Helen Hiebert's Blog, page 65

Paper Moons & Balloons

This is Day 12 of 25 Days of Paper and Day 81 of my 100 x 100 Paper Weavings Project.

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© Helen Hiebert, 100 x 100 Paper Weavings, #81, 10″ x 11″, $100

This weaving combines a gray momigami from Hiromi Paper, Inc. and Hook Pottery Paper’s Moon paper. Moon is a 100% cotton using black and white pulp. This is not a photograph or a print. This handmade sheet of paper is an excellent example of cotton rag and it’s ability to do magical things. The sheets are made dimensionally but are pressed flat during the paper making process creating the illusion of a 3 dimensional moon surface. Andrea Peterson (the maker) says that she is still amazed every time she makes it. Mind blowing!

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© Helen Hiebert, 100 x 100 Paper Weavings, #76, 12″ x 12″, $100

Congratulations to Claudia Daniel for winning the drawing for the Name That Paper Contest! The papers featured were Cave Paper Layered Indigo Day woven with Steve Pittelkow’s hand marbled.

I just noticed that HIromi Paper is having a sale through the end of the year. Take advantage on some great prices on Japanese handmade papers.

 

Speaking of Hiromi Paper, Inc. I found these cute kamifusen paper balloons on their website. I love inflatable paper structures and have dreams of creating an installation with them one day.

Inflatable Paper Ball by Helen Hiebert, van dyke prints by Alyssa Salomon

 

They are so fun to make too! You can find instructions for creating inflatable paper balls in my book Playing With Paper.

 

Here are a few plain ones. They look so lovely in bright colors, and they are fun to play with too. From Hiromi Paper’s website: “Developed in the 1890′s, Kamifusen (or paper balloons) emerged as a charming alternative to the rubber balloon. Created by the wives of fishermen during the winter season with handmade paper, this simple toy caught the attention of Japanese manufacturers in the early 1920′s. For those unfamiliar with the Kamifusen game, the objective is to blow air in the paper balloon and keep the multicolored Kamifusen afloat by hitting it with your hand. Guaranteed to warm your heart and evoke a life affirming smile!

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About the 25 Days of Paper: I’m going to be a crazy blogger in December, featuring cool paper products, projects, blogs, books, or papers each day. Join in the fun by reading along! I’ll also post links on my FaceBook page. Enjoy the season!

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About 100 x 100 Paper Weavings: On September 23, 2013, I started making 100 daily paper weavings. I’ll finish on New Year’s Eve!

Related Posts Pop-Up! Weaving in the MidwestWhere Paper Comes From Social Paper

Fundraising for Paper

This is Day 11 of 25 Days of Paper and Day 80 of my 100 x 100 Paper Weavings Project.

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© Helen Hiebert, 100 x 100 Paper Weavings, #80, 8-1/2″ x 9″, $100

I’ve had this sheet of pleated abaca in my pile of papers to be woven almost since the beginning. Finally today I was inspired to weave it with this green striped paper that I purchased at Wet Paint in Minneapolis a couple of years ago. It is interesting how the pleating of the abaca made the paper pucker as it dried, and I’m intrigued by the way that the pleating interacts with the green striped paper.

And speaking of folded paper (the pleated paper is made by folding it when still wet, pressing it and then drying it), I just learned about the artist Sipho Mabona who is in the middle of a campaign to fund constructing a life-size origami elephant. He’s half way there, and I think we should all contribute a bit to make his project a reality.

Actually, I’m pretty sure he’ll create it whether he reaches his funding goal or not, since he is working with a crowdfunding platform that allows him to keep whatever money he raises (on other crowdfunding platforms, it is all or nothing). Click here to see what you get if you support his project. From the artist’s perspective, I hope that he will actually make enough money to cover his expenses, since in addition to funding his project, he also has to make all of the rewards!

You can watch other stop-motion videos of his work here. And read about his swarming locust installation made from folded money!

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About the 25 Days of Paper: I’m going to be a crazy blogger in December, featuring cool paper products, projects, blogs, books, or papers each day. Join in the fun by reading along! I’ll also post links on my FaceBook page. Enjoy the season!

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About 100 x 100 Paper Weavings: On September 23, 2013, I started making 100 daily paper weavings. I’ll finish on New Year’s Eve!

Related Posts Paper on Sesame Street! A Butterfly, a Fan, an Egg & a Bottle… Paper Down UnderPop-Up!

Paper on Pinterest

This is Day 10 of 25 Days of Paper and Day 79 of my 100 x 100 Paper Weavings Project.

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© Helen Hiebert, 100 x 100 Paper Weavings, #79, 11″ x 11″, $100

I’d group this in the psychodelic paper weavings category. This one features a paste paper by Kristoferson Studio woven with Graphic Products Corp/Black Ink’s Momi-tsunami.

Pinterest is an excellent tool for storing ideas and grouping and sharing images. I wonder how you use pinterest boards, and I have several boards that you might be interested in:

Places To Shop For Paper is a board featuring 55 paper stores around the world. I’ve used the map tool on pinterest, so that you can see on a map where each store is located.

Sites & Blogs about Paper features just what it states.

Papermaking Facilities features 13 places where you can go and study papermaking or work with papermaking experts to create work in paper.

These boards are by no means comprehensive and I invite you to suggest other places that I might add to each board. Please leave a comment below and I will update my boards accordingly.

And please tell us about your favorite pinterest boards that have to do with paper and papermaking! Thanks!

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About the 25 Days of Paper: I’m going to be a crazy blogger in December, featuring cool paper products, projects, blogs, books, or papers each day. Join in the fun by reading along! I’ll also post links on my FaceBook page. Enjoy the season!

__________________________________________________________

About 100 x 100 Paper Weavings: On September 23, 2013, I started making 100 daily paper weavings. I’ll finish on New Year’s Eve!

Related Posts Social PaperPop-Up! The Key to My Heart Paper on Sesame Street!

Where Paper Comes From

This is Day 9 of 25 Days of Paper and Day 78 of my 100 x 100 Paper Weavings Project.

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© Helen Hiebert, 100 x 100 Paper Weavings, #78, 10″ x 8″, $100

I received a note from a paper artist whom I see annually at the meeting of the Friends of Dard Hunter (a national hand papermaking organization). Marjorie Tomchuk creates embossed prints on handmade paper, among other things. I do hope you will check out her website. Below are a few images of her work.

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© 2003 Marjorie Tomchuck, Crossings, 25″ x 36″

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© 2013 Marjorie Tomchuk, Venezia, 22″ x 22″

The note from Marjorie asked whether I needed any more paper for the weaving project, and I accepted. The weaving above is simply a transformation of her work. She sent me several lovely embossed pieces, which I’m guessing are parts of unfinished/rejected works that she’s cut up, but that is just a guess! And there was a tiny plastic bag filled with a neat and tidy pile of marbled paper scraps. I wove two of those into the marbled pieces into an embossed piece.

This project has caused me to think about the way that I use paper. When I make paper, I’m usually making it for a particular project – I don’t just make sheets of paper for the sake of making them. My flat files are not filled with piles of handmade paper. They are filled with experiments and papers leftover from projects. Paper is a bit of an oddity because it can be the medium or the artwork.

Receiving the paper donation from Marjorie sparked my curiosity. Did she send me rejects or parts of older work that she no longer wanted to sell or store?

It has also been fascinating to receive papers and sample books from around the world and to think about how companies and artists market their papers. Some of them list the qualities of the paper (good for printing, suitable for lampshades, etc.) and others simply state the obvious (color, fiber, texture). I’m loving the opportunity to touch and see the astounding variety of papers that exist, and I find comfort in the fact that I can go to my studio at anytime and create something new.

Have you entered the Name That Paper Contest?

____________________________________________________

About the 25 Days of Paper: I’m going to be a crazy blogger in December, featuring cool paper products, projects, blogs, books, or papers each day. Join in the fun by reading along! I’ll also post links on my FaceBook page. Enjoy the season!

__________________________________________________________

About 100 x 100 Paper Weavings: On September 23, 2013, I started making 100 daily paper weavings. I’ll finish on New Year’s Eve!

Related Posts Pop-Up!100 x 100 Paper Weavings + A Contest Collaborations in Paper Paper Down Under

Collaborations in Paper

First, my apologies about that first post of this. I don’t know WHAT happened! I had written the entire thing, but when I went to publish, something else appeared! Here’s my second stab at it.

This is Day 8 of 25 Days of Paper and Day 77 of my 100 x 100 Paper Weavings Project.

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© Helen Hiebert, 100 x 100 Paper Weavings, #77, 12″ x 18″, $100

I love the intensity of Cave Paper‘. This is their walnut paper with several layers of walnut dye coating the paper, producing a leather-like tone. The rich tone makes a nice backdrop for these vividly colored papers from Shizen Design.

I recently had a virtual meeting with a lovely musician, Helen Davey. She does these amazing Sound Paintings, and she just launched a really cool project called Project 52: 52 pieces of music in direct response to  52 artworks shared by 52 different artists for 52 weeks.

© 2007 Helen Hiebert, Holding

She’s responded to my piece “Holding” as part of the project! I’m never quite sure if these links will actually show up once published, so here is a link to her sound painting, and I’ll try to embed it below as well. Read her response to my work and listen to the sound painting!

I love collaborating with other artists and find that it takes my own work to a new level. I’ve collaborated with musicians, videographers, visual artists and poets. Do you have work to share that has been produced in collaboration? I’d love to hear about it – leave a comment below.

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About the 25 Days of Paper: I’m going to be a crazy blogger in December, featuring cool paper products, projects, blogs, books, or papers each day. Join in the fun by reading along! I’ll also post links on my FaceBook page. Enjoy the season!

______________________________________________________________________

About 100 x 100 Paper Weavings: On September 23, 2013, I started making 100 daily paper weavings. I’ll finish on New Year’s Eve!

Related PostsPop-Up! Paper Down Under 25 Days of Paper/Year 2 Paper in Motion

Name That Paper Contest!

This is Day 7 of 25 Days of Paper and Day 76 of my 100 x 100 Paper Weavings Project.

IT’S CONTEST TIME!

Name one or both of the papers featured in this weaving to be entered into a drawing to receive the paper remnants. To enter, read the instructions below.

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© Helen Hiebert, 100 x 100 Paper Weavings, #76, 12″ x 12″, $100

 

Here’s what you’ll win. These are pretty large sheets – the length of that bottom edge is 26 inches. I’ll ship the papers to you in a tube. Good luck!

HOW TO ENTER:

1. You must send me an e-mail to enter: helen@helenhiebertstudio.com (we don’t want anybody to see your answer).

2. In your e-mail, tell me the name of one or both of the makers of these papers (hint: one is handmade, the other is decorated).

- You’ll be entered once just for submitting an entry (even if you are wrong)!

- Your name will be entered twice if you correctly name one of the makers.

- You’ll be entered three times if you name both of the makers.

- Bonus: the blue & white paper has a name; you’ll be entered four times if you can name that paper!

3. All entries received by midnight MST on December 11th will be entered in the drawing.

A CLUE: You might find some hints by studying the other 100x 100 Paper Weavings.

Isn’t that enough excitement for the day? I’m heading up to Beaver Creek with my daughter for a few hours of skiing (after she finishes decorating her gingerbread house – the first sign of Christmas in our house).

As I’ve said before, I am so grateful to the papermakers and artists who have sent papers for the weavings. You’ll find a list of all of them here. Check out their websites and drool over their luscious papers!

And please let me know of any other papermakers or decorators that you know of by leaving a comment below. Thanks!

_________________________________________________________________________

About the 25 Days of Paper: I’m going to be a crazy blogger in December, featuring cool paper products, projects, blogs, books, or papers each day. Join in the fun by reading along! I’ll also post links on my FaceBook page. Enjoy the season!

_________________________________________________________________________

About 100 x 100 Paper Weavings: On September 23, 2013, I started making 100 daily paper weavings. I’ll finish on New Year’s Eve!

Related Posts Pop-Up! Paper Down Under 100 x 100 Paper Weavings + A Contest Social Paper 25 Days of Paper/Year 2

Paper Down Under

This is Day 6 of 25 Days of Paper and Day 75 of my 100 x 100 Paper Weavings Project. I’m 3/4 of the way done!

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© Helen Hiebert, 100 x 100 Paper Weavings, #75, 10″ x 8″, $100

I have to admit that the photos of some of these weavings just don’t do them justice. I wish you could see them in person! I was seeing and hearing a story as I made this one, about a forest and the things in front of, behind and between the trees. What did you see?

I’m amassing another pile of paper scraps which means I’ll be hosting another giveaway soon. Stay tuned!

There are some really great blogs about paper out there. One that I always enjoy reading is Upon A Fold. Based in Australia, Justine Fahd runs this blog and store, and she’s featured hundreds of artists on her blog. Many of them are new to me, as she covers many artists who are working in her hemisphere.

Upon A Fold: 1/100 PAPER MODEL SET NO.11 CHERRY BLOSSOM

She also sells some of the sweetest paper products. Give yourself some time on the site – you’ll be amazed, I promise! She’s written about me too.

Upon A Fold: PAPER BICYCLE MODEL – THE ORDINARY 1883

What other blogs do you follow about paper?

 

_______________________________________________________

About the 25 Days of Paper: I’m going to be a crazy blogger in December, featuring cool paper products, projects, blogs, books, or papers each day. Join in the fun by reading along! I’ll also post links on my FaceBook page. Enjoy the season!

_____________________________________________________________

About 100 x 100 Paper Weavings: On September 23, 2013, I started making 100 daily paper weavings. I’ll finish on New Year’s Eve!

 

http://uponafold.com.au/blog/post/the...

Related Posts Pop-Up! 25 Days of Paper/Year 2 Paper in Motion Social Paper Paper Giveaway!

Paper on Sesame Street!

This is Day 5 of 25 Days of Paper and Day 74 of my 100 x 100 Paper Weavings Project.

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© Helen Hiebert, 100 x 100 Paper Weavings, #74, 10″ x 18″, $100

I love how some paper looks like cloth, folded and creased so many times. This is a hand dyed itajame paper by Susan Kristoferson woven with another air dried crinkled abaca handmade.

One of my favorite paper engineers is Matt Shlian, and I just discovered this paper folding segment he did for Sesame Street. It looks like he worked with the same editor I did when I was on the show twenty years ago (see my segment below)!

Matt is a folding wizard and some of his work appears in my book Playing With Paper.

Matt Shlian, We are Building this Ship as We Sail It

Matt and his partner Thea Augustina Eck have an awesome subscription series called Eight Emperors, which features a Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter Art & Design piece sent directly to your door. Each season’s piece is a surprise, and rotates amongst materials such as paper, wood and collaborations in paper and wood.

I know some of you have seen this before, but here’s my debut on Sesame Street, which was filmed at Dieu Donné Papermill in NYC when I worked there.

_______________________________________________________

About the 25 Days of Paper: I’m going to be a crazy blogger in December, featuring cool paper products, projects, blogs, books, or papers each day. Join in the fun by reading along! I’ll also post links on my FaceBook page. Enjoy the season!

_____________________________________________________________

About 100 x 100 Paper Weavings: On September 23, 2013, I started making 100 daily paper weavings. I’ll finish on New Year’s Eve!

Related Posts Paper in Motion 13: Paper Construction (not construction paper!) 5: The End of the World: Flying Paper 7: Inflatable Paper A Butterfly, a Fan, an Egg & a Bottle…

Paper in Motion

This is Day 4 of 25 Days of Paper and Day 73 of my 100 x 100 Paper Weavings Project.

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© Helen Hiebert, 100 x 100 Paper Weavings, #73, 14″ X 10″, $100

Anyone who knows me well is aware of my obsession with abaca. It is a fiber from the banana plant that takes a beating well: the more you beat it, the more translucent it becomes and the more it shrinks as it dries. I call this bluish sheet air dried abaca crinkle. After pressing, I allowed the sheet to air dry and then misted it with water and dried it under restraint. The resulting sheet is both translucent and textured. I wove it with a sheet of paper from Shizen Design.

Check out this lovely image I found of harvested abaca fiber drying on a line.

I have made two short films featuring my work with abaca. The first one is called The Secret Life of Paper and was made in preparation for a grant proposal. Imagine trying to talk a grant panel into giving me money to show images of paper drying – it worked much better when I had some video footage to stand behind those words! Here is a short segment from that video that show the magic of abaca. And a link just in case the video doesn’t show up on your screen.

Thankfully, I received funding from the Regional Art & Culture Council in Portland which enabled me to hire filmmaker Gretchen Hogue and sound artist Kell Black to help produce my film Water Paper Time. Here’s the trailer and if you feel the urge to watch the entire film, you can purchase it it here.

Speaking of paper in motion, did anyone catch Robert Sabuda on The Today Show yesterday? Hooray for prime time TV featuring pop-ups! Robert had Hoda and Kathie Lee making pop-up sea horse, which you can make too (downloadable instructions can be found at the link).

Paper can be animated in many ways (think kites, flip books, pop-ups …). I’d love to hear about any paper in motion stories you have to share. Please leave a comment below!

_______________________________________________________

About the 25 Days of Paper: I’m going to be a crazy blogger in December, featuring cool paper products, projects, blogs, books, or papers each day. Join in the fun by reading along! I’ll also post links on my FaceBook page. Enjoy the season!

_____________________________________________________________

About 100 x 100 Paper Weavings: On September 23, 2013, I started making 100 daily paper weavings. I’ll finish on New Year’s Eve!

Related Posts 25 Days of Paper/Year 2 Pop-Up! Paper Giveaway! Social Paper Weaving a House

Social Paper

This is Day 3 of 25 Days of Paper and Day 72 of my 100 x 100 Paper Weavings Project.

This is one of the first paper weavings I made, ever! It is about 20 years old and is pure linen paper. Linen is really hard to work with, but makes lovely translucent and crisp paper. I added the cut-out windows today and glued the ends down. Something old & something new.

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© Helen Hiebert, 100 x 100 Paper Weavings, #72, 14″ X 12″, $150

When I lived in Portland, I had the good fortune of serving as a mentor for Jody Dunphy when she was getting her MFA in Applied Craft & Design through a joint program with Oregon College of Art & Craft and the Pacific Northwest College of Art. Jody & I met each week to discuss her work, which led to her Second Nature Project.

Jody creates jewelry out of cast handmade paper with embedded seeds, which you can wear and then plant, and the seeds will sprout and grow out of the biodegradable gem. These necklaces, along with other pieces, are available on Jody’s Etsy site.

 

You can read more about Jody’s work here, including information about her dispersal happenings in which she engages participants by giving them seed jewelry to plant in their communities.I know that there are other socially engaging paper projects that are taking place worldwide. Tell me about the ones you run or know about in the comment section below.

_______________________________________________________

About the 25 Days of Paper: I’m going to be a crazy blogger in December, featuring cool paper products, projects, blogs, books, or papers each day. Join in the fun by reading along! I’ll also post links on my FaceBook page. Enjoy the season!

_____________________________________________________________

About 100 x 100 Paper Weavings: On September 23, 2013, I started making 100 daily paper weavings. I’ll finish on New Year’s Eve!

 

Related Posts 25 Days of Paper/Year 2 Pop-Up! Pop-Up Book Artist Paul Johnson A Butterfly, a Fan, an Egg & a Bottle… Warp, Weft, Watermark, Wood