and you have to find your space. How do you feel when you are in a workshop?