When interpreted as a route, a line on a map shows us how to arrive somewhere or acts as “a customary line of travel.”2 Lucy Lippard has done considerable study of lines and their use throughout history in relation to journeys. According to Lippard, an Eskimo custom offers an angry person release by walking the emotion out of his or her system in a straight line across the landscape.3 Lippard also writes about artworks like Christo’s Running Fence of 1976 in California and English artist Richard Long’s Walking a Line in Peru, which depict and dramatize lines in the landscape. A simple walk in the woods follows a line in nature. A line can also be interpreted as: string—a physical line that can be as meandering or as straight as we wish; crease—a line occurring when fabric is folded or when a natural phenomenon occurs to leave a ridge in earth or rock; and mark— the artist’s favorite way of saying “a visible trace or impression, such as a line or spot."4 I love using line in my work to create form, overlay, outline, and pattern. I discovered early on how difficult it is to create fine lines and patterns when making paper, and I searched for a solution to this problem for several years. The pulp lines tend to be too thick or fuzzy when applied with a brush. I have experimented with spray bottles (too coarse), screen printing on the surface of my handmade papers (not technically papermaking), layering pulp colors (too confining for pattern), and embedding foreign papers (not my own handmade paper or patterns).  I followed Neal Bonham's and Rick Hungerford’s experiments with pulp painting and tried some of their techniques with the primitive equipment I had before my beater and presses. Both Neal and Rick have been generous in sharing their techniques for patterning and painting wet papers. When Rick taught his pulp painting techniques at Oxbow in 1997, I attended with great anticipation. The workshop was as informative as I had hoped, and Rick was very generous in relating his methods in both beating the pulp and painting with it. Learning Rick’s methods and pulp preparations for painting with pulp, and making paper stencils in his workshop for blocking off large areas, gave me the idea of making stencils with plastic. I needed stencils that would last for many projects and papers. I sometimes use the same stencil for several pieces, with a different context for each one. I work primarily with natural forms and I have always been more interested in lines that create microscopic details than in a whole scene. Plastic stencils and a burner allow me to create the fine lines I need. In doing fine-line pulp painting, I start with original artwork and create a stencil to block off pulp in the negative areas. I work from various sources for my artwork, either original drawings or photos. Sometimes I use the whole original image. If I want to use certain sections, I pick out the areas I want and enlarge or shrink them on a photocopy machine. With the help of my local copy center, I can pick out desired areas of the original and manipulate them as I please.  Making the stencil can be a little like batik or screen printing, in which the artist must decide which areas will be the positive and which the negative. I study my artwork and decide what I want to depict in the pulp and then choose which areas to burn in the stencil. I sometimes make two or three stencils for the same image in order to have both positive and negative to work with.  The material I use for the stencil is a 0.002mm to 0.005mm thickness polyester film or Mylar. The frosted or clear types work equally well. This film can be purchased at graphic arts and art supply stores. The stencil burner can be purchased at craft stores such as Joanne Etc. Be sure to purchase one with a wide tip as the very narrow tip makes lines that may not allow the pulp to go through. To make the stencil, I use a piece of picture glass of any size up to the size of the artwork. I make a sandwich by putting the artwork on a firm surface, then placing the glass over the art, and then the stencil material over that. I usually tape each layer in a couple of places so that nothing slips while I am working. I then warm up the stencil burner and begin burning lines and holes in the plastic, following the design. I had to practice with a sample to learn how fast to pull the burner and how hard to push.  There are a couple of cautions to be observed when making a stencil. First, the odor of the burning plastic may be irritating to the eyes or nose. Working with ventilation or wearing a mask is a good precaution. I take a break every twenty minutes or so, as it is close and intense work if I am working small. When I am burning the stencil, I have to remember to pay attention to whether I am making holes instead of lines. I frequently have to break my lines so the stencil does not fall apart when I have burned a solid line across the plastic or surrounded a large area completely with an unbroken line.  Rick suggested the procedures I describe here for beating the pulp and drying the sheets, and they work for me with my equipment. Different equipment may require different times, weights, and temperatures. You may want to or need to experiment with other beating times and fibers.         The fiber for the base sheet of paper can be prepared in a couple of ways. I have used either abaca alone or a combination of cotton rag and abaca. I have always loved the idea that the eye mixes two colors together to produce a third, so I often make granite-type papers by gently mixing two colors of pulp together. Rick Hungerford’s method uses PMP or PEO formation aid in the pulp. (The PEO is not affected by any additives.) I have tried it without the formation aid in the base sheet and I find the painting pulp does not flow as well and is not very clear.  There are two ways to form the base sheet. The first is the conventional way of dipping the mould and deckle into the vat and letting it drain, then couching the sheet onto a piece of pellon. The second is the method that Rick teaches. The mould and deckle are assembled with a pellon between them, and they are clamped together with C-clamps. A piece of plastic sheeting is placed over the deckle and the pellon, making a plastic-lined deckle box. The pulp is poured into the plastic and then the plastic is pulled out. When the sheet is well drained on the mould, the sheet is moved, still on its pellon, and placed on a heavy padding of newsprint or felts. Usually, it is still too wet to work on without disturbing the surface. To remedy this, I place a second piece of pellon on the sheet with more newsprint or another felt on top. I then gently tighten the surface of the base sheet by lightly rolling a brayer over the sheet several times. The sheet is ready when it is no longer shiny with water. At this point I place my stencil on the base sheet. I then roll the brayer over the stencil to remove any air bubbles. I use a highly overbeaten and hydrated pulp to make my lines and marks. I pigment about a cup of overbeaten pulp with liquid pigments. This pulp does not need retention aid as the fibers have so many sites receptive to pigment from overbeating. I keep the pulp in small containers with an equally small amount of formation aid (just a dribble) and enough water to make it flow through the stencil. I usually use the PMP formation aid for pigmented pulps but, if I plan to apply them by spraying, I use no formation aid. The final mixture is so fine it looks like a watercolor wash.             I then paint the pulp onto the stencil with a very soft brush (I like fan brushes best), or I spray the pulp with an atomizer. I have tried laundry-type spray bottles but the spray they produce is not fine enough to create a mist and this tends to clog up or leave coarse pieces of pulp on the surface of the sheet. A pulp sprayer should spray the pulp through the stencil lines. When I have finished painting, I remove the stencil carefully. (The base sheet may stick to the stencil if the sheet is too wet or too thin.) I then let the pulp rest and drain before moving on to the pressing step. I use a 12-ton Carriage House press for my post of painted sheets. I have learned not to press too hard or too fast or I may have beautifully stencil-painted pulp pushed out to the edges of my sheets! Taking this step slow and easy works best. The drying process may be the most difficult to achieve for the home papermaker. Using overbeaten pulp means that there can be high shrinkage if the sheet is dried without enough restraint. I have experienced seersucker paper when I used drying boards and fans. The sheet needs to be dried fairly quickly and the most efficient way I have found is to use a photographer’s drymount press. This consists of a flat bed with a thick foam pad on it, and a top bed of metal that holds a heat element. The top bed is pressed down onto the foam pad. This is an expensive piece of equipment when new, but photography shops often sell used presses.  To dry a wet sheet I make a sandwich, which I encase in two pieces of sheet metal (or anything waterproof and heatproof) so as not to damage the press. My sandwich consists of: one piece of sheet metal, four blotters, four felts, the wet sheet, a piece of pellon, and the second piece of sheet metal, in that order (with the blotters on the bottom). As I assemble the sandwich, I transfer the sheet from the original pellon to a dry pellon, to prevent sticking.  Each sheet takes about ten minutes to dry at 225˚ F. If the sheet does not dry thoroughly in the press, it will begin to cockle. If it does this, I rewet it with a spray bottle and redry it. (In the Winter 2003 Hand Papermaking, Meg Black suggests using polyvinyl adhesive, which might allow flat drying under restraint without the drymount press.5 It might be worth trying this.) I hope this process, which I enjoy from start to finish, will remove some of the mystery and frustration in creating fine lines in handmade papers. My work focuses on the close-up image or form. Gathering patterns from nature always makes for a relaxing afternoon. I wander the beach or woods with my camera and sketchpad or go through old photos, looking for the image that fits my idea. Sometimes an idea comes to me after I have gone through photos or observed natural patterns during a walk. Making and using the stencils may be only the beginning of a planned artwork. I often use my pulp line drawings as a background pattern onto which I collage, paint with metallic acrylics, rub with pastels, or apply emphasis with Conté crayons. I also freely cut into my patterned papers and find that tiny areas carry their own meaning independent from the whole. In other words, after making the fine-line handmade paper, I turn the papers into mixed media collages or constructions. Stencils can also be used with other media, such as acrylics on the surface of dry handmade papers. Enjoy looking for your own patterns, references, and symbols that might be appropriate for becoming line drawings and burning into stencils. Notes1. Klee, Paul. Dialogue With Nature. Edited by E. G. Gűse; Prestel-Verlag, Munich, 19, p. 44.2. American Heritage Dictionary; Third Edition; Houghton Mifflin Company.3. Lippard, Lucy. Overlay. Pantheon Books, New York, 1983. pp. 129-30.4. American Heritage Dictionary.5. “Landscapes in Paper”, Meg Black; Hand Papermaking, Winter 2002, Volume 17, Number 2, p. 37.