Birch Bark

I asked if anyone knew of a website selling birch bark. Kirsten replied with a Swedish website who sell in lots of one kilo. It is quite expensive and a kilo is a lot. So I asked my sister who walks her dog in a forest near Longforgan (Dundee) if there were any decayed birches there and she said yes some had come down in the winter gales. So this morning a box arrived - see photo for contents. This varies between small pieces two inches or so across and quite thin to some large pieces which are at least 0.25 inch thick. The ideal thickness should be an eighth to a sixteenth of an inch although a quarter should be usable

Here are some small pieces of bark soaking in warm water. I will look at them in eight hours and, if they are soft enough, I will press them between two  old melamine shelves clamped together with G-clamps.

The box also contained a lot of pieces of Dorothy's dyed cotton. Each is multiple colours and I was looking to machine embroider or possibly collage some and use it on book covers.

I started out by thinking I might entitle this blog 'Screams of Rage'. All my fine plans for installing a table and getting on with sewing and bookbinding soon have been upended by my forgetting something quite trivial - that the Louet Kombo came into that room in bits and will not go out assembled. So after half an hour's toying with various impossible plans, I have decided that I need to finish the Fan Reed weaving where it is now, then dismantle it. So I tied the warp up again yesterday and started weaving. 

The handspun is also tied on but I must not be deflected from the Fan Reed weaving.