august

If you signed up for my newsletter this summer, then you received weekly (!) updates in August. That’s because I was pushing myself hard to make progress on the physical form of this project, and wanted to be able to invite audiences to view the work by the final weekend of summer before Labor Day weekend — that was August 24-25th.

I am certainly one of those people who work best under pressure of deadlines (as much as I hope to learn to work steadily, day by day, no matter what, it just hasn’t happened for me yet). I tried to embrace this by setting aside several longer “project days” for myself, and even to invite others to come work with me. This allowed me to test out a method of making hands (out of trash - it didn’t work out quite like I envisioned it), start over and come up with a new plan; finally get the basic roof structure in place (allowing me to lie down underneath and look up through the bamboo reeds at the sky!); build community and connection by asking for help; add to the root structures; test various formulations of paper pulp plus paste powder (methyl cellulose) vs. white glue (paste worked better); experiment and observe the pulp drying out and then getting tacky again with the rains.

I made progress weekly and did send out updates that I was proud of. However, I realized I wasn’t in a position to have everything done to my standards by that weekend. Why should that stop us from gathering to talk about it, though? I decided to make this a “soft opening,” and invited folx to visit, talk, share snacks, and help work on the project with me!

That weekend, it rained heavily on Saturday the 24th, but on Sunday the 25th we gathered with 8-10 people over the course of the day and had wonderful conversations and made progress on designing how to sculpt the fingers for the new hands that will go atop the support beams, fingers outstretched. It was such a pleasure to spend time with friends and neighbors this way, and to collaborate on the project.