HA N D PA P E RMA K I NG

N E W S L E T T E R

Number 86, April 2009

Newsletter Editor: Shireen Holman Advertising & Listings: Mary Tasillo Desktop Production: Amy Richard

Columnists: Sidney Berger, Susan Gosin, Maureen and Simon Green, Helen Hiebert, Elaine Koretsky, Winifred Radolan, Mary Tasillo.

Dear Readers,

I want to let you know about my “Artist Paper Grants.”

During the growing hard times hand papermakers will continue to make paper, with or

without a market. I certainly have a sizable stockpile of paper. Rather than sit on this gigantic

stack of paper, I propose to put it into the hands of artists in the form of Artist Paper Grants.

Artists may apply for an award of paper upon which they are free to do their work.

I am not looking for proposals, just the chance to put amazing handmade paper into the

hands of artists interested in making good work on paper. I have no backing for this experiment,

so I will do it as long as it is positive and useful. Please don’t tell me you think I’m

foolishly giving paper away.

I know that most artists can’t afford a $25 sheet of 22” x 30” heavyweight rag paper, especially

in the current economic environment. But if their work is appropriate for such a piece

of paper, I’ll help make it possible, at least within my means.

What I am proposing is to “invest” in the work of other artists. The artists who accept this

paper will pay for the paper only after the artwork on that sheet of paper passes into other

hands. At that point they will contribute $25 per sheet to the Colorado Centre for HANDMADE

Paper.

You will note that I have no email or telephone at the Centre. That is on purpose. I want

to receive handwritten applications only. Visit cowboyhatpaper.com. You will notice a link

marked “Bold Venture.” Click and read about the Artist Paper Grants.

This is a drop in the ocean toward economic recovery for artists, but if others in comparable

situations can help, perhaps we can make a difference, at least for other artists.

In addition, the local Combat Paper Project participants are now trained papermakers,

working daily in my mill. So, this “economic stimulus paper” proposal is not only aimed at

helping artists, it already provides jobs for Iraq veterans.

Sandy Kinnee, The Colorado Centre for HANDMADE Paper

Dear Readers,

I teach in an arts and literacy program (VALA) for Hispanic children in Richmond, California.

I thought you might be interested in the responses some of my 3rd graders had to their own

first pieces of handmade paper. Being an avid paper artist, I’ve taken my cast paper whale

bone sculptures to the school yard, where we danced with them. While handing out the students’

just-dried paper, made from newspaper and cotton, I played a beautiful piece of music and

danced. Then I invited them to dance with their own paper, letting their hands be their

guides. Afterwards I asked them to write what they felt onto their handmade paper, as part of

what I do is to encourage them to write poetry. I haven’t changed their spelling or syntax, as it

adds to the power of their thoughts.

Daniela wrote, “I felt wierd went I was dancing is like the paper was talking to me. “Jose

said, “I felt beautiful music and I felt to dance with the paper, told me to dance and no one

seen me.” (When he received his handmade paper, sitting at his desk, he put his hooded

sweatshirt over his face, and moved his hands, holding his art.) Guillermo wrote, “I feel I

was in the water and with a whell (whale) in the water I aminge I was hld a butrrfly.” Noemy

wrote, “I feel good becaus I was touching my paper for the first time on my life and that

made me feel very happy.” Another child wrote, “I feel loving with the paper.” Santos wrote,

“It felt in my han like I had a bird.” Another child wrote, “The paper make me feel that it was

soft like a pelow.” Marcos wrote, “I felt thee.”

The children tied their pieces of paper with gold cord, and attached them to a branch

which they call their imagine tree. Some of them also wrote wishes. One child wrote, “I wish

my famil waset poor.”

Blessed be,

Diana Marto, Petaluma, California

Hand Papermaking Newsletter is published

four times per year. In summer and winter it is

mailed with the journal Hand Papermaking, and

in spring and autumn it is distributed separately.

Annual subscriptions include both publications:

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use a credit card, or pay in U.S. dollars via money

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bank. For more subscription information, or a list

of back issue contents and availability, contact:

Hand Papermaking, Inc.

PO Box 1070, Beltsville, MD 20704-1070

Phone: (800) 821-6604 or (301) 220-2393

Fax: (301) 220-2394

E-mail: info@handpapermaking.org

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The deadline for the next newsletter (July 2009)

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 $1.00 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; Mary Tasillo,

Advertising & Listings.

Board of Directors: Sidney Berger, Frank Brannon,

Shannon Brock, Inge Bruggeman, Georgia

Deal, Gail Deery, Jim Escalante, Susan Gosin,

Helen Hiebert, Ann Marie Kennedy, Barbara

Lippman, Andrea Peterson, Margaret Prentice,

Gibby Waitzkin, Beck Whitehead. Board of Advisors:

Timothy Barrett, Simon Blattner, Gregor R.

Campbell, Mindell Dubansky, Jane M. Farmer,

Helen C. Frederick, Elaine Koretsky, James Sitter,

Claire Van Vliet. Co-founders: Amanda Degener

and Michael Durgin.

hand papermaking newsletter

Dear Hand Papermaking,

Your recent article and sample of Alabama

mule dung paper (Winter 2008 magazine)

reminded my colleagues of paper they had

made from elephant dung. Years ago, they

had obtained sterilized and dehydrated

elephant dung which they rehydrated and

mixed with pulp to make handmade paper.

Unfortunately, they can’t remember the

name and address of the company from

which they had obtained the processed

elephant dung but thought that it was a

cottage industry “somewhere in Africa.” I

am wondering if any of your readers know of

sources for such a product. There are numerous

companies which sell dung paper products

but I couldn’t find any which supplies the

dehydrated and sterilized raw material. Other

herbivore dung would do as well.

Thanks for your help,

Valerie Hatten

Ontario Science Centre

Toronto, Ontario

(416) 696-3149

valerie.hatten@osc.on.ca

As I review the 2008 adventures on my

paper road, I am astounded at how

much occurred in only one year.

The first few months I stayed near home,

catching up with tasks neglected because

of the prior year’s activities. Late in May I

was back on the paper road to Stockholm,

Sweden, for the biennial conference of IPH

(International Paper Historians). The group

was meeting in conjunction with the NPH

(Nordic Paper Historians), the SPCI (Swedish

Association of Paper and Pulp Engineers,

which was celebrating its 100th anniversary),

and “World Pulp and Paper Week,” which

featured a special exhibition. It turned out to

be a very unusual conference, considering

that IPH is largely composed of very serious

paper historians, conservators, and museum

or library directors. The SPCI part of the

program was unusual. The speakers mainly

focused on various aspects of the pulp and

paper industry, but there was also an extraordinary

slide lecture by the Swedish astronaut

Christer Fuglesang. He showed incredible

photos of his own walk in space, with exciting

stories of his personal experiences in the

shuttle. To everyone’s amazement, between

each of the speeches musicians began playing

popular music while a group of female

singers and dancers rushed onto the stage

and gave a remarkable performance. Months

later, when my husband and I saw the movie

“Mama Mia,” we realized that we had seen

the original famous Swedish group ABBA

performing.

Another part of the program was particularly

fantastic for me. That was a visit to the

Museum of Ethnography, which is mainly

devoted to the famous explorer Sven Hedin,

and the collection of ancient Chinese paper

and artifacts from his extensive expeditions

through the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts

of Central Asia in the early twentieth century.

I spent an hour with Hakan Wahlquist,

the enthusiastic museum director, who

displayed complete knowledge of the entire

exhibit, and had even explored that area of

Central Asia, namely Xinjiang Province,

China, in 1992. This was one year before I

made the same journey through the deserts,

searching for evidence of papermaking

along the “Silk Road” taken by Marco Polo

in the thirteenth century.1

At the IPH part of the conference, held at

the Royal Swedish Technical University in

Stockholm, members spoke on important

aspects of papermaking and paper history.

The University had prepared an impressive

display of their Dard Hunter books,

and by coincidence I was slated to show

my documentary film, “A Tribute to Dard

Hunter.’2 At the business meeting of IPH,

my husband and I were elected to Honorary

Membership in IPH, acknowledging our

contributions to paper history.

By July I was ready to travel again and began

making plans to return to China. In the

previous issue of Hand Papermaking Newsletter,

I mentioned that I would continue my

research into the pith material made from

the Tetrapanax papyrifera tree, and investigate

the beating of the inner bark of the Upas

tree, Antiaris toxicaria, used to make clothing

by farmers in the Xishaungbanna part of

China. The farmers believed that it warded

off mosquitoes, because the tree contains a

poisonous sap often used to coat arrow tips.

We started in Guizhou Province, where

I hoped to locate a family still making the

pith material from Tetrapanax, according

to information from the Director of the

Guangzhou Art Museum. Despite our guide

Wu’s efforts, we failed, because the road

to the village where the family lived was

under construction and totally inaccessible.

We might have trekked there, but we met

the leader of the village, who said he was

unaware of any workshop in his village that

was producing pith material. We abandoned

that search, and began exploring areas where

Wu had seen Tetrapanax growing. This was

a great success. I saw the trees growing in

profusion, and many were even in bloom,

the flowering stalks looming high above

the plants’ branches. I had never seen the

plant in bloom before, and had no idea that

the blossoms would be so profuse. When I

reached home at the end of October, I was

astonished at seeing my own Tetrapanax

plant also in full bloom.

As we were driving away, we spotted a

woman walking along the road carrying a

bunch of Tetrapanax pith. She told us that

she gathered the stalks, removed the pith,

and was taking it to the market for sale,

where it was purchased for medicinal uses.

Over the past eight years, Wu has helped

me document many of the minority peoples

in Guizhou Province who made paper

by hand or were in involved with related

processes. He always looked for more places

that he thought would be important for my

research. In the next four days, therefore,

I documented the Yao people in Baiweng

village, who make paper from the straw of

“sticky rice” (Oryza glutinosa), and visited

Bang Gao village to photograph the unusual

pictographic calligraphy of the Shui Nationality.

Another day, we drove up into the mountains

to Yao Egu village to see the Buyi people

making bamboo paper for burial ceremonies.

I watched the entire process here, including

the beating performed by an unusual stone

wheel driven by the family cow. That part

took two hours, during which we had a splendid

lunch at an adjoining farmhouse.

In Song Dai

village, we heard

a sad story from

a farmer. Most

of the men in

the village were

papermakers,

producing

bamboo paper. But a year ago, one man

bought a papermaking machine, and all the

other papermakers lost out. A few of these

men were hired to work in the new factory,

but the others had only their farm work to

support them. The last place in Guizhou

Province that we visited was Weng Gui

village, where there were four families still

making paper by hand. The papermakers

told us that twenty years ago, there were

thirty papermaking families; eighty years

ago, there were more than one hundred.

The paper made here now was usually a

mixture of 70% paper mulberry and 30%

waste paper, although, depending upon

their customers’ demands, they would use

different combinations. I recorded on paper

and in film all the steps of soaking, beating,

sheet formation, pressing, and drying, and

bought a bundle of paper. Then we returned

to Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou Province,

to fly to Kunming, capital of Yunnan

Province. Our daughter, Donna, met us at

the airport, and we all left the next morning

for new adventures in Kunming.

> TO BE CONTINUED in the next issue.

> ALONG THE PAPER ROAD...

This regular feature offers paper musings from

Elaine Koretsky—renowned paper historian,

researcher, and traveler. In this issue, Elaine talks

about her recent trip to China to research the

Tetrapanax papyrifera and Upas trees.

> TEACHING HAND PAPERMAKING

Writing the current chapter of my

itinerant adventures on this frigid

mid-winter day, I find myself almost midpoint

through a residency that is warming

my heart. During the first ten days of my

visit to this elementary school in a small

New Jersey community, I have been asked

to introduce papermaking to all 400 first

through fifth grade students. There are

nearly five classes in each grade level, with

an average of twenty students per class.

These children have 50 minutes of art once

a week. Yes, this certainly does sound like

production papermaking, but working with

the children, art teacher, and principal of

this school has been quite refreshing.

Firstly, the principal is a very caring,

enthusiastic, and hands-on leader. He meets

the school buses every morning to greet the

students, and sees them off every afternoon.

During the day he can often be found walking

in the hallways, with a warm smile for

students and faculty. I appreciate the opportunity

to observe the art teacher’s clear and

encompassing directions to the students as

they receive guidance in classroom procedures.

There is often a moment or two of

dialogue with a concerned classroom teacher

over a particular child’s focus or performance.

In fact, I’ve noticed a slightly higher standard

of accountability and expected conduct in this

school in general.

The building itself is two years old, bright

and sparkling clean. Student art work is

mounted on every wall. The art classroom

is large, sunny, well designed, and well

equipped. It is a most pleasurable environment

in which to work.

I have been introducing papermaking to

the students in every class with a combination

of dialogue, paper samples, and the

video, “The Paper Trail,” which consolidates

the entire history of paper into four minutes.

Every student has learned to use a mould and

deckle to make a pigmented sheet of cotton/

abaca paper. They’ve had the opportunity to

layer this “base sheet” with a second color of

pulp that has been dipped, splashed or handprint

stenciled onto the mould, then couched

onto their base. After pressing posts of student-

made paper in the classroom, I’ve been

board restraint drying these mounting stacks

of paper at home overnight. The art teacher

will have each student do a Styrofoam print

on top of his/her handmade paper. I hope

to see them all displayed in a school hallway

before the conclusion of this residency.

In my next column I will describe my

unfolding adventures with the five fifth grade

classes during the remaining ten days of my

time with them. I will be helping these students

design and construct a paper sculptural

piece that will be their graduating gift to the

school. We’ll be building reed armature units

and wrapping them in high shrinkage abaca

pulp. So, as I frequently say to my students,

“stay tuned.”

We are pleased to present Maureen and Simon

Green’s first contribution to our Paper History

column.

> PAPER HISTORY

Having been occasional contributors

to, and readers of, Hand Papermaking

since its earliest days, we were delighted to

be invited to contribute a column on handmade

paper history. We intend to interpret

this fairly broadly (if the editor is willing!)

and hope you enjoy our first contribution in

this issue.

For those of you who do not know us,

here are some details. Maureen first became

involved with handmade paper in 1974

when she set up and ran the papermaking

exhibit for The First World Crafts Exhibition

held at the Ontario Science Centre (OSC)

in Toronto. Following this, she worked with

the design team at OSC installing a printing

and papermaking studio where visitors were

encouraged to try their hand at making

sheets then putting them to press. As a

result you will see some of Maureen’s work

in Jules Heller’s seminal book Papermaking,

published in 1978. Simon officially opened

the OSC exhibit and, as they say, one thing

led to another! Simon was the last of the

Green family to run Hayle Mill, Maidstone

in Kent, United Kingdom. The Mill had

been a family business since 1812, and paper

was manufactured by hand there until

1987. During Simon’s time in charge, a variety

of new papers were developed, including

the first handmade papers to be sized with

alkyl ketene dimers, and a variety of abaca

and linen fiber papers. Simon also provided

consultancy services in India, the Philippines,

and Bhutan in the 1980s and 1990s,

and remains in touch with papermakers

and enthusiasts worldwide by email.

Hayle Mill has the best commercial

papermaking archives in the world (we are

waiting for someone to challenge this claim),

which date back to 1838 and, to a limited

extent, several decades before then. Over the

past decade Maureen has been using the

archive and was awarded an MA (History of

the Book), from the Institute of English Studies,

School of Advanced Study, University of

London in 2000. She is currently working

on her PhD. In 2006 she contributed to the

publication “Papermaking and the Art of

Watercolor in Eighteenth-Century Britain,”

having worked in an advisory capacity with

Theresa Fairbanks Harris on the accompanying

exhibition for the Yale Center for British

Art. In June 2008, Maureen’s limited edition

book Papermaking at Hayle Mill 1808-1987

was published by the renowned Janus Press

in Vermont. A review will appear in the Summer

2009 issue of Hand Papermaking, and

the book can be obtained from Janus Press,

101 Schoolhouse Road, Newark, VT 05871-

9773, cvv@kingcon.com (for USA and most

of the world), and moreeng@aol.com for the

UK and Europe.

Our first article relates to a document

that recently came to light when one of the

archive’s many letter bundles was opened

for the first time in nearly 150 years. The

document headed The Present State of the

Rag Market and Its Prospects is dated 21

March 1860—an important year for the

British papermaking industry. After much

petitioning, a bill calling for the abolition

of Paper Duty was presented to Parliament

that May. After vigorous debate, the Paper

Bill was passed on 3 June 1861 and came

into effect in October of that year.1

Frederick Rudolph, author of this three

page printed circular, informed his readership

that in his opinion “the most exciting and

all-important topic now deeply interesting

English Paper-makers, is the future price of

Linen Rags, and the probability of a rise or

fall.” Rudolf further maintained he was well

placed to speculate and advise his customers

regarding future demands and/or subsequent

price fluctuations as “agent to the largest

Baltic shipper of Russian Linen Rags, Mr. L.

C. Janisch, of Memel, who imports into this

country at the rate of 4,000 tons per annum.”

As late as 1860, rags remained the

primary constituent of paper in the West,

following on from their earliest use in

Europe when papermaking was brought to

Spain by the Moors in the eleventh century.

Despite the introduction of bleaching agents

in the latter part of the eighteenth century,

which removed stains and dyes from poorer

quality rags, creating a wider source of

supply, competition to procure sufficient

supplies of rag material to satisfy demand

continued to prove an ongoing problem for

both the vat and machine trade. Forays into

finding alternatives had been ongoing, with

some machine mills manufacturing paper

from straw, but even at this late date rags

continued to “form 88 per cent of the total

papermaking material.” When it came to

making currency, bond, share certificate,

fine printing, or artists’ papers, only the best

rag material available, in the form of linen

rag or textile off-cuts, was considered acceptable.

In many instances, the rags had to be

imported from the mainland of Europe, as

Britain, along with other nations (including

America), did not generate sufficient supplies

at home to satisfy demand.

If the manufacturers found themselves

already stretched, according to Rudolf the

removal of the paper duty would lead to an

increased consumption of paper, especially

printing paper. In order to accommodate

this he predicted that “new Mills will be

built, and old Mills, which stood still for

years, will be worked again.” This, he

maintained, would increase the demand for

foreign rags, severely inflating prices. Of

more concern was whether further supplies

of rags could be sourced, for it had long

been acknowledged that every scrap of rag

available in Europe was already spoken for

by established makers.

Some suggested new sources of supply

could be found in India, Australia, and

America. However, America remained

heavily reliant upon European stocks and

was constantly searching for new suppliers

abroad as the country’s population grew and

paper industry expanded. Australia’s population

was not only sparse but also widely

dispersed, making any effort to collect and

export available rags an uneconomical prospect.

Lastly, the report reveals that “in India,

it is true, Rags can be found in quantities,

but the tropic climate and the habits of the

population, is the cause that all Rags to be

obtained from that quarter are so rotten, that

they are almost unfit for paper-making.”

Ever the astute entrepreneur, Rudolf continues

his report with news of a relatively

new source of supply—Russia. More particularly,

he informs his readership that “the

trade from there has been in existence for

about 15 years, but only lately it has taken a

more prominent position as a Rag supplying

country. Russia is the country where

Linen—and pure Linen—is still worn to a

much greater extent than in any other part

of the world.” However bountiful Russia appears

at this point, he warns that accessing

the rags from this country was also at times

problematical: “it must be borne in mind,

that this vast territory is comparatively

very thinly populated; in such districts the

collecting goes on so slow, that it actually

does not pay the trouble of collecting; only

the more crowded parts can, therefore, be

looked to for supplies.” While he estimates

that close to “six thousand tons per annum”

are exported from the country, there appears

no hope on the horizon that these amounts

will either increase, or that estimated costs

to the manufacturers will not rise. Aside

from merchants in Russia suddenly inflating

prices in recognition of the value of

their stocks in a highly competitive market,

Rudolf warns that “Paper Mills in Russia

will be become more numerous, and their

increasing demand will lessen in time the

quantities available for export.” Although by

1801 Russia is recorded by Hunter to have

23 papermills in production2 (by comparison,

Britain had 3 machines and 762 vats3),

the country’s own industry was expanding.

In essence, Rudolf’s warning to the trade

was to strike while the iron was hot, as “the

prices of Rags will go much higher in the

course of the year.” What neither he nor

his customers could have factored into his

prediction was the effect ...................the American Civil

War (1861–1865) was to have on the rag

market. The ensuing Cotton Famine all but

destroyed much of the remaining British

textile industry. The closing of mills greatly

reduced the availability of good quality

textile waste, off-cuts the handmade trade

particularly coveted.

While the Civil War proved disastrous for

some, Hayle Mill reaped unexpected benefits

when, in 1862, the Mill received a substantial

order to make in excess of 380,000 Confederate

notes. No record remains of how the family

reconciled their support for the abolitionist

cause with the execution of this order!4

For those interested in Hayle Mill, here is

a brief update. The Mill ceased production

in 1987 and we immediately sought a new

use for its long-term future. Ideas included

a museum (unviable), offices (for which

there was no market), restaurants, and even

a day care centre for disadvantaged children.

However the solution that has succeeded

most often for old mills throughout the

UK and worldwide—residential conversion

—was strenuously resisted by the heritage

and zoning authorities and local NIMBIES,

so they were able to prevent long-term

work starting for nineteen years. Since

2002 the Mill has belonged to P J Livesey

Ltd, a property developer specialising in

converting historic buildings. Work started

in December 2006 and all major conversion

was completed in late 2008. This has

included repairs to the dam, construction

of a new flood relief culvert (to allow for

global warming), new piled foundations for

nearly all the buildings, a huge amount of

remedial carpentry and masonry, new slate

roofs, fittings, etc., and everything needed

to meet current building and insulation

standards. Residents started moving in during

February 2008 but the credit crunch is

severely curtailing sales so full occupancy is

still some time away.

Information about Hayle Mill including

professional moulds, felts, handmade papers,

and even a 25 lb. Valley beater can be found

at https://sites.google.com/site/simonbar

chamgreen/

1. H. Dagnall, The Taxation of Paper in Great Britain,

1643 – 1861, (London: The British Association of Paper

Historians, 1998), p. 80.

2. D. H. Hunter, Papermaking, (New York: Dover Publications,

Inc., 1978), p. 485.

3. A. D. Spicer, The Paper Trade, (London: Methuen &

Co., 1907), p. 249.

4. Hayle Mill Archives: Letter

> PROFILES IN PAPER

Susan Gosin co-founded Dieu DonnО Press &

Paper in 1976. She regularly lectures and teaches

papermaking, and has compiled a significant collection

of interviews with noted personalities in the

hand papermaking community. In this issue Sue

profiles Katherine and Howard Clark, and the

history of Twinrocker.

“PAPER TO THE PEOPLE”

That’s how Kathy Clark recently summed

up Twinrocker’s mission formulated

almost forty years ago in the heyday of San

Francisco’s coming of age, when “flower

power” went hand in hand with “power to

the people,” and baby boomers rediscovered

the value of all things handmade. Kathy

and Howie Clark met in graduate school

at Wayne State University while she was

studying for her MFA in fine lithography and

hand papermaking from Aris Koutroulis,

a Tamarind printer and a former Laurence

Barker student. Howie, a mechanical engineer

by training, was completing a second

degree in Industrial Design. But it wasn’t until

they were living in San Francisco in 1970,

that their unique combination of interests

and talents found support and definition.

While a printer at a Tamarind off-shoot

press called Collector’s Press, Kathy printed

some of her own images on paper she’d

made at Wayne State. The prints and the paper

received so much attention that Howie

decided to build a beater, himself, so that

they could make more paper. Built in the

basement of their rented apartment with

rudimentary tools, they inaugurated the

beater and their professional lives as hand

papermakers at a neighborhood art fair

called “Art In Action,” in a park in front of

San Francisco’s City Hall. As Howie recalls,

the spot they were given that day didn’t

have running water and the nearest water

was in the park’s reflecting pool, which had

been dyed purple. So Howie had to relay

buckets of water in a shopping cart to the

beater with fingers crossed that the untested

beater actually worked! Miraculously, it did,

and the crowd was bowled over by this new

thing called hand papermaking.

But, as Howie so aptly put it, “San

Francisco is an expensive town to reinvent

the wheel.” Publishers and printers in San

Francisco and Los Angeles, including Collector’s

Press, who commissioned paper for

a Jose Cuevas suite of lithographs entitled

“Cuevas Comedies,” and Clifford Burke,

who introduced them to the work of Dard

Hunter, continued to encourage them and

support their early endeavors. The photo

(on next page) shows Howie and Kathy

with “Paper makes Rags,” printed by Dr.

Hoffman and Dr. Urabec, two friends of

theirs in Los Angeles who made paper every

week using a Laws beater.

But in

1972, they

decided to sell

their worldly

belongings,

except for their

papermaking

equipment

and clothes,

and head back

to join Howie’s

grandmother

on a farm in

Indiana where

they could put

down roots. Since none of the farm buildings

was suitable for hand papermaking, Howie

began work on a 1200 square foot structure

that would become the first Twinrocker site.

Two young students, Kathy Kiddie and

Tim Barrett, whom they had met in Los

Angeles and San Francisco respectively, soon

joined them on the farm to help with their

efforts in exchange for the chance to learn

more about hand papermaking. At this point

they began a twelve-year apprenticeship program

when they realized, as Kathy recently

said, “that it would take a village to revive

hand papermaking in America.” Through

the course of the next decade, ten other curious

artisans, such as Lee Scott MacDonald

and Antoinette Dwan, committed themselves

to two years of communal living at this

hand papermaking farm where they helped

the Clarks research rag, half stuff, and plant

fiber for pulp; lightfast pigments and dyes for

coloring; and gelatin and alkyl ketene dimers

for archival sizing. As Kathy generously notes,

certainly in the early years, they weren’t so

much teaching as learning together with all

who wandered out to the farm and stayed

two years—“we shared a spirit of discovery.”

As was common on communes of that time,

they also shared housing, meals, and what

limited income they were able to make from

their papermaking, while supplementing their

income with grants and secondary jobs such

as teaching and waiting tables. Even Howie’s

grandmother became one of the gang, riding

with the apprentices on a couch in the back of

their van on group field trips to Chicago.

For someone like myself who also came

of age during this period, the Clarks’ stories

bring back memories of those vivid times

that intricately combined the enthusiasm of

discovery with the fervor of shared idealism,

and stood in stark contrast to the real

and imagined financial fears faced by the

Clarks and all pioneers in the field. Though

I left my “hippie” farm outside of Madison,

Wisconsin only four years later to begin Dieu

Donné in New York City, the beat of the time

by then had changed to disco, and, thanks to

the Clarks, their apprentices, and other early

practioners, the revival of hand papermaking

was out of its initial infancy and ready for the

art world of New York City.

Both Kathy and Howie describe with passion

and wit their being almost possessed

with the vision of rediscovering the craft of

making paper by hand, and, by reviving it,

ensuring that it would be there for artists in

the future. And, of course, last but not least,

making a living at it. Yet when they started,

neither had any professional training in

making archival paper, nor experience in

designing and manufacturing papermaking

equipment, nor any education or background

in starting and/or running a business of any

kind. But, of course, that didn’t stop them,

and what they did have was skill and education

in related fields, and, most importantly,

an entrepreneurial spirit of never giving up.

As Kathy told me many years ago, “if you

don’t quit, you won’t fail.”

Kathy’s years spent learning the technical

skills of printmaking, as well as her

varied interests in the book arts, watercolor

painting, and calligraphy, prepared her to be

an ideal designer of papers appropriate for

each medium. Her exposure to the Tamarind

philosophy of training printmakers

to become master printers, as well as her

experience with professional art publishing

studios, helped them prepare a template for

Twinrocker’s evolution from a start-up art

studio to a national business. At each stage

of growth, Howie’s extensive education and

experience in engineering and design, not

to mention plain old fashioned know-how,

served Twinrocker well as they designed,

built, and improved the physical studio, and

reinvented papermaking equipment to serve

contemporary needs. For a period of time

in the mid-1980s, Twinrocker’s business included

the manufacture and sale of beaters,

presses, and other pieces of papermaking

equipment to schools and professionals starting

programs in the field. Though they no

longer manufacture equipment, Twinrocker

continues to sell an extensive offering of

hand papermaking supplies.

However, what defines their on-going

legacy best is their extensive offering of fine

handmade papers. Starting in 1972 with an

initial order of 34” x 48” custom paper that

was the largest size their freshly built platen

press could accommodate, they made paper

for Jack Lemon of Landfall Press for an edition

of Jim Dine’s lithographs, “The Red Bandana.”

The success of this and other custom

orders of paper opened the door to associations

with other premier print publishers of

the day, most importantly, Tatyana Grossman

of Universal Limited Art Editions, and her

stable of artists such as James Rosenquist

and Robert Rauschenberg, as well as paper

for artist Robert Motherwell, whose prints

were published by Ken Tyler. The list of

noteworthy clients and custom orders, such

as the paper for Cathy Baker’s biography of

Dard Hunter or Barry Moser’s Bible, is a

vivid testament to their skill as accomplished

papermakers. Recently, Kathy and I calculated

that she has probably formed close to two

million sheets of paper! And, in addition to

these custom orders for printmaking papers,

Kathy also worked closely with watercolor

painters to develop a superior domestic

handmade suitable for the specific requirements

of watercolor. Throughout her career

as a papermaker, Kathy has regularly used

her paper for her own art as a printmaker,

book artist, and painter. And she has found

great satisfaction with periodic collaborations

in the studio with other artists such as Claire

van Vleit, helping them create their imagery

using the papermaking process.

By the late 1980s, Twinrocker was at a crossroads

and a decision was made to support

its growth by moving it off the farm to a new

location in the town of Brookston, Indiana.

While a new building was purchased and

renovated in town, a film crew caught the final

days of hand papermaking on the Clarks’ farm

and gave them a rare chance to see themselves

as others saw them. When the documentary

was released in 1992 as “The Mark of the

Maker,” it was nominated for an Oscar.

Meanwhile, the Clarks took Tatyana

Grossman’s advice to hire local people to help

them run Twinrocker and began, in earnest,

to identify and train the next generation of

Twinrocker papermakers. Though they have

come to symbolize a Grant Wood style “Ma

and Pa” of the hand papermaking revival,

they have no children to whom to pass on

their legacy and their business. And because

Twinrocker is not just a mom and pop shop

like a local hardware store but the embodiment

of a calling that has taken decades to

realize, careful planning and fifteen years

of preparation have gone into the succession

plan. Eventually they found their heir

apparent in Travis Becker, a bright young

man who early on displayed the necessary

commitment and curiosity to master the craft

of hand papermaking and to assume the

responsibilities of running the business. As

Kathy explained it, the fifteen-year plan was

divided into three distinct five-year stages:

during the first five years they trained Travis;

for the next five years they made the paper

and ran the business on an equal footing;

and in the last five years Howie and Kathy

gradually evolved out of day-to-day operations

and into an advisory role.

This extraordinarily thoughtful passing of

the baton has been executed with the same

deep care and conviction that has marked

Kathy and Howie’s exceptional careers as

hand papermakers, artists, and business

people. That they have been able to create a

successful business that uniquely serves the

needs of a wide range of clients who rely on

the quality and consistency of their product

as well as on their expertise, is the fulfillment

of not only their dream but also that of Dard

Hunter, who also dreamed of reestablishing

fine hand papermaking as a viable business

in The United States of America.

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 thirty years.

This column is the continuation of Sid’s discussion

of Takejiro Hasegawa’s books.

‍

Takejiro Hasegawa’s earliest books were

the Japanese Fairy Tales Series, which

had black-and-white illustrations and plain

brown-paper wrappers. Later, he changed

the covers to multicolor illustrations, and

that was followed soon thereafter by the use

of full-color illustrations within. The final

change, which proved to be a stroke of genius,

was to print the illustrations and text onto plain

paper and then have the paper creped, intensifying

the colors of the illustrations and rendering

the paper soft and fabric-like. They were

a joy to hold and to behold, with their quaint

texts, lovely illustrations, and soft textures.

The earliest of these, issued about 1886 (Sharf

never saw one on crepe paper with an earlier

date), was a set of twelve volumes, containing

the Japanese Fairy Tale Series.

Because his business expanded exponentially

(in parallel to the expansion of

his family—he and his wife Yasu had six

children), he lived at many addresses, and

the imprints of these volumes vary from

one address to another with dizzying pace.

The Fairy Tale Series was followed by many

other non-series titles, and they were soon

to be produced in other Western languages,

including Dutch, Russian, Swedish, Danish,

Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.

A few copy-cat publishers got into the

game as well, and the number of crepe

paper books actually produced is difficult to

determine, though the collection at the Phillips

Library at the Peabody Essex Museum

(amassed mostly by Sharf himself) is an

indication of the full extent of the crepe-paperbook

craze.

The topics were vast, as a glance at Sharf’s

bibliography indicates. Besides two series of

Japanese Fairy Tales, there were such titles

from Hasegawa as King Coodles the Faithful

(by Charles and Susan Bowles), A Nile Voyage

(also by the Bowlses, in

two editions), Japanese

Jingles (by Mae St. John

Bramhall), Japan’s Year

(by Julia D. Carothers),

Karma (by Paul Carus, in

three editions in English

and a fourth in Japanese),

Glimpses of Japan (by Benjamin

Chappell), Moonlight

Scenes of Japan (also by

Chappell), and on and on.

One of Hasegawa’s

rivals, L. Boehmer & Co.,

published Catalogue of

Japanese Lily-Bulbs, Iris,

Peonies, and Other Japanese

Flower Roots, Seeds, and

General Nursery Stock. We

also see Hasegawa’s Japanese

Story-Tellers and Residential Rhymes (both

by Osman Edwards), along with reproductions

of masterpieces. For instance, Hasegawa

published A Collection of Hiroshige’s Masterpieces

(three different volumes), and two volumes

of Selections from Hokusai.

There were calendars in book form on

crepe paper, including some elegant miniatures,

only two inches in height and width,

and also hanging calendars.

On the rare book market today, these

lovely items are often found mauled by

children’s hands, for they were popular with

people of all ages. Some of them were issued

in stiff-cover wrappers, most of which have

fallen apart, for many of these chemises were

produced on paper inferior to the paper of

the books. They command high prices today

because of their scarcity and, I am convinced,

by their beauty.

Sharf says,

Hasegawa’s books have a lasting significance,

both as works of art and as

cultural expressions of a particular moment

in the history of Japan.... [E]ach

book has a cultural context, presenting

to the West the customs and traditions

of Japan.

Ultimately, these books are a mani-

Readers interested in this wonderful genre

are directed to Frederic Sharf’s superb study,

the best book I have seen on the subject.

Unfortunately, even this fine volume, which

accompanied an exhibition at the Peabody

Essex Museum, is difficult to find. But it is

worth the effort to read.

When Hasegawa died, on July 19, 1938,

he was 84 years old. He had produced

hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of

copies of his books, with a popularity in the

West almost unmatched by any other Asian

product. And a good deal of the attraction

of the books was the lovely crepe paper they

were printed on.

> FOR BEGINNERS

Mary Tasillo is a papermaker, book artist, and

mixed media maven based in Philadelphia. She

teaches workshops nationally. In this issue Mary

discusses making dimensional paper vessels from

high shrinkage pulp.

This technique focuses on the use of

highly beaten flax fibers processed in the

Hollander beater. If you do not have access to

a Hollander, it may be well worth your while

to commission some pulp from a lucky Hollander

owner in your area or to purchase it

from a fiber and pulp supplier to experiment

with the translucent strength and the potential

surprises of flax prepared this way.

Fiber Preparation: If you are preparing the

flax yourself, you first must decide whether

or not to cook your fibers before beating.

Cooking the fibers in soda ash will make the

fibers archival and will lighten the color. (For

more on cooking fibers, see “Paper From Iris

and Daylily” by Bobbie Lippman in Hand

Papermaking Newsletter, Number 24, October

1993.) It will also add a few hours of labor to

the project. Whether you cook the flax fibers

or not, they should be soaked overnight before

processing begins. An eight- to ten-hour

beat in a Reina beater is ideal. Aim for a long

beat time, but keep the roll bar fairly high to

avoid cutting. Keeping the fibers long is key

to the strength and the shrinkage capacity.

Mary Tasillo is a papermaker, book artist, and

mixed media maven based in Philadelphia. She

teaches workshops nationally. In this issue Mary

discusses making dimensional paper vessels from

high shrinkage pulp.

> FOR BEGINNERS Pulling the Wet Sheets: The resulting

pulp will be slippery and will drain very

slowly. Set up a sheet pulling station, and

bring your patience to the project. I will

address two variations on casting the wet

sheets of paper. I usually cast the paper over

the form as I pull the sheets. After I have

couched one sheet, I place a felt over the

top of the sheet and lightly press it by hand.

Then the paper is ready to cast.

Technique #1: Hanging Forms

The first method involves creating a form

from knee-high stockings filled with Perlite,

which can be found in any place that sells

gardening supplies. The Perlite is in the

form of tiny pellets and allows you loose

control over shaping the form over which

you will cast your fibers. As you add the Perlite

to the stocking, you can coax the shape

into a more elongated or rounded form by

manipulating the Perlite-filled stocking with

your hands as you go so that the stocking

stretches more to create a rounder form. You

might experiment with further controlling

the form by tying it at certain points with

string or rubber bands. Just remember not

to cinch the form too tightly or you will not

be able to remove your form from the cast

paper. The stocking should be tied together

at the top; there will be an opening in the

final form at this spot. Hanging the stocking

allows you to create a form with a bottom.

Once you have shaped the form, wrap

the wet sheets around it. Where the end of

a sheet overlaps another, use the flat of your

finger pads to tap the edge into the fibers

behind it to bond the fibers and make the

seam disappear. If strength is important to

the vessel, use at least two layers of fiber to

create the form. Keep in mind that if your

layers of fiber are thin, you will be able to

see the spots where overlapping occurs due

to the translucency of the flax. You might

experiment with this effect. Pulp paint can

also be applied to the wet sheets. Experiment

with leaving open areas.

Having finished your creation, simply

leave it hanging to dry. The Perlite will help

absorb water from the inside as the air dries

it on the outside. Once your paper vessel is

dry, simply untie or cut the top of the stocking,

pour out the Perlite, and remove the

stocking. The materials can be reused.

I’d like to thank Winnie

Radolan for sharing this technique

with me. To illustrate an

application of this technique,

Adrienne Gale’s installation

piece word roots is pictured

here.

Adrienne’s forms were

stitched together into multiple

strands that hung in space. She

both stitched and wrote into them, using their

flow down from the ceiling to investigate the

roots of words and the changes of language.

Technique #2: Casting

Over a Form

I have also used

this technique to

cast over a clay form.

Sculpt an object

in clay, avoiding

undercuts, or areas

where the negative

space cuts behind the object. The clay form

can then be covered in plastic wrap, and the

wet sheets of paper can be cast over the form

in the same manner described above. The

paper will take longer to dry this way, as no

moisture is being pulled from the inside of

the form, but one can better control the base

form.

Things to Try: With either style of form to

cast over, one can further exploit the potential

of this high shrinkage pulp by building up

the paper in certain areas, or casting around

rigid objects such as sticks or wire. Both the

clay and the filled stocking provide a solid

form around which the pulp tightens as a

drum. Building up ropes of flax fibers in

certain areas or casting loosely over sticks or

wire grids opens the project up to embrace

the unpredictable qualities of the drying

process. Be bold. Experiment.

> more for beginners at

handpapermaking.org/beginner

CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts,

atlinburg, TN, (865) 436-5860, www.arrow

mont.org. Classes and workshops in a variety of

disciplines, including papermaking.

Paper, Pigments, & Innovative Stencils, June 14-20,

with Andrea Peterson.

The Paper Artist’s Dream: From High to Low

Shrinkage Pulps, July 12-18, with Catherine

Nash. Explore flax, abaca, cotton, iris, and

narcissus pulps with varying shrinkage for

an exciting range of techniques for creating

2- and 3-dimensional art works.

Asheville BookWorks, Asheville, NC, (828)

255-8444, www.bookworksasheville.com.

Hands-on workshops including bookbinding,

printmaking, decorative paper, and basic

papermaking.

Paper Sculpture, April 20-22, with Frank Brannon.

Explore two different forms of paper sculpture

by using various papermaking fibers.

Bear Creek Paperworks, Columbia, MO, (573)

442-3360, www.bearcreekpaperworks.com.

Workshops in paper and book arts; some workshops

can be taken for academic credit through

Central Methodist University. Contact Leandra

Spangler at leandra@bearcreekpaperworks.com

for more information

Paper Pulps From Plants, May 18-22, with Leandra

Spangler. Learn the process of making paper

from common plants such as day lily, pampas

grass, cat tails, and more, from harvesting, preparations,

cooking, beating to forming sheets.

Hand Papermaking: Experimentation & Exploration,

July 20-24, with Leandra Spangler. Experiment

with a broad range of papermaking techniques,

using cotton linter pulp to make many

samples of decorative handmade paper.

Flat to Form: Using Paper as a Sculptural Medium,

July 27-31, with Leandra Spangler. Learn to turn

flat sheets of beautiful papers into three-dimensional

forms by casting from found objects

and constructed moulds, and creating reed, stick,

or wire sculptural forms as armatures.

Brookfield Craft Center, Brookfield, CT, (203)

775-4526, www.brookfieldcraftcenter.org.

Workshops at a colonial vintage campus

75 miles north of New York City.

Sustainable Papermaking, July 9-12, with Jane

Ingram Allen. Use local plant waste materials

to create unique handmade papers.

John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC,

(704) 837-2775, www.folkschool.org. Classes in

papermaking and other crafts in the mountains

of western North Carolina.

Japanese (Eastern) Papermaking, May 3-9, with

Rajeania Snider. Explore fiber preparation,

sheet forming (both traditional and modern

adaptations), and a wide variety of decorative

techniques.

Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild,

Toronto, ON, (416) 581-1071, cbbag@ccbag.

ca, www.cbbag.ca. Book and paper workshops

located on-site in Toronto and in off-site studios.

Decorating Washi with Books in Mind, May 31,

with Sigrid Blohm. Experiment with traditional

Japanese techniques such as shibori

(shaped resist, including orizome or fold-dyeing),

momi-gami (crumpled paper) as well as

monoprinting, direct painting, and other mark

making on hand- and machine-made washi.

Papermaking in Depth 3-D, June 29-July 3, with

Donna Koretsky and Shannon Brock. Explore

three-dimensional, sculptural paper art.

Carriage House Paper, Brooklyn, NY, (800)

669-8781, www.carriagehousepaper.com.

Papermaking workshops offered in a new

studio space.

Beginning Papermaking, April 4, with Shannon

Brock.

Contemporary Watermarks, April 5, with Shannon

Brock

Dieu DonnО Papermill, New York, NY, (212)

226-0573, www.dieudonne.org. Beginning and

advanced papermaking classes for adults and

children.

Introduction to Contemporary Papermaking,

April 6, with staff instructor. Learn the basic

papermaking process, as well as various artistic

techniques.

Open Studio, April 8, with staff instructor.

Experiment on your own with studio pulps,

making sheets up to 11 x 14 inches.

Creative Techniques for Artists, April 15, with

staff instructor. Explore advanced techniques

and their application for two- and three-dimensional

projects, with a different focus at each

session.

Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer

Isle, ME, (207) 348-2306, www.haystack-mtn.org.

Workshops in various disciplines, including

papermaking and book arts.

Paper Multiples: Printing with Pulp, July 19-31,

with Georgia Deal. Use finely beaten and

pigmented pulps to create imagery similar to

traditional monoprint processes, and transferred

to wet base sheets.

Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis,

MN, (612) 215-2520, www.mnbookarts.org.

Classes at the Open Book center for book and

literary arts.

Pulp Painting on Your Handmade Paper, April

5, with Betsy Dollar. Discover the endless

possibilities for image, pattern, and texture

generation that pulp painting offers.

Old Ways Book Arts Tools and Workshops,

near Santa, ID, (208) 245-3043, www.geocities

.com/oldways_id/, oldway@imbris.com.

Old Ways of Making Books from Raw Materials,

July 7-16, with Jim Croft. Create book arts tools

by hand, process hemp and flax for paper and

thread, make paper by hand, and make books

with wooden boards and brass clasps.

Paper Circle, Nelsonville, OH, (740) 753-3374,

www.papercircle.org, papercircle@frognet.net.

Call or e-mail for information about upcoming

paper classes.

Open Studio, second Saturdays, with studio artists.

Gain new skills while working on themed,

relaxed projects.

Japanese Paper Making, May 9, with Sara Gilfert.

From Plants to Paper, June 6, with Sara Gilfert

and Susie Thompson. Create sheets from day

lilies, asparagus, and more.

PapierWespe (PaperWasp), Aegidigasse 3/Hof,

1060 Wien, Austria, (0676) 77-33-153, office@

papierwespe.at, www.papierwespe.at. Workshops

in English and German taught by paper specialists

in downtown Vienna.

Papermaking Intensive, May 16-23, with Beatrix

Mapalgama. Includes the following four

workshops.

Creative Papermaking, May 16-17, with Miriam

Londono and Beatrix Mapalgama. Learn to

pigment pulp, emboss, and to layer, write and

paint with paper pulp.

Foundation Course on Papermaking, May 18-19,

with Beatrix Mapalgama. Explore paper history

and technology, including rag paper and

watermarking.

Fibre Processing—Japanese and Nepalese Paper,

May 20-21, with Beatrix Mapalgama. Make thin,

translucent Japanese papers from plant fibers.

Paper Objects, May 22-23, with Beatrix Mapalgama.

Learn dimensional paper techniques, utilizing

flax fiber.

Writing with Paper Pulp, May 16-17, with

Miriam Londono. Explore letterforms and

color through pulp.

Coloring Fibers, August 27-30, with Brigitta

Colbert. Dye fibers with natural colorants

to achieve varied results.

Penland School, Penland, NC, (828) 765-2359,

www.penland.org. A full program of craft

workshops, including papermaking.

Subjective Color, June 21-July 3, with Mina

Takahashi. Explore how fiber and color

come together to create a nuanced palette in

papermaking, utilizing a range of Western

and Asian fibers with a variety of coloring

agents including artist pigments, fiber-reactive

synthetic dyes, and natural dyes.

Paper in Three Dimensions, July 19-August 4,

with Helen Hiebert. Take paper from two

dimensions to three through paper folding and

cutting, model making, papermaking, and other

techniques; papermaking techniques will include

overbeaten and translucent pulps, watermarking,

and embedding wire, string, or reed to give the

paper structural form.

Peters Valley Craft Center, Layton, NJ, (973)

948-5200, www.pvcrafts.org. Workshops in

papermaking and a variety of crafts.

Foundation of Papermaking, August 21-25, with

Claudia Lee. Learn the basics of setting up

a paper studio, making equipment, beating

and pigmenting pulps, and incorporating

techniques including laminating, embossing,

masking, and more.

The Paperwright

Britt Quinlan, Owner

A paper making supply business providing Canada and

the United States with papermaking kits, pulps, fi bres, moulds

and equipment, pigments, workshops, handmade papers and

bookbinding supplies. We specialize in custom built wove

and laid molds and personalized service for our clients.

International orders are welcome.

Call 613-440-0580 or e-mail brittq@trytel.com

or visit www.paperwright.ca

Joomchi and Beyond, July 3-7, with Jiyoung

Chung. Layer thin mulberry papers together

and agitate to create textured paper paintings

using low-tech hands-on processes.

Robert C. Williams Paper Museum, Atlanta, GA,

(404) 894-5726, http://ipst.gatech .edu/amp/.

Japanese Papermaking, June 22-26, with

Berwyn Hung. Learn each stage of the

papermaking process, from fiber collection

and preparation to making the paper using

traditional Japanese methods.

Sievers School of Fiber Arts, Washington

Island, WI 54246, (920) 847-2264, www.sievers

school.com. Summer workshops on an island

in Lake Michigan.

Variations in Pulp, July 26-29, with Thomas

Grade. Work with a variety of different fibers

to explore the beaten bark forms of Mexico, the

floating moulds of Asia, Western techniques of

pulp painting, pulp spraying and casting.

Variations in Pulp: Extended, July 26-31, with

Thomas Grade. Extend this workshop to five days.

Southwest School of Art & Craft, San Antonio,

TX, (210) 224-1848, www.swschool.org.

Classes at the Picante Paper Studio. Special

papermaking classes can be scheduled for one

person or a group; please contact Beck Whitehead

for more information.

Advanced Studio Rental, most Wednesdays,

with alternate days and instruction available

upon request. Use of the Picante studio and

equipment.

Papermaking Saturday, select Saturdays, with

Linda Draper. Create paper in an environment

that is somewhere between a class and an

open studio.

Botanical Papers, April 4, with Jo Etta Jupe.

Beginning with a variety of plants grown

regionally, learn how to make paper using

simple pieces of equipment.

Tidewater Cottage and Studio, Del Haven, NJ.

Day workshops and weekend or week-long

retreats in a fully equipped paper studio, 10

minutes north of Cape May, New Jersey. For a

schedule of day workshops and weekend/week

retreats, or information about studio rental,

e-mail Winnie Radolan at winnie.r@verizon.net.

University of West England, Bristol, U.K.,

(0)0117 3284810, sca.cpd@uwe.ac.uk, www

.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk. Classes offered through

Continuing Professional Development at the

School of Creative Arts.

Pulp-Printing, September 7-11, with Tim Mosely.

Create sheets of pulp printed text and images.

Valley Ridge Art Studio, Muscoda, WI, (608)

250-5028, www.valleyridgeartstudio.com.

Workshops in papermaking, bookmaking,

photography, writing, etc.

Paper and Fabric Marbling, April 4-5, with Galen

Berry. Learn to make beautiful, multicolored

patterned papers including traditional patterns

like the Peacock, Stone Marble, Spanish Wave,

Feather, Nonpareil, French curl, and more.

West Dean College, Chichester, West Sussex,

U.K., (0)1243 811301, short.course@westdean

.org.uk, www.westdean.org.uk.

Hand Marbled Papers, April 23-27, with Victoria

Hall. Explore suminagashi while learning traditional

patterns and the history of paper marbling.

Recycled Papermaking for Artwork and Decorative

Objects, May 22-25, with Carol Farrow.

Experiment with paper pulps made from

re-used paper ephemera to create cards, books,

containers, and artworks.

Informing Paper: Recycled Paper Pulp Vessels

and Vintage Paper Casting, May 28-31, with

Magie Hollingworth. Explore ways of forming

organic vessels with recycled paper pulp and

casting with handmade and vintage papers.

Women’s Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY

12472, (845) 658-9133, info@wsworkshop.org.

Summer Arts Institute includes workshops in

papermaking, printmaking, book arts, photography,

and other media.

Cross Pollination: Papermaking and Encaustic,

July 20-24, with Tatana Kellner and Cynthia

Winika. Create collages utilizing layering,

translucency and opacity, stenciling, pulp

painting, burnishing, and more, incorporating

papermaking and basic encaustic techniques.

Asian Papermaking, July 27-31, with Tatiana

Ginsberg. Investigate all aspects of Asian

papermaking in-depth, with a focus on Japanese-

style nagashizuki sheet formation and

exploration of decorative techniques.

Pulp Painting, August 3-7, with Shannon Brock.

Combine 2-D image making and 3-D sculptural

papermaking, developing images by layering and

overlapping thin veils of pulp.

Artists! Go Green: Natural Dyes for Paper, Fiber

and Painting, August 10-14, with Rita Schwab.

Learn to use specific parts of plants for color

extraction to use as dyes, to add texture and color

in papermaking, and to process them into paints.

Paper Clay Workshop: Form and Surface, July

27-31, with Elizabeth Kendall. Make tiles from

clay with cellulose fiber incorporated into the

clay body, exploring decoration techniques and

discussing slab construction.

Pulp Function, curated by Lloyd Herman,

founding Director of the Smithsonian’s

Renwick Gallery, is at the James Michener

Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania,

from March 28 through June 28. Art made

from paper pulp; recycled paper; cardboard;

papier mache; and cut, folded, or otherwise

manipulated paper is featured. There will be

a curator talk on April 14, as well as two artist

lectures and demonstrations. Joan Kopchik

will speak May 5 and Caren Friedman lectures

June 2. For more information, visit www

.fullercraft.org or www.michenermu seum.org.

Before Paper runs through May at the new

Carriage House Gallery, 245 Kent Avenue,

Brooklyn, New York. The exhibition, featuring

an unusual French comedy film (with

English sub-titles) “A World Without Paper,”

shows mankind’s ways of communication

before paper was invented, including stone,

clay, bone, animal skins, papyrus, leaves,

wood strips, and metal from countries

throughout the world. Gallery hours are

every Thursday, 2:00-5:00 PM. The film is

shown twice daily at 2:30 and 3:30. For other

hours and groups, call (718) 599-7857. This

exhibition is the first of a series arranged by

the Museum of International Paper History.

The sponsoring organization is The Institute

of Paper History & Technology at 8 Evans

Road, Brookline, Massachusetts, or online at

www.papermakinghistory.org.

In April 2009, the Art Shop at Moore

College of Art and Design in Philadelphia,

Pennsylvania, presents Reverse Archaeology,

a handmade paper installation by Michelle

Wilson. Paper by Wilson will also be available.

The opening reception will be on Monday,

April 6, from 4:00-6:00 PM. The Art Shop

is located at 20th Street and the Benjamin

Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, and is open

Monday-Friday, 11:00 AM-7:00 PM, and

Saturdays from 11:00 AM-5:00 PM. For more

information on the Art Shop, visit http://

moore.myshopify.com or call (215) 965-8586.

Information about artist installations can be

found under “First Mondays.”

The Paper Discovery Center in Appleton,

Wisconsin, presents an exhibit devoted to

Dard Hunter from April 13 to May 31. For

more information call (920) 380-7491 or

visit www.paperdiscoverycenter.org.

Tatiana Ginsberg and Jenn Figg present

Shadowlandscape as part of the exhibition

Ephemerality at the Schuylkill Center for

Environmental Education in Philadelphia,

Pennsylvania. The piece is an animation of

an enormous “shadow” made of recycled

handmade paper scraps, filmed over the

course of a single day on the Center’s

grounds, as it moves, evolves, and disintegrates.

The show, which also includes work

by Sarah Phillips, Matt Pych, Theresa Rose,

and Claudia Sbrissa, runs through April 12.

For more information, call (215) 482-7300

or visit www.schuylkillcenter.org.

One World—Many Papers is a collaborative

installation art project by Jane Ingram Allen

and 41 artists from around the world. The exhibition

opens at Distillery Gallery in Boston,

Massachusetts, on April 3 and runs through

May 15. Each artist created a piece of

handmade paper art representing his or her

country; Jane Ingram Allen assembled these

into a world map with no political borders.

“One World – Many Papers” is a part of Trans

Cultural Exchange’s global project “Here,

There and Everywhere: Anticipating the Future

of Art” (www.transculturalexchange.org)

featured at the conference on International

Opportunities in the Arts, Boston, April 3-5,

2009. Gallery information can be found at

www.distilleryboston.com. The installation

will travel through 2010.

Helen Hiebert will be the Elliot Visiting

Artist at Pacific University in Forest Grove,

Oregon. There will be an artist talk by Helen

about her work and a showing of her new

video “Water Paper Time” in Taylor Auditorium

in Marsh Hall on April 29 at 7:00

PM. A reception to celebrate Helen’s Paper

Art Exhibit in the library gallery will follow

directly after the talk. The art exhibit will be

in the Library Second Floor galley from April

15 - May 1. For more information, call (503)

352-2730 or e-mail cheynep@pacificu.edu.

In June 2009, the Vineland Public Library

is proud to host Paper Soldiers, a collaborative

installation between Artist-in-Residence

Michelle Wilson and students from South

Vineland High School. Wilson’s residency

was made possible through Appel Farm

Arts and Music Center. The Vineland Public

Library is located at 1058 East Landis Avenue,

Vineland, NJ, 08360. For more information,

please visit the following websites; Vineland

Public Library at www.vineland.lib.nj.us,

Appel Farm Arts and Music Center at www.

appelfarm.org, or the Paper Soldier Project

Blog at thepapersoldierproject.blogspot.com.

Saint Paul, Minnesota, artist Marjorie

Alexander’s handmade paper piece “Mantle

of Concern” is included in Miniartextil, an

International Textile Contemporary Art Exhibition,

in Como, Italy. It will then travel to

Rome and Paris. The theme of the exhibition

is “Matrix Natura.” The exhibition website is

at www.miniartextil.it. For more information,

e-mail the artist at marge@maralex.com.

Project Runway, organized by the Robert C.

Williams Paper Museum of Atlanta, opened

at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International

Airport on January 12. The juried exhibit

showcases clothing and accessories made

entirely from paper, including ball gowns,

business suits, stilettos, hats, vests, and

much more created by paper artists from

around the world. The exhibit runs through

January 12, 2010, after which it travels to La

Sala Galeria de Arte in Santiago, Chile. For

more information, call (404) 894-7840 or

visit www.ipst.gatech.edu/amp.

Through April 17, The Newberry Library in

Chicago presents Treewhispers, an everchanging

and growing art installation created

by Pamela Paulsrud and Marilyn Sward. It

is an international collaboration involving

paper, art and stories relating to trees. On

round papers, contributors remember a tree

or the spirit of a tree. Some contributions are

simply an example of beautiful handmade

paper and some include text and/or imagery.

The handmade paper is bound together to

create large tree assemblages and ultimately

a “forest” of hanging tree rings. Visit www

.newberry.org/exhibits for further details.

Material Drawing is an exhibition of work by

four artists who draw with the material, including

Michelle Samour’s pigmented handmade

paper drawings. The handling of material

in these constructed drawings reveals layers

of thought and engages the viewer directly

and viscerally with the drawing process. Ends

May 17 at the Danforth Museum of Art in

Framingham, Massachusetts. For directions

and more views: www danforthmuseum.org

or call (508) 620-0050.

Dieu Donné is pleased to announce two new

editions by James Siena, “Floppy Combs”and

“When I Was Ten.” Produced in collaboration

with artistic director Paul Wong, these

works take Siena’s linear systems to another

dimension. To bring these drawings to life in

paper, Siena scribed his two images in clay

slabs, from which a rubber mold was made.

Black cotton pulp was cast into the molds

by hand, and attached to a backing sheet of

high-shrinkage fiber. The pieces were dried

slowly to enhance the shrinkage and buckling

of the sheets as the two different fibers pulled

against each other. For more information,

please contact Gallery Manager Angela Bohnenkamp

at abohnenkamp@dieudonne.org

or at (212) 226-0573 x 210.

The Fall 2008 issue of Ampersand, the

quarterly journal of the Pacific Center for

the Book Arts, features the first of three

articles by Ginger Burrell on making paper

with plants. The publication contains illustrated

articles about all aspects of book arts.

For more information, visit www.greenchair

press.com/amp.cgi.

Pure Paper, the limited edition catalogue

to accompany the Holland Paper Biennial

2008, an international exposition of paper

art, is now available from Oak Knoll Books.

Compiled by Peter Gentenaar, it contains the

work of all the artists as well as a selection of

paper samples, bound into nine individual

‘books’ bound together. The catalogue also in

more.

Please contact David, rpmstudio@mac.com

Helen Hiebert is pleased to announce that

her film, Water Paper Time, is now available

on-line through Filmbaby.com. Using

time-lapse photography the film explores

how external forces such as time, gravity, and

molecular structure bend, tear, and wrinkle

Hiebert’s handmade paper, producing

startlingly allusive and organic forms which

recall the fibers and plants that the artist used

in the paper-making process. A meditation

upon the cyclical relationship between human

and nature, ‘Water Paper Time’ reveals

the fascinating ways in which nature and art

go on changing even (and perhaps especially)

when we are not looking. You can watch a

trailer and at: www.filmbaby.com/films/3550,

or, for anything other than home use, at

www.filmbaby.com/films/3626.

On January 30, Joanne B. Kaar and Lynn

Taylor launched the Paper Boat project, a

fund-raiser for Mary-Ann’s Cottage, a living

history museum in Caithness, Scotland.

As paper boats, many featuring handmade

paper, are sent from around the globe, they

are documented at www.joanneebkaarpaper

> MISCELLANEOUS

cludes articles on fibre artists at work, the future

of paper, and more. Oak Knoll can be reached at

www.oakknoll.com or (302) 328-7232.

boats.blogspot.com. The launch date and

theme were inspired by the maiden voyage

of the Westland Ship - 30th January 1879

(130 years ago) from Scotland to New Zealand.

Mary-Ann’s father, William Young, was a

member of the crew. All boats will be exhibited

in September in Caithness Horizons, and

money from sale of boats will go to the Caithness

Heritage Trust to help keep Mary-Ann’s

Cottage open for future generations. For

participation details, visit the website.

The Traditional Papermaking Village Project

is underway at Baang, Hungduan, Ifugao

Province, the Republic of the Philippines.

The project involves making paper from rice

harvested using traditional methods and other

native fibers. A fundraising workshop will be

offered June 26-30 focusing on Oryza sative,

or rice straw. For more information, contact

Asao Shimura at asaoshimura@yahoo.com.

The Book Artists and Poets podcast, produced

by the University of Alabama Book Arts Program,

has released several new interviews.

Interviewees include papermakers Bernie

Vinzani and Katie MacGregor, alongside

book artist and printer Walter Tisdale. These

interviews and others are available for free by

going to iTunes and subscribing to the podcast

“Book Artists and Poets,” or by going to

www.bookarts.ua.edu and listening to them

on your computer.

> SPECIAL THANKS

Hand Papermaking would like to thank the

following people and organizations who have

made direct contributions to further our mission.

As a non-profit organization, we rely on

the support of our subscribers and contributors to

continue operating. All donations are greatly appreciated

and are tax deductible. Call or write for

more information on giving levels and premiums.

a

Remembering Marilyn Sward, Hand Papermaking was touched and grateful to receive very generous gifts in her honor from

Cathleen A. Baker, Timothy Barrett, Paul Denhoed, Helen Frederick, Tatiana Ginsberg, Susan Gosin, Lois & Gordon James,

John Risseeuw, Karen Stahlecker, Stephen Sward, Jody Williams, and Therese Zemlin.

Patrons: Barbara Lippman, David Marshall &

Alan Wiesenthal. Underwriters: Sid Berger &

Michele Cloonan, Cathleen A. Baker, Susan

Gosin, Charles E. Morgan, Peter Newland

& Robyn Johnson, Nancy & Mark Tomasko,

Gibby Waitzkin, Beck Whitehead, Pamela

S. Wood. Sponsors: Michael Durgin, Jim

Escalante, Jane Farmer, Andrea Peterson,

Kimberly Schenck. Donors: Eric Avery,

Inge Bruggeman, Tom & Lore Burger,

William Dane, Paul Denhoed, Cynthia

J. Fay, Gail Fishberg, Kathryn Flannery,

Helen Frederick, Lori B. Goodman, Robert

Hauser, Helen Hiebert, Barbara Hunter, Eve

Ingalls Von Staden, Ingrid Rose Company,

Lois & Gordon James, Rick Johnson,

Elaine Koretsky, Karen Kunc, Mary Lou

Manor, Gordon Marshall, Heather Leigh

McGarvie, Catherine Nash, Janet Oberla,

Nancy Pobanz, Dianne L. Reeves, John

L. Risseeuw, Mary C. Schlosser, Karen

Stahlecker, Helmuth A. Stahlecker Jr., R.

H. Starr Jr., Stephen Sward, Betty Ustun,

Kathy Wosika. Supporters: Annie Alexander,

Marjorie & Harold Alexander, Lynne Allen,

Grimanesa Amoros, Martha Anderson, Lois

D. Augur, Shirah Miriam (Mimi) Aumann,

Eugenie Barron, Lora Brueck, T. Patterson

Clark, Nancy Cohen, Rona Conti, Charles

Cooper, Elizabeth Curren, Jennifer Davies,

Dianne Dolan, Jonathan Fairbanks, Theresa

Fairbanks Harris, Dorothy Fall, Lynn

Feldman, Kathy Fitzgerald, Sara Gilfert,

Lou Kaufman, Kristin Kavanagh, Betty L.

Kjelson, Allye Kranish, Gordon Marshall,

Edwin Martin, Joyce McDaniel, Ann

Montanaro, S.A. Scharf, Pam Scheinman,

Peter Sowiski, Jessica Spring, Marie

Sturken, Sheila Sturrock, Betty Sweren,

Anne Williams, Therese Zemlin. Friends:

Pat Alexander, Tatiana Ginsberg, David

Lance Goines. In-Kind: Carol Barton, Janet

DeBoer, Paul Denhoed, Peter Ford, Helen

Hiebert, Peter Hopkins, Russell Maret, Drew

Matott, Pyramid Atlantic, Britt Quinlan,

Amy Richard, Gretchen Schermerhorn,

USDA Beltsville Agricultural Research

Center. Hand Papermaking Endowment Fund:

*49er Books, Marjorie & Harold Alexander,

Grimanesa Amoros, Martin Antonetti,

*Shirah Miriam (Mimi) Aumann,

*Cathleen A. Baker, *Tom Balbo, *Timothy

Barrett, *Sidney Berger & Michele

Cloonan, Marcia Blake, Rochelle Brown,

Inge Bruggeman, *Tom & Lore Burger,

Nita Colgate, Georgia Deal, Gail Deery,

Paul Denhoed, *Jeanne M. Drewes, Bryan

C. Ellison, *Jane M. Farmer, *Fifth Floor

Foundation, Betty Fiske, *Helen Frederick,

Jean Freeburg, *Sara Gilfert, *Susan Gosin,

Helen Hiebert, Peter Hopkins, *Lois and

Gordon James, *Sally Wood Johnson, Julie

Jones, Kristin Kavanagh, *David Kimball,

*Elaine Koretsky, *Karen Kunc, Abby &

Mitch Leigh, *Barbara Lippman, *Winifred

Lutz, *Susan M. Mackin-Dolan, Mary Lou

Manor, Allegra Marquart, *David Marshall &

Alan Wiesenthal, Anne & Robert McKeown,

Jesse Munn, *Peter Newland Fund of the

Greater Everett Community Foundation,

*Margaret Prentice, *Preservation

Technologies, L.P., John L. Risseeuw,

*Michelle Samour, *Peter Sowiski, R.

H. Starr, Jr., Bonnie Stahlecker, Karen

Stahlecker, *Marilyn & Steve Sward, Betty

Sweren, *Gibby Waitzkin, *Tom Weideman,

*Beck Whitehead, *Paul Wong & John

Colella, *Pamela & Gary Wood, Therese

Zemlin.

*Founding Contributor

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