Helen Hiebert's Blog, page 34

Five Years of The Sunday Paper!

The Sunday Paper #258

May 4, 2019

Paper of the Week: The Sunday Paper

Wow, was it really five years ago this month that I started The Sunday Paper? I have so much fun collecting and sharing all sorts of fun facts about paper with you!

Happy Birthday

to The Sunday Paper!

I put this blurb at the top of the blog post once a year, asking you who read this blog regularly to consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper. You can contribute by making a one-time gift or a monthly pledge. Thanks to everyone who has already pledged your support! I look forward to sharing many more Sundays with you!

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May Giveaway! 

Madeleine Durham create’s playful one-of-a-kind paste papers using a brush technique which blends multiple colors while creating dynamic yet tranquil patterns.  Her papers have been used by fine book binders and calligraphers around the world.  They also lend themselves well to covering boxes and using in collage.  Her papers are created on Arches Text Wove using Golden Acrylics and Shofu Wheat Paste.  Madeleine’s Paste Papers are loved by people around the globe and she is sure you will enjoy this lovely group of small to medium primo scraps. Click here to enter, and the winner will be selected at random, notified, and announced here on the blog next Sunday. Good luck!

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Papery Tidbits:

Have you listened to my the latest episode of Paper Talk, featuring Lynn Sures? A new episode featuring Nancy Cohen will be published next week.
Contact me if you are interested in promoting your company in the 2020 Twelve Months of Paper Project book, on this blog and on Paper Talk.
Ooh! Audrey Niffenegger is working on a sequel to The Time Traveler’s Wife (the heroine in the TTW is a papermaker).

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There are soooo many ways to create with paper! Look at what’s happening over in Club Paper! Counterclockwise: Donna Beck Sullivan’s collaged card commission; Jorge Felix Morales Garcia’s washi paper; a paper weaving from a drop-in class led by Sarah Morgan at SCRAP in Portland, OR (inspired by my Weave Through Winter online class); and Jane Kavanaugh Morton’s shadow box. If you’d like to join us over in Club Paper, please answer the three questions when you request to join. This helps me keep spammers out of the group!

While we are exploring the possibilities of paper right here in The Sunday Paper, this show in Philadelphia is too! Cofounder of Paradigm Arts, Jason Chen, unifies individuals hailing from different techniques, trainings and even countries through one material in the current show “pa•per.”

(Left) Sally Hewitt, Paperback, 2019, cartridge paper manipulated using needles, bodkins and embossing tools, 12 x 10” (right) Nayan and Vaishali, Impala and Red-billed Oxpeckers, 2019, layered cut paper and watercolor, 9x 9 cm. (Photo courtesy of Paradigm)

You know what they say: April showers bring May flowers. I’m still waiting up here in the mountains, but wowza, Tiffany Turner creates some amazing paper flowers that bloom year-round! After failing to find a good way to make a floral headpiece for a burlesque costume, she made her own style of paper flowers which paved the way to her unexpected career as a botanical sculptor.

If you’re in the Bay Area, the Seager Gray Gallery has its infamous The Art of the Book exhibition going on, featuring a wide range of paper and book works (which are also available for viewing online).

© Michelle Wilson, El Proceso, 2007, handmade flax and abaca paper, monofilament, custom book stand, letterpress, and screen print

Zim & Zou do it again! These French artists bring two nobel prize winning authors works, One Hundred Years of Solitude and Kristin Lavransdatter, to life, erecting tall mountains, Colombian plants, and countless other details from colored paper.

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Featured in the Studio Shop this week:

The Papermaker’s Studio Guide (downloadable for a small fee),

Papermaking with Garden Plants, LandEscape (an artist’s book)  + a Woven Paper Lantern tutorial.

 

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Gossamer Paper

The Sunday Paper #257

April 28, 2019

Paper of the Week: Berlin Tissue (gossamer) Paper
You know how sometimes you know what a word means, but you wouldn’t really know how to describe it if someone asked you? I looked up gossamer, and even lovelier images than I already had in my head came into view: a fine, filmy substance consisting of cobwebs spun by small spiders, seen especially in autumn. A second definition described it as: used to refer to something very light, thin, and insubstantial or delicate. These both describe Gangolf Ulbricht’s Berlin Tissue (gossamer) paper, which is touted as the thinnest, non-visible restoration handmade tissue in the world.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Ulbricht for an upcoming issue of Hand Papermaking Magazine. His story is fascinating, and his Berlin-Tissue (gossamer) paper is made out of the best quality imported Japanese mitsumata and kozo (mulberry) bast fibers. The bast is first cooked in an alkaline solution, soaked, cleaned and beaten by hand, and then formed into sheets of up to 1.5 g/m². It is available in the states from Hiromi Paper.

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In the Studio

I’m busy designing the projects for the 2020 Twelve Months of Paper Project book. Here’s a short video in which I describe it and show you the featured guest projects.

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Papery Tidbits:

Have you listened to my the latest episode of Paper Talk, featuring Lynn Sures?
Paper Illuminated is now available as a self study online course. Read all about it!
I’m currently seeking a sponsor for each month of the Twelve Months of Paper. Contact me if you are interested in promoting your company in the book, on this blog and on Paper Talk.

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Oooh, paper and string: two of my favorite things! “Dendro Beton #11” is from a recent series of works by Orna Feinstein that was recently on view in Houston at the Anya Tish Gallery. She has spun spun tightly-wound slivers of paper to create ‘growth rings’ within a concrete base, and affixed thread that dangles like roots.

“Dendro Beton #11” is among works in Orna Feinstein’s show “The Other Side of the Forest,” Photo: Courtesy of the artist / Anya Tish Gallery

You’ve seen me write about origami multiple times, and this article in Smithsonian, about how scientists and engineers are finding practical applications for the origami in space, medicine, robotics, and architecture, shows the many ways that folding a variety of materials are being influenced by this ancient form of paper folding. Imagine what the first folders would think!

One of Brigham Young University engineering professor Larry Howell’s initial origami projects was a solar array that compacted to 9 feet during launch, but deployed to 82 feet across in space to generate power. (Larry Howell)

Check this out! Justin Favela creates paintings with piñata paper. His exhibition, Re/Presenting Mexico: José Maria Velasco and the Politics of Paper is at the David Smith Gallery in Denver until May 4. This exhibition showcases 14 individual piñata paintings that are all modeled from famous late-nineteenth-century Mexican nationalist paintings by José María Velasco.

“Catedral de Oaxaca, after José María Velasco” by Justin Favela

I recently received a handful of these lovely cards from Elod Beregszazi, who runs Popupology, a UK-based company that develops and finds applications for the genre of cutting and folding form from a single sheet of paper known as Origamic Architecture. Templates for these + several other designs are available for a small fee on his website.

This video, called The Future is Handmade, touched my heart!

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Featured this week in my Studio shop:

Water Paper Time (my downloadable film, Playing With Pop Ups,

a mini shoji screen + the Twelve Months of Paper Calendar* (now 1/2 price).

* Special thanks to Gina Pisello for her rendition of Shawn Sheehy’s pop-up dragonfly, one of the projects featured in the 2019 Twelve Months of Paper Calendar using Madeleine Durham’s paste paper + a card stock.

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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!

Shizen Screen Printed Papers

The Sunday Paper #256

April 21, 2019

Paper of the Week: Shizen Screen Printed Papers

Shizen Design papers are manufactured by hand in India. These papers are made from t-shirt cotton waste, and the huge variety of patterns are screen printed. These papers are acid-free, distributed by Shizen Design in Kansas City, and are available through a variety of retailers, including Artists & Craftsmen and Mulberry Paper & More.

Here’s a lovely video about Shizen Design Papers.

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Lynn Sures on Paper Talk

I recently interviewed Maryland artist Lynn Sures, who works with handmade paper in a variety of ways. Lynn tells me how she first discovered that paper was made by hand while reading the book Papermaking by Dard Hunter, and that she assumed that nobody on earth made paper by hand anymore (she was wrong)! We talk about her teaching philosophy and her work with pulp painting. And we discuss the paper she makes to draw on –she says if you make your own paper, it isn’t scary to draw on a blank sheet. Lynn describes one paper she took to Africa with her on a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship. She has spearheaded several unique papermaking efforts, including the Pulparazzi and the National Collegiate Handmade Paper Art Triennial. And she was recently elected president of Friends of Dard Hunter, the national papermaking organization that was founded to preserve Dard Hunter’s collection and currently meets annually in a different part of the country. Enjoy the episode!

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Papery Tidbits:

The 7th annual National Collegiate Handmade Paper Art Triennial deadline is April 30th.
Magnolia Editions has a treasure trove of information on their site, some for purchase and some for free, such as Sidedness, which describes the two distinct sides of a handmade sheet.
Books, Vessels, & Containers, oh my! How do you store your stuff? Come explore a variety of papers that can be cut, folded, stitched and manipulated to create books, tubes, pockets, envelopes, maps, bags and more at the Red Cliff Paper Retreat, held in my Colorado studio, September 14-18. One spot left!

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I would prefer to view these in person, but I still really enjoyed looking at these typewriter drawings by Lenka Clayton that are on view at the Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco through May 11.

From Lenka Clayton’s series “Typewriter Drawings”; typewriter ink on paper, rendered with a portable 1957 Smith-Corona Skyriter typewriter. Photo: Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco

Check this out! The Folding Foropter’s easy to ship (it flat-packs), easy to assemble and easy to use design helps bring corrective vision to the 2.3 billion people who need it. And it is a beautiful object, too!



Several national research agencies in China are investigating the molecular mechanisms that lead to economically important traits of paper mulberry such as pulping, papermaking, and the creation of feedstock, medicine, and food. Fascinating!

This figure shows how the genetics of paper mulberry enable it to be used in traditional medicine and paper and barkcloth making, as well as food and forage materials for human and livestock. CREDIT Peng and Liu et al.

Paul De Graaf recently made this fully functioning pop-up piano. How cool is that?!

Did anyone make it to the LA Art Book Fair? I enjoyed this description of one book at the fair: Made in India features bold, screen-printed graphics sourced from ephemera (packaging, maps, leaflets, etc.) collected in India during the ’70s and ’80s. The pages are made of hanji (traditional Korean handmade paper) and bound by a cover of jute and painted wood.

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Featured this week in my Studio shop:

A bendable paper lamp, Playing With Paper (on sale), Cosmology (an artist’s book)

and the Twelve Months of Paper Calendar (now 1/2 price).

 

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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!

Paper Twine / Paper Yarn

The Sunday Paper #255

April 14, 2019

Congratulations to the two winners of the April Giveaway. Janet Lee and Jen Reardon will each receive a copy of Shawn Sheehy’s new pop-up book, Beyond the Sixth Extinction! Look for another giveaway next month!

Paper of the Week: PaperPhine

Welcome to the world of paper twine and paper yarn. These strands have long been forgotten, yet they are slowly being rediscovered as an environmentally benign and sustainable material. As a very light though sturdy, simple and nevertheless elegant material, they offer endless possibilities to the advanced artisan as well as to the intrigued student and curious designer.

PaperPhine is a retail shop in Vienna Austria, and they have retail shops around the globe that carry their products. On a side note, if you’re really into paper yarn, there is an facebook group for paper threads, yarns & textiles (unrelated to PaperPhine).

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In the Studio:

I’m shipping two artist’s books to Santa Fe for a group exhibition this summer at the Gerald Peters Gallery. I plan on visiting my books, speaking a bit about them and meeting some of the other artists at the gallery talk on July 20th (if you’re in the Santa Fe area, I hope to see you there). Here’s an alphabet book I created back in 2010. Alpha, Beta, … is a limited edition of 25 and is a book in the form of a unique lantern structure, with a flexible hinge that allows it to be displayed in a variety of ways. Each panel of the shadow lantern features an alphabet letter cutout that casts a shadow onto a second layer of handmade paper. The letters are in the Arts and Crafts style font designed by Dard Hunter (who is often referred to as the father of hand papermaking in 20th century America).

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Papery Tidbits:

Enter Arnold Grummer’s Earth Day Contest with your own recycled handmade paper and win a shopping spree!
Check out this opportunity to participate in a paper symposium in Latvia this summer.
Do you make accordion books? The Illustrated Accordion at the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center is now accepting entries.
Books, Vessels, & Containers, oh my! How do you store your stuff? Come explore a variety of papers that can be cut, folded, stitched and manipulated to create books, tubes, pockets, envelopes, maps, bags and more at the Red Cliff Paper Retreat, held in my Colorado studio, September 14-18. One spot left!
Twelve Months of Paper Calendars are half price!
The 7th annual National Collegiate Handmade Paper Art Triennial deadline is April 30th.

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Inflation in the oil-rich Latin American nation of Venezuela has seen the economy spiral out of control, with its currency the Bolivar losing value. Street sellers are making purses, bags, hats and baskets to make money more valuable – their hand crafted wares sell for more than the bank notes are worth.

Check out this fire breathing dragon that Andy Singleton created from 1,200 sheets of A4-sized paper to celebrate the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones. It measures an incredible 43 feet long with a wingspan of nearly 20 feet. Click through to see all of the details in the piece.



I love the diverse paper works that are being shared over in Club Paper! Counterclockwise: Ilze Dilane’s pulp paintings made during her residency at the Southwest School of Art in San Antonio, TX; photos from Stefanija Damova’s visit to Museu Molí Paperer de Capellades outside of Barcelona, Spain; Kimberly McWhorter’s high shrinkage abaca castings for her MFA show in Athens, GA; and Rich Gray’s water lily using abaca made at an Arrowmont in a workshop with me in 2014! If you’d like to join us over in Club Paper, please answer the three questions when you request to join. This helps me keep spammers out of the group!

I have featured Ekatarina Lukasheva on the blog before, and she never ceases to amaze me! Her tesselations have a double presentation, as they each work as expanded and contracted forms (click through to see some of them in motion).

The Penland School in North Carolina created a lovely new video about craft. I was hoping that papermaking would make a cameo, and it did (towards the end) with master papermaker Paul Wong! Jesse Beecher’s short film exploring the focus, exhilaration, beauty, and joy of creating in the studio. It speaks to the special character of workshop education at places like Penland.

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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:

Criss Cross Accordion

The Sunday Paper #254

March 31, 2019

Paper of the Week: French Construction Paper

Hedi Kyle turned me onto French Paper. This is a family owned business that has been manufacturing paper for more than 140 years in Niles, Michigan. Remaining as one of the last, small, independent mills in America, French Paper has learned to take their direction from customers, not corporate consultants. How cool is that?

I love the subtle rich hues in the construction paper line. This paper comes in text and cover weights, as well as envelopes in a variety of sizes. I highly recommend French Paper’s sample books, I purchased all of them for $30 (plus shipping) and I received about 200  8-1/2″ x 11″ paper samples, which was totally worth it!

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In the Studio:

I love tinkering with paper, and it is especially nice when I find (or make) time to tinker. I’ve been working on the lessons for my upcoming Flexible Book Structures online class that begins this week, and I spent a bit of time coming up with variations on this book structure that I call the Criss Cross Accordion. We will explore the basic structure, and as you can see, there are multiple variations, not to mention the fact that you can expand this structure by adding more ‘pages’. That’s why it is called a flexible book structure. It isn’t too late to sign up for the class! What would you put on those pages?

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Papery Tidbits:

Books, Vessels, & Containers, oh my! How do you store your stuff? Come explore a variety of papers that can be cut, folded, stitched and manipulated to create books, tubes, pockets, envelopes, maps, bags and more at the Red Cliff Paper Retreat, held in my Colorado studio, September 14-18. One spot left!
Interested in paper cutting and storytelling? Béatrice Coron is teaching a workshop this summer at the Sitka Center for Art & Ecology.

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April Giveaway!

In honor of the April project in the Twelve Months of Paper Calendar, Candlewick Press has generously donated two copies of Shawn Sheehy’s new pop-up book, Beyond the Sixth Extinction. Click through to enter the giveaway! 

And here’s the April project, which is designed by Shawn, a pop-up dragonfly. Have you made it yet? I’d love to see a picture of your dragonfly! Need a calendar (filled with 12 paper projects)? They’re now half price!

I love the diverse paper works that are being shared over in Club Paper! From left to right: Karen Krieger’s paper weaving on a hollow and stitched bottle form; Laura Milletari’s “Onion of Tropea”; and Roslyn Moresh’s spider book from Hedi Kyle and Ulla Warchol’s new book using a weaving from my recent online class (Weave Through Winter).

Nancy Cohen has been working with handmade paper for over 20 years and has really developed a lovely process and multiple bodies of work. If you’re in NYC, go see her work at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts.

Nancy Cohen, Breakwater, 2018, paper pulp, ink and handmade paper, 54 x 54 in.

Did you see this? The celebrated French street artist JR pulled off a stunning optical illusion to celebrate the pyramid at the Louvre’s 30th anniversary. He surrounded the glass pyramid in a collage made of 2,000 strips of paper. This might be one of those “looks better in the photo” installations. Did anyone get to experience it IRL?

This is an interesting musing on the historical and contemporary uses of hanji (Korean handmade paper).

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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:

Stardream Paper

The Sunday Paper #253

March 31, 2019

Paper of the Week: Stardream Quartz Metallic

When I was in Dallas recently, I visited the ceiling installation that Paper For Water created for the Crow Asian Art Museum. They used this Stardream Quartz Metallic paper, which comes in 16 iridescent colors in both text and cover weights. Paper For Water volunteers folded more than 200 of these floral elements designed by Ekaterina Lukasheva. It’s a striking installation.

The stardream paper is a medium weight, flexible 81 lb text. Quartz is an elegant, soft shade of white with a shimmer, and a pearlized finish on both sides. This paper can be printed with a laser printer or with conventional methods such as foil stamping and offset. Stardream paper is great for high end invitations, stationery, and packaging. Matching card stock & envelopes are available in a variety of sizes.

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In the Studio:

Tomorrow is the last day to take advantage of early bird pricing for Flexible Book Structures, my online class that begins on April 10th. I’ve been busy cutting and packing the papers and parts for the supply kits, which will begin shipping tomorrow. I still have a few kits in stock, so sign up today if you’d like one, or sign up anyways and use your own supplies!

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Papery Tidbits:

Books, Vessels, & Containers, oh my! How do you store your stuff? Come explore a variety of papers that can be cut, folded, stitched and manipulated to create books, tubes, pockets, envelopes, maps, bags and more at the Red Cliff Paper Retreat, held in my Colorado studio, September 14-18.
Twelve Months of Paper Calendars are now half price. Need several copies for your group? There’s a deep discount if you order 10 copies.

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New on the Paper Talk Podcast! 

Listen to my interview with Peter Dahmen, an artist and designer based in Dortmund, Germany. I discovered Peter’s work on the internet, which is how he has become well known in the field of pop-ups. We talk about the first pop-up book he saw in a bookstore as a child, how that interest was rekindled about 10 years later when he was studying communication design at the university, and how he became a youtube sensation 20 years later!

The Royal Ontario Museum currently has an exhibition featuring eight contemporary Japanese Canadian artists who are related to those who were sent to internment camps during WWII (when their homes, fishing boats, personal property and businesses were also sold by the federal government). Emma Nishimura’s furushiki wrapped family photos on handmade paper are quite poignant.  And Steven Nunoda’s installation, Ghostown, is made up of rows of around 150 tarpaper shacks that resemble the cramped quarters, many without running water or electricity, that internees were forced to live in.

An Archive of Rememory by Emma Nishimura, Courtesy of the ROM / Brian Boyle

From Durer to Digital and 3-D: The Metamorphosis of the Printed Image is currently on view at the Trenton City Museum in NJ. Curated by Princeton-based artist and printmaker Judith Brodsky, it involves both prominent New Jersey and American artists who explore the impact and metamorphosis of the printed image.

Eric Avery’s ‘Paradise Lost’

I love the diverse paper works that are being shared over in Club Paper! From left to right: Lore Spivey’s lantern using the handmade washer embedded paper from my recent online paper sale; In-soon Shin’s joomchi technique on mulberry paper; Sandie Butler’s photograph on her handmade paper, with beeswax and wire. We’d love to see what you’re making too!

Check out this Extendable Flatpack Paper Bed. It is compact, light weight, made entirely from corrugated paper, strong enough to hold two people and converts into a sturdy seating device, with or without a backrest!

This is an amazing story about two children in Jordan who combined their passion for paper to create a business producing origami and quilling kits. Waragami Recycling Corner upcycles paper in schools (one old book can be turned into more than 300 origami papers) while providing art opportunities to other children.

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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:

Itajime Paper

The Sunday Paper #252

March 24, 2019

Paper of the Week: Itajime 

These colorful itajime papers caught my eye recently. They are created at Awagami Factory in Japan… ooh la la!

Itajime shibori is a shaped-resist technique. Traditionally done with fabric, but also in paper, the cloth (or paper) is sandwiched between two pieces of wood, which are held in place with string. More modern textile artists can be found using shapes cut from acrylic or plexiglass and holding the shapes with c-clamps. The shapes prevent the dye from penetrating the fabric they cover, producing an effect similar to tie dying.

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In the Studio:

I’ve been a visiting artist at Baylor University in Texas this week. Three classes (graphic design, fibers, and drawing) spent two days exploring 2D and 3D papermaking techniques. And they’re on their way to having a full-blown papermaking studio.

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Papery Tidbits:

There is one spot open in the Red Cliff Paper Retreat which I hold every year in my studio, September 14-18 (come for 3 days or stay for 5). Send me an e-mail if you have questions.
Flexible Book Structures begins April 10th. Supply kits will start shipping on April 1st… register today!

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Julie McLaughlin creates large works with her big ass handmade paper. “I am drawn to the simplicity of the kimono silhouette and to the complexity of the traditions surrounding it,” she says. “I often create background stories relating to a piece as I am working, but I expect viewers to create their own stories as they connect with or interpret my work.” Her work is currently on view at Central College in Pella, Iowa.

Van Gogh lived in London for a bit, and these paper fragments were found under the floorboards of his bedroom. Historians are now piecing together history through paper.

Fragments of paper with watercolor flowers were found under the floorboards in Van Gogh’s bedroom. Photo: Martin Bailey

More than 30 contemporary artists are showing work in Mediums of Exchange, a two-part exhibition with the Borough of Manhattan Community College in NYC. All of the works pertain to our relationship with money. For example, Jennifer Dalton graduated from art school with debt and collected a suitcase worth of credit card offers from different companies to make a statement about how easy it is to fall into more debt.

Erika Harrsch’s ‘Currency Kites’ flies high inside of Lehman College Art Gallery as part of its ‘Mediums of Exchange’ exhibition exploring economic, sociological and psychological viewpoints toward money. Courtesy of Erika Harrsch Studio

Although this isn’t paper, the practical applications utilizing origami techniques is pretty amazing! This origami robot looks delicate but is strong enough to lift a bottle of wine.

MIT’s “origami” robot in action. Jason Dorfman/MIT CSAIL

Here’s the story behind cootie catchers (or folded paper fortune tellers). Did you make these as a kid?

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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:

Cloud Paper

The Sunday Paper #251

March 17, 2019

Congratulations to the Wade Brickhouse, the winner of the Colophon Book Arts Supply Giveaway! 

Paper of the Week: Japanese Cloud Paper

Made from 10% kozo and 90% manila hemp, this cream colored translucent paper features a dreamy cloud like pattern created with soft fibers that “float” throughout the paper.  Machine made in a light weight of 27 g/m2, this paper can be used for paper arts, collage, book making, lighting, packaging and more. 25″ x 38″.

Sometimes you have to use a paper to see how it will behave. I got a sample of this paper from Graphic Products Corporation and had a feeling that it would be the perfect paper for an inflatable. To date, I’ve used tissue paper, abaca, tracing paper (bottom right image), gampi paper (bottom left) and kite paper for this type of structure. The cloud paper felt crisp enough to hold it’s shape and inflate. But I was wrong! Somehow, the kozo + abaca fibers let air through them, but I’m guessing I could wax the paper to seal them. More experimenting necessary! But in the meantime, I created the floral form that you see in the top right image, a variation on the inflatable construction.

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In the Studio:

Speaking of inflatables, this is one of the book structures we’ll be creating in my upcoming online class. What is a book anyways? Join the discussion and create a series of flexible book structures that fold and unfold, collapse and expand, inflate and deflate. My new online class, Flexible Book Structures, is open for registration! Order the supply kit with the class (by March 20th, that’s this Wednesday) and receive a FREE copy of the 2019 Twelve Months of Paper Calendar!

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Paper Tidbits:

There is one spot open in the Red Cliff Paper Retreat which I hold every year in my studio, September 14-18 (come for 3 days or stay for 5). Send me an e-mail if you have questions.
Have you listened to the Paper Talk episode featuring Leigh Suggs?
Wow of the Week: Matt Shlian’s paper work. I’ve featured Matt several times on the blog, and he has a show up in Santa Fe right now
I’m heading to Waco, TX today and am giving a public lecture at Baylor University that is open to the public. It will be in Hooper-Schaefer on Weds, March 20th at 5pm. I’d love to see you if you live in the area!

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It’s March! Have you created the project in the Twelve Months of Paper Calendar? I created a video showing how to make this magnetic origami ring. If you don’t want to purchase the ring base, you can simply turn this into a refridgerator magnet. Send me a photo of your completed project, and I’ll feature it!

I loved paper dolls as a kid. Erin Ferrell created The Pirate Crew as humorous, simple and a helpful breast cancer educational materials. She makes dolls like Ms. Mastectomy and Ms. Chemotherapy that help patients navigate life through and after breast cancer. What a wonderful project!

I love this headline: The Art Behind Barichara’s All-Female Artisanal Paper Making. This is a beautiful photo essay documenting papermaking from fique, or cabuya, or sisal. I assisted with a similar project in Ecuador over twenty years ago; this one is in Columbia. Go paper!

Denver has an annual paper fashion show, and sadly, I’ve never made it. This year, the volunteer-run event is set to showcase the most extravagant paper fashion yet, with 54 teams that have been challenged to design fashion inspired by the concept of flight.

Photography by Talia Lezama; Designs by Lieser-Booren Art & Design; Actor/Aerialist Andrew Hill

Book artist Julie Chen was featured on the Books in the Wild podcast. Check it out!

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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!

 

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Circle Fold Kit Giveaway!

The Sunday Paper #250

March 10, 2019

Paper of the Week: Colophon Book Arts Circle Fold Kit

In honor of this month’s paper Twelve Months of Paper project (see below), Colophon Book Arts Supply is giving away a small kit that will allow you to make circles and folds then stick them together! A bow compass will create circles in any size, the scissors for cutting those circles, and the bone folder to create the folds in the project. Finally, the glue stick to help you craft on the go! Click here to enter the giveaway!

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In the Studio:

Do you crave the inspiration you get from the act of making? Love books and paper? Have a desire to connect with others who share these same goals? Join me in creating a series of flexible book structures that fold and unfold, collapse and expand, inflate and deflate. My new online class, Flexible Book Structures, is open for registration! Feel free to tell your friends about this class and/or sign up with one of them! This class is for all levels of experience.

Want to learn more before you register? Sign up for my free webinar this coming Thursday, March 14th at 1pm EST, 12pm CST, 11am MST, 10am PST. If you can’t watch it live, you can still sign up, and I’ll send you the replay.

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Paper Tidbits:

Thank you to everyone who purchased paper through my online paper sale (it was my biggest sale ever)!
WOW of the Week: The Focus on Book Arts conference is now open for registration. This is a beloved book arts summer camp in Oregon, and if I were able to attend I’d take Steph Rue’s class on Paper Bojagi.
I’ll be in Waco, TX next week and am giving a talk at Baylor University that is open to the public. It will be in Hooper-Schaefer on Weds, March 20th at 5pm. I’d love to see you if you live in the area!

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It’s March! Have you created the project in the Twelve Months of Paper Calendar? Here’s a picture of the project (made by Elissa Campbell) sitting on the calendar. It is an Origami Refrigerator Magnet created from 9 circles (see why that giveaway kit would be helpful)? Need a copy of the calendar? They’re now half price, or purchase 10 copies for $75 (that’s the cost of 3 copies at the regular price). Share the paper love with your friends and family!

Janna Willoughby runs Papercraft Miracles in Buffalo, NY. This article describes her hand papermaking business and her work. I love Janna’s sentiment, as she describes her work as an artist, poet and musician: “Words, designs, and images all interact together to make one bigger statement or concept. The viewer doesn’t just look at the painting or hear a poem, they interact with the art, they experience it.”

Meet the artist Leigh Suggs on my podcast Paper Talk. I met Leigh 10 years ago when she took a sculptural papermaking class with me at The Penland School in North Carolina. We talk about her upbringing with a mom who was an art professor, how she didn’t think she’d ever be an artist, how her life just kept going in that direction, and today she makes a living making paper art. And of course we chat about her work: she’s interested in getting us to think about how we see and how we use language to describe what we see in her pieces that employ optical trickery. Enjoy our conversation!

Art Zone’s, Nancy Guppy (Seattle), recently interviewed Bainbridge Island Museum of Art’s founder Cynthia Sears. This is so worth a listen (you’ll find the interview at 6:49 – 14:35) as Cynthia gives her description of an artist’s book and talks about several of the books in the exhibition. If you don’t know, BIMA has a gallery dedicated to artist’s books collected by Cynthia. Open Sesame: The Magic of Artist’s Books Revealed just opened and runs through June 9th.

This is a beautiful 1000 Cranes story (if you don’t know the origin story about Sadako, you must look it up). This one is about Farhan Afzal who lost a 9-year battle with brain cancer this week, and how his teachers inspired and honored him with origami. Warning: it is a tear jerker.

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About our Sponsor: Colophon Book Arts Supply is owned and operated by Mary Uthuppuru in Bloomington, Indiana. It is primarily an online retail store serving the unique and widespread book arts community composed of beginning students to advanced professionals that practice, teach, and study making books by hand. Colophon serves the needs of this diverse group with an extensive stock of tools and materials for bookbinding, marbling and their related disciplines, and maintains an intimate connection with customers that has been fostered for years. Through individualized correspondence during the ordering process and personal connections at professional events, Colophon seeks to provide its customers with quality tools and materials that will inspire them to make great work.

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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:

Vegan Watercolor Paper

The Sunday Paper #249

March 3, 2019

Paper of the Week: Watercolor Paper

Oblation Papers & Press has just released a new product: handmade watercolor paper. This soft-white paper is ph-neutral, made from 100% recycled cotton and crafted by hand in their Portland, OR shop. This latest product makes Oblation the only company to manufacture watercolor paper on the west coast, and one of the few companies in the world to offer 100% handmade, vegan watercolor paper, crafted from recycled materials. 

I laughed out loud when I read this headline in Veg News: “Portland, OR-based letterpress shop Oblation Papers & Press recently developed a vegan watercolor paper that rivals that of the top-regarded French papermaker Arches but without the use of animal products.” It sounds like a scene right out of Portlandia! But with all due respect, this is an outstanding company that I worked for back in the day, and one of the premiere paper stores in the country. It is a clever marketing angle, and I’ve seen it used by another paper company. I wonder if most watercolor artists are vegans…

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In the Studio:

Last Call! My biannual online paper sale ends tonight at midnight (MST). Treat yourself to unique handmade papers that you won’t find anywhere else in the world! Here’s a link to the sale page, and click on the image below to watch the video about the various paper packages: The Maker’s Paper (abaca with embedded washers), honeycomb cover papers, translucent abaca, honeycomb watermarks, the How-To Package, and some sweet little Japanese coin pouches.

Paper Tidbits:

I interviewed Ron & Jennifer Rich on the Paper Talk Podcast a couple of years ago. They’re the owners of Oblation Papers & Press, the urban papermill in Portland, OR mentioned above.
WOW of the Week: I was so happy to “meet” Fides Linien this week when I contacted her because of a technical issue with her paper sale order. I discovered that she used my book, Papermaking With Plants, as a resource for The Fancy Pads Project in Uganda, which empowers girls to make their own zero waste sanitary napkins so they don’t have to drop out of school. I can’t wait to learn more and will have her on the podcast!
My brand new online class, Flexible Book Structures opens for registration tomorrow, but the web page is ready now. Take a look, and I hope you’ll join me in creating six innovative book projects that will surely inspire more!

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Speaking of book structures, I adore the work of Su Blackwell, who brings fairy tales to life in her books. Su has a paper-sculpting revolution going on over on Kickstarter, to create Into the Dark Woods, an illustrated activity book, aimed at adults and children.

© 2019 Su Blackwell

It was so fun to see Rosston Meyer and read the Q&A with him in 303 Magazine. Rosston is a fellow Coloradan and member of the Movable Book Society. His company, Poposition Press, is an independent, one-man publishing house that makes pop-up books with original art from artists of all styles. He’s a curator, a designer, a problem-solver, a paper engineer, a collector, a comic book fan and so much more — and all of those interests and skills coalesce in his customized pop-up books.

Check out this Bird Box Challenge by Paper For Water, an amazing organization started by a family in Dallas to bring water to the thirsty. They decided to try folding a 30-piece origami blindfolded! The results? You have to watch this clever video to see it!

 

I love this post over in Club Paper by Sonja Brys. She showed us her entire process from recycling paper to a finished book! You can join us over in Club Paper and share your work by answering three simple questions.

Are you looking for a job in paper? The Morgan Conservatory is currently accepting applications for the position of Executive Director. This Cleveland-based institution is a hot spot for handmade paper, and I can’t wait to see who lands this position. Good luck!

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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: