Helen Hiebert's Blog, page 15

A Light in the Dark

The Sunday Paper #440

December 18, 2022

I’m sending you warm wishes for a sparkling solstice and a lovely holiday season!

If you’re still in need of a gift that lasts all year long, why not give the gift of paper to a loved one or yourself?! Join our growing group of paper enthusiasts, lovers, addicts (insert your adjective here) and explore paper techniques throughout the year.

The Paper Year is now open for registration through January 15th, and this is the only time of year that you can join the group and pay an annual fee (which includes two free months). Scroll to the bottom of this post to see what we created last week at the Zoom kick-off event.

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As we approach the shortest day of the year, I had to share these lovely lights created by Paper Year member Deborah Shayne with you. This project is featured in my book, The Art of Papercraft, and there’s some magic in this group of Floral Lanterns, isn’t there? More is better in this case! I thought I recognized the paper, and it is carte varese from Florence (Deborah lives in Rome). Mulberry Paper and More happens to carry that same line of paper here in the states.

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Check out these cardboard sculptures by Scott Fife, on view through December 22 at Traver Gallery in Seattle.

As seen on Colossal: “Dog With Picasso Guitar” (2022), archival cardboard, glue, drywall screws, and ink, 14 x 60 x 30 inches. Photo by Traver Gallery

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Sometimes worthwhile exhibitions fall to the bottom of my feed and don’t make it onto the blog in a timely manner (oops)! Confluence took place in LA last summer around the theme of drought. Two pieces caught my eye – the one below, which they’re calling handmade paper (read the article to see why I say that) and a piece by Debra Scacco – the description is great, although there isn’t an image – whose work on paper is composed from an interaction with wind, which moved the liquid materials around on the sheet until they dried. Cool!

Emma Robbins, “L.A. River Paper,” 2018; algae, leaves, bird material, thread(Sean Meredith / Track 16)

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This is a fascinating video about the craft villages across Vietnam that are keeping traditions alive. There’s a papermaking segment at 12:29, but the entire video is worth watching.

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Paper TidbitsI have one spot left in my Papermaking Master Class next July. Is it yours?Weave Through Winter is coming: Feb 1 – 28, 2023.Have you had a chance to listen to Episode 100 of Paper Talk, featuring yours truly?

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In the Studio

I had so much fun showing participants in a mini-Zoom workshop how to create this Cube Light. You can watch the replay and create your own. Here are a few creations by participants: Hilarie Rath, Judy Bennett and Val Forbes.

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Featured in my Studio Shop this week: The Art of Papercraft + Collage Packs

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If you read this blog regularly, would you consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper? Thanks to everyone who has already pledged your support! Or, perhaps you’re interested in promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

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SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

I occasionally have affiliate links in my blog posts – links to products in which I will receive a small commission if you make a purchase. Thanks for your support!

The post A Light in the Dark appeared first on Helen Hiebert Studio.

Paper Talk Reaches Episode #100!

The Sunday Paper #439

December 11, 2022

I’m the featured guest on Paper Talk this week. I decided to turn the tables for milestone episode #100, and my friend, artist and colleague Barb Tetenbaum, interviewed me. I hope you’ll have a listen, and if you’re new to the series there are 99 other interviews with papermakers, paper artists and paper professionals for you to catch up on. Here’s to next 100 episodes!

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This is one of the coolest paper devices I’ve ever seen (it seems terribly impractical, but since I can’t go back in time, it’s hard to say). In 1927, the Plus Four Wristlet Route Indicator came with single-journey scrolls plugged into a wrist-wearable device. The watch-like gadget needed no batteries, and worked quite like traditional scrolls, with paper rolling out from one side then back into the other. A precursor to the modern-day GPS.

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This looks like it was an interesting exhibition – recently at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego – by process based artist Carmen Argote. Several of the site specific mixed-media sculptures have paper components, such as pizza boxes and cochineal-coated paper. “These site-responsive sculptures and works on paper record Argote’s movements through Los Angeles and illuminate shifting bodily boundaries during the COVID-19 period.”

Items from the solo exhibition “Carmen Argote: Filtration System for a Process-based Practice” at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.(MCASD)

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Check out this fascinating history of paper (and feather) fans.

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Here’s an incredible overview of Paper Routes 2020, held at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Click through to see the amazing variety of works and be sure to watch the video at the end.

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Paper TidbitsSign up to make s Cube Light with me and learn a bit about my membership program, The Paper Year, in free mini-workshop on December 15th. Let’s illuminate our spirits and our homes!Weave Through Winter is coming: Feb 1 – 28, 2023.Last year I started a new tradition – creating a list of my favorite paper resources for 2021. For 2022, I’d love to include your recommendations as well. Tell me about them here.

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In the Studio

Do you do an annual review of your year and/or plan ahead for the next year? It has taken me quite awhile to realize the many great reasons to plan, even though I consider myself a planner!

For the past several years, I’ve used Alyson Stanfield’s Annual Review to reflect on the past year. It isn’t all about crunching numbers, which I like! She breaks the review down into five parts: Personal, Art, Learning, Business, and Looking Ahead.

I like to parcel this type of work out, rather than trying to cram it all into one session, so I do one part a day (or so). I don’t really have much trouble planning ahead – I like to know what’s coming next – but knowing what did and didn’t work from the year before really helps with setting the course for the future.

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Featured this week in my Studio shop:

The Art of Papercraft, Papermaking with Garden Plants & Common Weeds, Water Paper Time, a film download, and The Papermaker’s Companion.

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If you read this blog regularly, would you consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper? Thanks to everyone who has already pledged your support! Or, perhaps you’re interested in promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

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SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

I occasionally have affiliate links in my blog posts – links to products in which I will receive a small commission if you make a purchase. Thanks for your support!

The post Paper Talk Reaches Episode #100! appeared first on Helen Hiebert Studio.

Tissue Paper Plumes

The Sunday Paper #438

December 4, 2022

Happy December everyone! I’m working on a series of how-to videos about the steps in the papermaking process. Gosh, there are a lot of them! Here I am, getting ready to give you some tips about how to keep your workspace dry, which is no small feat! Stay tuned for the series in the new year.

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Paper on Skin invites Australian and international artists to embrace the challenge of designing a wearable garment made from at least 80% paper. This competition has been going on for 10 years, and in 2022 they created a Paper on Skin Film documenting all 34 finalists’ garments.

Fun fact: The original film score by Alluvium (presented by Eastside Studios) includes paper and papermaking embedded in the songs. The musicians visited Pam Thorne while she was making paper – recording the sounds of the various processes involved. They also received recordings from the Awagami papermaking Factory in Japan, and have even created melodies for some of the songs using the words PAPER, WASHI and AWAGAMI, amongst others.

Red Waratah Girl, designed and created by Lissa-Jane de Sailles

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Here’s a trip you might be interested in for next summer: Travel to Northern Italy to work in traditional printing and letterpress studios and tour historic libraries and museums. Book Arts in Venice, led by Kalamazoo Book Arts Center’s Executive Director Jeff Abshear, will take place June 20 – July 1, 2023. Create drypoint etchings at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, a design school and studio which for over 50 years has focused on printmaking and artist’s books. Tour historic sites including St. Mark’s Square, the Accademia Gallery, and the Peggy Guggenheim Museum. Learn to set movable type by hand and print a letterpress book at Tipoteca Italiana Fondazione, one of the largest typography museums in Europe, located in the town of Cornuda at the foothills of the Dolomite Mountains. Participants will stay in shared apartments in the heart of Venice and a restored 16th century villa surrounded by a prosecco vineyard in Cornuda. All travel will be via public transport including trains, boats, and buses. The program welcomes all levels of experience, with introductory instruction in the studio. Click here for more details.

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My publisher, Storey Books, is hosting a fun giveaway: Give the gift of joy this holiday season with books that encourage readers to create, explore, and learn something new. From the ultimate guide to baking the perfect pie to an empowering collection of joyful verses for kids to sing out loud, these books offer meaningful inspiration and lifelong skills for all ages. Enter the GIVE JOY Gift Guide & Giveaway for a chance to win a bundle of books from your favorite gift guide category—Books for Makers, Books for Kids, or Books for Nature Lovers. My book, The Art of Papercraft, is included in the Books for Makers Bundle. Good luck!

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This is a fascinating story about the chocolate Hershey Kiss. The last line involves paper: “Hershey added the tissue paper plume, which he trademarked in 1924″.

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Paper TidbitsThe Mark Samuels Lasner Fellowship in Printing History is an annual award of up to $2,000 for research in any area of the history of printing in all its forms, including all the arts and technologies relevant to printing, the book arts, and letterforms.The Paper & Book Intensive is back, with several fellowships, assistantships and work/study opportunities.Last year I started a new tradition – creating a list of my favorite paper resources for 2021. For 2022, I’d love to include your recommendations as well. Tell me about them here.

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In the Studio

We’re wrapping up the second year of monthly projects in The Paper Year, and I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed this adventure and seeing how this amazing group responds to the monthly projects and techniques. I’ll be kicking off registration for year three on December 15th with a Winter Solstice Zoom Workshop. Sign up to make this Cube Light with me and learn a bit about my membership program. Let’s illuminate our spirits and our homes! (The title of this blog post is part of a poem by Rumi – I’ll share the whole poem at the workshop).

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Featured this week in my Studio shop:

The Art of Papercraft, Papermaking with Garden Plants & Common Weeds, Water Paper Time, a film download, and The Papermaker’s Companion.

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If you read this blog regularly, would you consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper? Thanks to everyone who has already pledged your support! Or, perhaps you’re interested in promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

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SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

I occasionally have affiliate links in my blog posts – links to products in which I will receive a small commission if you make a purchase. Thanks for your support!

The post Tissue Paper Plumes appeared first on Helen Hiebert Studio.

The Light Streams Towards You From All things

The Sunday Paper #437

November 27, 2022

We’re wrapping up the second year of monthly projects in The Paper Year, and I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed this adventure and seeing how this amazing group responds to the monthly projects and techniques. I’ll be kicking off registration for year three on December 15th with a Winter Solstice Zoom Workshop. Sign up to make this Cube Light with me and learn a bit about my membership program. Let’s illuminate our spirits and our homes! (The title of this blog post is part of a poem by Rumi – I’ll share the whole poem at the workshop).

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The Craft Industry Alliance put together this Holiday Gift Guide featuring products and offerings from their members. Support the creative economy and make this holiday season truly memorable when you give handmade. You can also join the group – it is a fantastic resource for those running craft businesses – read more about the Craft Industry Alliance and join here (there’s currently a 25% sale on membership, and full disclosure: I’m a member).

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Check out the paper cut portraits of Karl Johnson. In less than two minutes, he trims delicate portraits of children sitting in profile in front of him.

Papercut portrait of Riker Roth by Karl Johnson.

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This is a touching project that I’ve written about before. It is becoming all too poignant. Soul Boxes fold gun-violence grief into origami boxes.

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This is an incredible pop-up book based on Euclid’s Geometry by Sjoerd Hofstra.

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Paper TidbitsHave you had a chance to listen to my interview with Susan Ruptash on Paper Talk?Last year I started a new tradition – creating a list of my favorite paper resources for 2021. For 2022, I’d love to include your recommendations as well. Tell me about them here.

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In the Studio

Madeline Good is finishing up her internship here, and we’ve done so much over the past month. One thing I’m particularly delighted about are our sample books. We beat one pulp each week and a pulled a paper swatch from the beater every 15 minutes to see how the fibers change throughout the beating process.

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Featured this week in my Studio shop:

The Art of Papercraft, Papermaking with Garden Plants & Common Weeds, Water Paper Time, a film download, and The Papermaker’s Companion.

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If you read this blog regularly, would you consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper? Thanks to everyone who has already pledged your support! Or, perhaps you’re interested in promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

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SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

I occasionally have affiliate links in my blog posts – links to products in which I will receive a small commission if you make a purchase. Thanks for your support!

The post The Light Streams Towards You From All things appeared first on Helen Hiebert Studio.

Advent of Tessellations

The Sunday Paper #436

November 20, 2022

I had the pleasure of interviewing Susan Ruptash on Paper Talk. Ruptash is a Toronto washi artist who works with handmade heritage washi, exploring the properties and possibilities of paper. Ruptash’s career as an architect has informed her explorations of structure, form, materiality and process. She is a member of Propeller Art Gallery, Open Studio, and the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild. Ruptash’s work often includes embedded efforts that may not be readily apparent on viewing, but contribute to the finished piece through a curiosity and respect for the materials.

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Origami tessellations are fascinating yet intimidating, so Gathering Folds is hosting a free Advent of Tessellations challenge this year to help you start learning and folding these beautiful patterns. New video tutorials and decoded crease patterns will be released daily from December 1st to 25th, and each pattern is folded on a small grid without additional pre-creasing so they can be folded in around 30 minutes. These patterns were selected for a gradual increase in difficulty over the course of the challenge and also for their appeal as decorations, whether in a window or on a Christmas tree or as gifts to friends and family. So, come join our community of fellow folders and start folding tessellations today!

About Our Sponsor: Gathering Folds helps aspiring tessellation folders to deeply understand tessellations with courses focused on broad structures, theory, and folding skills so they can approach new patterns with confidence and even start designing patterns of their own.

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How fun to find a story about the artisans who are keeping Tuscany’s bookmaking tradition alive, as part of Travel Tales, a series of life-changing adventures on afar.com. Special thanks to a reader for sharing this with me.

At Giulio Giannini e Figlio in Florence, sixth-generation bookbinder Maria Giannini lays paper on paint-topped water to create a marble effect. Photo by Francesco Lastrucci

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How cool is this? A paper battery is being developed by researchers at the Cellulose & Wood Materials Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology to address the problem of hazardous e-waste.

Photograph of a stencil-printed two-cell paper battery with a design that spells the name of the authors’ research institution (Empa). Both of the cells are separated by a water barrier. Credit: Alexandre Poulin

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Big Issue commissions acclaimed artists to create collectable art as holiday wrapping paper. Choose a limited edition print, or elevate your giving with gifts that look too good to open.

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Paper TidbitsI’m teaching my popular 3-hour Shadow Lantern workshop through Maine Media on 12/11.Last year I started a new tradition – creating a list of my favorite paper resources for 2021. For 2022, I’d love to include your recommendations as well. Tell me about them here.

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In the Studio

When I have an intern, I try to come up with projects that serve both of us. It isn’t always easy! While Madeline Good is in the studio this month, we have two main projects: 1. We are organizing my library of project samples and cataloguing my books about paper (do you know about Library Thing? Check out what we’ve entered from my library so far). And 2. We’re busy filming a series of how-to papermaking videos. As we go through this process, Madeline is learning new papermaking techniques and practicing sheet forming.

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Featured this week in my Studio shop:

The Art of Papercraft, Papermaking with Garden Plants & Common Weeds, Water Paper Time, a film download, and The Papermaker’s Companion.

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If you read this blog regularly, would you consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper? Thanks to everyone who has already pledged your support! Or, perhaps you’re interested in promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

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SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

I occasionally have affiliate links in my blog posts – links to products in which I will receive a small commission if you make a purchase. Thanks for your support!

The post Advent of Tessellations appeared first on Helen Hiebert Studio.

Light Filtering through Paper

The Sunday Paper #435

November 13, 2022

When I visited Japan for the first time shortly after graduating from college, my mother and I stayed in a traditional Inn (ryokan) in Kyoto. I hadn’t become involved with paper yet, although I had worked with it some during college. I can barely recall any details about that ryokan today, but I still remember the way the light filtered through the papered shoji screens and how I felt: warm, comforted, and transported to a place that centered me. Do you have paper memories like this?

Last weekend I taught a Collapsible Japanese Lantern (Chochin) workshop on Zoom, and it was delightful to see the the papers participants chose to illuminate in their projects. Their photos are pretty amazing too. Lamps below by: Carol Held, Lizzy Duquette and Hilarie Rath.

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Unravelling the nuanced connection between belonging and belongings, Joanne Tepper Saffren’s show at Axis Gallery, in Sacrametno, CA, uses the clothes left hanging on her late husbands side of their closet to create presence from absence. Saffren’s visceral art is one of disclosure—an honest and intimate inquiry into love, loss and grief—and universal in its relevance.

Challenging the boundaries of papermaking, the artist created a unique process to sculpt the wet pulp into human scaled organic paper structures, hung at human height, and floating off the gallery walls. Gestural marks, faces, clouds, landscapes and ghostly figures, emerging and collapsing, are thoughtfully created by allowing the fibers to float and knit themselves on a 4’ x 6’ screen placed in a bed of water.

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Space comes alive with art that breathes, flows, moans, and illuminates in SARA GARDEN ARMSTRONG: Threads and Layers, which opened recently at the Gadsden Museum of Art in Alabama. The traveling exhibition will be on display through Jan. 26th, 2023. Listen to my interview with Armstrong on Paper Talk.

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I am enamored by the work of Pinaree Sanpitak. Widely shown since its first appearance in Bangkok in 2011 and the Biennale of Sydney in 2012, Anything Can Break is a monumental installation featuring a suspended sky of origami cubes and hand-blown glass clouds illuminated by fibre optics, with motion sensors picking up movement in the space activating musical notes. Click through to see more of her work.

Pinaree Sanpitak, Anything Can Break (2011–ongoing). Handmade glass, paper, and specially composed music. Dimensions variable. Exhibition view: Chulalongkorn University Art Center, Bangkok (2011). Courtesy the artist and Yavuz Gallery.

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This is a poetic essay about the ceramic work of Toshiko Takaezu. Hoping to engage with people through a variety of senses, Takaezu introduced the element of sound. She wrapped a dried piece of clay in paper and placed it inside her forms before closing and firing them. To bring the work to life requires a physical movement. Gently rotating her work Untitled, one is able to hear the subtle ring of the otherwise mysterious interior. Scroll down on the page to watch and listen to the video.

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Paper TidbitsI’m teaching my popular 3-hour Shadow Lantern workshop through Maine Media on 12/11.Last year I started a new tradition – creating a list of my favorite paper resources for 2021. For 2022, I’d love to include your recommendations as well. Tell me about them here.

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In the Studio

When I have an intern in the studio, I like to work on projects that will benefit both of us. One of the things Madeline Good and I doing during our month together are fiber tests. We beat a batch of premium abaca for 5 hours, Madeline pulled sheets every 15 minutes to record how the resulting paper looked at these time increments, and then we cut the sheets in half and made two books (one for each of us), documenting our tests. Click through to see me flipping through the book on instagram.

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Featured this week in my Studio shop:

The Art of Papercraft, Papermaking with Garden Plants & Common Weeds, Water Paper Time, a film download, and The Papermaker’s Companion.

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If you read this blog regularly, would you consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper? Thanks to everyone who has already pledged your support! Or, perhaps you’re interested in promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

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SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

I occasionally have affiliate links in my blog posts – links to products in which I will receive a small commission if you make a purchase. Thanks for your support!

The post Light Filtering through Paper appeared first on Helen Hiebert Studio.

Paying it Forward

The Sunday Paper #434

November 6, 2022

Are you up early today (those of you who live places that observe daylight savings time)?

I have a new intern in the studio! Madeline Good is spending the month of November here, and while I’ve had many interns over the years, this time I am excited to be partnering with Arnold Grummer’s LLC to provide a paid internship for the first time. We are covering the basic costs (travel, housing and transportation) and I am providing personalized training geared towards enabling her to pursue a career in paper.

The internship I had at Dieu Donné Papermill early in my career was instrumental to who I’ve become as an artist, author and instructor, and it is my hope that the experience will have as much of a positive effect on Madeline as my internship had on me. (BTW, I just noticed this week that Dieu Donné is currently seeking interns). This is one way I can ‘pay it forward and give back’ to the community that gave me my start. Arnold Grummer’s is a family business that has worked for more than 40 years to offer elementary through high school students a successful experience in hand papermaking. Supporting this internship is an extension of Arnold Grummer’s commitment to continuing education for paper artists.

Madeline is a recent graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where she received her BFA in sculpture. Her work ranges from two-dimensional mixed media pieces to installations using natural materials, found objects, handmade paper, and natural pigments. Madeline is currently based in Philadelphia. Welcome, Madeline!

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This is a fantastic documentary about five ancient papermaking traditions from around the world that are being kept alive. I’ve never seen papyrus making and the way they cut thin strips of the reed with fishing line. Get a glimpse into the making of parchment, papyrus, and papermaking in India, Vietnam and Thailand (spoiler alert: they make elephant poo paper at Poopoo Paper Park in Chaing Mai).

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I have been thinking about multiples lately. Matt Shlian does them so well. Check out his affordable Eight Emperors series.

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I’m in the middle of teaching a 3-day workshop on how to make Collapsible Japanese Lanterns (Chochin). There’s a great video about the Akari Light Sculptures that Isamu Noguchi designed on this page. You’ll see many of his designs there too. If you’re in NYC, make a trek across the East River to the Noguchi Museum, a wonderful sculpture garden and museum that used to be Noguchi’s studio.

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Check out this clever computer mouse that folds down flat for compact travel and then folds up into a 3D shape for use. The Air.o Mouse is covered with vegan leather, which I’m guessing might be kraft tex, a paper-like product we paper and book nerds use. Let me know if you have one and agree.

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Paper Tidbits:Have you had a chance to listen to my interview with Roberto Mannino on Paper Talk?I’m teaching my popular 3-hour Shadow Lantern workshop through Maine Media on 12/11.Last year I started a new tradition – creating a list of my favorite paper resources for 2021. For 2022, I’d love to include your recommendations as well. Tell me about them here.

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Featured this week in my Studio shop:

The Art of Papercraft, Papermaking with Garden Plants & Common Weeds, Water Paper Time, a film download, and The Papermaker’s Companion.

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If you read this blog regularly, would you consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper? Thanks to everyone who has already pledged your support! Or, perhaps you’re interested in promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

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SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

I occasionally have affiliate links in my blog posts – links to products in which I will receive a small commission if you make a purchase. Thanks for your support!

The post Paying it Forward appeared first on Helen Hiebert Studio.

One-Piece Packaging Solutions

The Sunday Paper #433

October 30, 2022

As you might imagine, I’m a collector of how-to books about paper crafts and papermaking. One of my early acquisitions was this book, by Paul Jackson, and I refer to his well-known books for designers all the time – they contain a treasure trove of methods for folding, cutting, and pleating paper. (I interviewed Jackson on Paper Talk in 2021).

I was delighted to receive a review copy of Jackson’s new book:  Creative Packaging: One-Piece Packaging Solutions, published by Sendpoints. If you know me well, you’ll know that I love the “one-piece” phrase in the title – I’ve been fascinated by one-sheet objects my entire career.

Jackson has mastered getting his points across with informative diagrams and minimal text. He speaks to those who create by hand as well as those who have grown up with devices connected to their fingertips, and he emphasizes (to my delight) the value of understanding how to draw and construct by hand.

We get a great geometry lesson in the first pages of the book that includes diagrams of 12 polygons along with two ways to draft/draw them (around a point or from a given edge). Then we move into the third dimension. Jackson starts with a modular origami cube – the “Jackson Cube” that he designed in the early 1980’s – which holds the key to understanding his system of net design .

Jackson teaches us his ‘net’ construction system – a way of creating a one-piece 2-D diagram that shows what a 3-D package will look like when opened out and flattened – and then goes on to show how his net theory can be generalized for the construction of any solid. He goes into detail about tabs and locks, which are integral to creating paper solids.

This is a work book, complete with questions to answer and puzzles to solve. As with all of Jackson’s books, it would be best to take the time to work through the book systematically, in order to understand the basic principles of constructing geometric solids. I have a hunch that, if you do this, you will come up with your own discoveries – for packaging and other creative projects. Personally, I’d like to add some paper cuts to the flat nets, fold them up, and then illuminate the resulting forms.

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Paper Talk Podcast:

I had a lovely interview when I was in Italy with Roberto Mannino on Paper Talk. Mannino explores form with an abstract, process oriented, non-realistic approach. In Papermaking the very fact that there is a molecular change from liquid to solid implies the presence of natural energies that are embedded in the process itself. His hands-on practice enables him to have a dialogue with the nature of things in relation to his own personal motivations.

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As we approach Halloween and Dia de los Muertos, here’s an informative article about papel picado and how the paper cutting tradition has changed over the years. For example, the designs – which used to be cut in fig-bark paper – are now cut in colorful tissue paper. Yuridia Torres Alfaro, a second generation paper cutter, is still cutting her own stencils by hand at her Xochimilco workshop outside of Mexico City.

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While we’re on the topic, Béatrice Coron creates paper cut designs that are fabricated in metal to grace public spaces. This is a great story about how her art is tied into an affordable housing development in her neighborhood in NYC.

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Denise Marshall is currently exhibiting her photographic weavings at the Buck’s County chapter of the Fox Chase Cancer Center’s Annual Art Show & Sale. I love this story about how she got into paper weaving.

In 2020, while taking an abstract photography class, a medical problem with her right arm prevented Marshall from holding her camera at times. One week, determined to complete her assignment, she took one of her photographs and cut it up vertically and looked at the deconstructed photograph on a white mat board, moving it apart while keeping the image “together”. Then she had an idea: she took a different photograph, cut it up horizontally, and kept the photograph in order by numbering the strips. She wove the two images together and liked the results, as did her classmates.

Marshall was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021 and has not stopped weaving (I met her – online – when she was a participant in my Weave Through Winter online class in 2022). She says that it is really powerful to have this form of art to relax her and make her feel great.

© Denise Marshall, The Same Side of the Street. View more of Marshall’s photos by clicking on the image above.

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This is fascinating: the first known map of night sky has recently been found, hidden in Medieval parchment.

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Paper Tidbits:I’m teaching my popular 3-hour Shadow Lantern workshop through Maine Media on 12/11.Last year I started a new tradition – creating a list of my favorite paper resources for 2021. For 2022, I’d love to include your recommendations as well. Tell me about them here.

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One-Sheet Wonders: 

We’re exploring simple tessellations in The Paper Year this month. Check out Carroll Conquest’s lovely illuminated variation.

© Carroll Conquest

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Featured this week in my Studio shop:

The Art of Papercraft, Papermaking with Garden Plants & Common Weeds, Water Paper Time, a film download, and The Papermaker’s Companion.

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If you read this blog regularly, would you consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper? Thanks to everyone who has already pledged your support! Or, perhaps you’re interested in promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

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SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

I occasionally have affiliate links in my blog posts – links to products in which I will receive a small commission if you make a purchase. Thanks for your support!

The post One-Piece Packaging Solutions appeared first on Helen Hiebert Studio.

Orthopedics as Told Through the Art of Papercraft

The Sunday Paper #432

October 23, 2022

I started a short memoir writing class this week through my local community college. Ever since I read Margaret Davis’ book, China Under The Covers, I’ve been thinking about writing my own memoir. What inspired me was the fact that she included illustrated instructions for four of the first forms of book bindings, developed by the Chinese, which can be replicated today using simple tools and available materials. So, it’s part how-to and part adventure/travel/love story. That combination was intriguing to me, and I’ve been wondering whether I could do something like this related to my life with paper, incorporating some of the paper structures I’ve designed.

That was five years ago, and most of my art projects take years to come to come to fruition, if you count the ideation process. I’m sure the writing process will take even longer, and I’m not in a hurry. This project will stew in my brain, bubbling up a little at a time, or perhaps the entire framework will appear to me all at once. That’s how the creative process works for me, and sometimes it is hard to wait. But I’ve learned that it generally pays off to let things percolate.

I’m excited to be moving in a new direction. This particular class is just five sessions and a total of ten hours on Zoom, but I do have some short term goals: I hope to come out of it with a few vignettes from my life and some ideas for potential text for an artist’s book with woven paper illustrations.

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Thanks for all of your fun notes about my blog post last week, recapping my adventure in Italy and France. Here’s a trip you might be interested in for next summer: Travel to Northern Italy to work in traditional printing and letterpress studios and tour historic libraries and museums. Book Arts in Venice, led by Kalamazoo Book Arts Center’s Executive Director Jeff Abshear, will take place June 20 – July 1, 2023. Create drypoint etchings at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, a design school and studio which for over 50 years has focused on printmaking and artist’s books. Tour historic sites including St. Mark’s Square, the Accademia Gallery, and the Peggy Guggenheim Museum. Learn to set movable type by hand and print a letterpress book at Tipoteca Italiana Fondazione, one of the largest typography museums in Europe, located in the town of Cornuda at the foothills of the Dolomite Mountains. Participants will stay in shared apartments in the heart of Venice and a restored 16th century villa surrounded by a prosecco vineyard in Cornuda. All travel will be via public transport including trains, boats, and buses. The program welcomes all levels of experience, with introductory instruction in the studio. Click here for more details.

This is a sponsored post: The Kalamazoo Book Arts Center (KBAC) is a nonprofit organization in Kalamazoo, MI, that practices, teaches, and promotes the collaborative arts of the book including hand papermaking, printmaking, letterpress printing, bookbinding, and creative writing.

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Friend and colleague Marianne R. Petit has a lovely show up at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Hutchinson Campus that explores the works of orthopedics as told through the art of papercraft. I love this quote about art that appears in the article: “Art is a powerful tool that can help patients and families through challenging circumstances. This exhibition uses art as a vehicle to help inform and demystify the many orthopedic surgical treatments Montefiore physicians perform on their patients.”

Marianne R. Petit was on Episode #93 of Paper Talk

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I’ve been following Hong Hong ever since she did an amazing large sheet forming demonstration in Santa Fe several years ago at a North American Hand Papermaker’s gathering. Tiger Strikes Asteroid LA is currently exhibiting Keeping Score, featuring large-scale works in paper by Hong Hong and Johnathan Payne, curated by Alex Paik. The show is up through November 6th.

Hong Hong, Father’s Mother: Chart of the Inner Warp and Mother: You are Your Own, Handmade Paper, 112 inches (H) x 120 inches (W) x 86 inches (D), 2022, Photograph by Ben Premeaux, courtesy of artist

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This is a terrific video showcasing Pulp 2022 at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, juried by Alicia Bailey and yours truly.

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Paper Tidbits:Have you had a chance to take a peek at the 5-minute video I made about my Italian adventure?There are two spots left in my Collapsible Japanese Lantern workshop (starts 11/4 on Zoom)I’m teaching my popular 3-hour Shadow Lantern workshop through Maine Media on 12/11.

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One-Sheet Wonders: 

These two one-sheet wonders came across my desk this week. Both are so timely as we approach Halloween and Dia De Los Muertos.

Sarah Morgan shared her version of the Origami Bat project featured in The Art of Papercraft. I love her twist – the paper she used didn’t fold crisply, so she stitched through the accordions to pull them into place.

Sandy Rhodes created a set of Linked Lights, which is a project I shared during the recent registration window for The Paper Year. You can still access this free PDF tutorial.

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Featured this week in my Studio shop:

The Art of Papercraft, Papermaking with Garden Plants & Common Weeds, Water Paper Time, a film download, and The Papermaker’s Companion.

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If you read this blog regularly, would you consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper? Thanks to everyone who has already pledged your support! Or, perhaps you’re interested in promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

———————————————————————————————––––––

SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

I occasionally have affiliate links in my blog posts – links to products in which I will receive a small commission if you make a purchase. Thanks for your support!

The post Orthopedics as Told Through the Art of Papercraft appeared first on Helen Hiebert Studio.

Italy 2022

The Sunday Paper #431

October 16, 2022

Happy Sunday!

I’ve returned from my working vacation in Italy and France, where I spent two weeks teaching at ICA Arts in Monte Castello di Vibio, followed by a week long vacation in the Loire Valley with my hubby, son, and a couple I met when I was an exchange student in Germany in 1986. It was an incredible experience. Here’s a brief recap (with special thanks to Ron Shaull, Lore Spivey and Beth Stockdell for sharing some of their lovely photos):

My son and I flew to Rome on Saturday, 9/18 and stayed overnight in a hotel near the airport. The next morning, he headed off for a week of exploring Florence and Milan, and then he met up with my husband in Rome, who flew in a week later. They spent a week exploring Rome; the Herculaneum and Mt. Vesuvius, outside of Naples; and the island of Capri. I met up with them after teaching (more on that at the end of this post).

Meanwhile, I returned to the Rome airport the next morning to meet up with seven of the ten students who were enrolled in The Art of Papercraft, and we were escorted by Victoria – our ICA Arts liaison – to a chartered bus that took us to Monte Castello di Vibio. The school is in a walled Italian hill town that was built in the 14th century, located right in the center of Italy, in Umbria.

The rest of our group was there waiting for us – another three participants and the other three instructors (Carol Barton, Denise Carbone, and Amanda Degener). Five participants are members of my Paper Year program and three are members of Ali Manning’s Handmade Book Club, and a couple are members of both groups!

There’s a book about the charming town of Monte Castello di Vibio called Three Bells of Civilization: Life in an Italian Hill Town. It is known for having the smallest Italian theater in the world, which (unfortunately) was under construction.

This illustration from the book shows the layout of the town – it is tiny with about 200 inhabitants within the walls, 5-10 businesses, a bell tower, a school, two churches, a park, and many homes. There is a defunct hotel which was just purchased and is being renovated. Coincidentally, I met the hotel’s American owner who had dinner with us at the school one night, and he’s read Dard Hunter’s book, Papermaking – how crazy is that?? I had to ask him why he’d read the book, because he wasn’t an artist and didn’t have a connection to paper. It turns out that he read it in high school, when he broke both legs and was bedridden for many weeks, and his mother kept him supplied with books from the library.

It is easy to get lost in the maze of small streets, but you eventually end up at a landmark. A walk around the perimeter of the town takes less than 10 minutes. Most participants stayed in the main building, which included dormitory-style rooms, a library, a kitchen and dining hall. A few stayed off campus, and we four instructors stayed in a four-bedroom home with a shared bath and kitchen.

We started classes the next day (Monday) and divided into two groups of five students. Each group attended a morning and an afternoon class on Mondays and Wednesdays with two instructors, and a morning and afternoon class with the other two instructors on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Here you see the three main rooms we utilized: one for me; Carol and Denise shared a space (alternating morning and afternoon classes); and Amanda had indoor and outdoor papermaking spaces.

Amanda taught papermaking (kudos to her for creating a functioning papermaking facility out of nothing – which began with getting water from the second floor down to the first floor). She also showed participants how to dye papers featuring many of the techniques utilized by Cave Paper, the company she founded and sold a couple of years ago. Each participant went home with an incredible sample book that showed off a variety of papers.

In my class, we focused on one technique each day. I met with each group four times, and I showed them how to work with paper in four ways: we created a couple of woven paper structures, a shadow lantern, bendable paper, and inflatable forms.

Denise taught two traditional sewn bookbindings. She did an amazing job of working with what she had on hand since the facility had never been used for paper or book making. She had sewing frames constructed in Italy (her own sewing frame hung from the rung of a chair stacked on top of a table) and she resurrected a really old guillotine.

Carol’s class focused on designing pop-ups. Her course was based on the mechanics that are featured in her fabulous Pocket Paper Engineer series of books. And it is thanks to Carol that I got to go to Italy in the first place. She was the one who made contact with the school and invited the rest of us to teach with her.

I began each day at a tai chi class taught by Amanda in the town park. It was chilly at 7am, but the walk to the park often yielded an incredible vista of fog filling the valley below. The photo shows the view across the valley to Todi, another hill town – sometimes the tower was the only thing sticking out of the clouds.

I taught my class each morning, from 9am – 1pm, Monday through Thursday. Lunch was from 1-2pm, and I had the rest of the afternoon off. The students had their afternoon classes from 3-7pm, and we gathered for dinner at 8pm. I spent my afternoons going for walks, doing yoga, and thinking about future art projects. I didn’t find the time conducive to making my own work, as I’d hoped. Carol, in contrast, created a lovely collection of watercolors during her free afternoons.

The food was amazing! Talented chefs Katia and Federico treated us to a breakfast buffet, three course lunches and four course dinners, featuring traditional Umbrian cuisine and local table wines. I’m glad the food was served to us as shown (i.e. portioned, vs all-you-can-eat).

We took several fun field trips to surrounding areas. David Voros, the director of ICA Arts, put together a wonderful array of places for us to see on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Our first trip started with a visit to La Madonna del Bagno, a small church with a tree behind the altar that is said to have performed miracles. People who came here to pray for their friends and family commissioned tiles to give thanks to the Virgin Mary for her various interventions. Over the centuries, these tiles began to cover the walls and corridors of the sanctuary.

Afterwards, we stopped for pastries and coffee and then visited the infamous pottery town of Deruta, specifically the pottery studio of the Nulli family. We got to see pottery throwing and painting demonstrations, and I was fascinated by the stenciling process the painter used. She had a stencil made from tracing paper with tiny holes pricked along the design. She placed the stencil on top of a plate and pounced over it with a bag filled with charcoal, which transferred the design to the plate. This gave her the outline she needed for painting intricate patterns.

The most relevant trip took place next – to the Fabriano Paper and Watermark Museum. We had an official tour (first row below) followed by time to view several rooms filled with watermarked papers and moulds (second row).

Roberto Mannino, an Italian paper artist from Rome, took Amanda and me to visit a local papermaker, Luigi, who fabricates products that are sold in Fabriano boutiques around Italy. Pictured in the third row are his huge Hollander beater (he has a pump attached to move the pulp into the next room, where he makes paper); a small scale papermaking machine; and an assortment of papers.

The rest of the group toured Assisi, and we all met back in Monte Castello di Vibio for dinner and a presentation by Roberto, whom I also had a chance to interview for my podcast, Paper Talk (coming soon).

We spent a few hours in Perugia that weekend, which had an amazing underground built by the Etruscans, Baci chocolates and some really interesting manhole covers.

Our second week of classes ended on Thursday, September 29th. That evening, we had a mini exhibition in the dining hall, which many townspeople, including the mayor, attended. It was a lovely celebration of two productive weeks of working with paper, and each participant had a table to display their work on.

That second weekend, we visited Florence, where Carol and Denise and a few of us met up with a former student of theirs. Patricia took us to the central market for lunch and some fun shops, including the Fabriano Boutique, where I saw some of Luigi’s products. It was pouring rain that day, so I didn’t take many photos (the bad weather gave us the opportunity to have coffee and gelato). We walked by several famous buildings (like the duomo) and got to a couple of tourist attractions, including San Marco, which had a room filled with manuscripts. My favorite discovery there was a couple of vitrines filled with the tools and materials used to make the manuscripts.

Saturday, our last day, included a visit to Orvieto, a charming tourist town filled with shopping streets. The cathedral there was built in striped gray and white stone, and the “stained glass” windows were created from thin stone rather than glass. I only know this because Amanda was with me and mentioned she’s seen windows like this at the Beinecke Library at Yale.

After Orvieto, we visited Marmore Falls, a man-made waterfall created by the ancient Romans. The waterfall is turned on and off and is only running at full steam for an hour each day. We were there during that hour, and we stayed to see it slow to a trickle.

After a final celebratory dinner that night, we took the bus to the Rome airport bright and early the next morning, where I met up with Ted and Will. We flew to Nantes, France to meet up with our German friends who had arrived the day before. We had a lovely time together in the Loire Valley near Saumur (although Heinz tested positive for Covid the day we flew in, so he isolated in a separate detached building. As of this post, so far so good in terms of anyone else contracting Covid).

We spent the week touring castles and caves, cooking together, sleeping in (something I never do), playing cards and enjoying each other’s company. This is my favorite photo from the week: the three of us in front of the castle at Saumur.

Here are a few more photos, highlighting that week:

Heinz, Barbara and their pups at our rented house that is built into the rock in Fontevraud, FranceTed and Will at the stables of the Cadre Noir in Saumur, FranceBarbara and Ted on the roof of Château de Montsoreau, with the Loire River in the backgroundChâteau de ChinonA baguette machine, LOL. We had a boulangerie with fresh baguettes in our neighborhood, so we didn’t try it.Tapa (bark cloth) mounted onto a folding screen at the Fontevraud Modern Art Museum (a fun paper discovery)The tombs of Eleanor de Aquitaine, Henry II and Richard the LionheartBarbara and I took a bicycle tour through an underground winery and did a tastingA book of paper cubes that I found in the Château de Montsoreau gift shop

Putting this post together took awhile, but YOU are so worth it! Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back with a more normal Sunday Paper next week.

And if you’d like more insight into the Italy portion of the trip, you might be interested in these supplementary items:

I created a five-minute video about the workshop at ICA Arts, featuring the maze-like paths through the village.Participant Lore Spivey created a wonderful photo diary about the entire two weeks at ICA Arts.Participant Beth Stockdell wrote a fun travel log documenting her trip, complete with photos and videos.

The post Italy 2022 appeared first on Helen Hiebert Studio.