Workbook Sketchshop

Two more sketchbooks are up on the Internet Archive: 2006 numbers 1 and 2. To download them directly click here and here, but be prepared for a long wait, especially if you live in Thailand, and your cable service is slower, and less delicious, than refrigerated honey.

Jami and I were invited, quite unexpectedly, to participate in an international design workshop hosted by the Chiang Mai University Faculty of Fine Art these next two weeks. We just spent the past two days traveling with the group looking at temples, local handicrafts, and domestic architecture. The rest of this week we'll be trying to juggle that, Jami’s upcoming indigo workshop, and our first border run to Burma.

By the way, I just opened a Flickr account to get a few more photos out. Some of today's shots are already up there.

This is the second nofolete we've found. Gold leaf on a black lacquer ground at Wat Phrathat Lampangluang. We have learned that in Thailand the flying elephant carries the souls of the dead to heaven, since it is strong, and presumably knows the way. Huge winged elephant figures are used in funeral pyres during cremation ceremonies, where they are burnt along with the corpse.