Papermaker Catherine Nash and her husband, photographer and videographer Robert Renfrow, recently produced two instructional videotapes that present an impressive amount of information in the space of only two hours. Both tapes are geared toward papermaking in the classroom (primary and secondary grades) but could also be used as guidance for individuals learning the craft. The major approach of these videotapes has Nash describing and demonstrating different papermaking techniques. In the first tape she starts by introducing herself as an artist and a teacher. She then describes how papermaking can be effectively incorporated into more of the school curriculum than just fine art, including social studies, chemistry, and language arts. (She returns to this point several times later, both for specific projects and at the end of the videotape.) The first project involves making a sheet from recycled paper. This is decidedly low-tech and intentionally so. With waste paper and discarded trimmings from mat boards soaked in water and then dispersed in a blender, sheets are made with a hand-built mould and a busboy's vat, couched onto Handi-wipe felts, and dried on top of students' desks. Nash follows this by demonstrating how to make a laminated sheet with a shaped deckle, simply formed using duct tape on the mould screen. Throughout these projects and the rest, she provides logical, clear, practical advice. A few minor misstatements (such as referring to agitating the vat by hand before sheetforming as a way to hydrate fibers) are harmless and forgivable given the otherwise large amount of pertinent and accurate facts and advice she shares. The project involving processing plant fiber in the second half of the first videotape struck me as ambitious for a classroom setting, in part because of the many steps involved. But Nash has clearly taught this herself (as is obvious from short, intercut scenes of school kids engaged in the process). As with the rest of the presentation, the information is clear and her adaptation to the school environment makes sense. Previous experience with both the technique and working in the classroom is advisable for both this exercise and those in the second videotape. The advanced techniques and special projects covered in the second videotape include: coloring pulp; using templates; making murals, handmade paper collages, and books; and both low-relief and three-dimensional sculpture. This represents a lot of material for one hour, but Nash works through it just as effectively and clearly as in the first videotape. Along the way she touches on papermaking as a science (explaining in some detail the way to color pulp with pigments and retention aid); safety precautions (using a mask in handling dry pigments); and many useful tips for identifying when a step is complete (as just one example, sponging dry pulp in a three-dimensional mould until no water appears when you press the pulp with your finger). Conscious of school and teachers' budgets, she shares useful ideas for getting inexpensive or free materials, including bendable metal strips for making shaped templates (cut from old lithography plates).  As just one example of the many useful techniques mentioned in the videotape, Nash illustrates the effect of retention aid in coloring fiber, using two jars of water, pigment, and pulp: one has the appropriate amount of retention aid added, one has none. She simply inserts her yellow rubber glove into the two jars and it is immediately clear that the water in the jar without the retention aid is still full of pigment while the pigment in the other jar has left the water and attached itself to the fiber. This simple test, like others shown, is easy to understand and duplicate. The most complex project presented, to which Nash also devotes the most time, involves making a sculptural casting from a solid three-dimensional object. She gives careful attention to preparing the model (using flexible metal strips to separate the two halves), explaining undercuts and how to avoid them, applying the plaster, and then casting pulp into the plaster negatives. This project is clearly the most advanced and is, appropriately, saved for last. Nash leads up to it by first demonstrating a low-relief cast using colored pulps in different areas of a figurative image mold. By the time she gets to the three-dimensional exercise, viewers have seen all of the basic techniques they need to tackle this final task and to teach it to their students. Nash's direct and open delivery, in which she warmly and cheerfully addresses the camera as though she were talking to us in person, makes the information she presents very accessible. This pleasant tone feels completely natural and unforced. Clearly she has taught this material frequently and feels comfortable doing so. The content seems unscripted, which adds to the immediacy and is only slightly problematic in a few places where she realizes she has forgotten a step or an important point (but then immediately clarifies). The producers included a useful device in helping to convey the broad amount of information they wanted to cover: short text hints and tips overlaid onto the image after filming. These work like footnotes or parenthetical comments in published text, supplementing the main content without interrupting the audio-visual flow of the material being presented. Also, the inside cover of the box containing the videotapes is cleverly used for additional information: definitions of terms specific to papermaking, a list of learning objectives, and suggested activities. Some of the information is hard to read through the plastic cover and much of this text is repeated for the two tapes. Nevertheless, this is an excellent way of including text with a videotape, as it solves the problem of an inserted sheet or brochure getting separated from the tape. The overall production quality of these videotapes is high. The clear camera shots are largely fixed, which usually works fine. The predominant mid-range shot of Nash behind a table full of papermaking equipment and projects in front of her fills the frame well and encompasses most of her movements. (In a few places, Nash reaches outside the view of the camera and the normal mix of verbal and visual information is interrupted.) Close-ups are employed judiciously for showing detailed work. One of the nice features of instructional videotape like these is that they can be viewed repeatedly, either in whole or in specific segments. Given the large amount of content packed into these two volumes, this is a good thing, as few would be able to digest all of the details and steps in a single viewing. Above all else, Nash presents clearly in these videotapes her knowledge of papermaking and how to teach it. Her enthusiasm about papermaking, especially teaching it to kids, is clear and likely to be infectious. Michael Durgin