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HAND PAPERMAKING N E W S L E T T E R
Number 106, April 2014
Newsletter Editor: Shireen Holman
Advertising & Listings: Mary Tasillo
Desktop Production: Amy Richard
Columnists: Eugenie Barron, Sidney Berger, Maureen and Simon Green, Helen Hiebert, Elaine Koretsky, Margaret Mahan, Winifred Radolan, Mary Tasillo.
Hand Papermaking Newsletter is published quarterly. Annual subscriptions are $55 in North America or $80 overseas, including two issues of the journal Hand Papermaking. For more subscription information, or a list of back issue contents and availability, contact:
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The deadline for the next newsletter (July 2014) is May 15. Please direct all correspondence to the address above. We encourage letters from our subscribers on any relevant topic. We also solicit comments on articles in Hand Papermaking magazine, questions or remarks for newsletter columnists, and news of special events or activities. Classified ads are $2.00 per word with a 10-word minimum. Rates for display ads are available upon request.
Hand Papermaking is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Staff: Tom Bannister, Executive Director; Mina Takahashi, Magazine Editor; Shireen Holman, Newsletter Editor and Office Manager; Mary Tasillo, Outreach; Suzanne Oberholtzer, Design Director. Board of Directors: Tom Balbo, Zina Castañuela, Jeffrey Cooper, Kerri Cushman, Susan Mackin Dolan, Susan Gosin, Mary Hark, Steve Kostell, Kate Martinson, Anne Q. McKeown, Julie McLaughlin, Amy Richard, Michelle Samour, Gibby Waitzkin, Eileen Wallace, Teri Williams, Erin Woodbrey. International Board of Advisors: Yousef Ahmad (Qatar), Timothy Barrett (US), Simon J. Blattner (US), Kathryn & Howard Clark (US), Mandy Coppes-Martin (South Africa), Jane Farmer (US), Peter Ford (UK), Helen Frederick (US), Peter & Pat Gentenaar (Netherlands), Simon Barcham Green (UK), Dard Hunter III (US), Kyoko Ibe (Japan), Winsome Jobling (Australia), Elaine Koretsky (US), Carolina Larrea (Chile), Roberto Mannino (Italy), Beatrix Mapalagama (Austria), Bob Matthysen (Belgium), Giorgio Pellegrini (Italy), Brian Queen (Canada), Victoria Rabal (Spain), Vicky Sigwald (Argentina), Lynn Sures (US). Co-founders: Amanda Degener and Michael Durgin.
Dear Hand Papermakers,
Permit me to introduce ourselves. I am Fernando Bacallao and together with Madelyn Tamayo (friend), Judith Bacallao (daughter), and Yunia Pavon (former student), we form a tightly knit group of paper enthusiasts here in Miami Gardens. Just now we are family sized, but with a view towards growth we have formed the South Florida Association of Paper Artists and Papermakers.
A certain modesty is called for, as at the moment the workspace that we have is at my home: specifically, under a tent in the patio affectionately called The Gazebo where papermaking takes place. In the meantime we are looking for more adequate facilities. We aspire to insert ourselves into the cultural life of the community, to reach out to artists and papermakers in the area and create a common studio space we can all share. We thus welcome everyone interested in handmade paper: from painters and printmakers and book artists to writers.
Beginners we may be, but only in the sense that we are beginning a second time in a new country. In fact we are all veteran papermakers from Holguin, Cuba, where as a professor at the professional art school El Alba, I established the first hand papermaking facilities and taught classes there twenty years ago. In addition to the art school I was instrumental in the installation of papermaking at two other venues in the city: the provincial workshop “Papiro” and the printing complex Jose Miro Argenter. Today Holguin is “Paper City” with a small cottage industry where whole families are involved with the micropublishing of editions of handmade paper, woodcuts, and collography.
Our broad experience with artisan paper and its interaction with printmaking and painting include the publishing of artist books together with their exhibition at international book fairs. The first editions we made at El Alba were exhibited in Montreal in 1996. There followed subsequent series of artist book exhibitions in Habana, Guadalajara, and Santo Domingo.
While I speak of our local community here in Miami I am fully aware that I am addressing a much larger community of like-minded paper enthusiasts through the pages of Hand Papermaking. For Madelyn, Yunia, and myself, guided by the same passion that has led all of us into this realm of handmade paper, it is an honor to count ourselves among you.
Fernando. Bacallao, Madelyn Tamayo, Yunia Pavon, Judith Bacallao
Miami Gardens, Florida
fernandobacallao6@gmail.com
Dear Hand Papermaking Readers,
The arts community mourned the loss of one of its own when artist Timothy Lionel Ray died on February 9th last year at the age of 72. Ray, a Minnesota artist, was born in Indian Head, Saskatchewan, and studied at the University of Manitoba School of Art, where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He went on to earn his Masters of Fine Art degree from the University of Arkansas. He worked as an artist and educator, focusing on painting and papermaking at Moorhead State University (later MSUM) where he taught for several decades.
I had the pleasure of being taught by Mr. Ray at Minnesota State University, Moorhead, in 1995-1996. As a college art student studying long hours and working in studio even longer hours, I didn’t realize that those hours would probably be my best memories of time gone past. In studio art school, you work alone, but must present your work to the class for critique once a week. Also, you were expected to meet with the professor for an hour or more each week. Tim Ray was a very patient man but also a wonderful teacher, and even a mentor to me.
Students always think they have special relationships with their teachers. They think that they are the only ones who really knew that teacher. They believe that they were the only ones the teacher liked, etc. I understand now that many people knew Mr. Ray as their teacher, their mentor, their friend.
Ray lived and worked in a small, old church in Moorhead, which he converted into an art studio. I visited him a couple of times there after he had retired, sipping single malt scotch with him and Ann, his partner. Over the years, I would see Tim less and less at various events in Moorhead. I saw him for the last time in 2012 at the Rourke Art Gallery, Moorhead, for my one-man exhibition. I think he was checking up on my work, and I appreciated his critique and guidance that day! He said that I should look into having more shows. His proclamation that I was “ready” for the Art World was the best thing I could have heard! For that, I will always be grateful.
In a strange twist of fate worthy of a Greek tragedy, Tim’s son Sean Ray died on the way to his father’s funeral. He and his partner died in a car accident during a blizzard along I-94. Tim Ray’s grandson was also seriously injured in the accident.
At the time of his death, Tim Ray was working on a lifetime retrospective (Raytrospective) of his work for the North Dakota Museum of Art in Grand Forks, and later at the Ecce Gallery in Fargo. This exhibition can still be viewed at http://timothyrayart .com
Timothy Ray’s art, a combination of painting, printmaking, and papermaking, was non-representational and abstract. I can remember seeing it and thinking at first, “What is this?” Ray would paint or relief print on plastic sheets and layer in Japanese handmade papers. Then, after it had dried, he would peel it all off and cut it into strips or shapes. After assembling it together, he would even add other layers of direct paint or perhaps use such printmaking techniques as chine collé or collagraph. This non-objective “collage painting” would then take on a new life.
Thank you Tim for being my teacher and mentor (as well as others’), and for making your art for everyone to see and enjoy. You are missed, loved, and respected as an artist and teacher and I was blessed to have been taught by you!
Sincerely,
Jeff Weispfenning
Minneapolis, Minnesota
http://jeffweispfenning.com/
Dear Papermakers,
A friend of mine, Jan Campo, grows ornamental plants and bulbs in Costa Rica. His plants are shipped all over the world. Jan has a neighbor who grows bananas. Both of them use thousands of cardboard boxes each year to export their products. On average they pay $1.50 (US) for one cardboard banana box. Often there is a shortage of boxes and they have to wait for deliveries. It seems to me that it might be a commercially sound plan to make the cardboard out of the banana tree trunks. To sell a product boxed in paper made of the waste of the product seems to be the right thing to do.
My ideal plan is to have a pulp and cardboard industry set up on the plantation. Jan has sent me chopped up banana trunk, which I beat to pulp in half an hour with my Peter Beater. It makes nice paper. If it were thicker, possibly reinforced, it could be used for banana boxes.
The next step is the sheet forming of cardboard, preferably in the shape of a folded out box. I have seen early Fourdriniers, late 19th century, which make a slow but steady, thick paper on a moving copper screen. Since this is not really my field, I wonder if there is someone out there who knows more about this, and has ideas about sheet forming in the tropics in order to make banana boxes.
It must be a basic, simple technique that can be done on the spot. Hopefully many small pulp and paper factories can be set up next to or on the plantation site. This cuts transportation costs and uses the whole product of the plantation.
Please contact me with your ideas. My e-mail address is: gentor@hetnet.nl
Peter Gentenaar
Rijswijk, Netherlands
P.S. Jan’s plantation is working in accordance with Global Good Agricultural Practice (G.A.P.), which connects farmers and brand owners in the production and marketing of safe food to achieve: A universal standard; safe and sustainable food; safe production methods; responsible use of resources; welfare of workers and animals; protection of scarce resources; easier certification and wider markets for producers; reliable sourcing and processing for retailers, etc. http://www.globalgap.org/uk_en/
> TEACHING HAND PAPERMAKING
Based in Philadelphia, Winifred Radolan operates an itinerant teaching papermill, and has taught papermaking to thousands of adults and children. Here Winnie describes her return to the TOPS program, this time teaching young adults to make three-dimensional cast paper vessels.
Just before the Christmas holidays, I was delighted to be asked to return to the TOPS program (To Our Positive Success) in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, to work with the group of young adults with developmental disabilities that I had the privilege to introduce to papermaking last year. With a couple of sessions of two-dimensional papermaking under their belts, they were quite interested in exploring the notion of three-dimensional paper. I had a few concerns about how my cast paper vessel project could be most successfully presented within the time frame and with the variety of personal challenges the young people experienced. So I put on my “thinking cap” to design a project that would maximize their success rate while providing me insight as to what I might expect with future, more complex casting adventures.
I wanted to present a lesson that could be successfully accomplished within a two-hour time frame. Ideally, the project would provide the opportunity for some measure of individual creativity, without proving overwhelming for anyone. Also, there should be as few technical issues as possible that might impact the final outcome. I decided upon having everyone cast low relief paper medallions, which could later be embellished and assembled as a group collaborative piece if desired.
For the actual moulds, I liked the looks of the 4½” diameter lids that come with my favorite brand of hummus. In addition to a raised radius, they also featured a collar of knurled bumps, designed to grip the bottom container snugly. They seemed as though they would provide built-in visual interest and uniformity. Since I already had a small collection, it was no great sacrifice to eat additional hummus in order to bring my total of saved lids up to the required number of fourteen!
To further create embossed/debossed areas within the medallion moulds, I decided to revisit the use of kids’ “Fun Foam,” which is easily cut, and sticky on one side, with a peel-off backing. I pre-cut two circles for everyone. One had a diameter of 3¾”, while the second was 2¼” across. In ink, I marked the larger circle’s center area for the positioning of the smaller circle on top. I planned on allowing the young people to cut scallops or rays or some simple design around the exterior of the larger circle before affixing it to the lid. The smaller circle was to be centered atop the larger. And the small cut scraps could be arranged in a design atop the smaller circle, creating raised layers in the mould, which would be indented layers in the cast medallions.
Further preparations included beating the fibers and assembling sufficient plastic containers to distribute pulp amongst the group for maximum efficiency during the workshop. I prepared 2nd cut cotton linter pulp for our casting. I left a majority of the pulp un-pigmented, and then colored the divided remainder in blue and yellow. I envisioned that, for the lesson, the group of fourteen would sit around two large rectangular tables, with adequate space between them for helpers to step in when necessary. So I gathered many plastic containers to provide everyone easy access to the pulp of their color choice, which would be pre-mixed with water for the ideal casting consistency. I was also prepared with sponges and receptacles to hold the excess water collected during hand pressing the medallions.
On the day of my visit we began our workshop with a group discussion of the fact that paper art is not necessarily only two-dimensional. We were going to explore creating simple moulds that would allow us to shape and dry our pulp into low-relief designs to form circular medallions. I demonstrated making the moulds by arranging and affixing the two “Fun Foam” circles to a plastic lid. Incidentally, Jane Abesh, Occupational Therapist and program organizer, made one small but very helpful alteration in my plan. She suggested that we quickly pre-cut any designs around the exterior of the larger circle, rather than run the risk of clients going overboard with the scissors. I gratefully took her suggestion. Everyone was anxious to commence designing their own mould, and with just a small amount of assistance, produced some creative designs by using the small foam scraps for further dimensional embellishment of their lids.
With fourteen completed lid moulds, it was time to demonstrate the actual application of the wet paper pulp. I showed everyone how to gather a golf ball sized lump of wet pulp and transfer it back and forth between the open palms of each hand in a “patty-cake” fashion. This motion was to align the fibers more smoothly before they placed the pulp over their design in the lids. They were to repeat the process until their lids were covered with pulp, opting to use any combination of the three available colors they desired.
The group spread out around the two worktables and immediately dove into the containers of casting pulp. Lid moulds were filled in practically less time than it would take readers to complete half this article! One error in judgment occurred when plastic gloves were made available “just in case” anyone balked at the tactile sensation of the pulp. Everyone saw gloves, and even though there had been no prior requests, everyone suddenly needed gloves! This certainly impeded the dexterity needed for casting, but in the end, it didn’t seem to matter. And everyone mastered the final sponge-pressing stage with a minimum of table flooding, but that I must also credit to the wonderful crew of volunteer helpers!
Because casting usually requires the paper pulp to dry in the moulds before results can be viewed, I could only evaluate the success of the lesson with the observation that everyone had participated, no one had been too concerned with the process, which we completed by lunch time, and no one got so wet as to need a change of clothing!
I left the final presentation of the collaborative piece up to Jane Abesh. I had suggested that the dried medallions could be embellished with a small surface design of paint. But her more experienced judgment prevailed again, “I decided not to have the clients paint them. I knew they would go crazy with the paint and would obscure the beautiful and subtle appearance of the paper. They don’t know the meaning of restraint.” I appreciated her wisdom in this matter, as I also reflected on my horror when a certain group of high school students buried their cast paper vessels under acrylic paint! How did I forget that! At any rate, Jane made an artful presentation of the medallions, collaged onto a substrate that included a variety of complementary textures of paper and ribbons, and I was delighted when she sent a photo of the completed piece.
> PAPER HISTORY
Maureen and Simon Green, from the United Kingdom, write a joint column on Paper History. Maureen is a paper historian, and author of Papermaking at Hayle Mill 1808- 1987. Simon was the last of the Green family to run Hayle Mill. He provides consulting services to papermakers worldwide. In this column, “Killing Work,” Maureen describes the use of chlorine to bleach even the poorest specimens of rags to create white paper.
In 1774 the Swedish chemist, Karl Wilhelm Scheele, discovered what he termed ‘dephlogisticated muriatic acid,’ ‘renamed chlorine in 1810.’1 Following Scheele’s work a number of individuals investigated methods of bleaching, including William Simpson, who began a series of experiments at his mill near Edinburgh in 1791. Visiting Simpson’s mill on a fact-finding mission in 1795, the American papermaker, Joshua Gilpin, was more than interested in what he discovered there. Gilpin wrote in his extensive and detailed diaries:
This improvement was first adopted by William Simpson from Kerr’s translation of Berthollet’s essay on bleaching. William Simpson after a number of experiments adopts the following mode—the coarse rags are first put in the beating engine for 2 hours, then carried into a larger boiler room where they are boiled in a strong alkali of lime of potash, pearl ash or even in limewater itself—after being thus boiled they are taken out and put in a square box of cast iron with small holes where they are pressed with screw still dry. When dry they are picked to pieces by women and put into square boxes made very stout and tight of the width of an engine—these boxes have a cover fitting close which after the rags are in must be made very tight by pressing paper at every crevice where the air can escape. A small furnace is built between two of these boxes—on the top of this furnace is fixed a square cast iron boiler in which is placed a leaden retort and a top to the boiler fastened down.2
The discovery of chlorine meant that even the poorest specimens of rags, including coloured ones, could be bleached to make fine white paper. By the beginning of the nineteenth century a large sector of the industry had invested in some form of chlorine gas chamber in order to maximise supplies of available rags, which were increasingly hard to come by due to an increased pressure of demand. These chambers were hazardous, but with the discovery of chloride of lime3 and the invention of bleaching powder by Charles Tennant in 1799, an easier and safer option was made available. The practice of gas bleaching was gradually phased out and few, if any, employees mourned its passing. The 1865 Report on Paper Mills, commissioned to investigate children’s working conditions in factories, found that gas bleaching was not only volatile; employees engaged in the practice were prone to suffer a number of serious health related complaints. According to the report:
Bleaching powder, which is now generally used in the South, is innocent; but where the material is “gas bleached,” a practice which still prevails in Lancashire, and to some extent elsewhere, injurious results follow, unless proper precautions for the escape of the chlorine are taken. One witness calls it “killing work.”4 “I was at that for three years, and it nearly made an end of me; I used to spit blood; if it catches you when you open a chest, it throws you right down in a kind of faint; you get blown out like a barrel.”5 “I remember being made ill for a week almost, by getting into the smell of some, when they were using it very strong. Sometimes the gas comes out of the chambers and you can smell it half a mile off; it nearly chokes you;” and though this witness goes on to state that it does no harm that he knows of, others speak of its getting on the lungs and “making you spit blood.”6 “When the bleaching is done in a hurry, it is used strong, and then it is very bad; the lads and women being just as likely in most mills to be exposed to it as the men who work in it.”7 Similar effects, though in a modified form, are produced by the use of the “souring” (vitriol) put into the open “engine” to bleach “low sorts” of rag; the chlorine gas is set free and “gets on the chest and makes you cough and retch; I had to go to the doctor and take pills;”8 “it made me get puffed, and blew me up like a toad.”9 They are frequently absent for one or two days at a time in consequence.10
Surprisingly, James Dunbar’s Practical Papermaker: a Complete Guide to the Manufacture of Paper (1887) includes an informative section on gas bleaching, an indication that in some countries the practice continued to the end of the century, possibly beyond.11
Gas-bleaching half-stuff is seldom resorted to in this country, but is still carried on in Russia, and is almost indispensable for bleaching the coarse linen rags so plentiful in that country. Half-stuff, to be satisfactorily gas-bleached, must contain a sufficient amount of moisture, otherwise the outside only will be bleached, and that even an indifferent colour. On the other hand, if the stuff is too wet, the same results will follow. In order to ensure, therefore, a good uniform colour, great care must be taken to see that the stuff contains the proper amount of moisture, and no more. A generally effective method of testing the state of the stuff is to squeeze it between the hands, when, if the pressure causes no escape of water, yet still retains a damp appearance, it is in a proper condition for gas-bleaching. The method of bleaching is as follows: Put 1600 lb. of half-stuff, in the condition mentioned above, loosely into a stone chamber, and seal it in such a manner that it will be perfectly air-tight. Into the lead retort, connected with this chamber by leaden pipes, pour 3 pails of water and 66 lb. of common salt; stir thoroughly, add 65 lb. of manganese; stir again, and close the retort. Next charge a leaden vessel with 119 lb. of vitriol, and let the vitriol drop into the retort containing the water, salt and manganese, through a bell-mouthed bent syphon, which admits the vitriol and at the same time prevents the escape of gas.12 (Three hours must be allowed for the vitriol to drop into the retort.) Then heat the retort with steam for seven hours, and allow two hours for the gas to escape up the mill chimney. For fine stuff, such as willowed rope, one hour extra must be allowed for the escape of the gas.13
Although bleaching was considered a saving grace by paper manufacturers, and its use rapidly spread, within a short period of time the overzealous use of bleach to treat poor quality rags, in combination with poor practice, raised alarm. It was observed that of an edition of 30,000 books printed in 1818 “no perfect copy remained in 1834 because they had fallen to pieces through excessive bleaching with chlorine.”14 Manganese and remnants of vitriol were significant causes of paper degradation as well.
1. Hills, R. L. Papermaking in Britain 1488-1988 (London and the Atlantic Highlands, NJ: The Athlone Press, 1988), p. 3.
2. Hills, R. L., Papermaking in Britain 1488-1988, p., 131. Joshua Gilpin (1765-1841) started the first paper mill in Delaware.
3. Calcium hypochlorite Ca(CIO)2
4. Testimony: Mr. Johnson (foreman), Messrs. G. W. Hayes and Co., Two Waters Mills, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.
5. Testimony: Mr. Mutton (millworker), Messrs. G.W. Hayes and Co., Two Waters Mills, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.
6. Testimony: Edward Barrington, Messrs. H. and G. Coop, Heap Bridge, Bury, Lancashire.
7. Testimony: Mr. Horrocks, manager the Standish Paper Mills, Lancashire, and one of his workmen.
8. Testimony: W. Smith (engineer at beating engine), Messrs. Pewtress & Company, Eashling, Godalming, Surrey and Mr. Hayes, Messrs. G.W. Hayes & Co., Two Waters Mills, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.
9. Testimony: Mr. Bonner, rag foreman, Messrs. Pewtress & Company, Eashing, Godalming, Surrey.
10. Command Papers: Reports of Commissioners 19th Century House of Commons Sessional Paper – Sessions 1866 [3678] ‘Report on Paper Mills’ by Mr. H. W. Lord. Lord travelled throughout Britain visiting paper and other industrial concerns. He conducted a series of interviews with workers, including the foremen, women and children. Lord’s reports, spanning a number of years, resulted in a succession of Factory Acts intended to protect women and children working in the mills.
11. Dunbar, J., The Practical Papermaker, a Complete Guide to the Manufacture of Paper 3rd. ed. (Leith: Mackenzie & Storrie, 1887), p.12.
12. Vitriol more commonly referred to as sulphuric acid (H2SO4).
13. Dunbar, p. 12.
14. Hills, p.133.
> DECORATED PAPER
Sidney Berger, a professor at Simmons College in Boston and Director of the Phillips Library at Peabody Essex Museum, has been collecting and researching decorated paper for over forty years. Here Sid discusses the variety of techniques used to make decorative wallpapers.
Over the last weekend I went to the big Armory Antiques Fair in New York City. Naturally I gravitated to the booths that had books and paper—not too many of them. The one that caught my attention, however, and drew me in was that of a wallpaper dealer, who had on display some of the most beautiful wall coverings I have ever seen. Two pieces, of a matched set, were particularly splendid.
They were large, maybe eight feet square. As a pair, they were designed to be placed in the same room, possibly side by side on a long wall, or maybe on opposite walls.
They depicted a landscape scene with well dressed eighteenth century people doing what well dressed eighteenth century people do in a landscape: holding parasols and eating and walking and such. The woman at the booth told me they were hand colored and were quite rare. She hardly needed to say this. I began trying to figure out how I would get them home. They were framed and huge and heavy. Where would I put them? How would I be able to fit them into our collection? I asked her the price and she said she worked for the dealer, who was not in the book then. She would email me the answer.
Yesterday I learned: they were $25,000 each, or, if I bought both, $49,999.99. Just my luck. I didn’t have enough pennies for that last 99, so I told her I would think about it. That was not a lie. I am still thinking about it. And I will for years to come.
They are, after all, decorated paper, and that is what I collect (and write about). In fact, Michèle and I have quite a nice little collection of wallpapers, some from the nineteenth century, and a couple of pieces earlier than that. I needn’t give much of a dissertation on this form of house decoration. Everyone knows what they are and how to identify them. What is fascinating, however, is how they were produced. They come from every kind of paper decoration known, including surface printing of various kinds, decoration in the pulp (as with inclusions), embossing, and even the addition of decorative elements to their surface. For instance, I have seen flocked wallpapers, with the fuzzy raised areas that imitate velvet.
One of the themes of my columns has touched on the inventiveness of papermakers over the centuries. For instance, I have written on kinkarakawakami (also called kinkarakami), the amazing artificial leather paper made in Japan to look like the decorative leather panels of European state houses and mansions.1 In the case of flocked paper, as I just indicated, the aim was to imitate the rich look of velvet. “Historians claim that flocking can be traced back to circa 1000 BC, when the Chinese used resin glue to bond natural fibers to fabrics. Fiber dust was strewn onto adhesive coated surfaces to produce flocked wall coverings in Germany during the Middle Ages. In France, flocked wall coverings became popular during the reign of Louis XIV of France” [http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flocking_(texture)].
Other printing techniques include straight printing from wood blocks, possibly mixed with (or done over) a paste wash applied to the paper before the block printing; gravure printing; pochoir (that is, printing through a stencil); digital printing; and rotary printing. This last is done, as the name says, from a kind of roller. We have in our collection a number of such rollers, some made of aluminum, one made of wood with decorative linoleum-like pieces fixed to the surface, one wooden one with copper appliqués, and another with the decorative appliqués made out of what looks like type metal. They clearly were used in a press, inked some way, and they printed their patterns—in a single color—to the material that they touched. This material was presumably paper, but in our collection we have several wallpaper sample books that have plastic “wallpapers,” advertised in these books as washable.
For the maniacal collector, of course, the best holding would be a set of, say, six such rollers, each representing every color that was applied to the paper for the final pattern, along with a piece (or, even better, a full roll) of the final printed paper. We do have a wonderful assembly of about 125 large original drawings, done in Japan on kozo paper, that were models for wallpapers, some of which are accompanied by pieces of the final printed products—the wallpapers themselves. A few of these, additionally, are also accompanied by a piece of cloth printed with the same pattern, presumably for people who wanted bed coverings or upholstery to match their wallpaper. This is not only a wonderful thing to have in a collection of decorated papers (the original drawings), it is also a good indication of how the papers were conceived and manufactured. (We also have a similar collection of about 150 smaller such pieces, hand painted in vivid colors, for French wallpapers.)
Our collection contains some eighteenth and nineteenth century pieces of wallpaper, many from the twentieth century, and a host of wallpaper sample books. This is only a tiny part of our collection, and it is just as well. If we truly focused on wallpapers as our collecting passion, we would go nuts in a short time (and broke in a shorter time). After all, we could have such things as the panels I spoke of at the beginning of this column. This dealer’s booth, by the way, had scads of other pieces of these papers for sale. And, needless to say, I wanted them all. It’s just as well that we don’t focus on wallpapers in our collecting. The regular papers are already endless.
1. Sidney E. Berger, “Dutch Gilt Papers as Substitutes for Leather,” Hand Papermaking vol. 24, no. 2 (Winter 2009).
> FOR BEGINNERS
Mary Tasillo is a papermaker, book artist, and mixed media maven based in Philadelphia. She teaches workshops nationally. In this column, “Your Skinny Jeans,” Mary uses the hyperbolic discussion of currency destruction to revisit the basics of paper and its fiber.
I have been getting a kick out of the spate of articles in the media in recent months about Crane’s sourcing of cotton for its currency paper: “Your Skinny Jeans Are Destroying the U.S. Dollar—Literally” (The Atlantic);1 “How tight jeans almost ruined America’s money” (The Washington Post);2 “How Your Skinny Jeans Are Killing Money” (Vogue);3 and more. Apparently Crane & Co., which has been supplying the United States Treasury with currency paper since 1879, can no longer use denim scraps for its paper. Untainted cotton fiber has to be found elsewhere. As a papermaker, well versed in experimentation, I find The Washington Post’s statement that “Even a single fiber of spandex can ruin a batch of currency paper, degrading the strength of the material,” to be hyperbolic. Also, being well versed in an array of fiber options, I can say that the dramatic assertion that the contamination of one fiber source is fatal for currency paper production is absurd. Most outrageously, Megan Garber writes in The Atlantic: “The first thing to know here is that paper currency is not actually—technically— printed on paper, the stuff of trees and pulp.” Megan Garber clearly has not been to any of the papermaking workshops I’ve conducted.
This is a great moment to revisit the very basics of what defines paper within a history that spans both proto-papers such as papyrus and digital paper. Paper, to the purist, is made of plant fibers. The chains of cellulose that make up the fibers bond together at a microscopic level, aided by the physical process of soaking, beating, sheet forming, pressing, and drying—as well as some chemical additives in the case of commercial wood-based production. This differs from the papyrus process, where cross sections of the plant are overlapped and beaten or pressed together. And what of synthetic fibers? Surely many papermakers have experimented with using synthetic and animal based fibers in the papermaking process—silk, paper made from the cotton-polyester blend of military uniforms, numerous projects incorporating old clothing, flags, and human hair. How many times have you been asked about making paper from cat or dog hair? I’ve been asked more times than I care to count.
Some practitioners are purists, while some live for experimentation. I’m fond of relating what a papermaking teacher once told me: synthetic papers make “ookful” paper. I, of course, had to try it myself to see what “ookful” really meant. I found that the synthetic fibers did not break down the same way the plant fibers did, creating a chunky pulp.It is understandable that Crane did not want a chunky dollar bill (though it’s fun to think about, and to contemplate ways in which such a development would help or hinder counterfeiters). And as any of these articles will reveal, once the reader gets past the “Spandex Killed the Dollar Bill” headlines, Crane simply altered their fiber sourcing, as any manufacturer must do from time to time. The implication of many of these headlines—that spandex is somehow implicated in our economic troubles—may be true, but if our currency paper is in danger, it is not due to the makeup of denim but rather to our increasing reliance on digitally-based payment systems. Paper still surrounds us, and these articles and their inaccuracies point to how little many of us know about the materials we touch and use on a day-to-day basis. As individuals interested in the art and craft of handmade paper, our role in educating others about the makeup of the world around us is an important one. It happens every time someone asks us “you do what by hand?” 1. Megan Garber, “Your Skinny Jeans Are Destroying the U.S. Dollar—Literally: Spandex has “contaminated” the cotton that’s been used to make our bank notes,” The Atlantic, Dec 17 2013, 1:43 pm ET, http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/12/ your-skinny-jeans-are-destroying-the-us-dollar-literally/282442/#comments
2. Ylan Q. Mui, “How tight jeans almost ruined America’s money,” (blog), The Washington Post, Dec 16, 2013, 12:39 pm, http://www.washingtonpost .com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/12/16/how-tight-jeans-almost-ruined-americas-money/
3. Lauren Milligan, “How Your Skinny Jeans Are Killing Money,” Vogue News, Dec 18, 2013, http:// www.vogue.co.uk/news/2013/12/18/skinny-jeans -ruining-money-stretch-cotton-dollars
> PAPER IN ACTION
Margaret Mahan, a member of the Peace Paper Project, brings papermaking to marginalized communities as a form of social action or art therapy. This column, entitled “As though trees never happened: A visit to Fresh Press,” is about sustainability in papermaking.
When has my mouth ever watered at the sight of handmade paper? Not just the paper, but also the description of the paper? It certainly was not the case when I made seaweed paper, or found a bucket of abaca tucked around the corner of the odd studio. It happened though, this past November with one visit to Fresh Press in Champaign, Illinois. Let’s see if I can find a better way to describe this low-impact, award-winning papermaking operation than Eric Benson and Steve Kostell do themselves.
Fresh Press is the achievement of a collaboration between a studio artist (Kostell) and a graphic designer (Benson), with the support of a Land Grant Institution (University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign). Both artists were familiar with papermaking prior to Fresh Press. Kostell’s MFA in Intermedia from Arizona State University put him in the hands of John Risseeuw, whose influence shifted Steve’s papermaking practice towards one of material importance. In the midst of Benson’s busy design career (co-creating www .re-nourish.com, among other sustainable design endeavors), Eric learned papermaking from a classmate when he entered a contest to make a sustainable grocery bag.
A couple of years ago, Kostell and Benson co-taught a class on Ethical Design in a Global Economy, focusing on people, not just profit, in entrepreneurship. This heady exploration of sustainable, ethical, and local design led the two to develop a low-impact papermaking system they would come to call Fresh Press. By applying a shared interest in sustainability to a shared interest in papermaking, the team found that agri-fiber (agricultural fiber, as opposed to fiber from trees, rags, or recycled papers) is an ideal fiber for sustainable papermaking. Situated in Illinois, Fresh Press is surrounded by hundreds of miles of agriculture, and an abundance of source material. The fibers they use include agricultural products such as corn stalks, miscanthus, sunflower, and prairie grass, or whatever happens to be in season. They are interested in using what would normally be considered agricultural bi-products and waste.
Through its development, Fresh Press has acquired a beater, press, and dry box by David Reina. The lab is located in a former glass studio, which serves as a perfect papermaking center. Benson and Kostell’s current objective is to make their system truly sustainable by focusing on water filtration, re-using cooking liquor, and closing the loop of the filtration system. In the future, they are looking towards a Life Cycle Analysis to determine if Fresh Press is truly sustainable.
In addition to Fresh Press’s toolbox of research, ingenuity, and, well, tools, is a bright and refreshing attitude towards handmade paper that I think plays a huge role in the project’s success. After a day in the studio, I sat down with Eric over some local barbecue to discuss his motivations to step away from the computer and get dirty with farming and papermaking. He shared a bit of his world-view and it reconfigured mine. From Champaign to Chicago, there are 150 miles of corn and soybean fields. In essence, “from [Champaign] to Chicago, there is just paper.” Fresh Press is very much interested in picking up paper production as though “trees never happened.”
Somehow, such a common sense approach to papermaking comes across as revolutionary. I guess that while the ideas behind Fresh Press are sensible, they are not so common. With that said, Fresh Press is one of my new favorite Papermaking as Social Action pieces because it is making the practice available, transparent, and beneficial to the public. Through its collaborations with Soybean Press and the Institute for Sustainable Technology, Fresh Press merges art with science and delivers both to the Urbana-Champaign community through education and practical adaptations of its product.
The identity of Fresh Press is wrapped in its smartly cultivated image. Let’s take one of their logos for example: “Grow Your Own Paper!” The message here is encouraging people to take on the role of the farmer and papermaker. It is empowering and intriguing, with a historical context. Much of the design for Fresh Press harks back to the work of Lestor Beall, and World War II pro-American industry propaganda. Fresh Press nods a cap to its pseudo-industrial predecessors and calls on citizens to support themselves and their local economies by producing their own paper.
There are also evident twists to microbrewery branding in the Fresh Press image. This is a smart fit, since for Fresh Press and the microbrew industry the local harvest becomes the product. This design might play some role in my salivating over a Fresh Press broadside. But with a paper named Northwinds Switchgrass Blonde, wouldn’t you?
For more information about Fresh Press, see www.freshpress.illinois.edu
> CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN, (865) 436-5860, www.arrowmont.org. Classes and workshops in a variety of disciplines, including papermaking.
E-Textiles and Paper Computing: How to Animate Your Textiles, June 1-7, with Lynne Bruning. Learn how to integrate technology such as LED circuits, conductive fabric swatches, electronic sensors, and microcontrollers with traditional textile arts and paper crafts.
The Poetics of Narrative: Pulp Paint and Collage, June 15-21, with Jo Stealey. Develop narrative and conceptual ideas through surface explorations on handmade paper using under-beaten and overbeaten abaca.
Playing with Paper: Creating, Transforming, and Illuminating Wet & Dry Paper, August 3-9, with Helen Hiebert. Use overbeaten and translucent pulps and embedded materials to create structural forms, and work with dry paper techniques including pop-ups, origamic architecture, lantern forms, and hot air balloon structures.
Cutting Edge, October 4-11, with Béatrice Coron. Create paper images and objects, exploring materials, scale, stenciling, and popups while discovering the incredible variety and applications of contemporary paper cutting.
Asheville BookWorks, Asheville, NC, (828) 255-8444, www.ashevillebookworks.com. Hands-on workshops including bookbinding, printmaking, decorative paper, and basic papermaking.
Miniature Marbling: The Right Size for Small Scale Projects, June 20, with Steve Pittelkow. Explore traditional patterns scaled down for the smallest uses.
Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts, Chicago, IL, (312) 344-6630, www.bookandpaper.org. Papermaking classes in spacious downtown studios.
Desert Paper, Book and Wax, Tucson, AZ, (520) 740-1673. Papermaking, book, and mixed media encaustic workshops, as well as consulting and studio rental. Visit www .papermakingresources.com for registration information.
Dieu Donné Papermill, New York, NY, (212) 226-0573, www.dieudonne.org. Beginning and advanced papermaking classes for adults and children.
Introduction to Contemporary Papermaking, April 8 or May 6, with staff instructor. Learn the basic papermaking process, as well as various artistic techniques.
Creative Techniques for Artists with Open Studio, April 15 or May 13, with staff instructor. Explore advanced techniques and their application for two- and three-dimensional projects, with a different focus at each session; experiment on your own with studio pulps.
The Hall of Awa Japanese Handmade Paper, 141 Kawahigashi, Yamakawa-cho, Yoshinogawashi, Tokushima 779-3401, Japan, fax 81-883-42-6085, www.awagami.com.
The 32nd Handmade Papermaking Workshop, August 6-10, with staff instructors. Learn to prepare kozo bark for cooking, clean and beat the fiber, form sheets, and dry papers using traditional Japanese methods in this intense workshop.
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME, (207) 348-2306, www.haystack-mtn.org. Workshops in various disciplines, including papermaking and book arts. Scholarships available.
Paper Variable Editions, June 22 to July 4, with Paul Wong. Make multiple images in the papermaking process by using techniques such as color pulp stenciling, watermarking, embedding, multi-laminating, blow-outs, and transparencies.
Helen Hiebert Paper Studio, Red Cliff, CO, www.helenhiebertpaperstudio.com. Annual papermaking retreat in the heart of the Rocky Mountains.
Red Cliff Paper Retreat, September 5-7, with Helen Hiebert. Cut, fold, layer, collage, weave, glue, and make paper while exploring its potential in two and three dimensions, creating a variety of objects ranging from sculpture and book arts to lanterns and lamps.
Hook Pottery Paper, LaPorte, IN, (291) 362-9478, jonandrea@hookpotterypaper .com, www.hookpotterypaper.com. Classes in papermaking and pottery and a residency program in northern Indiana.
Hand Papermaking Intensive, June 24-28. Expand your artistic and technical skills to create unusual works; try many possibilities or focus on a few.
Suminagashi, July 18. Learn this intriguing process of floating ink on water using handmade papers.
Paste Papers, July 19. Create beautiful patterned papers using a variety of handmade and machine made papers.
Stenciled Papermaking, July 26. Using cotton rag and abaca fibers, exploring the idea of the unique sheet through pulp stencils.
Papermaking with Plants, August 8-9. Using collected grass and leaf fibers from the local area, create beautiful sheets of paper that are thin, crispy, thick, and tough.
Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN, (612) 215-2520, www.mnbookarts .org. Classes at the Open Book center for book and literary arts.
Beater Training, April 1, with staff instructor. Learn beater operation, safety procedures, and cleaning for MCBA’s three beaters as a prerequisite to renting the beaters for your own use.
Open Studio: Paper Beater, Tuesdays, with staff instructor. Beat fiber for paper for future sheet-forming.
Japanese Papermaking and Decoration, March 27, April 3, 10, 17, & 24, with Bridget O’Malley. Learn the tools and techniques of Japanese papermaking and decoration.
Pulp Painting Weekend, May 3-4, with
Bridget O’Malley. Learn western-style sheet forming and explore simple ways of incorporating imagery into sheets of paper using colored pulps.
Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory and Educational Foundation, Cleveland, OH, (216) 361-9255, http://morganconservatory.org. Workshops in hand papermaking and the arts of the book in an innovative green environment.
Fiber Paper Textile Book Spirit, July 31 - August 3, with Aimee Lee and Velma Bolyard.
Pure Hanji: Korean Papermaking, August 16-17, with Aimee Lee.
Old Ways Book Arts Tools and Workshops, near Santa, ID, (208) 245-3043, traditionalhand@gmail.com, http://www.traditionalhand.com/oldway/. Workshops with Jim Croft in making books from old tools and materials.
Old Ways of Making Books from Raw Materials, July 1-16, with Jim Croft. Learn to create book arts tools by hand, how to process hemp and flax for paper and thread, hand papermaking, and how to make books with wooden boards and brass clasps.
PapierWespe (PaperWasp), Klimschgasse 2/1, Vienna Austria, (0676) 77-33-153, office@papierwespe.at, www .papierwespe.at. Workshops in English and German taught by paper specialists in downtown Vienna.
Papyrus from Plants and Veggies, May 16-17 or October 24-25, with studio instructor.
Playing With Paper, June 27, with Helen Hiebert.
Paper Balloons, Tubes, & Vessels, June 28-29, with Helen Hiebert.
Penland School, Penland, NC, (828) 765-2359, www.penland.org. A full program of craft workshops, including papermaking.
Eastern Papermaking Possibilities, May 25– June 6, with Aimee Lee. Prepare fibers, form and finish sheets, use local fibers for paper and color, and manipulate sheets until they retain hardly a trace of their origins, exploring the depth and breadth of Eastern Papermaking techniques.
Sculpting with Handmade Paper, July 20 - August 5, with Jo Stealey. Explore the potential for sculptural handmade paper using found molds, soft molds, and permanent armatures with cotton, abaca, flax, kozo, and other plant materials.
Peters Valley Craft Center, Layton, NJ, (973) 948-5200, www.petersvalley.org. Workshops in papermaking and a variety of crafts.
Eastern Paper Magic, June 27 - July 1, with Aimee Lee. Learn to process fibers to make paper with traditional and hybrid eastern techniques, which include texturing, felting, pasting, slicing, spinning, and weaving.
Pyramid Atlantic, Silver Spring, MD, (301) 608-9101, www.pyramidatlanticartcenter .org. Workshops in papermaking, printmaking, and book arts.
Papermaking Society, Third Thursdays. For details contact Associate Papermakers Laura Kinneberg and Lynette Spencer at pyramidpaper@gmail.com.
Intro to Western Papermaking, April 12, with Gretchen Schermerhorn. Learn the basic techniques of Western-style hand papermaking, including pulp preparation, sheet forming, couching, pressing, and drying.
3-D Flax with Armatures, May 10-11, with Lynette Spencer. Create armatures, pull sheets of flax paper, and drape or form the sheets around the armatures, resulting in interesting sculptural forms as the paper dries and stretches.
Shifu, May 24, with Saaraliisa Yliato. Prepare Japanese papers to make shifu; twist the paper into thread using a rough brick, hand held spindles and spinning wheels; and finally weave a small piece of cloth on a simple card loom from these hand spun threads.
Robert C. Williams Paper Museum, Atlanta, GA, (404) 894-5726, http://ipst.gatech.edu /amp/.
From Paper To Print, Wednesdays April 2 through May 7, with Suzanne Sawyer. Investigate the basics of making paper by hand and letterpress printing.
Introduction to Marbling, April 5, with Marcia Watt. Learn traditional paper marbling, and make several sheets of your own beautiful marbled paper.
Earth Day Inspired Papermaking/Printmaking Evening for K-12 Educators, April 22, with Jerushia Graham. Learn papermaking and printmaking processes that can be used in the classroom while making prints and paper of your own.
Sculptural Paper, May 10, with Suzanne Sawyer. Create armatures of wire, reed, and other materials as a substrate for handmade paper, and layer the newly formed wet sheets of paper to create a ‘skin’ for the armatures.
San Francisco Center for the Book, San Francisco, CA, (415) 565-0545, www.sfcb.org. Book arts classes and events year-round.
Tin Can Papermaking, April 21, with Julia Goodman. Enjoy an introduction to the history and how-tos of papermaking using simple methods.
Sarvisberry Studio and Gallery, Floyd, VA, (540) 745-6330, www.sarvisberry.com. Experience handmade paper in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Open Studio Days, call for schedule. Make your own paper and work on personal projects.
Sawtooth School for Visual Art, Winston- Salem, NC, (336) 723-7395, www.sawtooth .org.
Introductory Papermaking, April 25-26, with Anne Murray. Create paper from a variety of fibers, including some available in your own garden.
Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Otis, Oregon, (541) 994-5485, www.sitkacenter .org. Workshops and residencies in a range of media.
Watermarks in Handmade Paper, June 21-22, with Jenn Woodward. Learn to make handmade paper with two types of watermarks— ones that are readily apparent and ones that are hidden until held up to light. .
The Society for Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, PA, (412) 261-7003, www.contemporarycraft.org. Classes in fiber, book art, and other media in Pittsburgh’s Strip District. Papermaking 101, March 22-23, with Katy Dement.Learn to build a mould, process pulp, form sheets, and explore a variety of decorative techniques. Joomchi: Transforming an Ancient Craft into Contemporary Art, May3-4, with Julie Sirek. Learn this traditional Korean paper felting method and incorporate patterning, stitching, drawing, and cutting. Making with Mother inMind, May 10, with Katy Dement. Explore modern papermaking techniques with color, texture, and collage while using natural and found materials. SpeakEasyPress, Dillsboro, NC, www.speak easypress.com, frank@speakeasypress .com, (205)310-4740. Working and teaching studio space for papermaking, letterpress printing, and bookbinding. Workshops, apprenticeships and collaborative work with other artists are available in the print/binding and papermaking studios. Introduction to Papermaking, April 12-13, August 9-10, or September 20-21, with FrankBrannon. Use a variety of plant fibers to produce paper pulp using theHollander beater and focus on sheet formation. Texas A&M University CushingMemorial Library, College Station, TX, http://cushing. library.tamu.edu/events/book-historyworkshop,or contact todd.samuelson@tamu.edu. Offering an annual Book History Workshop. BookHistory Workshop, May 18-23. Complete a complete facsimile of an 18th-century pamphlet, exploring printing and other handpress-era technologies such as typecasting, papermaking, bookbinding, and illustration. Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill, Truro, MA, (508) 349-7511, www.castlehill.org. Workshops and events in the arts onCape Cod. Monoprint, Markmaking, & Relief, June 3-5, with Paula Roland andJennie Frederick. Create encaustic monoprints using kozo (mulberry) fiber forms as stencils, and as elements in the final works. Women’s Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY 12472, (845) 658-9133, info@wsworkshop .org, www.wsworkshop.org.Summer Arts Institute includes workshops in papermaking, printmaking, book arts, photography, and other media. Paper and Place, July 14-18, with Ann MarieKennedy. Construct 2-D and 3-D works of paper, choosing materials that become part of the content, with a focus on creating unique works of paper that reflect elements of the natural world. Cross Pollination: Handmade Paper and Encaustic,July 21-25, with Ann Marie Kennedy and Cynthia Winika. Use cotton, abaca, flax, and ArtFarm fibers to form sheets, then apply techniques of layering, embedding, translucency and opacity, stenciling, pulp painting, embossing, and adding encaustic. Sculptural Papermaking: Unusual 3-D Techniques, July 28-August 1, with Melissa Jay Craig. Use kozo and high-shrinkage fibers to make compelling paper forms, and use fiber reactive dyes to provide brilliant color. MoldMaking Workshop for Casting Handmade Paper or Clay Objects, August 4-8, with Tatana Kellner & Ruth McKinney Burket. Make complex plaster molds for casting to create multiples of a single form using cast handmade paper and slip casting. Paper +Dye: Japanese Papermaking and Natural Colors, August 11-15, with Tatiana Ginsberg.Explore methods of coloring fiber before the sheet forming process. > EVENTSPaper & Book Intensive (PBI) takes place May 11-22 at Oxbow in Saugatuck, Michigan. This year’s instructors include Cor Aerssens, Kerri Cushman, SamuelFeinstein, Ann Marie Kennedy, Barb Korbel, Ken Leslie, Chela Metzger, RyanO’Malley, Priscilla Spitler, and Bonnie Stahlecker. For course descriptions and application information go to www.paperbookintensive.org. The 2014 Paper/Print/Book Intensive in Italy takes place June 11-26. This immersion trip features workshops with Italian masters in watermarking, leather binding, etching, and more, as well as visits to a bindery in Urbino, to a local tannery, and to the cliffs of the Adriatic shore. For details or a registration form, contact lynn@lynnsures.com or Jose Dominguez atjdominguez@pyramidatlantic. org. The registration deadline is April 1. Photos of previous trips can be seen at www.lynnsures.com . IAPMA, the InternationalAssociation of Hand Papermakers and Paper Artists, convenes in July 2-6, 2014in Fabriano, Italy. Home to a rich papermaking history for the past 750 years,Fabriano’s Museo della Carta e della Filigrana will be hosting this gathering.For more information as the date approaches, visit www.iapma.info or contact Gail Stiffe at president@iapma.info. The Handweavers’ Guild of America holds its 2014 conference July 14-19 in Providence, Rhode Island, featuring exhibits, classes, and textile tours. Aimee Lee will be conducting hanji-focused workshops during this event. For details, visit www.weavespindye.org. Helen Hiebert will be hosting the first annual Red Cliff Paper Retreat in her studio in Vail, Colorado, from September 5 to 7. To receive details about this event, emailhelen@helenhiebertstudio.com. The Movable Book Society holds its conference inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, from September 18 to 20. The conference features lectures, workshops, and a book sale, and awards for Best Pop-up or Movable ArtistBook and Emerging Paper Engineer are announced. For more information, visit www.movablebooksociety.org.
Oak Knoll Fest XVIII takes place October 3-5 in New Castle, Delaware. This biannual celebration of fine printing and bookmaking includes book talks, a printers’ fair with 40 private presses, and bibliophile camaraderie. More details will be available at www .oakknoll.com as the festival approaches.
The Friends of Dard Hunter will hold its annual meeting and conference October 16-18 in San Francisco, California, a joint meeting with the American Printing History Association. The conference events and activities will include an array of workshops and demonstrations, lectures, exhibitions, and museum tours and will address the theme “Paper on the Press.” Visit www.friendsofdardhunter.org or http://printinghistory.org for more informa tion as the date approaches.
August 11-19, Pyramid Atlantic Art Center is coordinating a collaborative art workshop series in Northern Ireland with Seacourt Print Workshop and Bishop’s Mill paper and textile studio. Enjoy a day of experimental textiles, a day of hand papermaking, two days of leather bookbinding, and two days of non-toxic printmaking. Questions may be directed to: ireland@pyramid-atlantic.org. Registration deadline is July 11.
> EXHIBITS
“Alchemy: seed: silk: stem: leaf” features the work of Aimee Lee. The exhibit, on view through April 30 at the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes in Ohio, features handmade paper works and the Korean hanji papermaking process using invasive plants from the Nature Center property. For more details, visit www.shakerlakes.org or call (216) 321-5935.
“Continuum of Being,” an exhibition of new works by Gibby Waitzkin, continues through April 19 at Piedmont Arts at 215 Starling Avenue in Martinsville, Virginia. This work highlights forms and objects that echo themselves throughout the natural world such as seedpods, lichen, and flowering plants, and features photographically-based prints on handmade paper. For more about the work and the exhibition, visit http://sarvisberry.com or call (540) 745-6330.
Imperfect Surface: Dieu Donné Paper Invitational features new works by Zak Kitnik, Andy Mister, Jessica Rankin, Casey Ruble, and Alyson Shotz. The exhibit is open through April 12 and includes artworks by artists that are known for working on or with paper, but who have not previously worked with Dieu Donné. The artworks are all made with specifically crafted sheets of handmade paper. Visit www.dieudonne.org or call (212) 226-0573 for details and hours.
Social Paper is an exhibit of socially engaged works in handmade paper at Columbia College Chicago’s Center for Book and Paper. The exhibit continues through April 15 and was co-curated by Jessica Cochran and Melissa Potter. The exhibition initiative charts the evolution of the art of hand papermaking in relation to recent discourse around socially engaged art and points specifically to craft, labor, and site specificity, as well as the collaborative and community aspects of hand papermaking as contemporary art practice. For more information, visit www.bookand paper.org or call (312) 369-6630.
FiberNext is on view through April 13 at the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington. FiberNext reflects the ongoing evolution of fiber work from the functional to the investigative. The artists in this exhibition combine conceptual experimentation with unexpected materials, and explore the creative potential of new technology and techniques, while remaining faithful to fiber’s roots. Artists include Barbara Assejew, Gina Bosworth, Carol Cole, Hollie Heller, Mi-Kyoung Lee, Won Kyoung Lee, Betsy Miraglia, Leslie Pontz, Ellen Sall, David Slovic, Shelley Spector, and Carol Wisker. See www.delart.org for details.
Helen Hiebert made 100 daily paper weavings from September 23 to December 31, 2013. A selection of these weavings will be on view at the Alpine Arts Center in Edwards, Colorado, during the month of April. For details visit www.alpineartscenter .org or call the arts center at (801) 763-7173.
Paper Cuts features five artists who make paper and incorporate it into their artwork. The show includes installations of sculpture, pulp painting, and other media by Ursula Clark, Nancy Cohen, Junia Falvia d’Affonseca, Fran Kornfeld, and Sylvia Schwartz at Gallery Gaia, located at 79 Hudson Avenue in the Vinegar Hill section of Brooklyn, NY. The show runs May 3 through June 1. For further information, contact f_kornfeld@verizon.net or (646) 591-6623.
The gallery at Paper Circle in Nelsonville, Ohio, features the work of professional paper and book artists from around the country as well as local and regional artists. Upcoming exhibits featuring paper art include “Open and Shut” Juried Origami Exhibition in September. Visit www.papercircle.org or call (740) 753-3374 for more information.
Mapping Place: Africa Beyond Paper runs through June 6 at the Robert C. Williams Paper Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. The exhibit invites visitors to explore the ways that the changing representation and projection of space has shaped our approach to Africa. The exhibit includes examples of European representations of Africa on paper maps from the late 16th to the 20th centuries as well as African artifacts and paper objects pertaining to the scientific, administrative, commercial, and military exploration of the continent by European and North American interests. For more information, visit http://ipst.gatech.edu/ or call (404) 894-7840.
Scythia 10: The Tenth International Biennial Contemporary Textile Art Exhibition and Conference will take place June 18-22 in Kherson, Ukraine, and includes an international fiber art exhibition, alongside its conference program. More information can be found at www.scythiatextile.com or scythiatextile@gmail.com.
Revive & Renew: Contemporary Artists and Eastern Papers will be on view August 2 through September 20 at Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio. This invitational exhibit is part of a celebration of The Morgan’s new Eastern Paper Studio. For details as the exhibit approaches, visit http://morganconservatory.org.
Helikon Contemporary Art Gallery in the RiNo art district of Denver, 3675 Wyncoop Street, features an exhibition of the contemporary kozo work of Jill Powers, June 6 - July 19. For more details see www.helikon gallery.com or email paperjp@earthlink.net
Pat Vivod and Elizabeth Adams-Marks (both from Southern Illinois, USA) have partnered to curate and participate in a 2014 international fibers exhibition at Jacoby Arts Center, with Irit Dulman (Israel), India Flint (Australia), Fabienne Dorsman-Rey (Netherlands), and Rio Wrenn (Oregon, USA). Mark your calendars for the opening on August 22, and find more information at http://exhibition -fromtheinsideout.blogspot.com/
The Museum of Charmey in Switzerland will host the 8th International Paper Triennial from June 15 until October 5. The exhibition preview and prize-giving ceremony will take place on Saturday, June 14. The exhibit will feature artists from around the world who use paper to create works of art, whereby the substance is transformed and is not used solely as a support or vehicle. Go to www.musee-charmey.ch for more information on the Triennial.
> PUBLICATIONS AND VIDEOS
Women’s Studio Workshop announces Susan Mills’ newest artist’s book, twentysix plants, comprised of 26 sheets of paper handmade from 26 different fibers and directly referencing Ed Ruscha’s Twentysix Gasoline Stations and its seriality. Mills’ project experiments with new plants and non-traditional fibers to create a book that is about staying in one place. More information about the publication can be found at www.wsworkshop.org.
Helen Hiebert announces Alpha Blocks, a pop-up alphabet to be released in conjunction with her new book, Playing With Pop- Ups. The publication date is April 15th; visit www.helenhieberstudio.com for updates.
A Deep Blue Amen by Stuart Kestenbaum is a new limited edition book published by Amanda Degener/Cave Paper. It features original calligraphy by Jan Owen on polymer plates letterpress printed on handmade paper. For information, contact cavepaper@gmail.com.
Paper Before Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World, a book by Jonathan M. Bloom, has just been re-issued by Yale University Press. This book chronicles how paper’s use in Islamic lands during the Middle Ages influenced almost every aspect of medieval life, and includes illustrations of papermaking techniques. Rebecca Redman has started a Papermaking Resource Guide at papermaking.wikispot.org. Simply go to the site, click on new user and add your information. Shu-Ju Wang has put together a short video of the Guangxing Paper Mill in Puli, Taiwan, viewable at: http://www.youtube .com/watch?v=fad8AuAwt8o. Rix Jennings has posted an online video demonstrating a prototype decorticator he made for stripping the fiber from banana stems, inspired by videos from the Philippines that show workers doing this. The video can be viewed at http://www.youtube .com/watch?v=4F4C4d8OkYs.For a visual overview of the eastern papermaking process visitwww.washitales.com/papermaking.html. Also on the site, video highlights of Kyoko Ibe’s performances of Washi Tales, which bring to life the human stories contained in a sheet of washi. Watch a four-minute cast paper demo filmed in the University of Wisconsin - Madison paper studio at http://youtu.be/B0ydw6njwfM and follow simple steps for embossing shapes in wet sheets of handmade paper. TheJanuary 20 installment of My Art Review features an interview with Danish paper artist Anne Vilsbøll. In Denmark, a sheet of paper is called et ark. Anne employs the metaphor of Noah’s Ark to describe papermaking, using an “ark” in the form of a rectangle with three decks—to survive the deluge—to be part of the eternal cycle of creation. Read more at http://myartreview.net/2014/01/20/interview-with-anne-vilsboll/ Luca Iaconi-Stewart spent five years building a modelBoeing 777 entirely of paper and glue. He devoted a whole summer just to the seats (20 minutes for an economy seat, four to six hours for business class, and eight hours for first class). The retractable landing gear actually works. See page37 of February’s Wired magazine, or view video and story at www.wired.com/ design/2014/01/obsessed/?mbid=nl_wired_01212014
In a recent video interview, Ken Polinskie
shares his latest work in paper, ending
with a quote that inspires him: “As you
get older, as an artist, every ten minutes
counts!” View the short clip at http://youtu.be/5DRtUQHyJAc
> CLASSIFIEDS
Classifieds in Hand Papermaking Newsletter cost $2 per word, with a 10-word minimum. Payment is due in advance of publication. Moulds, Blankets, Spanish Flax for Sale: 4 Lee McDonald moulds: two 22” x 30”, one 18” x 24”, one 16” x 20”. Other moulds: two 11 1/2” x 14 1/2”, one 8 1/2” x 11” with letter & envelope deckle.Beautiful white 100% wool blankets: one 80” x 87”, six 22”x 30”, one 79” x 128”, two 26” x 79”, one 29” x 34”, seventeen 25” x 37”. Also Spanish Flax, 40 lbs. Please contact Margaret Prentice for more information and photos at:prentice@ uoregon.edu or call (541) 343-1154. Unbleached Philippine Abaca $6.00 lb. For samples, please send SASE to Ifugao Papercraft, 6477 E. Grayson, St.,Inverness, FL 34452 Need affordable paper for workshops? We offer authentic hanji, lokta, washi, & xuan. Mention this ad for 10% discount. paper woman@paperconnection.com Cotton Linter Pulp. All quantities available. Call Gold’s Artworks, Inc. (910)739-9605.
> SPECIAL THANKS
Hand Papermaking acknowledges these recent contributors to our non-profit programs. All donations are greatly appreciated and tax deductible. Our tax ID number is 52-1436849. See our profile on GuideStar. Call or write for information on annual giving levels, premiums, automatic monthly gifts, and in-kind contributions; or details on adding Hand Papermaking to your estate plans.
Benefactors: Anonymous, Timothy Barrett, Gibby Waitzkin. Patrons: Tom Balbo, Sid Berger & Michèle Cloonan, Jeffrey Cooper, Susan Gosin. Underwriters: Denise Anderson & J.T. Feeney, Susan Mackin Dolan, Nancy & Mark Tomasko, Pamela & Gary Wood. Sponsors: Cathleen A. Baker, Simon Blattner, Tom & Lore Burger, Kathy Crump, Gail Deery, Michael Durgin, Jane Farmer, Helen Frederick, Helen Hiebert, Ingrid Rose Paper Conservation, Lois & Gordon James, Barbara Landes, Peter Newland & Robyn Johnson, Laura Merrick Roe, Michelle Samour, Richard H. Schimmelpfeng. Donors: James Barton, Marcia Blake, Carol J. Blinn, Colin Browne, Carolee Campbell, Bob & Annie Cicale, Kathryn & Howard Clark, Nancy Cohen, Rona Conti, Lee Cooper, Paula Cox, Elizabeth Curren, Kerri Cushman, Karen Davidson, Georgia Deal, Benjamin J. Dineen, Francis Dolan, Linda Draper, Karla & Jim Elling, Kathryn Flannery, George Freitag, David Lance Goines, Lori B. Goodman, Mabel Grummer, Robert Hauser, Suzanne Karr Schmidt, Lou Kaufman, Ellen Mears Kennedy, Joyce Kierejczyk, Nancee Killoran, David Kimball, Aimee Lee, Deborah Luginbuhl, Winifred Lutz, Mary Lou Manor, Anne Q. McKeown, Julie McLaughlin, Julie Mellby, Margaret Merritt, Betsy Miraglia, Nancy Pobanz, Brian Queen, Julie Reichert, Carolyn A. Riley, John L. Risseeuw, Kim Schiedermayer, Mary C. Schlosser, Andrea Siegel, Susan Spak, Betty Sweren, Carla J. Tenret, George Thagard III, Claire Van Vliet, Aviva Weiner, Beck Whitehead, Christy Wise. Supporters: Inge Bruggeman, Carla A. Castellani, Jennifer Davies, Amanda Degener, Iris L. Dozer, Jim Escalante, Caroline Garrett Hardy, Sara Gilfert, Hiromi Paper, Eve Ingalls Von Staden, Sally Wood Johnson, Susan Kanowith-Klein, Kristin Kavanagh, Betty L. Kjelson, Jana Lee Pullman, Katie MacGregor, M. P. Marion, Edwin Martin, Margaret Miller, Catherine Nash, Suzanne Oberholtzer, Patricia L. O’Neal, Melissa Potter, Dianne L. Reeves, S.A. Scharf, Marie Sturken, Mina Takahashi, Gene Valentine, Kathy Wosika. Friends: Barbara Babcock, Elena Osterwalder Bonny, Michele Combs, Sarah & Joshua Dickinson, Jean Gumpper, Rebecca Hastings, Charlotte Johnson, Elyn Koentopp- Vanek, Fran Kornfeld, Anita Liebeskind, Mary Kaye McGough, Kathryn Menard, Paulette Mulligan, Carolyn Ramsey, Bonnie Reisman, Lindsay Rosalba, James & Marilyn Sexton, Elke Shihadeh, Judy Tobie, Daria Wilber. In-Kind: Adobe Systems Inc., Janet DeBoer, Peter Ford, Robert Hauser, Dard Hunter III, Rick McSorley, Microsoft Corporate Citizenship, Steve Miller, Britt Quinlan, Amy Richard. Founding Contributors to the Hand Papermaking Endowment: 49er Books, Shirah Miriam (Mimi) Aumann, Cathleen A. Baker, Tom Balbo, Timothy Barrett, Sidney Berger & Michele Cloonan, Tom & Lore Burger, Jeffrey Cooper, Jeanne M. Drewes, Jane M. Farmer, Fifth Floor Foundation, Helen Frederick, Sara Gilfert, Tatiana Ginsberg, Susan Gosin, Joan Hall, Lois & Gordon James, Sally Wood Johnson, David Kimball, Elaine Koretsky, Karen Kunc, Barbara Lippman, Winifred Lutz, Susan M. Mackin-Dolan, David Marshall, Peter Newland Fund of the Greater Everett Community Foundation, Margaret Prentice, Preservation Technologies L.P., Michelle Samour, Peter Sowiski, Marilyn Sward, Betty Sweren, Gibby Waitzkin, Tom Weideman, Beck Whitehead, Paul Wong & John Colella, Pamela & Gary Wood.315 West 36th Street New York, NY 10018 t 212 226 0573 f 212 226 6088 www.dieudonne.org Papermaking Classes & Studio Services Contemporary art through handmade paper Classes The studio now offers three distinct classes for serious artists and creators to explore the potential of handmade paper: Introduction to Contemporary Papermaking, Creative Techniques for Artists, and Open Studio. All sessions are three-hours in duration and include assistance from artistic staff. See our website for descriptions, dates and times. Studio Services The studio specializes in collaborative, custom paper and publishing projects. Visual artists work in collaboration with highly skilled artistic staff to create both unique and editioned two- and three-dimensional works. The studio also produces handmade papers with museum archival standards while also allowing the artist freedom with materials of their choice. Please call to arrange a consultation with artistic staff.