Helen Hiebert's Blog, page 73
December 14, 2012
12: Paper Filagree
Sometimes I wonder how on earth I discovered certain things, but I distinctly remember learning how to do paper filagree(aka quilling) when I was in seventh grade. We were living in Los Alamos, NM (my father was a physicist, doing research there part of each year; we lived in Bryan, Texas the rest of the time). I must have found a book about quilling (I discovered calligraphy that same year) and found the paper strips somewhere. It is all a blur now, but it was fun to learn the different ways you could roll and pinch paper.
Most quillwork in museums dates from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was first practiced by Renaissance nuns and monks who are said to have made artistic use of the gilded edges of worn out bibles, and later by 18th century ladies who made artistic use of lots of free time.
Here are the basics of quilling, if you happen to have some thin strips of paper laying around (you roll the paper strips around a quilling needle tool, which looks something like a potters needle or awl):
And here’s a kit you can purchase if you are so inclined:
When I was finishing up my book, Playing With Paper, I happened to be in North Adams, MA visiting Storey Books, the publisher of my other books. Someone at Storey told me about Lisa Nilsson, who lives in North Adams. She happened to be out of town, but thankfully returned my e-mail and agreed to have her artwork featured in the gallery section of the book.
A detail of Profile, by Lisa Nilsson, showing the sinuses, front teeth and tongue.Lisa creates these incredibly detailed anatomical cross sections in quilling. Watch her discuss this work at the 2012 TedMED conference.
Lisa’s work is also featured in another book, High Touch, Tactile Design and Visual Explorations.
I’ve heard from many of you who are following this blog, but only from one quiller: Sandra White. Her technique uses the quill work as a background and details to cut-outs of wildlife. The quill work simulates the feathers in the duck and birds, the scales on the fish, the veins in the wildflowers, and the fur on the moose.
Heron, by Sandra WhiteThere is another woman I’ve discovered on the internet, Yulia Brodskaya, who has her own style of quill work which she uses in her artwork and illustration.
Cutting Down the Tree of Life, by Yulia Brodskaya
Noel, by Yulia BrodskayaAnd I’ll end with a quilled snowflake by Forever Filagree.
Icy Elegance, by Tanya llnickiLet it snow!
Do you practice an obscure paper technique? If so, please share it with me by emailing or leaving me 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!
December 13, 2012
13: Paper Construction (not construction paper!)
I love the work of paper engineers who can visualize in two dimensions what they want to make in three dimensions! (I can do it to a certain extent, but sometimes I just let nature take over – you can see what I mean in the short film at the bottom of this post).
Peter Callesen has an amazing ability at this sort of visualization. Spend a few minutes (or hours) on his website, and you’ll be thoroughly impressed!
Impenetrable Castle, by Peter CallesenAnd by the way, Peter Callesen is the artist who made the cut-out tree at the bottom of yesterday’s post. Thanks to the two readers who drew that to my attention! (How funny, a few years ago someone was trying to identify his work, and I recognized it then!)
When I was a kid, you could buy punch-out books like this:
Tiny City press-out bookFor Playing With Paper, I asked Kell Black to contribute a project, and he made a piece of paper cake. A template is included in the book, so you can make your own piece of cake to give to someone special on their birthday.
piece of cake, by Kell BlackKell is quite experienced at constructing with paper. Check out his books - Paper London and Paper New York - and try your hand at building your own paper cities.
Paper London, by Kell BlackCoincidentally (or not) Kell also wrote the score for the music in my film Water Paper Time. Here’s the trailer for that film:
I tried my hand at paper construction on this artists’ book, called Sound Blocks. I love how the letters look in their flat, pre-folded state.
You can see the rest of the letters (there are only five) here.
What amazing paper constructions have you seen? Please share them with me by emailing or leaving me 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!
December 12, 2012
14: On the Twelfth Day of Paper…
Happy 12/12/12! This won’t come around again for a looong time, so in honor of all of the twelves, I’ve made up my own version of The Twelve Days of Christmas. (Click on the pictures to get more information about the images).
On the twelfth day of paper, my true love gave to me
12 Cutters Cutting
paper cut by Yvette Van Boven11 Pleaters Pleating
10 Quillers Quilling
9 Scrunchers Scrunching
scrunched paper stock photo by Royalty Free Stock Photo8 Makers making
the papermaking process, if you are counting, one of the workers is pregnant!7 Swans-a-folding
6 Sheets-a-Laying
FIVE PAPER RINGS!
4 Tesselations
13 Kawasaki Roses by John McKeever folded from a sheet of elephant hide paper3 Pop-Ups
Menorah by Tracy Chong2 Paper Doves
Paper doves by Roman DiazAnd a Piece of Paper made from a Tree.
I’m sorry, but I can’t figure out who created this! I did not…______________________________________________________________________
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!
December 11, 2012
15: Rolled, Crimped, Scrunched & Wrapped
The gallery section of Playing With Paper features 18 artists who work in paper. Following are short profiles and images of four artists who manipulate paper in their own unusual ways.
Valerie Buess lives in Germany and is inspired by the uselessness of waste paper: newspaper, phone directories, magazines, train schedules, etc. She rolls pieces of paper into various forms and makes incredible sculptures by assembling hundreds (if not thousands) of them.
paper sculpture by Valerie Buess
Vincent Floderer (aka the crimper) lives in France where he performs research with his crimp team based on paper crumpling techniques that are inspired by the observation of nature’s folds, creases and associated dynamic processes.
Crumpled SIA, by Vincent Floderer
Frou-Frou- by Vincent Floderer
Microcosme, by Vincent FlodererJocelyn Chateauvert lives in South Carolina where she makes her own paper and scrunches it: after pressing the wet sheets, she uses her hands to crease, fold and pinch, integrating structure with design. The paper responds, then shrinks as it dries. She creates jewelry, lighting, sculptures and installations (I wore a pair of her earrings and a necklace at my wedding in 1996).
Lily Clouds, by Jocelyn Chateauvert
Eve, Clothes Optional, by Jocelyn ChateauvertLam Quang and Kestrel Gates of HiiH Gallery live in Oregon and make paper light sculptures. They make the paper, bend wire forms, wrap wet pressed sheets around these forms and then paint and wax them. I made their pulp when I lived in Portland and now they now own my old beater.
Here is a lovely video about their process:
HiiH Lights from Cineastas on Vimeo.
What unusual paper manipulations have you tried or seen? Please share them with me by emailing or leaving me 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!
December 10, 2012
16: Holiday Greeting Cards
Before I had children (13 years ago) I enjoyed making handmade holiday cards and sending them to friends and family. Unfortunately, that tradition has gone by the wayside, but last year, I created this virtual card (I did make the original in handmade paper) and thankfully had a talented intern who helped with the animation. I love mixing the old and the new!
I’m hoping to come up with something new for this year, but this blog is keeping me pretty busy!
When I lived in NYC in the late 1980′s, I often visited the National Stationery Show to get inspired by the current trends in card and stationery design. I also took graphic design classes at the School of Visual Arts, and I worked for a commercial printing company, where I saw all kinds of interesting designs coming through the door.
Graphic Design is a field full of experimentation and playing with paper. I have three books that I often thumb through for inspiration: Three Dimensional Graphics by Keizo Matsui, Paperwork, by Nancy Williams and Greeting Cards, edited by Takenobu Igarashi. These are all image collections of paper creations from around the world. I used to love pawing through the books on the graphic design shelves at The Strand in NYC and Powells Books in Portland, but now I’m just plugged in via the internet (although the local bookstore here is pretty amazing – they even had two of my books on the shelf when I visited). I just ordered Paper Graphics from Amazon, which looks like another inspirational book.
Rather than composing images on a computer, Lucie Thomas and Thibault Zimmermann of Zim & Zou prefer creating real objects with paper and taking photos out them. Click on this link and you can see how they set up their props.
Zim-Zou paper forest greeting cardI have a box full of clever paper cards that I’ve collected over the past 25 years, and friends often send me their old cards to add to my collection. See how simple and elegant a design can be, like this one from M&M Group. Two shapes are die cut from a sheet of paper; the paper is punched out and interlocked to form a small sculpture.
M&M Group holiday cardThe Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) always has a great collection of holiday cards, like these die cut creations.
MOMA CardsDie cutting is a mechanical form of cutting in which a die is made from actual blades that are shaped and then pounded into a piece of wood. Die cutting is done one sheet at a time as sheets of paper are fed into a press.
Laser cutting is done from digital files and can be much more intricate. An actual beam from a laser runs over the sheet of paper, cutting away bits and pieces as it follows a computer program.
Laser cut ornaments by The Hummingbird Card CompanyLetterpress printing has had a big comeback in the past 20 years. I was fortunate to work for a few years at Oblation Papers & Press in Portland, Oregon when I first moved there.
They make their own paper and letterpress print wedding invitations and cards for other social occasions, and they also showcase cards, papers and other stationery products from around the world in their retail store.
partridge in a pear, by Oblation Papers & PressI’ve pinned a group of other unique cards on a Pinterest board. Do you have some favorite cards that you’ve designed or fallen in love with? Please share them with me by emailing or leaving me a comment below (pictures are welcome!)
_________________________________________________________________________
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!
December 9, 2012
17: 2D Handmade Paper
Many of you know about my work in handmade paper, and I’d like to dedicate a couple of posts to papermaking. This one features two-dimensional work.
First, a brief history about how I got involved with hand papermaking. I moved to NYC in 1987, right after college in Tennessee. After a brief internship with the Department of Cultural Affair’s Percent for Art Program, I fell into a series of jobs in the printing and graphic design industries. A brief trip to Japan during this time (to visit my father who was doing physics research there) sparked my interest in paper; I started looking for ways to go to Japan and study, but soon I discovered Dieu Donné Papermill right in NYC. The Japan trip was scrapped, and I became an intern at Dieu Donné and was soon hired as program director. I worked there for six years.
During that time, I was approached by an editor at Storey Books about writing a how-to book on making paper with plants. This eventually led to the publication of my two how-to books on papermaking: Papermaking with Garden Plants & Common Weeds and The Papermaker’s Companion.
The Papermaker’s Companion has chapters on many of the ways of working two- and three-dimensionally with paper pulp. I recently completed The Papermaker’s Studio Guide DVD, which is a visual companion to The Papermaker’s Companion. Here’s the introduction to the DVD:
The last ‘chapter’ of the DVD features 22 paper artists who are working in the medium. Following is a sneak peak of the work of some of the artists featured in the film who are working two-dimensionally with handmade paper.
Diane Jacob’s Hairy Times: Diane embedded actual hair between sheets of paper made from cotton and newspaper pulp.
The Hairy Times, by Diane JacobsJohn Risseeuw has done a series in which the pulp is made from the clothing of landmine victims. This piece also features shaped paper and letterpress printing.
La Explosion, by John RisseeuwMichele Samour makes multiple shaped paper circles in pigmented abaca which she configures according to the venue where she is exhibiting.
Eyes of God, by Michele SamourOblation Papers & Press makes handmade paper wedding invitations and other cards for other occasions. This card features a Pablo Neruda poem that is letterpress printed on a shaped sheet.
Neruda Heart, by Oblation Papers & PressWe filmed part of The Papermaker’s Studio Guide at Oblation Papers & Press. Here’s a short profile of the company.
EXTRAS Oblation Papers and Press from Ian Lucero on Vimeo.
Marilyn Wold uses collage techniques during the wet sheetforming process.
Forgotten Memories, by Marilyn WoldPaul Wong also collages during the wet process and applies xerox transfers on top of the sheets after they are dry.
Unsettled, by Paul WongRobbin Ami Silverberg embeds matchsticks between sheets of paper in her artists’ book, From Dreams to Ashes.
From Dreams to Ashes, by Robbin Ami SilverbergHere is another example of embedding: a string drawing embedded between sheets of translucent abaca. This is one in a suite of drawings that I made entitled String Theory.
Rooted (in the heavens & in the earth) by Helen HiebertEmbossing wet paper is another two-dimensional technique, which Marjorie Tomchuk does elegantly.
Spray, by Marjorie TomchukThere are several artists who have perfected various pulp painting techniques. Here are two examples, one by Lynn Sures, the other by Pat Gentenaar.
White Sands, by Lynn Sures
Ducks, by Pat GentenaarOne other two-dimensional technique is watermarking, which has a long tradition in hand papermaking. Traditional watermarks were made from twisted and soldered wire designs, but contemporary artists have developed innovative techniques using a variety of other materials. Watermarks can be magical – invisible in the sheet until illuminated or backlit. Robbin Silverberg incorporated the technique into her artists’ book, Affidavit.
Affidavit, by Robbin Ami SilverbergHere’s a watermark I made featuring the College Book Art Assocation‘s logo.
I write a column for Hand Papermaking Magazine called Unique Techniques, in which I profile paper artists who are practicing unusual and innovative techniques with the medium. Do you have a unique technique? If so, please share it with me by emailing or leaving me 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!
December 8, 2012
17.5 Happy Hanukkah!
This is just a quick note to say Happy Hannukah! I forgot to mention it in today’s post, but it begins tonight, right? I’m just on time!
Since today was dedicated to pop-ups, here’s another amazing pop-up artist, Robert Sabuda. He happens to have a how-to for this paper menorah on his website.
Robert Sabuda’s paper menorahAnd here’s a DIY paper dreidel. Find more Jewish games here.
DIY paper dreidelI pinned a few other Hanukkah paper creations on this Paper Hanukkah Pinterest board.
Have you seen other inspiring Hanukkah ideas in paper? If so, please share it with me by emailing or leaving me 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!
18: Pop-Ups
I think I could write 25 posts about pop-ups, but I’ll spare you…
Pop-ups were my foray into paper arts. In 1986, when I spent my junior year abroad in Germany, I took a class in letter arts and discovered a three-dimensional alphabet in a book of fonts. The font was printed flat on the page, but illustrated in a way that I could recreate it three-dimensionally in paper.
I soon discovered origamic architecture, a Japanese paper form first explored by Masahiro Chatani who produced several how-to books on the subject, many with templates. Pictured below is my first one-of-a-kind artists’ books, created in about 1993, called Uniform.
Uniform, handmade cotton paper, 6″ 18″ x 6″, by Helen HiebertHere’s an animated DIY origamic architectural pop-up by Peter Dahmen.
As you can see in the animation, these things take time and patience to cut and fold, but isn’t it amazing, that you can simply make a series of parallel slits in a flat sheet, remove nothing, and just by folding come up with a beautiful architectural form?
And speaking of DIY, Carol Barton has a series of three Pocket Paper Engineer books which come with illustrated pages that you can cut out and fold into a variety of pop-up constructions. Going through the books provides an excellent hands-on experience in making pop-ups.
Ingrid Siliakus and Shawn Sheehy are two pop-up artists who are featured in Playing With Paper. Ingrid’s pop-ups are very architectural (her work is influenced by Chatani’s), both in design and execution.
Cathedral, by Ingrid SiliakusSome of her pieces take months of precise drawings and calculations to develop, as she designs a piece, layer by layer.
Amsterdam, 2011, Equinox, by Ingrid SiliakusShawn Sheehy makes pop-ups in the form of cards and artists’ books. His subject matter tends to be creatures of the wild.
Snail, by Shawn SheehyShawn is currently working with Candlewick Press on a trade publication of his book “Welcome to the NeighborWood”, which is scheduled for a spring 2015 release. All of the artwork will be produced with collaged handmade paper.
Poinsettia, by Shawn SheehyShawn teaches pop-up workshops around the country, often at botanical gardens; his 2013 workshops are all about pop-up heirloom vegetables.
I had the good fortune of hosting Paul Johnson in my home last spring for a few days, and he creates a different form of pop-ups, based on a form of packaging design. Paul created a pop-up paper castle project for my book, Playing With Paper.
Sculptural Book, by Paul JohnsonPaul does lots of teaching in the UK for students as well as teachers and has written several books. His next book, Pop-up Paper Projects (250 pop-up ideas) is being published by Routledge (UK and USA) next spring and is geared towards teachers.
In a way, my career has come full circle (or one circle amongst many has been drawn to a close). I recently completed this artists’ book, The Pop-Up Hand Shadow Book, which is now in several special collections libraries around the country.
Pop-Up Hand Shadow Book, by Helen HiebertAnd this is just the tip of the iceberg! I have a few pop-up books listed in a shelf on Goodreads, but there are many more out there.
What is your favorite pop-up book and why? Please share it with me by emailing or leaving me 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!
December 7, 2012
19: Paper Cutting
Perhaps the simplest paper cuts are paper snowflakes. How About Orange is a blog featuring some a cool DIY selection. By the way, I woke up this morning to fresh snowfall here in Colorado.
DIY Paper Snowflakes by How About Orange
Pin It
Snowflake pattern and result, by How About Orange
There are paper cutting traditions in many countries. Mexico is famous for Papel Picado, which are cut from tissue paper and are commonly displayed for both secular and religious occasions, such as Easter, Christmas, the Day of the Dead, as well as during weddings, quinceañeras, baptisms, and christenings.
by BY: LOS CACAHUATES, at The Museum of International Folk ArtChina was the first culture to make papercuts, which were sometimes used to decorate doors and windows. They were also used as patterns for embroidery and lacquer work.
Chinese Paper Cut Snake, Symbol of the Year 2013Each country has a distinctive style of paper cutting. Here’s an example of a multi-colored polish paper cut.
Wycinanki: Polish Paper ArtThere are some amazing artists doing contemporary paper cuts. I tried to find at least one artist to represent each paper technique for my book, Playing With Paper, and I chose Béatrice Coron for paper cutting. She lives and works in NYC and is so prolific that I think she must have an exacto knife instead of a forefinger and thumb. In addition to making paper cuts as illustrations, artwork and artists’ books, she has done many public commissions in which her paper cuts have been fabricated in other materials, such as metal.
Béatrice Coron, The Melody, 2011, metal fences & gym mats, 853 Macy Place, The BronxBéatrice also has several products available in her on-line shop as well as an amazing resource page for papercutting.
She also presented for this TED talk where she walked onto the stage in a breathtaking paper cape.
I got to know another paper artist named Gin Flynn when I lived in Portland. She took a papermaking workshop from me way back when I first moved there, and I’ve been following her work ever since.
Virginia Flynn, WitnessThe text for Gin’s piece Witness was taken from a poem by Michael Wynn, which appeared in the Oregonian newspaper a few years ago. Gin was deeply moved by the message and inspired to illustrate it. Since then she has collaborated with the poet on another project.
Do you have a unique way of cutting paper, or have you seen one? If so, please share it with me by emailing or leaving me a comment below. P.S. I love pictures!
_________________________________________________________________________
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!
December 6, 2012
20: St Nicholas Day Giveaway!
In honor of St. Nicholas Day, I’m doing my first giveaway! St Nicholas, a 4th century saint, had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him. He became the model for Santa Claus.
Purchase an origami Santa from Louise’s StudioHere’s what St. Nick has in store for you:
Pin It- A copy of my book, Playing With Paper
- three window stars (one of the projects in the book)
- an assortment of kite paper, so that you can make your own window stars (these make great gifts for teachers, the mailman, etc.)
There are four easy ways to get in on this game:
1. Leave your answer in the comments below to the question: what is your favorite holiday craft? (it doesn’t have to be paper-related)
2. Share a holiday greeting on my Facebook page (remember in order for my Facebook updates to show in your newsfeed, you need to hover over the “LIKED” button on our page and select “Show in News Feed”).
3. Subscribe to this Blog in the upper right-hand corner.
4. Join my mailing list to receive updates about where I’m traveling and teaching, paper-related events around the country, and more.
Enter by Midnight MST Thursday December 13th. Open to U.S. and Canadian residents only.
I will randomly pick a winner on Friday, December 14th, so check your email!
___________________________________________________________________
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!
