HAND PAPERMAKING NEWSLETTER

number 149 January 2025

‍Newsletter Editor: Sophia Hotzler
Contributors: Erin K. Schmidt, Mike Sweeney, Switch Grass Paper

Sponsors: Arnold Grummer’s, the Papertrail Hand-made Paper & Book Arts, Penland School of Craft,The Robert C. Williams Papermaking Museum, Carriage House Papers and Dieu Donné.

Hand Papermaking Newsletter is published quarterly.Annual subscriptions to Hand Papermaking magazine, which includes the quarterly newsletter, cost $70 per year in the US; $80 in Canada and Mexico; $105elsewhere. Two-year subscriptions are $130 in the US;$150 in Canada/Mexico; $200 elsewhere. Institutional subscriptions are $95 per year in the US, $125outside the US. To receive a printed copy of the newsletter, add $30 to your yearly subscription. A stand-alone electronic subscription to the newsletter, which excludes issues of the magazine, is now available for $10 per year. Payment in US dollars is required.Visa/Mastercard/Paypal is accepted. For more subscription information:

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PO BOX 50336
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E-mail: newsletter@handpapermaking.orgWeb: www.handpapermaking.org

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The deadline for the next newsletter (April 2025) is Feb 15, 2025. We encourage letters from our subscribers on any topic. We also solicit comments on articles inHand Papermaking magazine, questions or remarks for newsletter columnists, and news of special events or activities. The newsletter is supported by our sponsors (listed above). If you would like to support Hand Papermaking through a sponsorship, contact us atrosa@handpapermaking.org.

Hand Papermaking is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Staff: Rosa Chang, Executive Director; MinaTakahashi, Magazine Editor; Sophia Hotzler, Newsletter Editor/News & Social Media Manager; Karen Kopacz, Designer. Board of Directors: Lisa Haque, Steph Rue, Lynn Sures, Kazuko Hioki, Emily Duong, Gretchen Schermerhorn, Sanaz Haghani, Anne Q McKeown, Jerushia Graham.

Co-founders: Amanda Degener and Michael Durgin.

Dear Readers,

As we kick off 2025, we're excited to continue this journey with you, exploring the rich world of handmade paper and all the creative possibilities it holds. Whether you're a longtime subscriber or a new reader, we're grateful to have you with us as we share inspiration, techniques, and ideas for crafting with paper.

In this issue, we're diving into some fascinating, and perhaps surprising, topics. We take a closer look at the process of making paper from poison ivy with Erin Schmidt. While it may sound unconventional, the chosen material does make it an intriguing material for your next project—if you handle it with care! Mike Sweeney helps us explore the delicate art of paper weaving, where he explores how one can reuse and repurpose old book materials to create something new. We also get a paper recipe from a new, emerging paper studio, Switch Grass Paper, who are featured in ourWinter 2025 issue, Past as Prologue, guest edited by Tamara Valdez.

As always, the new year invites fresh inspiration, and we hope this issue sparks your creativity. Whether you're seeking new challenges or revisiting old techniques, 2025 is a perfect time to experiment, learn, and grow in your papermaking practice. Here's to a year filled with new ideas, artistic exploration, and the joy of making something with your hands.

Thank you for being a part of our community and for supporting Hand Papermaking. Here's to a paper filled new year!

—Sophia Hotzler

the maker

Handwoven – An “Alternative Papermaking” Problem

In this recurring feature, The Maker, we look at techniques and problem solving in the field of hand-made paper. For this issue, artist Mike Sweeney explores how paper helped solve and bring together his many paths in life; arts, education, and libraries.

One of the first problems I set out to resolve in papermaking was not fully a papermaking problem. Paper was more the solution than the problem, but like all solutions, it brought its own issues to the party.

With parallel careers in the arts, education, and libraries, I had become interested in the subject and influence of noise. The sheer volume of statements and publications pushed into our daily lives led me to think about how to represent the impact of informational noise in my work. I started exploring this idea by turning to found paper as material. It made sense to my librarian side. I wanted to form a physical analogy for technology’s most heavy-handed marketing metaphor about digital storage and publication: “The Cloud”—particularly interesting since that metaphoric cloud was actually quite literally an earthbound storage facility.

When dealing with ideas about information storage and communication, history points to paper as the obvious material. So, I started there. When seeking a print analog to noise, it seemed logical to me to turn existing printed words and images into something unintelligible. I realized that the simplest means of turning written statements on paper into noise was to shred found publications into long 1/8-inch strips and cross-weave them into undecipherable grids of text fragments, color, and line.

I did this with handwritten notes, sheet music, maps, magazines, and discarded books. The direction of shredding (horizontal or vertical) rendered different degrees of fragmented text and image. Similarly, the 1/8-inch strips lent themselves to the simple process of weaving, which further obscured the original printed content. With so many paper sources, topics, and subjects, the shredding process reduced words and sentences into syllables—not even “soundbites,” but more often mere sounds. Shredding and re-weaving created a type of noise that was simultaneously quite literal and material, while being structurally built into the work.

In the weavings, I developed a paper format that read primarily as abstract, even when the paper sheets were subsequently cut or formed into landscapes or cloud shapes. The woven paper was fragile and tended to unmake itself with handling. After some thought, I was reminded of the book repair methods of libraries and turned to traditional archival repair materials. I quickly landed on the application of tengucho (thin Japanese paper) with watered-down PVA glue. Though a bit difficult to source, tengucho was a simple and direct solution and one that offered visual variation, from soft to cut edges in my clouds.
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To backtrack a bit, my point was never to make paper for paper cutting, silhouettes, or one type of artistic format—though my first works ended up in this form. My handwoven paper was not simply a surface to receive ink, paint, or graphite either. Its noisiness was its point, even as its inherent materiality alluded to its origins and previous incarnations. My paper was first an embodiment of noise, which could ultimately be turned to other kinds of investigations. My basic methods were resolved. The next problems involved what other uses and adaptations might develop.

New Challenges

I have been a printmaker for quite a while, and printing back into previously printed content became a logical extension of my interest in noise. How can I print my own drypoint and block print images on my handwoven papers. From a material standpoint, I knew that running woven paper through a press would create some friction and slippage, as well as the stresses that sticking ink on blocks or plates would add, even when dampened. A certain degree of chance (“happy accidents”) was attractive at first, but some large tears occurred in early test runs. Additional stabilization was needed to make the sheets more press-ready. Due to its strength and lightness, tengucho was again the answer.

When dampened and glued, tengucho becomes, to varying degrees, transparent or translucent and lends an atmospheric quality to the font fragments, numbers, notes, and lines revealed in the woven strips. Focused on printed images, I now apply tengucho on the areas of my paper weavings where I intend to print and which need stabilizing. Additional accidents that occur in printing are resolved simply. I darn tears together with new paper strips and add tengucho in small layers where needed. It is a fluid process, as much restorative, stabilizing, and repair-oriented as it is layered. Each layer of tengucho adds atmosphere while creating a blurred depth to both past and more recent print marks. Papermaking, mending, darning, and repair have become processes that extend through the entire creative journey, allowing imagery to shift and change as part of the papermaking, printing, and image-making processes.

—Mike Sweeney

Mike Sweeney is a contemporary fine artist specializing in hand-woven paper, printmaking, and drawing. He has pursued parallel careers in Education, Library and Information Science, and Art since completing an M.F.A. in Painting, Printmaking and Installation at the University of Connecticut. His studio is located in Middletown, CT, not far from the Connecticut River.

from the organization

A Recap of the Year

Featuring some of the latest developments and happenings at our home organization, Hand Papermaking, Inc.

Dear Hand Papermaking Community,
As we approach the end of 2024, we hope this season offers you a moment to reflect on the year’s journey. On behalf of Hand Papermaking, I want to extend my deepest gratitude to each of you. Looking ahead to 2025, we are eager to build on our successes by expanding our programs and fostering even more opportunities to advance our mission and strengthen our community.

Wishing you a peaceful winter season and a bright, joyful New Year.

—Rosa Chang, Executive Director

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ANNOUNCING THE 2025 BLACK WRITERS FELLOW

As we shared in our October 2024 newsletter, we put out a national call for applications to our 2025 Black Writers Fellowship. Hand Papermaking, Inc. is delighted to announce Talia Kimberley Wright as the recipient of our 2025 Black Writers Fellowship. Wright was selected following a national call for proposals this past summer. The Black Writers Fellowship program was established by Hand Papermaking in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives as a tangible step toward addressing social inequities and amplifying diverse voices in the field of hand papermaking. The program reflects our commitment to representing the full breadth of work and perspectives within the craft.

Talia Kimberly Wright is a multidisciplinary artist and writer born and raised on the Southside of Chicago. Utilizing memory, word, and material object, her work aims to bridge the gap between the ancestral, traditional, and regenerated lives of Black people in America, especially those who have been impacted by the Great Migration. She employs different methodologies like book-making, ceramics, collaging, and painting in an effort to investigate the expansiveness of geography inhabited by Black Americans and the relationships built within them, specifically through the lens of Afro-surrealism. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has been published in These Times, Hooligan magazine, beestung magazine, and more.

As the Black Writers Fellow, Talia Kimberly Wright explains, “I will be researching the material history of cotton, a fiber I believe to be hugely transformative. I find cotton to be a magnificen tdevice for time travel and memory, and I’ve become curious about how that history can be transformed into something that still holds and uplifts such great weight. During my time as a fellow, I will shadow an African American papermaker who works mostly with cotton and travel to speak with Black cotton farmers located in North Carolina.”

To learn more about Hand Papermaking’s BlackWriters Fellowship program, visit https://www.handpapermaking.org/get-involved/fellowships.

a preview for our winter 2024 issue

Switch Grass Paper Recipe

In this feature, we share a recipe by Switch Grass Paper, a Chicago-based paper making studio by Megan Diddie and Aya Nakamura, who are featured in our upcoming Winter 2024 issue, guest edited by Tamara Valdez, Past as Prologue.

Switch Grass Paper was created in part through our love of plants. We live in Chicago, IL, which is home to many fascinating native and nonnative species. We wanted to highlight one plant each year and began our journey with the Cup Plant. The stems of the Cup Plant are four-sided, and after drying, they become quite hard. To turn these stems into paper, we steamed them, pounded them with a hammer, scraped out some of the non-cellulose material inside the stem, and cooked them for around 3 hours with soda ash. We like to mix in some cotton or hemp with our plant fibers because it helps push the fibers through our beater. We sometimes measure 1 lb of plant fiber to 1 lb of cotton linter, but we mostly eyeball the amounts based on how the beater is doing. Many of these plants are very woody, so the paper sheets tend to be opaque and quite textured, depending on how long we beat the material.

This past year, we experimented with hand beating Rattlesnake Master and Compass Plant together. Compass Plant is similar to Cup Plant, and both are in the Daisy family. These fibers were challenging to break down, and we ended up with a very rustic, wild mix that resulted in something more like textile than paper. Next time, we would like to work with Rattlesnake Master leaves. This plant has unique properties and resembles a Yucca plant. It’s interesting to note that Indigenous peoples of North America used it to make textiles. There are records of woven shoes and other wearable items that have survived for thousands of years—a testament to the plant and the people who recognized its special properties.

A good practice is to simply pay attention to one or two plants that grow in your yard or neighborhood. It’s fun to see where else they are popping up, how they change throughout the year, what they have been named, and whether they prefer the company of other species. We tend to harvest materials at the end of fall and throughout the winter, when plants have had a chance to spread their seeds. We sometimes help spread the seeds as well. If you’re ambitious, you can also bring a garbage bag and pick up waste.

The paper we’ve made has been used for prints, drawings, envelopes, sculptures, and books. There are so many cool things about papermaking, and transforming plants into paper is a big part of it. Becoming acquainted with the plants and caring for them is something that brings joy and satisfaction.

—Switch Grass Paper

Switch Grass Paper is a project started by Chicago-based artists Aya Nakamura and Megan Diddie. They host papermaking workshops in and around Chicago and love to work with local fibers.

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from the gram

We Asked, You Responded

We recently asked a question to our Instagram followers: Why do you make paper by hand? Check out the responses below, maybe it will help refreshen your love for paper for this new year! Do you have a question or a problem you need help solving and would like to ask our community? Send it to newsletter@handpapermaking.org

@damovagram: Because there are endless possibilities for making unique sheets!

@lianbrehm: I love everything about Papermaking and am always learning more. I’ve met amazing people working in handmade paper and feel part of that worldwide community of artists and craftspeople. I make paper because it just feels like the right medium for me to work in pape rpulp sculpture. It’s light, strong but fragile and so textural. It’s inviting, mesmerizing, and captivates me.

@sarahhollowayartist: I’m passionate about papermaking. I love the alchemy of creating new from old with recycled materials and the texture and colour that can come with experimentation. I enjoy including dried petals and leaves in my papermaking too, for extra tactility. I’ve got a lot more to learn and I love being on the journey. I also love teaching papermaking so that others can share the joy.

@prsmith7777: It's relaxing and I just love paper. Each paper is unique. I love using different inclusions to create a one of a kind paper.

@leecooper1482: I remember that column from all those years ago. I love the tactile sense of paper. I read books because of this and am very aware of the caliber of the paper used in books today. I use our garden waste and the shirt off my back. I love the exploration of the sheet, how it’s formed and the sometimes surprising results after drying. I give it away, sew it up into simple books and give them away and am now covering lamp shades. Great fun. Thanks for all the stories and advice I’ve gotten from you over the years.

@hotwaterfactory: Making paper is like making bread...there are craft which embed a sense of connection with Mother Nature... it is an expression of a collaboration between nature and the beautiful aspect of being human. This connection exists only when there is passion, curiosity, knowledge, playfulness, respect and a sense of community that connects all of us in the world... as for bread this synergy creates a bond between people from every single corner of the planet who share the same process and ingredients with a different twist or personal touch. Happy “baking”...!

‍@gail_stiffe_books_paper: I love the flexibility of making my own paper, each sheet has a story and a life of its own.

@doubledroppress: I love the physicality of making paper. When I make paper in production/edition mode, I feel grounded and almost ecstatic. I pit on music, often sing along (a bit loud) and unstoppably make paper. I live the rhythm of dipping, forming, couching, repeat. I also love to press my stack with a house jack better than a hydraulic press, it is quieter and gives me the cue that I am done.

I also love the magic of paper. How each fiber is different, representing the place in which the paper is made, or from. I love how our popular/common fibers from half-stuff offer their own attributes, and we can adjust these with beating time. Paper can be thin, thick, soft, stiff, opaque, translucent, loud, quiet, natural, bleached, colored and made into paint... It is a substrate and it is also the subject. It is 2D and 3D.

All of the above is why I love to teach papermaking. The chemistry is magic. The history is incredible. I love watching students become addicted to making paper, be empowered by making paper, ground themselves and heal when making paper (making paper literally saved a student’s life).

Paper is so much! You could study and investigate and work with paper all your life and still only skim the surface.

Finally, I have to honor a recent inductee to the Papermaking Hall of Champions. Paper provided the opportunity for me to meet and work with Beck Whitehead. I learned so much from her about paper and about life. Ours was a friendship I cannot describe, for which there are no words. It grew in time spent making paper together. I still love her boundlessly and miss her every day.

Paper is everything!

poison ivy paper

A Dangerous Liaison

In this article, Erin K. Schmidt explores and gives us all her insight on making paper out of poison ivy — yes that very itchy plant — and how she turned the paper made from poison into an artists' book, "tempted".

I’m not sure if I felt a calling, or if it was just that middle-aged me wanted to feel the excitement of rebellion again. I’m pretty sure I haven’t been this fueled by so many “bad idea” warnings since I was a teenager—or at least in my early twenties, when the word 'consequence' felt meaningless and abstract. But I was defiantly determined to make paper with poison ivy.

I’m a book artist. I make artists’ books that explore materiality and structure, both of which heavily contribute to the narratives I create in my work. I spend a lot of time walking in the nearby woods with my dog. It’s an excuse to slow down and think through ideas, and also to consider the natural world that plays a role in much of my work. Poison ivy grows rampant in my area of Michigan, and its growth rate has noticeably increased over the years. It spreads prolifically. Poison ivy is also beautiful in the many colors, shapes, and sizes it grows in, blending with its surroundings. When I discovered that I am not allergic to it, the plant became even more of a curiosity, then a temptation. I wanted to make paper with it so that I could use it in an artist book. And though m ypapermaking journey began twenty years ago, admittedly I’ve done little to none for many years in between, so I had to dive deep into research and consider alternative methods due to the nature of this plant and what I had in mind to do with it.

Without a doubt, this would have to be an outdoor project from start to finish. I couldn’t risk any airborne or accidental traces of urushiol, the toxin in poison ivy, becoming problematic for the other members of my household. So, I set up a temporary studio space in my garage. Unsure if I have true immunity or if exposure would eventually cause an allergic reaction, I put safety first. I had my PPE in order: latex gloves, a rubber apron for wet media, a COVID mask, a chemical mask for steam, and clothing that covered my skin, as much as was tolerable in the sweltering summer heat. My allergist gave me a prescription for prednisone to have on hand just in case things got ugly, along with the assurance that he did not approve.

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The leaves of the poison ivy plant are quite thin and delicate. They do not have much fiber content, which meant I not only needed a significant amount of them, but I would also be adding some cotton and kozo for the strength I needed for the structure of my artist book. I collected the leaves from nearby woods within walking distance, making several trips each day and filling many large shopping bags each time. It was hot, sweaty work under a humid canopy. The leaves were sorted and left to dry in tiered mesh hanging bags, filling my garage with a pungent green scent. But, unlike freshly cut grass, this smell carried with it a note of warning, reminding me of the present danger.

My main goal was to retain as much urushiol as possible so that the paper itself would also be poisonous, creating the problem of how to handle a poisoned book. That meant keeping all water and reusing it throughout the process from start to finish, so no alkali. I also had to be careful in the cooking process, being aware of any steam and the oils it could carry. Breathing that in would be extremely dangerous, regardless of possible immunity.

There was also the problem that too much boiling would cause the urushiol to become inert. Cooking would have to be minimal, but given the delicate nature of the leaves, they wouldn’t require much anyway. I added boiling water to small batches of leaves in stock pots, lidded them, and left them to steep overnight. That was the extent of the “cooking.”The water was saved each time and would later be used for pulping and for the slurry in the vat. Throughout the entire process, the saved cooking water was the only water I used so that all toxins were retained.

Hand beating seemed like a bad idea. I didn’t want to risk breathing in any airborne urushiol, which could lead to a systemic reaction, so I skipped ahead to using a blender to beat the pulp. I also added a small amount of calcium carbonate to offset not using an alkali earlier. Separately, I prepared batches of kozo and cotton using some of thereserved water I’d used for the cooking process. Keeping the batchesseparate gave me more control in creating the tonal gradation I wanted toachieve.

As much as I wanted some sheets of pure poison ivy paper, I knew it wouldn’t be strong enough. I started with approximately 95% poison ivy pulp and 5% kozo, as well as a very small amount of formation aid. From there, I slowly added more kozo and then cotton to create lighter and lighter tones of green. The dried paper still holds the sharp scent of the leaves, and the color is more muted, but nonetheless green.

Working with a plant like poison ivy was an incredible learning process in both safety and procedure. Despite having to modify some of the steps along the way in order to retain as much poison as possible, I was still able to pull some beautiful sheets of paper. The leaves are evident in the paper, a reminder of their ever-present threat. Eventually, the pages were trimmed and made into an accordion book about temptation. Theoretically, the book is poisonous to handle, thus having a very real consequence of giving into temptation. But together, the process involved in making the paper, along with the passage of time, has dried the toxic oils, causing them to become harmless.

I never got a rash.
—Erin K. Schmidt

Erin K. Schmidt is an artist who creates private, evocative spaces within her handbound and sculptural book art. She earned her BFA from Michigan State University in 1999 and her MA in Book Arts from University of the Arts London in 2010. She was awarded a Kresge Arts in Detroit Fellowship as well as the Sheffield International Artist’s Book Prize, and her work was published on the cover of the prestigiou spublication The New Bookbinder, Journal of Designer Bookbinders. He rwork has been exhibited internationally and can be found in private and public collections including Tate Britain. Her work can be viewed on her website www.erinkschmidt.com and Instagram @erin.k.schmidt

listings

Hand Papermaking Newsletter’s Listings now focus only on the mostcurrent, most relevent news, events, and opportunities. For a morecomplete list of organizations, studios, and institutions that makepaper, educate people about handmade paper, or present programmingor exhibitions related to handmade paper visit our website at www.handpapermaking.org/news-resources/listings.

PUBLICATIONS

Radical Paper: Art and Invention with Colored Pulp. This is a landmarkbook that profiles an artistic movement that has operated largely out-side the mainstream art world and serves as both an overdue historyand an up-close look at the range, versatility, and brilliance of art cre-ated with colored paper pulp. Although handmade papers have beenemployed by artists for centuries, the use of handmade paper and col-ored paper pulp as an integral element in creating art – as opposed toserving only as the surface on which art is created – has seen remark-able development over the last 70 years. As early practitioners likeDouglas Morse Howell, Laurence Barker, and Kenneth Tyler mappedout new directions in using colored paper pulp, their work inspiredthe careers of generations of artists who have taken this medium infresh and unexpected directions. This foundational book – the first ofits kind – features 73 artist innovators whose work, grounded in thecommon medium of paper and pulp, takes flight through an array of applications, modalities, and techniques, from the pictorial to thestructural, representational to abstract, two- and three-dimensional,spanning the meditative to the mercurial.

Around the World of Paper. Although it was born in China, paper hasconquered the entire world, in various forms and for various uses.Julie Auzillon, an art bookbinder passionate about this material,takes you across five continents to discover the fascinating world ofpaper.From Tokyo to Cape Town, via Venice, New York and Sydney,
it takes you into artists' and artisans' studios, through the doors ofunusual boutiques, and into contemporary paper creations. Thisjourney is punctuated by numerous cultural, historical and technicallessons. Paper is discovered here in all its complexity, multiplicityand originality. Cut-out paper, fans, papier-mâché masks, contempo-rary stationery, wallpaper, ephemeral paper clothing...: the discoveriesare endless, and the world tour is exhilarating!

WORKSHOPS

An exciting workshop at The Morgan, How to Get The Residencyof Your Dreams, will be held Tue, Jan 28, 5:00 PM - 8:00 PMEST. This workshop is an online event. Are you thinking aboutapplying for the residency of every artists’ dreams? Learn whatreview boards are looking for in an application (letter of intro-duction, references, clear online portfolios, and concise projectproposals). Working with The Morgan’s Artist OpportunitiesManager, Emily Tamulewicz, participants will review what ittakes to stand out from the crowd and craft the best responseswhen presenting artwork and project proposals. Visit www.morganconservatory.com/product/how-to-get-the-residency-of-your-dreams/1841?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=false&category_id=26 for more information. The Morgan also has a fewpapermaking workshops coming up! Japanese Papermaking, withMichaelle Marschall. Japanese papermaking is an ancient art thatis more than 1,300 years old. In this two-day workshop, paticipants will learn how to create beautiful sheets of washi andwill be introduced to traditional and nontraditional processes ofmaking Japanese paper from start to finish. Using kozo grownin The Morgan’s garden, participants will learn how to scrapethe bark, cook, and beat the fibers to form strong, translucentsheets of paper. This workshop will be held on Saturday, Mar29, 10:00 AM - Sun, Mar 30, 4:00 PM EST. Join Nicole Malcolmfor her workshop, Paper Techniques, Saturday, Feb 22, 10:00

AM - Sun, Feb 23, 4:00 PM EST. Using various Western paper-making techniques—from simple sheet forming to pigmentingpulp—participants will work with a wide range of pulp paint-ing, stencil making, and additions of inclusions (dried flowers,magazine clippings, personal artwork, etc.) to produce imagesand colors. Beyond simple standard sheet pulling, this workshopwill show participants how to add meaning, objects, and dimen-sion to their creations. To explore more workshops, visit www.morganconservatory.com/shop/workshops/26?page=1&limit=30&sort_by=name&sort_order=asc

An incredible workshop at Atelier Retailles is open for enrollment.Introductory session to papermaking: 6 weeks in intensive format. Thiscourse is intended to be an in-depth introduction to some Westernpapermaking techniques offered in 6 sessions of 3 hours each. Eachweek, a different theme is addressed, allowing participants to developa good understanding of the subject and open doors in their inde-pendent practices. At the end of this course, you will be equipped tocontinue your explorations of papermaking on your own or come anduse our workshop in a semi-supervised manner during "open house"work periods. Every week, a new aspect. This workshop will run everyThursday evening from February 13 to March 20, 6:00 p.m. - 9:00p.m. with Sophie P-Voyer.

Exploring Paper as Sculpture with Jo Stealey at Penland School ofCraft is set to happen March 2 – April 25. Create small-scale objectsor large-scale installations using handmade paper. The workshop willbegin with fiber processing for paper pulp, including methods forbeating fibers to create specific qualities in the paper: opaque/trans-lucent, low or high shrinkage, thick/thin, delicate/strong, etc. Thenwe will cover sheet forming, pigmenting pulp, pulp painting, collage,stencils, casting into found molds and cloth molds, joining cast ele-ments, armatures, draping, and other approaches to developing 3-Dforms. After three weeks of experimentation, students will use theirpreferred techniques to create a new body of work. The focus will beon artistic concepts and personal vision for the materials. All levels.Paper Potluck with Reina Takahashi April 27 – May 2. Students in thisworkshop will learn basic paper sculpture techniques with an em-phasis on creating texture and dimension. Through demonstrationsand hands-on instruction, we will cover methods for hand-cutting,curving, creasing, gluing, and creating dimensional forms. Studentswill have time to experiment and to create a paper food item of
their own. By the end of the workshop, we will have created a paperpotluck. Students should be comfortable working with an X-Actoknife as all cutting will be done by hand. All levels. Books studio.Papel Como Auto-Expresión: Paper as Self-Expression with JocmarysViruet Feliciano. This will be a bilingual—Spanish/English—pa-permaking workshop focused on creating a range of materials andpaper surfaces using various papermaking processes and techniques.The goal is to create a material library to inspire ideas and supportfuture papermaking projects. The workshop will include beginningWestern-style sheet forming, drying, and pressing as well as fibermanipulation during the wet stage. We will explore and combinefibers like cotton, flax, and abaca, and there will be a demonstration of the Korean joomchi technique. There willbe daily demonstrations and explanations oftechniques, materials, and equipment alongwith time for experimentation and play.Introductory level. Papermaking studio. Formore workshop information, visit https://penland.org/workshops/books-paper/

Penland School of Craft was heavily affectedby Hurricane Helene, and to this day theyare still working on repairing the damage
it caused. Please visit: https://penland.org/support-penland/helene-relief-recovery-support/ for more information on how youmight help Penland and the artists theysupport. You can also donate to them directlyhere: https://fundraise.givesmart.com/e/mvl0Vg?vid=1gzk2h

A workshop at Minnesota Center for BookArts Paper Fiber Images: Watermarks withBridget O’Malley will be held Saturday,February 22, 10:00 AM 4:00 PM. In thisin-person workshop, explore watermarking, an image making technique that uses astencil resist to create soft and subtle imagesin your paper. Learn a method to create thestencil and how to prepare pulp for the bestresults. Come away with samples and ideasfor future projects and experimentationswith imagery in paper. Wear clothing thatcan get dirty and shoes that can get wet (i.e.rubber boots, garden clogs, etc.). Participantsneed to return to pick up their paper onSaturday, 3/1, or later in The Shop at MCBAto allow the wet sheets of paper time to drywhile pressed flat for a few days.

OPPORTUNITIES

You are invited to participate in the 4thannual full-sheet handmade paper swap,the 2025 Handmade Paper Exchange! Thisexchange is open to ALL levels of papermak-ers. Hosted by Genevieve Nordmark andSophia Hotzler.

What You Need to Do:

Make handmade paper in size A4, B5, D4, orUS letter size. Anything goes, but if you useglitter or any other material that easily flakesoff of your paper, please enclose each sheetin a sheet sleeve.

Send 12 sheets to Sophia Hotzler, post-marked by February 15, 2025. Write the fiber used and your name on each sheet.

Fill out the google form with your information and recipe for your paper.

What You’ll Get Back

10 curated sheets of handmade paper housedin a handmade paper enclosure, postmarkedback to you by April 5, 2025.

Images of all submitted papers along withrecipes, uploaded to Instagram and Face-book @handmadePaperExchange

A pdf of all recipes and pictures of paperswill be made available to participants and thepublic.

They create two full sets of papers every year.One to keep to have a collection of all papersfrom over the years. This year your second extra paper will become part of the Univer-sity of Iowa’s special collections in the Peterand Donna Thomas Fine Press Collection,thanks to papermaker and participant PeterThomas. The collection is searchable, soanyone curious about papermaking can findyour paper and recipe. For more informa-tion, check out @handmadepaperexchangeon Insatram or visit https://thefiberwire.com/2024/12/10/handmade-paper-exchange/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaZ8I-_onpXawQ2SHdf73FjR8z0a-EFJ3j7hahTsjm9bhzyGITfqDTAS992Y_aem_67HsNZnkvPTmPKY-JvsprA

We want to promote your projects!If you have any news, upcomingevents, or open opportunities letus know at newsletter@hand-papermaking.org

special thanks to our donors

Hand Papermaking acknowledges recent contri-butors to our nonprofit programs. All donationsare greatly appreciated and tax deductible. Ourtax ID number is 52-1436849. Call or write forinformation on annual giving levels, automaticmonthly gifts, and other ways to support us.

‍benefactors: Mark Tomasko, Beck White-head

patrons: Tom Balbo, Lisa Cirando, Sid Berger &Michèle Cloonan, Sue Gosin, Darin Murphy,Erik Saarmaa, Michelle Samour, Kenneth Tyler

underwriters: Yousef Ahmed, John Cirando,Vijay Dhawan, Lois & Gordon James, IngridRose

sponsors: Eric Avery, Tom & Lore Burger, KerriCushman, Susan Mackin Dolan, Devie Dragone,Michael Durgin, Michael Fallon, Jane Farmer,Kim Grummer, Helen Hiebert, Robyn Johnson &Peter Newland, Debora Mayer, Marcia Morse,Robert Specker, H. Paul Sullivan, Mina Takahashi,Aviva Weiner, Kathy Wosika

donors: May Babcock, Alisa Banks, Tom Bannister, Sarah Louise Brayer, AnnCicale, Amanda Degener, John Dietel, Karla& Jim Elling, David Engle, Jerry Exline,Helen Frederick, Lori Goodman, RichardHaynes, Margaret Heineman, Shireen Holman,Kyoko Ibe, Jamie Kamph, Enid Keyser, JuneLinowitz, Julie McLaughlin, Sharon Morris,Jeannine Mulan, Anela Oh, Elaine Nishizu,Nancy Pike, Alta Price, Joy Purcell, ReneeRogers, Annabelle Shrieve, Thomas Siciliano,Kathleen Stevenson, Bernie Vinzani, AprilVollmer, Paul Wong

supporters: Marlene Adler, John Babcock,Timothy Barrett, Kathryn Clark, Nancy Cohen,Marian Dirda, Iris Dozer, Tatiana Ginsberg,Mabel Grummer, Guild of Papermakers, LisaHaque, Robert Hauser, Viviane Ivanova,Kristin Kavanagh, Susan Kanowith-Klein, DavidKimball, Steve Kostell, Lea Basile-Lazarus,Aimee Lee, Winifred Lutz, MP Marion, EdwinMartin, Lynne Mattot, Ann McKeown, TimMoore & Pati Scobey, Catherine Nash, NancyPobanz, Melissa Potter, Brian Queen, DianneReeves, Carolyn Riley, Michele Rothenberger,Pamela Wood

friends: Jack Becker, Anne Beckett, Lee Cooper,Elizabeth Curren, Dorothy Field, Lucia Harrison,Margaret Miller, Deborah Sternberg-Service,Don Widmer

in-kind donations: Janet De Boer, John Gerard,Dard Hunter III, Microsoft Corporate Citizen-ship, Steve Miller

contributors to our 2024 auction fundraising event: Stephanie Damoff, May Babcock, RonaConti, Amy Richard, Amanda Degener, Tim Barrett, Jamie DeAngelis, David Engle, Lois James, Ro-berto Mannino, Charlotte Kwon, Loreto Apilado, Claire Van Vliet, Serena Trizzino, ArtOrg Studios,Inc., Lesa Hepburn, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Michelle Wilson, Mary Milelzcik, TimothyMoore, Donna Koretsky, Michael Durgin, Jamie Capps, Donna Koretsky, Zoë Goehring, James Ojas-castro, Jame M. Farmer, Tatiana Ginsberg, and Cathleen Baker.

AND THANKS TOO TO OUR SPONSORS

Arnold Grummer’s, the Papertrail Handmade Paper & Book Arts, Penland School of Craft,The Robert C. Williams Papermaking Museum, Carriage House Papers and Dieu Donné.

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