Helen Hiebert's Blog, page 30

My Colorado Paper Retreat

The Sunday Paper #295

January 19, 2020

Paper of the Week: Red Cliff Paper Retreat

Registration is now open and you are invited to my studio in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains for the 7th Annual Red Cliff Paper Retreat! The 2020 Retreat theme is Woven Paper: Books/Vessels/Lighting. Come experience a variety of papers that can be made by hand, cut, folded, stitched and woven to create books, wall hangings, sculpture, lighting and more. Explore these ideas as you create unique paper objects with a dozen like-minded creatives.

Come for 3 days: August 29 – 31 or Stay for 5 Days: August 29 – September 2. I expect both retreats to fill within the next couple of months, so register soon, and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

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In the Studio: 

© Michael LaFosse Origami Sailboat Envelope

I am busy working on my new book, and the bulk of that is editing and writing the instructions for projects that show off a variety of techniques for working with paper. This Origami Sailboat Envelope is a guest project by Michael LaFosse, who runs Origamido Studio in MA. His original design would look good in any double-sided origami paper, but I think it looks extra special in this origami crane stencil-printed Japanese Washi.
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Papery Tidbits:

The Paper Year is still available, now at a discount. I have just a few more paper kits in stock and plenty copies of The Paper Year.
We are sharing our projects from The Paper Year over in The Paper Studio, my free Facebook group. You can join the fun, even if you don’t have a copy of The Paper Year!

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Um, this is amazing, a post-it pad that transforms as you use it (get writing)! Click through to watch it in action! (As seen on ThisIsColossal and shared by a blog reader, thanks Carol)!

The Center for Book Arts in NYC has some interesting shows up right now: Visual storytelling; Warren Lehrer’s approach to visualizing poetry; The Private Life of Rag Dolls; and Remembering Walter Hamady.

Lt: Draw / Cut / Rotate 17, Hadieh Shafie (2019); Rt: Remembering Walter Hamady, Selecctions from The Perishable Press

Someone in my Weave Through Winter online class turned me onto the amazing work of Hollie Chastain. Wowza! And btw, my students are doing amazing work too. I’ll share some of it soon.

Shinjuku is a ward in Tokyo and home to the busiest train station in the world. We rendezvoused with our son there, and it took us awhile to figure out how to meet up! A Japanese man has created a model of Shinjuku in paper!

Check out this Paper Phone, the antithesis to our mobile phones today.

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Featured this week in my Studio shop:

Interluceo, a selection of grid papers, The Paper Year, and The Paper Lover’s Package.

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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? Click on the paper button at the left to learn how. Or, perhaps you’re interested in promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

Thanks to everyone who has already pledged your support!

SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

Architecture in Paper

The Sunday Paper #294

January 12, 2020

Paper of the Week:Kozo Grid Paper

I am still messing around with the grid watermark on my mould. Once I remove it, I’m not likely to reuse it, so I’m trying to make the most of it with pulp I have on hand in the studio. This is some kozo I had hand beaten and stored in the fridge. I ran it through my hollander beater for just a few minutes to loosen the fibers, and then formed sheets on my western mould, dipping several times (similar to the Japanese method). I have always wondered what would happen if you were to beat kozo in a hollander, under pressure, for a long time. Let me know if you’ve tried it! Anyways, I didn’t strain my formation aid, so that’s why you see some holes and droplets. Next week I’m going to make a few more sheets with strained formation aid, and when the vat gets thin I’ll add some abaca. A selection of gridded papers is available in The Paper Shop, but the kozo variety isn’t available yet, as I’m still working out those kinks!

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In the Studio: The Paper Studio

I shared this book I created about the birth of my son.

In case you missed it last week, I’m re-activating my facebook group. It is now called The Paper Studio (if you were a member of Club Paper, you’re now automatically a member of The Paper Studio). This year, we’re doing a monthly challenge based on the projects in The Paper Year. We’re starting with the January project, a Cubicard designed by guest artist Lore Spivey. Whether you own a copy of The Paper Year or not, you’ll be able to participate and create your own unique variations and post them in our group. The real fun will be seeing how everyone interprets and creates based on each challenge! Hop on over to join us and check out the first challenge! We’ve had several people post their inspiring work this week, and there will be a raffle prize drawing at the end of the month for those who participate in the challenge!

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Papery Tidbits:

The Paper Year is still available, now at a discount, and I have just 12 more paper kits in stock.
Have you listened to my interview with Matt Shlian on Paper Talk?
Weave Through Winter begins this week! This is an online class – a daily practice that will help you kick the year off and get your creative wheels spinning.

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Book Arts in Venice! There is room for one more person on the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center’s Book Arts in Venice trip and the deadline to register has been extended to January 31st. Travel to Venice, Cornuda, and Verona, Italy, to work in traditional printing and letterpress studios and tour historic libraries and museums. Print in the studio of the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice. Tour historic sites including St. Mark’s Square, the Accademia Gallery, and the library of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini where we will see a collection of early Venetian printed books. Travel to Verona to visit the Antica Tipografia Arche Scaligere and the Biblioteca Capitolare, one of the oldest libraries in the world. Print a letterpress book at Tipoteca Italiana Fondazione, located in the town of Cornuda, at the foothills of the Dolomite Mountains.

Participants will stay in shared apartments, a restored 16th century villa, and hotel accommodations. 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 information and to register.

My friend Diane Jacobs is doing some amazing mixed media work, often incorporating paper, and always bringing light to the issues of our times. I thought you might enjoy taking a look at her latest newsletter. One of the pieces featured in it is Stump Trump, which was recently on view with more of her work at the Annex in The Bush Barn Art Center in Salem, Oregon.

San Francisco–based artist Zai Divecha creates serene yet elaborate masterpieces from … you guessed it… paper!

Check out these four clever ways to plant seeds in paper pots!

As a kid, I wanted to be an architect. Well, I’d say that perhaps I ended up becoming a Paper Architect. Laurence King Publishing has a new book out featuring some of Le Corbusier’s buildings. The book, by Marc Hagan-Guirey, is a step-by-step kirigami guide (which is a variation of origami that allows for the cutting of paper, rather than solely folding it) that teaches readers how to create paper buildings designed to mimic real places designed by the famed architect.

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Featured this week in my Studio shop:

Weave Through Winter Online Class, a selection of grid papers, The Paper Year, and The Paper Lover’s Package.

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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? Click on the paper button at the left to learn how. Or, perhaps you’re interested in promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

Thanks to everyone who has already pledged your support!

SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

The Paper Studio

The Sunday Paper #293

January 5, 2020

Happy New Year!!

Paper of the Week: Once More: Japanese Papers

You should have received an e-mail from me yesterday, with my post about the papers I picked up in Japan. Here’s another link to that post, in case you haven’t had a chance to read it.

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In the Studio: The Paper Studio

Cubicards, designed by Lore Spivey

I’m re-activating my facebook group, with the help of a paper friend. It is now called The Paper Studio (if you were a member of Club Paper, you’re now automatically a member of The Paper Studio). This year, we’re doing a monthly challenge based on the projects in The Paper Year. We’re starting with the January project, a Cubicard designed by guest artist Lore Spivey. Whether you own a copy of The Paper Year or not, you’ll be able to participate and create your own unique variations and post them in our group. The real fun will be seeing how everyone interprets and creates based on each challenge! Hop on over to join us and check out the first challenge!

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My interview with Matt Shlian is now on Paper Talk! Matt is a paper engineer whose work is rooted in print media, book arts and commercial design. We talk about the trajectory of his career – from immersing himself in various media first at Alfred University and then at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, to working as a visiting research scholar at the University of Michigan, where he collaborated with scientists using paper techniques he developed. Matt works with art consultants and galleries worldwide to place his artwork, which is created using technology and a lot of handwork. And we talk about the balancing act of making work, hiring employees to help, being a husband (he and his wife have collaborated on some pretty cool projects) and raising two young children. Enjoy our conversation!

Some of these paper cuts look so dimensional! I am in awe of these one-sheet wonders, aka paper cuts by Kanako Abe, as featured on My Modern Met.

Andrea Peterson teaches papermaking at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Here’s a great clip of her showing students how to make paper at a new print shop in Erie, PA. Grounded Printshop is run by Ashley Pastore, a former student of Andrea’s and partner Alex Anthes. I love that they are dedicated to offering a creative space for individuals, regardless of experience, to learn or practice contemporary print and papermaking!

Get this: There’s a world’s most famous gift wrapper (great headline)! Not only is Alton DuLaney the art curator for the Houston Airport System (cool job), but during the holidays, DuLaney transforms paper and ribbon into his own works of art, to the delight of harried travelers.

Simon Beck is a snow artist, and he’s here in Colorado for a couple of weeks working his magic on the snow. Lucky for him, there’s lots of fresh snow! I got a kick out of the last sentence of this article, that relates to paper. Simon has expertise in map making and says: “It’s using the same skills, but working in reverse,” he said. “Making a map, you start with something on the ground. You’ve got to make a reproduction of it on a small scale on a piece of paper. If you’re making a snow drawing, you start with something you’ve drawn on a piece of paper and reproduce it on the ground on a much bigger scale.”

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It’s exiting to see a classroom develop – there 50+ creative souls who have signed up for the Weave Through Winter challenge so far! Join us for this online class and create a daily practice as you explore a variety of papers and weaving techniques.

Commit to an hour of creativity a day (more or less)
Challenge yourself to share what you create (there will be prizes)
Stimulate your mind by finding, mixing and matching papers
Find satisfaction in the ordinary while creating something extraordinary

Class begins on January 16th!

Here’s a weaving and sentiments from Caryn Michael, who took the class last year:

Caryn Michael, 2019, weaving created in the Weave Through Winter online class

“The Weave Through Winter course was amazing!!! It allowed me to connect with people from all over and gain insights and inspiration. As an artist and educator, it has broadened my scope and provided me with new creative outlets. Helen is an amazing teacher! A must have experience.”

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Featured this week in my Studio shop:

Weave Through Winter Online Class, Vertices, an artist’s book, The Paper Year, and The Paper Lover’s Package.

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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? Click on the paper button at the left to learn how. Or, perhaps you’re interested in promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

Thanks to everyone who has already pledged your support!

SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

Japan Trip – Part 3 – The Paper!

This is part three in a three-part series on my trip to Japan. You can read Part 1 here. And Part 2 here.

Here’s a short recap about the trip:

My husband Ted and I took a two-week trip to Japan in late November/early December 2019. The main reason was to visit our son, a junior in college at DePaul University in Chicago, who is doing a semester abroad at Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka.

I waited 30 years for this adventure, and it was definitely worth the wait! I was living in NYC back then, working odd jobs and trying to find something I was passionate about. My father was in Japan for the summer, and my  mother took me with her on a short vacation to see him and tour around a bit. I already had an interest in paper, but that trip was a turning point: we stayed in a traditional inn in Kyoto (a ryokan) and being surrounded by light filtering through shoji screens sparked a new interest in paper and light.

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Back in the studio, I finally found a bit of time to go through the papers I purchased in Japan. I have to admit that overwhelm set in quickly while traveling, so I didn’t do as much shopping as you might think! I’ll have to go back, and thankfully there are several paper suppliers here in the states, who carry Japanese papers. Hiromi Paper, Miki’s Papers/Paper Tree, Mulberry Papers & More, Paper Connection International, and Washi Arts, to name a few.

I don’t speak or read Japanese at all, so I don’t know that much about these papers (fiber content, printing methods, etc).

Below you see the sheets made by makers I met. From left to right: two heavier weight sheets of Japanese kozo paper created in Yamaguchi Shohachi’s studio; two thin whispy sheets of mitsumata paper created by Chie Honma; a gorgeous lace paper that I purchased at Ozu Washi in Tokyo (I asked where it was made, but didn’t write it down, darn); two lace papers from the studio Ryoso Yanase, and some swatches of kozo paper made by living national treasure Ichibei Iwano, the bottom right corner swatches are painted with kakishibu (persimmon tannin). I purchased a bottle of that to play around with, too.

This is a selection of inexpensive machine-made kraft papers in some fun patterns that I got at Itoya in Tokyo.

I like polka dots and got one in each color.

Chiyogami comes in hundreds of designs, making it really hard to choose! I picked a few that I wasn’t familiar with.

This is a machine-made paper I purchased at Ozu Washi in Tokyo. The circles look like they are watermarked.

I picked up a selection of these screen printed papers at Morita Washi in Kyoto. They had shelves and shelves of papers in lots of sizes and patterns.

I love kyoseishi papers, which are crumpled. I found some of these in paper stores and others in stationery or calligraphy shops.

These oversized sheets measure close to 30″ x 40″.

It’s hard to see in this photo, but these papers each have unusual textures or surfaces.

The color variety in these inexpensive ‘farmers papers’ was astounding. I purchased only about 1/3 of the colors they had in stock. These were inexpensive, and I’m pretty sure they are handmade.

Ozu Washi had probably 30 drawers of these itajame dyed papers.

I stopped in several Daiso shops (dollar stores) because they carry origami paper and I found different types in each shop. Here’s my haul.

I’m a paper wallet/pouch/bag junkie, and I picked up a few of these in Japan. The burgundy one is made by Siwa, a company that produces all sorts of paper “bags”. Click through to see more of their products. Fun fact: the name, Siwa is both a reversing of the characters in the word washi (wasi), and a word meaning crinkle in Japanese.

This wallet was in a paper shop along the Philosopher’s Road in Kyoto. It is lined with fabric, and has an unusual closure (a plastic piece that sides underneath a string.

This is a business card holder made at Osada Kazuya in Echizen.

I hope you enjoyed my adventure in Japan. Guess what? I am seriously considering bringing a group to Japan in 2021 or 2022. I think I’ve found a partner on the ground there who speaks Japanese. Please leave a comment if you think you might be interested (please include your e-mail address, because it won’t show up with your comment). I am envisioning a trip that would combine visiting paper places and creating Japanese-inspired paper objects. In the meantime, I hope to attend the IAPMA Congress in Japan next fall.

And I know you see this every week on my blog, and you probably don’t even look at it anymore, but these posts about Japan took me over 10 hours to compile (without compensation). I am by no means complaining – I feel so lucky to have found a true passion – and I do so love and enjoy what I do! But here’s a fact: my hubby (the writer and editor) gets $1-$2 per word when he writes a magazine article.

So on that note, if you read this blog and enjoy it, would you consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper? Click on the paper button at the left to learn how. Or, perhaps you’re interested in promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

Thanks to everyone who has already pledged your support!

And feel free to SHARE THIS blog post with your paper- and Japan-loving friends!

Off the Grid Paper

The Sunday Paper #292

December 29, 2019

Paper of the Week: Grid Paper

I have been playing around with my new Cricut Maker (a desktop machine that will cut watermarking material, among other things) and this is the first design I cut and made paper with. If you know anything about watermarks, the imagery cannot be too wide or the pulp slips off of the watermarking material, resulting holes in the paper. I’m afraid my success rate with this batch will be low – my pulp was quite fine and the material was a bit wide – but I’m still looking forward to getting the paper out of the drying box and seeing the results!

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In the Studio: Weave Through Winter

It’s exiting to see a classroom develop – there are close to 30 souls who have signed up for the Weave Through Winter challenge so far! Join us for this online class and create a daily practice as you explore a variety of papers and weaving techniques.

Commit to an hour of creativity a day (more or less)
Challenge yourself to share what you create (there will be prizes)
Stimulate your mind by finding, mixing and matching papers
Find satisfaction in the ordinary while creating something extraordinary

Class begins on January 16th, 2020, but earlybird pricing ends on January 1st (when the price will increase from $185 to $210).

Here’s a weaving and sentiments from Sarah Morgan, who took the class last year and has signed up to take it again:

“As I wove everyday, I started seeing possibilities for paper. I like working with reclaimed papers. I shop at SCRAP in Portland, OR, a local creative reuse store where I find maps, envelopes, discarded drawings, wallpaper, calendars, etc. I grabbed a poster from a power pole and delaminated cardboard. Experiments with all kinds of materials flowed from the daily practice. I recommend Weave Through Winter and will take it again.”

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Papery Tidbits:

I’m offering a FREE webinar where you can learn more about the Weave Through Winter online class on  January 2nd at 1pm EST, 12pm CST, 11am MST, 10am PST. If you miss the webinar, you can watch the replay – but make sure you register so that I know to send it to you!

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I had the pleasure of meeting Audrey Niffenegger when she visited Oregon College of Art & Craft several years ago. She’s the author of The Time Traveler’s Wife (which was made into a movie) and Her Fearful Symmetry (both fantastic works of fiction; perhaps you already know that the heroine in The Time Traveler’s Wife is a papermaker). Audrey is also an artist, and she’s passionate about the book in all forms. Click through to read about Audrey’s vision for an Artist’s Book House in Evanston, IL. She has her eye on the historic Harley Clarke House there, and will make a proposal to the city on February 28, 2020. If the proposal isn’t accepted, she is dedicated to finding another place for classes, a library, a book shop, studios, a cafe: a place to gather, to meet each other, to share ideas (and coffee). You can help Artists Book House become a real place by donating!

This is a fascinating story about the guy who pioneered using paper negatives instead of silver-plated daguerreotypes—a choice that eased his travel and also made it possible for him to create the first-ever travel book accompanied by original photographic reproductions.

Maxime Du Camp, Westernmost Colossus, the Great Temple, Abu Simbel, 1850, Salted paper print.

If you’re in NYC this week, head on over to MoMA to see Betye Saar’s very first etchings, drawings, and early experiments with assemblage. For the exhibition, a team of curators made the most of a recent museum acquisition of 42 works on paper by the artist.

Betye Saar, “Let Me Entertain You” (1972), Wooden window frame with cut-and-pasted printed and painted papers and plastic skull, 14 3/4 x 24 x 1 3/4″ (37.5 x 61 x 4.4 cm) (photo by Jasmine Weber)

It isn’t every day that I find out about a cool paper book through a personal connection. I had some of my artist’s books professionally photographed in Denver this week, and the photographer (Wes Maygar) told me about his brother’s girlfriend, Corrie Beth Hogg, who wrote the book Handmade Houseplants. How cool is that?

This is a great article + video about a young man who is bridging generations in the paper umbrella making business in Japan.

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I made this one sheet wonder as a project for my new book – it shows off a strip of kraft tex adorned with eyelets and a snap attachment.

Do you have a One Sheet Wonder? I am curating a gallery section in my new book to show off the potential of paper (featuring artwork, graphic design, fashion design and other wonders created from one sheet of handmade or machine-made paper). Fill out this form if you have something to share, and feel free to pass it along to other paper artists (deadline: 1/15/20). Although I can’t promise that your image will make the cut (there are so many factors involved), I plan to start showing off your One-Sheet-Wonders on the blog (like I’m doing today), leading up to the book’s publication.

Featured this week in my Studio shop:

Weave Through Winter Online Class, Vertices, an artist’s book, The Paper Year, and The Paper Lover’s Package.

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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? Click on the paper button at the left to learn how. Or, perhaps you’re interested in promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

Thanks to everyone who has already pledged your support!

SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

Wishing You a Wonder-Filled Holiday Season

The Sunday Paper #291

December 22, 2019

Paper of the Week: Arnold Grummer’s Annual Press Sale

It’s that time of year for Arnold Grummer’s Annual Press Sale. I bought one of these last year and have used it for a traveling papermaking workshop and for book binding – it is a well-crafted, sturdy small press, and I love it! I have the larger size. Take an add’l 10% off any regular or sale priced item – including presses! – with promo code SHOPSMALL. The discount will cover everything in your cart. Good from now until the end of the year. Santa says that price increases are coming in 2020, so now’s the time to pick up a press!

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In the Studio: Happy Holidays!

This is the view I see each day when I leave my studio (ok, truth be told: there are a few things I have to look beyond to see this, like my car and a fence). But it makes me think about the saying Can’t see the forest for the trees. I can so easily get caught up in worrying about the details that I forget the big picture! How often do I walk out and make a beeline for my car, not even taking the time to look up?

This is my wish for me and for you this holiday season. Let’s all take a deep breath and see the forest, or our world, and think about how we are all here together. The details are important and different for each one of us, and our view of what the forest should be varies too, but let’s take a moment (or many moments) to appreciate what we share and honor it. And I’m going to try to take a peek at the view every time I walk out of the studio door.

And guess what? It will change, and how I see it will change, and I love that!

Wishing you a wonder-filled holiday season!

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Papery Tidbits:

Have you listened to my interview with Robert Lang on Paper Talk?
Weave Through Winter is open for registration. Jump start your creative year by spending an hour or so each day creating a paper weaving, for 30 art-filled days. Class begins January 16th!
Have you read the recap of my Japan trip?

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I met Maro Vanderou in Portland, and now we both live in different states, but paper connects us! A couple of years ago, she commissioned me to make three abaca papers for her book, Persephone’s Chamber. The book is sublime! The images are palladium printed on Echizen Shikibu Gampi paper, and my papers provide texture and translucency. Click through to watch the gorgeous video of the book by Ian Lucero (a fabulous filmmaker who I made The Papermaker’s Studio Guide and the Mother Tree documentary with).

Let it snow! I love this community building project that Muhlenberg Greene Architects does. Every year, they hold a snowflake making contest where staff members create a unique snowflake, and a winner is chosen by public choice. They have been making paper snowflakes for 30 years, and over time, the firm’s tradition has accumulated over 2,500 handmade paper snowflakes, hung from the ceiling during the holiday season.  This year’s submissions will be added to the 2020 installation.

My sister-in-law introduced me to the work of Zarina several years ago when she took me to an exhibition in Chicago and gifted me a catalog of her work. And my friend Joyce was recently at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis, where she snapped this photo of one of her pieces (on view through Feb 2, 2020).

Zarina, Beirut Summer, 1982, cast paper, 22 x 22 x 1 inches

Are you looking for the perfect gift for the marijuana enthusiast? Or maybe it’s an artist you still need to shop for. Or a book lover? Poposition Press (a small, independent publisher run by Rosston Meyer) has released Dimensional Cannabis, the world’s first pop-up book about marijuana. Meyer dreamed up the idea for a pop-up book about marijuana and tapped world-renowned American illustrator/graffiti writer/tattooer and artist Mike Giant to illustrate it. The book has a star-studded design cast too – each page spread is designed by a well-known paper engineer. Order a copy here.

Do you enjoy wrapping presents? Lia Griffith is a rising star who has turned her hobby into a lucrative business.

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I love this one sheet wonder, a holiday card from Visart Display Corp. that I’ve had in my collection for decades. Here you see how the flat sheet was die cut, how it folds up and collapses to fit in a standard letter-size mailing envelope, and how it stands up with just a couple of tabs to hold everything in place!

Do you have a One Sheet Wonder? I am curating a gallery section in my new book to show off the potential of paper (featuring artwork, graphic design, fashion design and other wonders created from one sheet of handmade or machine-made paper). Fill out this form if you have something to share, and feel free to pass it along to other paper artists (deadline: 1/15/20). Although I can’t promise that your image will make the cut (there are so many factors involved), I plan to start showing off your One-Sheet-Wonders on the blog (like I’m doing today), leading up to the book’s publication.

Featured this week in my Studio shop:

Weave Through Winter Online Class, Vertices, an artist’s book, The Paper Year, and The Paper Lover’s Package.

About our sponsor: Arnold Grummer’s ® offers paper making kits and supplies for PreK-12 art and science education, community art and nature centers, and studio paper and book artists. Wholesale available for qualified accounts. Contact Kim for more information.

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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? Click on the paper button at the left to learn how. Or, perhaps you’re interested in promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

Thanks to everyone who has already pledged your support!

SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Solstice

The Sunday Paper #290

December 15, 2019

Paper of the Week: Japanese Paper

I plan on posting more images of the papers I acquired in Japan, but here are the sheets made by makers I met. From left to right: two heavier weight sheets of Japanese kozo paper created in Yamaguchi Shohachi’s studio; two thin whispy sheets of mitsumata paper created by Chie Honma; a gorgeous lace paper that I purchased at Ozu Washi in Tokyo (I asked where it was made, but didn’t write it down, darn); two lace papers from the studio Ryoso Yanase, and some swatches of kozo paper made by living national treasure Ichibei Iwano, the bottom right corner swatches are painted with kakishibu (persimmon tannin). You can read more about my two-week trip to Japan in these two blog posts: Japan – Part 1 and Japan – Part 2.

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In the Studio: Weave Through Winter

Registration has just opened for Weave Through Winter, my upcoming online class (starts 1/16/20).

Do you want to jump start your creativity in the New Year? Crave the inspiration you get from the act of making? Love beautiful papers? Have a desire to connect with others who share these same goals?

Click through to watch the video, read all about it, and register. This is the second time I’m doing this class, and we had so much fun last year! Register by the end of the decade (12/31/19) to receive early bird pricing. Oh, and I’ve partnered with Washi Arts – they are putting together a paper kit filled with luscious Japanese papers.

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Papery Tidbits:

Have you listened to my interview with Robert Lang on Paper Talk?
Thinking ahead? I’ll be offering my online class Flexible Book Structures II in late spring, 2020.
Uppercase Magazine is seeking contributors for The Fine Art of Paper.

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Wowza! Nguyễn Hùng Cường has been folding origami since he was seven (23 years). I love what he says: “Surrounding us are many beautiful things that we have our own way of perceiving. Therefore, I want to demonstrate my feelings about the surrounding world with the language that I’m most confident with – origami.”

Some of Cường’s origami works made from Việt Nam’s traditional dó paper. Photo courtesy of Nguyễn Hùng Cường

I thought this was a clever idea! Origami For Mainers by Strong Arm Bookbinding & Stationery. Now who is going to create origami for the rest of the states (or maybe someone has)?!

Are you going to join me in creating the twelve unique paper projects in The Paper Year? Watch Hazel and Bowen show you how to make Plantable Paper, a project that was contributed by Arnold Grummer’s. This isn’t just a how-to book, but also a calendar and a planner – I can’t wait to see how everyone decides to use the planner pages! These are still available (shipping daily) and there’s a paper kit that includes everything you need to make the projects.

I love what this writer Blaykyi Kenyah reads into this work by Whitney Ramage (1800 paper boats). “The show is not a celebration of futility, but of the fruitful possibilities that exist therein. This is at the root of many scientific discoveries, and also of the Japanese art of kintsugi. Now I’m going down the rabbit hole to find out more…

Have you ever wondered why paper (in the US) is 8-1/2″ x 11″?

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I love this one sheet wonder, a tiny ornament I received from an online class participant this week! Isn’t it sweet? What a lovely sentiment, to ornament-ize snail mail, which is as we all know, is dwindling. The sticker and wax seal are clever, not to mention the lovely batik paper! Thanks so much, Caryn.

Do you have a One Sheet Wonder? I am curating a gallery section in my new book to show off the potential of paper (featuring artwork, graphic design, fashion design and other wonders created from one sheet of handmade or machine-made paper). Fill out this form if you have something to share, and feel free to pass it along to other paper artists (deadline: 1/15/20). Although I can’t promise that your image will make the cut (there are so many factors involved), I plan to start showing off your One-Sheet-Wonders on the blog (like I’m doing today), leading up to the book’s publication.

Featured this week in my Studio shop:

The Papermaker’s Package, Vertices, an artist’s book, The Paper Year, and The Paper Lover’s Package.

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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? Click on the paper button at the left to learn how. Or, perhaps you’re interested in promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

Thanks to everyone who has already pledged your support!

SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

Japan Trip – Part 2

This is part two in a two-part series on my trip to Japan. You can read Part 1 here.

Here’s a short recap about the trip:

My husband Ted and I took a two-week trip to Japan in late November/early December 2019. The main reason was to visit our son, a junior in college at DePaul University in Chicago, who is doing a semester abroad at Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka.

I waited 30 years for this adventure, and it was definitely worth the wait! I was living in NYC back then, working odd jobs and trying to find something I was passionate about. My father was in Japan for the summer, and my  mother took me with her on a short vacation to see him and tour around a bit. I already had an interest in paper, but that trip was a turning point: we stayed in a traditional inn in Kyoto (a ryokan) and being surrounded by light filtering through shoji screens sparked a new interest in paper and light.

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Our Kyoto Airbnb was bare bones, and my husband says he’ll take over booking accommodations in the future. It was inexpensive though (I’d rather spend my money on paper!) and the neighborhood had lots of amenities and good food, plus we had bicycles! We were on the ground floor, and one of the issues was that we could hear the people upstairs snoring!

Sunday, 12/1: Hiroshima was sobering. We met Will at Kyoto Station and took the shinkansen to Hiroshima (I think we took one we shouldn’t have been on with our Japan Rail Pass, but thankfully, nobody checked our ticket)! We got to town around noon and walked through a big shopping mall, had lunch and then walked to the Peace Park and museum.

The Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome) is the only structure left standing near the hypocenter of the first atomic bomb, which exploded on the 6 of August, 1945, and it remains in the condition it was in right after the explosion.

The Children’s Peace Monument stands in memory of all the children who died as a result of the atomic bombing. The monument was originally inspired by the death of Sadako Sasaki to radiation from the bombing at the age of two. Ten years later she developed leukemia, which eventually took her life. Her death compelled her classmates to begin a call for the construction of a monument dedicated to all children who died due to the atomic bomb.

Soon after Sadako went into hospital, her Father told her the Japanese legend that if you fold one thousand paper cranes you would be granted a wish. Sadako began to fold cranes. Despite being very tired and in a lot of pain, she folded cranes from scrap paper, because paper was very rare and expensive back then, and she folded 1000 cranes and made her wish: to get well, and also for her parents to have more money, as they were quite poor. Sadako then started to try and fold another 1000 cranes. Sadly, she only managed to fold around 600 more cranes before she died. It was 25th October 1955. On the day of the funeral, each of her classmates put a paper crane that they had folded into her coffin. Today, groups send cranes which are displayed near the monument (in batches of 1000, I think).

We received this postcard with our admission when we went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. We walked through the exhibit elbow to elbow with others, and this was the most sobering experience of the day. The colored flecks in the card are from recycled cranes.

This beautiful gingko tree was in full bloom outside of the museum.

We took a slower train back and arrived in Kyoto around 9pm, had dinner in the station, and then parted ways with Will and headed back to our Airbnb.

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Monday, 12/2: When I was working at Dieu Donné Papermill in NYC in the mid-1990’s, I met Craig Ancelowitz, who was a buyer for Kate’s Paperie. Craig has lived in Asia for at least a decade, and he married into the Fujimori family which runs the Awagami Mill in Tokushima. You can learn more by listening to my interview with Craig on Paper Talk. We didn’t have time to get down there, but Craig lives in Osaka and met us at the Awagami Guesthouse which is in Kyoto. What a lovely place, filled with paper produced at Awagami. Here’s the entrance:

Wall paper & Lighting:

Shoji panels:

Fusuma (papered sliding doors). Mrs. Fujimori, Craig’s mother-in-law, specializes in indigo dyeing.

This is an Awagami paper that lends itself to ink jet printing. Yes, these panels are ink jet printed.

We had lunch at a dumpling place that had a good review on Yelp. This is something Ted navigates, and I have to admit that sometimes we walked further than I would have liked, but this meal was worth it.

There are paper lanterns all over the place in Japan. I learned how to make the chochin style lanterns years ago and have taught the project many times. It’s a fascinating construction. In the old days, lanterns adorned shrines (they still do) and were hung outside of shops – today many of them have beer advertisements printed on them and since I don’t read Japanese, I’m not sure what else they say! Here’s the largest lantern I saw – approximately six feet in diameter – at a shrine tucked in between the high rises of Kyoto (which were surely built around the shrine and garden).

We ended the day at Morita Washi, my favorite paper store. I think there are many factors in deciding what’s a favorite, and this one mostly had to do with my energy that day and that I felt like shopping (or maybe it really is the best :), but there were many other paper shops we didn’t even get to in Kyoto). I purchased quite a few papers, and I wish I’d had the patience to look through the plain wall of washi papers – I noticed they had quite a few from Echizen, which we visited last week – but they were packaged in a way that wasn’t really conducive to browsing. It is also a challenge when you don’t speak the language!

Here’s the largest display of mizuhiki cord I’d ever seen. Mizuhiki is a strong, string-like material made from the inner bark of the kozo plant, that is wrapped in silk creating a flexible yet durable cord. It is then used to create many beautiful embellishments.

Small cards & envelopes.

There were so many decorative and colored papers in all sizes:

Here’s an overview of the shop. Ted even found a few things to purchase as gifts.

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Tuesday, 12/3: Richard Flavin, an American who has lived in the Tokyo area for five decades, gave me the name of a lantern shop in Kyoto where they make traditional lanterns, and when I visited Sarah Brayer last week, she called the shop and arranged an appointment. I’m still not sure how we got so lost, but it made for an adventure. First, the guy Sarah called (who speaks English), told me he would e-mail me the address (I’d filled out a form on their web page saying I wanted to visit, so he already knew of me). He didn’t send me the address, but I really wanted to go, so we looked it up on google maps and headed out. We ended up on the wrong bus, got off and walked the rest of the way.

When we arrived at what we thought was Kojima Lanterns, I announced myself to a gentleman who spoke a bit of English. It took awhile to realize we weren’t in the right place – the sign for the shop said something about interiors, so it seemed right. Finally, after I explained that I’d called and made an appointment, he went upstairs and to get a man who spoke better English. This guy was amazing! First, he confirmed we were in the wrong place, and then he called Kojima Lanterns, found out their location, and said he’d help us get a taxi (explaining that the place would be hard to find and he should tell the driver how to get there – aha)! On our way to a busier street to find a taxi, he asked me what I do, and then he said I might be interested in this little shop right across the street called Karamura.

He took us in and introduced us to the shop keeper, a very friendly woman who gave us a short tour. They block print papers for a variety of interior purposes and also offer short hands-on workshops! They have a lovely showroom. She took us upstairs to the workshop, where she showed us how the wood blocks are set up to step and repeat on large sheets of paper.

I was preoccupied with wanting to get to the lantern shop, so I didn’t get great photos, but take a look at that persimmon paper stencil on this shelf.

We also saw several historic wood blocks from the Edo period, brushes, ink with mica, and more. She explained that this karakami shop is one of two left. There used to be 100 shops in Kyoto!

We took the taxi to Kojima Lanterns, where 4 people worked in a small Japanese-style room (everyone was working on the floor; there were no tables). One of them cuts the lengths of bamboo, one strips the bamboo, one wraps the bamboo onto lantern forms, and one applies the paper. This was a working studio, and I was a bit nervous about taking too much of their time, so I didn’t ask too many questions. Sadly, I’d also forgotten to bring my catalog along, so that I could show them how I’ve adapted their technique (I’ll have to go back)!

They told me they have at least 100 different lantern forms, like this one you see made from wooden ribs that are held in place with the circular pieces with notches at the top and bottom (I’ve made these from foam core – this is a project in my book, Paper Illuminated). The shape below is not a traditional shape.

These wooden forms are 100+ years old, and Kojima Lanterns makes lanterns for hotels, shops, and replacement lanterns for shrines. This guy cut me a sample of some bamboo strips lickety split (no pun intended). He turned one strip (like you see sitting on the floor) into that series of strips – a true craftsman.

They told me that they make Kyoto style lanterns, making rings of bamboo rather than one spiral that winds its way around the form. So now I know, I learned the Kyoto style!

If you look closely, this woman has a form on a simple device that allows her to spin it when applying paper. So simple, yet brilliant!

And here you can see a finished papered lantern (although many get painted).

Ted had told me it had better be worth the visit, since we had such an adventure getting there. He seemed surprised when we stepped out of the place and I said that it was definitely worth it. In fact, it was a highlight of my career!

I wanted to visit the factory that makes the Noguchi Lamps (Ozeki Lantern) in Mino, but I wasn’t able to make a connection there, and it was a bit of a hike from Kyoto. Next trip! If you don’t know the story of Isamu Noguchi and his Akari lights, look him up. It begins in Mino, and his lamps have become iconic.

After that we wandered through the streets towards Kamiji Kakimoto, another paper shop with similar papers to Morita and a bit more pricey. I didn’t buy anything, and after reliving what we’d already done that day, I can see why I didn’t feel like shopping. Ted was happy to find a little bakery nearby, where he bought a few treats.

But serendipty struck. I stumbled across a brochure about a collaboration between Kojima Lanterns and the artist Mika Horie, which was somehow sponsored by the shop. She made these chochin lanterns with indigo painted panels. I wondered why the people at Kojima didn’t mention this to me, but again, I forgot to bring anything to show them, and I’m not sure they understood that I make lanterns. And I was too tired to talk to anyone at the paper store. This will be something else to follow up on my next trip!

This was a never-ending day. This paper store was in a posh district with nice shops, and we found the MoMA store with some really unique, partially paneled chochin in the shop next door. These were probably the most contemporary lamps I saw on this trip.

We kept walking, through another huge nice bookstore; had coffee in a cute little shop that also sells cars, and then wandered over to the Philospher’s Path to see a shrine Craig told us about, called Honen (there’s a photo of it at the link). Check out the raised raked sand bed. I thought that was unusual – the raised part.

And lo and behold, on our way along the path, we came across a small paper shop! You can see that it was dark out by then.

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Wednesday 12/4: We finally got on the bikes and rode 3+ miles to meet Will at Zuihon temple for a tea ceremony with an abbot that Sarah Brayer’s husband had arranged. Ted and I lived in a sweet little Japanese house in Portland when Will was born, and there was a Japanese tea house on the property. The owner was a tea sensei, and we had the pleasure of experiencing the Japanese tea ceremony a couple of times when we lived there. But due to the language barrier and Will being a bit shy (he does speak Japanese) we ended up being served tea, without any ceremony.

We had udon for lunch and then Will had to go to class, so Ted and I rode 4-5 more miles to Arashimaya Bamboo Grove and walked through it with a ton of tourists. We weren’t really sure where to park our bikes (we didn’t see any other bicycles anywhere) so we took them with us on the path. I had a one-speed bike and Ted’s was a folding bike, so they weren’t exactly the best touring bikes, and we had a few hills to climb.

One funny aside: Ted was navigating via google maps on his Apple Watch, and at one point he realized (at the bottom of a long hill) that we’d missed our turn a ways back. He turned into a parking area that was being monitored by a guard, who immediately started waving his arms and indicating that we shouldn’t be there. We turned around and went back up the hill…

These scarecrows were in a field on our way to the bamboo forest.

The forest was lovely.

One more comment about biking. I was pleased to not feel too out of shape. I swim and walk alot, but haven’t been on a bicycle in years. And I was happy to be off of my feet, which were sore from so much walking. But after this day of cycling, my butt was sore!

We rode all the way back home through the misty rain, with a stop for coffee on the way. That evening, we enjoyed dinner in our neighborhood at a Nepalese restaurant, which had these modern looking lamps featuring lace paper hanging above the tables.

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Thursday 12/5: Sake and Whisky day. We went to Fujimi, a cute little area on a canal which is lined with cherry blossoms in the spring, where we visited a few sake breweries, picked up some sake, and had lunch in a popular restaurant (there was a 20 minute wait). I was more interested in the sake stomping boots and barrels than the actual sake.

Check out that basket weaving on such a grand scale!

Then we took the train to the Suntory Whiskey Distillery for another self-guided tour, tasting and purchase.

I’m not a big drinker, so I opted to just take a sip of Ted’s $30 tasting (the bottle costs $5,000; we didn’t get one).

We ended the day at our son’s home and met his host parents and two brothers in their 20’s (one of them was taking this photo). Will’s room was SO cold, which is perhaps customary in Japan? There was heat in the living room and kitchen, where we hung out, but the entryway and his room were cold. He has a sitting desk that is heated, and he had never mentioned that the house was cold, but wow!

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Friday 12/6: Our last day! We got on the bikes again and rode 4km to the cable car that takes you to the top of Mt. Hiei. Ted had read about this and wanted to go. This was the steepest climb I’d ever seen on a cable car, but there was hardly a view at the top, and it was freezing cold. After coming back down, we realized there was a second cable car in another spot (only 200m away) – maybe that’s the one we should have taken. We rode back to our neighborhood and had one last hot ramen meal. Travel fatigue had begun to set in, so we didn’t do anything else that day, aside from packing.

Oh my goodness! I’m so happy I decided to recap my trip in blog form – it was fun to relive it and to get the facts down (for reference). Thanks for following along!

I think I’ll write one more post about the papers I purchased. Stay tuned! And I have to tell you that just yesterday, Ted told me he’s thinking of pitching a story about Echizen and Japanese papermaking to a major publication. Regardless of whether he makes the pitch (and whether it gets accepted, because getting published is very competitive), I feel honored and it feels validating: he realizes that what I do is really a thing!

Guess what? I am seriously considering bringing a group to Japan in 2021. I think I’ve found a partner on the ground there who speaks Japanese. Please leave a comment if you think you might be interested. I am envisioning a trip that would combine visiting paper places and creating Japanese-inspired paper objects. In the meantime, I hope to attend the IAPMA Congress in Japan next fall.

And I know you see this every week on my blog, and you probably don’t even look at it anymore, but these two posts about Japan took me over 10 hours to compile (without compensation). I am by no menas complaining – I feel so lucky to have found a true passion – and I do so love and enjoy what I do! But here’s a fact: my hubby (the writer and editor) gets $1-$2 per word when he writes a magazine article.

So on that note, if you read this blog and enjoy it, would you consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper? Click on the paper button at the left to learn how. Or, perhaps you’re interested in promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

Thanks to everyone who has already pledged your support!

And feel free to SHARE THIS blog post with your paper- and Japan-loving friends!

Japan 2019 – Part 1

My husband Ted and I took a two-week trip to Japan in late November/early December 2019. The main reason was to visit our son, a junior in college at DePaul University in Chicago, who is doing a semester abroad at Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka.

I waited 30 years for this adventure, and it was definitely worth the wait! I was living in NYC back then, working odd jobs and trying to find something I was passionate about. My father was in Japan for the summer, and my  mother took me with her on a short vacation to see him and tour around a bit. I already had an interest in paper, but that trip was a turning point: we stayed in a traditional inn in Kyoto (a ryokan) and being surrounded by light filtering through shoji screens sparked a new interest in paper and light.

I reached out to several paper colleagues in advance of the trip, but we didn’t do much planning otherwise. I did purchase Julie Auzillon’s two paper guides: Japan Paper Tour and Kyoto Paper Tour. We got 7-day Japan rail passes to get us to Kyoto, and to and from Hiroshima and Echizen.

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Saturday 11/23: We flew from Denver to Vancouver to Tokyo and saw paper dresses on display in Vancouver – a good omen!

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Sunday 11/24: Arrived in Tokyo around 5pm and took the Narita Express train to a station where we rendezvous’d with Willam. Took subways to our airbnb in Nishiogikita, a nice little bright place right on the subway line. Note: the washing machines are often located on the balcony! We discovered this after-the-fact, when our host showed us the washing machine at our next airbnb in Kyoto.

Monday, 11/25: One of the people I reached out to prior to the trip was Tomomi Honzawa, who attended my 2018 Red Cliff Paper Retreat. Tomomi offered to show me around Tokyo, and she picked me up and took me to her lovely old Japanese home filled with shoji screens, wooden features and sliding door panels (fusuma). Since it is normal to sit on the floor in Japan, there were these little windows built into the sliding shoji panels that are at eye level when sitting. Tomomi called these “see snow falling windows.” It wasn’t snowing, but I could imagine sitting there quietly watching the snow fall.

Tomomi makes work using pre-made pulp and a variety of alternative casting techniques (no sheet forming). She mixes in some shredded dry hemp that I wasn’t familiar with. It looks like whispy one-inch long fibers, and she adds it to her pulp for strength.

Here’s a video documenting Tomomi’s recent exhibition called The Histories of The Self at the Pola Museum of Art.

Tomomi took me on a paper tour of Tokyo. We started at Itoya, a 10+ floor department store dedicated to paper. Each floor has a focus, such as travel, craft, fine paper… there was even a special room where you could have a custom notebook made. They had some really slick paper displays.

I bought paper of course, but was a bit hesitant since this was my first shopping day! I’ve been loving kyoseishi (crumpled momigami paper) recently, and it was quite reasonably priced (about $5/sheet)! I also purchased a book cover made of a paper-like substrate by a company called Siwa (they make lots of products: bags, hats, etc). I purchased other papers too, which I’ve forgotten about and will enjoy unpacking soon. People told me to bring a tube with me to Japan for carrying paper home. This was a novel idea, but not practical for traveling there. But I found that all paper shops sell tubes for a couple of bucks. I did bring a large duffle bag to carry home purchases, and the purchased tube + paper fit inside of that.

We had udon for lunch, where they had these contemporary paper lights, and then we were off to Ozu Washi, a store that specializes in handmade papers from around the world (mostly Asia).

They have a Japanese papermaking demonstration room at the store.

And you purchase paper by the sheet at these shops. They are either neatly displayed in drawers.

Or on bolts like fabric, which you take to the counter and they pull a sheet (or more) off for you.

We went to a dye shop where I purchased some kakishibu and some powdered pigments. They had some amazing persimmon paper stencils. I should have purchased one, but restrained myself (darn)! One of them had tons of tiny dots punched in it, and my amazement led the proprietor to show me these hole punch tools, similar to the Japanese hole punch, but just one size per tool.

Will and Ted spent the day visiting temples, and I met up with them for dinner near Tokyo University with Jie Qi, a paper engineer/visiting professor whom I know through the Movable Book Society.

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Tuesday, 11/26: Will took us on a grand tour of shrines and temples. He has a book that he gets calligraphed at each place. We walked so much!

It was a rainy day, but the fall colors were out – those maple leaves glow in any light.

Paper offerings are a common site.

We summited two towers (in elevators): Tokyo Tower and Skytree.

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Wednesday, 11/27: I got an e-mail right after we booked our flight to Japan from Mardy Widman, someone I know through the Oregon College of Art & Craft. She was going to be in Japan when were were, so we arranged to meet. She was staying with Maki Yamashita and Paul Denhoed (Maki studied at OCAC, and I know Paul from Kate’s Paperie in NYC years ago).

I met up with Maki and Mardy at the station near our place, and we went to see Chie Honma who makes paper in her home (an old guest room right off the entrance). She has the living room set up as a little shop. Take a look at the old drying boards on the left in the photo below.

Chie trained with a living national treasure , but she has two little kids now, so she wasn’t making paper.

She works mostly with mitsumata fiber.

Every inch of that place was filled with papermaking paraphernalia.

After lunch (tempura), we went to visit artists Richard Flavin and Ryoko Haraguchi. Ryoko creates gorgeous one-of-a-kind textile pieces under the brand Sind, and Richard is a paper artist from the Boston area, who has been living in Japan for 50 years. You might be familiar with him – he did the illustrations for Tim Barrett’s book, Japanese Papermaking. I interviewed Richard for my podcast Paper Talk, stay tuned for the episode (subscribe here).

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Thursday, 11/28: Happy Thanksgiving! Ted and I took the shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto to our next airbnb, which was inexpensive and bare bones. Our travel took up most of the day, and we were delighted to find a small pastry shop on the corner, along with a street filled with ramen shops that we sampled throughout the week. There was also a sweet little bookstore filled with paper goods, where we attended a guitar concert one evening. These two photos are Ted’s.

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Friday, 11/29: We walked across town through a park to meet up with Sarah Brayer, a paper artist I met back in the 90’s at Dieu Donné. She has a lovely studio and home, and it was fun getting to know her a bit more. I interviewed her on Paper Talk too. So fun! Check out Sarah’s huge built-in flat files!

I discovered that Sarah was drawn to the sliding fusuma doors of Japan (and I was drawn to shoji screens). She designed and created these fusuma in her home. There’s a Japanese tatami room behind them!

Sarah is currently making work with phosphorescent pigments. They glow in the dark.

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Saturday, 11/30: Echizen! I knew that Echizen was a place to visit within traveling range of Kyoto. I was leary of booking a tour (who knows what we’d really see) so I held out and it paid off! One day, about a month before our trip, I noticed an Instagram post from a member of IAPMA whom I’ve never met in person. She was posting from Echizen, so I wrote to her and asked if she’d be there when we were coming. The first miracle was that she saw my message (you know how that can go) and the second was that she introduced me to Nicholas Cladis, an American who has lived in Echizen for the past six years, runs the website for the village of papermakers, and is passionate about sharing the paper love. We took the train 1-1/2 hours to Tafeku, where Nicholas Cladis picked us up at the station. We visited 6 papermaking workshops + the place where Nicholas makes paper – he let us each pour a sheet! The curator of the paper museum, Tomoe, also joined us for the day, which included lunch at a soba noodle house.

Our first stop was at Osada Kazuya, who makes paper for fusuma panels, and many other things. He had a small shop at his place. Here you see a sliding door panel with shapes that he draws with cooked fiber and then paints pulp into. It was hard to keep track of who used what as their pulp source, but we saw Thai kozo, Japanese kozo (from Nara prefecture) and cotton pulp throughout the day.

We visited living national treasure Ichibei Iwano next. He’s been making paper for 70+ years.

Here he is picking the bits of bark off of kozo fiber.

Here’s the naginata beater.

This is the tororo aoi root that creates the viscous substance that makes Japanese papermaking possible.

Ichibei Iwano raved about the long fibers of his paper.

Legend has it that more than 1,500 years ago, a woman felt sorry for the people of the region, who were struggling to make a living growing rice, and gave them the art of making washi paper. She then disappeared into the river and was named “Upriver Goddess”. A small statue of her lives in the mountains above Echizen, and each year the people process up carrying lanterns, bring her to the Okamoto Otaki shrine, where she is worshiped, and then take her back home.

Next we visited Yamaguchi Shohachi workshop, where we saw him picking the bark and her making paper. Notice the chest support he’s rigged up for comfort when picking bark. Here’s a video:

At the Igarashi Masami workshop, they were making large sheets!

We walked over to another building where this really huge sheet of paper was drying on the frame. It was created to become a wall piece in a restaurant in Osaka. We were told that workers had to climb up and work above the piece (which was about 10′ wide and much longer) to create the imagery.

Studio Ryoso Yanase was interesting because they had this conveyor belt couching/drying system. I didn’t get a good photo of it in action, but hopefully you’ll get the idea.

You can just see the sheet of paper coming around on the roll here, which this woman will pull off.

We wrapped up the day making a few sheets of poured paper at Nicholas’ workshop. Check out this pulping machine.

This is one of the forms of Thai kozo that is available in Japan – bleached and cooked – and affordable for teaching purposes.

Ted, Nicholas and I each poured a sheet.

The day ended with a potluck for the staff of Imadate Art Field, a non profits arts organization that arranges residencies and annual paper art exhibitions (good timing for us). It was a lovely gathering with amazing food! Tomoe, who joined us for our day-long adventure, is sitting next to Ted.

Here we are in front of the train station, about to head home as we wrapped up week one of our Japan adventure.

Stay tuned for a recap of Week 2.

Echizen Paper

The Sunday Paper #289

December 8, 2019

Paper of the Week: Echizen Paper

As you read this, I’ve just returned home from a two-week trip to Japan. I waited  30 years for this adventure, and it was definitely worth the wait! I was living in NYC back then, working odd jobs and trying to find something I was passionate about. My father was in Japan for the summer, and my  mother took me with her on a short vacation to see him and tour around a bit. I already had an interest in paper, but that trip was a turning point: we stayed in a traditional inn in Kyoto (a ryokan) and being surrounded by light filtering through shoji screens sparked a new interest in paper and light. Above you see lace paper at one of the mills I visited last weekend in Echizen, a paper town where 56 mills (both commercial and handmade) are still in existence (down from 400, as they say). Sadly, they weren’t making this type of paper the day I visited, but it was an amazing experience nonetheless.

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Out of the Studio:

As a paper folder for more than 50 years, Robert Lang‘s work combines aspects of the Western school of mathematical origami design with the Eastern emphasis upon line and form to yield work that is distinctive, elegant, and challenging to fold. He uses mathematics to advance origami folding techniques for applications in technology – like folding a giant telescope into a compact form so that it can travel to space. Enjoy our conversation!

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Papery Tidbits:

Weave Through Winter will open for registration later this week!
Thinking ahead? I’ll be offering Flexible Book Structures II later this spring.

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I love this concept! To counter waste this holiday season, Teton Valley Community Recycling in Driggs, Idaho is hosting a free, self-serve gift wrapping station. Have stuff to recycle? You can drop off extra gift boxes, wrapping paper, or holiday cards. Got gifts to wrap or ship? They invite you to come in and reuse the materials dropped off by others to cut down on your holiday waste and expense.

Do you follow All Things Paper? If not, now’s a good time to start! Ann Martin is a fellow paper lover and blogger extraordinaire, and she is hosting a GIVEAWAY this week for two copies of The Paper Year. I love how she describes it: “The Paper Year is not only a how-to book, but also a calendar and planner… a crafting trifecta!” And if you were planning on ordering a copy with the custom paper pack, don’t wait too long – I just might run out of the paper packs.

I started my career in paper at Dieu Donné Papermill in NYC. They’re still going strong 40+ years after being founded in 1976. If you’re in NYC, check out this exhibition: Present Bodies: Papermaking at Dieu Donné (through February 2nd, 2020) organized by BRIC curator Jenny Gerow.  The exhibition showcases the work of eight Brooklyn-based artists who have participated in Dieu Donné’s Workspace Residency Program, which has pushed the medium of contemporary handmade paper in new directions.

Work by Lina Puerta

The many facets of John Ruskin’s work are on view now in the Yale Center for British Art’s exhibition: Unto This Last: Two Hundred Years of John Ruskin. My favorite quote from this article speaks of his drawing: “Ruskin rarely aimed to create finished, complete artworks; for him, drawing was a way to discipline the eye, to truly see the complex and subtle harmonies of natural shapes and forms. It was also a way to record that which might otherwise might be lost…”

John Ruskin, “Study of a Magnified Pheasant’s Feather” (1879), watercolor on paper, Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums

Tokyo-based French architect Emmanuelle Moureaux recently hung 140,000 pieces of paper from the ceiling to create rainbow passageways in celebration of a Japanese soft drink company’s centennial.

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Do you have a One Sheet Wonder? I need you (again)!  I am curating a gallery section in my new book to show off the potential of paper (featuring artwork, graphic design, fashion design and other wonders created from one sheet of handmade or machine-made paper). Fill out this form if you have something to share, and feel free to pass it along to other paper artists (deadline: 1/15/20). Although I can’t promise that your image will make the cut (there are so many factors involved), I plan to start showing off your One-Sheet-Wonders on the blog, leading up to the book’s publication.

Featured this week in my Studio shop:

The Papermaker’s Package, a Needle Holder Book, one of 12 projects in the 2020 Paper Year, The Paper Year, and The Paper Lover’s Package.

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