HAN D P A P E R M A K I NG
N E W S L E T T E R
Number 77, January 2007
Newsletter Editor: Tom Bannister. Columnists: Cathleen A. Baker, Sidney Berger, John Bordley, Susan Gosin, Helen Hiebert, Elaine Koretsky, Winifred Radolan, Pamela Wood.
Hand Papermaking Newsletter is published
four times per year. In summer and winter it is
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The deadline for the next newsletter (April 2007)
is February 15. Please direct all correspondence to
the address above. We encourage letters from our
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comments on articles in Hand Papermaking
magazine, questions or remarks for newsletter
columnists, and news of special events or activities.
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display ad rates available upon request.
Hand Papermaking is a 501(c)(3) non-profit
organization. Staff: Tom Bannister, Executive
Director; Mina Takahashi, Magazine Editor.
Board of Directors: Cathleen A. Baker, Inge
Bruggeman, Gail Deery, Helen Hiebert, Peter
Hopkins, Barbara Lippman, David Marshall,
Margaret Prentice, John Risseeuw, Marilyn
Sward, Beck Whitehead. Board of Advisors:
Timothy Barrett, Simon Blattner, Gregor R.
Campbell, Mindell Dubansky, Jane Farmer,
Helen C. Frederick, Elaine Koretsky, James Sitter,
Claire Van Vliet, James Yarnell. Co-founders:
Amanda Degener and Michael Durgin.
Dear Readers,
As we come down to earth after an amazing twentieth anniversary, I want to
express appreciation to all who made it such a memorable year. Because of generous donors,
enthusiastic volunteers, and committed staff, Hand Papermaking’s Paper-In-Flight
events were greatly successful, unprecedented in the organization’s history. We commissioned
well-known artist Lesley Dill, published a special color issue, offered classes,
hosted demos and exhibitions, attracted some 200 aficionados to a handmade paper kite
symposium, and feasted with 80 friends at a benefit dinner topped off by a spectacular
hot-air balloon performance by Helen Hiebert. Most importantly, inspired by board
member Bobbie Lippman, we used this anniversary year to secure our long-term future
by establishing the Hand Papermaking Endowment Fund. These are accomplishments
of which we can all be proud.
As the new chair of Hand Papermaking’s board of directors I also want to acknowledge
the debt of gratitude we owe to retiring chair Marilyn Sward. Her twelve years of
dedicated service on the board helped the organization maintain a solid foundation
while it reached new heights. Marilyn ably guided our growth and continually pressed
for increasing levels of excellence. I will endeavor to match that record during my tenure,
and ask for your continued support as we press forward into Hand Papermaking’s
third decade. Cheers!
Sincerely,
John Risseeuw
Dear Hand Papermaking,
It is with great sadness that I must announce to your readers that Phoebe Jane
Easton passed away at her home in Westlake Village, California, during the early
morning of Saturday, November 11, 2006. Phoebe was well known to the bookbinding
and decorative paper community for her many years of devotion and patronage of the
“floating art” of marbling as an independent scholar. Her gentle enthusiasm for the art
will be missed.
In 2004, Phoebe published a brief account of what prompted her passion for the
topic. “On a rainy spring day while I was admiring my collection of fore-edge paintings,
something caught my eye, something that I never before had paid attention to: the
marbled end papers of the books. The beautiful papers differed greatly from volume
to volume, and I had no idea how they were accomplished. When the rain slackened, I
hurried to the library, certain that I would quickly find an answer. The library staff was
of little help. I asked my husband, and to my astonishment, he did not know either. It is
well to remember that this was 1968.”
Inspired to learn more, Phoebe visited the Los Angeles County Public Library, but
found little information on current practice of the art. This motivated her to travel across
the US and abroad visiting many leading institutions as well as living masters to learn
more. Her first publication was modest but significant. In 1972, she published a short
article in Volume 8 of Coranto: Journal of the Friends of the Libraries, University of Southern
California. Entitled “Suminagashi: the Japanese Way with Marbled Paper,” it provided
the very first exposure to the tradition of
marbled paper production in East Asia for
many western readers.
Over a decade later, the late Muir
Dawson published a limited edition of
Phoebe’s book Marbling: A History and a
Bibliography at his bookshop in Los Angeles
in 1983. Her work contained original
examples of historical and contemporary
marbled papers from around the world
and is now widely regarded as a major
contribution to the field of marbling and
decorative papers in general.
Phoebe Jane Easton’s efforts greatly
enhanced our understanding of decorative
papers and fostered an international
network of practicing artists. Before her
passing, she gave permission to have a
revised version of her bibliography publicly
mounted on the Society of Marbling web
site at <www.marbling.org>. Volunteers
are needed to help edit entries. Anyone
interested in helping with this effort should
contact me at <Jake@marbling.org>.
Sincerely,
Jake Benson
ALONG THE PAPER ROAD...
This regular feature offers paper musings from
Elaine Koretsky – renowned paper historian,
researcher, and traveler. In this article, Elaine
relates some of the adventure surrounding her
final Silk Road paper research.
In the spring of 2006 I decided upon
another expedition to China, to further
explore the dynamic Tibetan culture that I
had found in 2003. In my previous article
(October 2006 Newsletter) I described our
wonderful experiences in eastern Tibet,
mentioning that we looked forward to return
for an unhurried trip that allowed time
for deeper exploration.
Coincidentally, while I was planning
this trip, I received a very official notice
that the Research Institute of the Culture
and History of the People’s Government of
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region would
host “The International Seminar for China
Xinjiang Loulanlogy in September 2006.”
The organizer was Mr. Tilak Ibrayim, Head
of the Office of Consultants for the Xinjiang
Research Institute. He was soliciting
cultural and art experts or scholars to join in
the seminar, and send him a thesis for consideration.
A group of 150 persons would
be selected from the papers submitted. The
program sounded very interesting. In 1993
I had discovered and documented two hand
papermakers in the oasis city of Hotan,
resulting in my film “The Last Papermakers
Along the Ancient Silk Road,” but I thought
my investigations might not be complete.
The main problem was that Xinjiang
Province is largely inhabited by Uygurs,
who are ethnically and culturally completely
separate from the Han Chinese
who dominate China. The Uygurs are
Muslim and have their own language, both
spoken and written. Unfortunately, our
1993 guide throughout the desert cities
was Han Chinese, although our driver was
Uygur. When we first met the guide, Jonas,
I asked him if he was fluent in the Uygur
language. He assured me that of course he
was, having been born in Urumqi, Capital
of Xinjiang Province. This turned out
to be totally false – he could neither read
nor speak the Uygur language, which has
similar roots as modern Turkish. The only
way he could translate Uygur was to ask his
driver to translate Uygur into Chinese, and
then Jonas could reply to us in English. The
three-way translation was dreadful, resulting
in totally unsatisfactory experiences at the
museums in Turfan and Urumqi. Another
important part of my research is scouring
the marketplaces everywhere and asking the
vendors many questions, and Jonas proved
impossible. Fortunately in Hotan I located
a superb Uygur guide, and thus found my
two papermakers, Mrs. Razyihan and Mr.
Masum Ahon, whom I documented on film.
The solicitation from Tilak Ibrayim
seemed fortuitous. I wrote up a thesis about
my search and documentation of traditional
hand papermaking in Hotan. When
I learned that Mr. Ibrayim had accepted my
thesis, I arranged our trip to China to include
the Xinjiang segment. Unfortunately,
the seminar was cancelled, but we decided
that it might be worthwhile for my research
to re-visit this province.
We departed Boston for the first part
of our trip on August 30, 2006, bound for
Sichuan Province, arriving in Chengdu,
China, on September 2. Our favorite guide
and friend, Wu Zeng Ou, was on hand to
meet us, and we enjoyed twelve fascinating
days of total immersion in Tibetan culture.
The major reason for the return visit
to the Himalayas was to verify my ideas
about the spread of papermaking from
China to the rest of the world. I had recently
completed a new film, “Papermaking on
the Roof of the World.” It contained visual
documentation of Tibetan papermaking
throughout the Himalayas, including Tibet,
Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim, and the Yunnan and
Sichuan Provinces of China. In the film, I
quoted the writing of Dr. Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin,
that according to Chinese documents...
“A new trade route from China to Tibet and
Tibet to Nepal opened for the first time in
+650 A.D., as a result of the marriage of the
Tibetan king to a Nepalese princess in 639
and to a Chinese princess in 641. In 650
the Tibetan king asked the Chinese court
to send him silkworms for breeding, and
craftsmen for making wine, mills, paper,
and ink.” Apparently the Chinese emperor
sent papermakers who formed sheets by
pouring pulp onto a cloth-covered framework
floating in water. When the frame was
removed from the water, the sheet of paper
was left attached, and the frame was put in
the sun to dry. This was the sole sheet forming
technique we observed not only in the
Himalayan areas, but also further south, in
the adjoining Buddhist areas of Myanmar,
Thailand, and Laos.
The idea of a return to Xinjiang Province
meshed with this trip to eastern Tibet,
because the process of papermaking that
I observed in Hotan in 1993 was identical
to that of the Himalayan areas. Since the
religion of the Uygurs is Muslim, and their
writing employs Arabic characters, it was
somewhat surprising to see that their papermaking
method was quite different from
that of the Arabs. When I began reviewing
the history of the Uygurs, I found they had
lived in this area as early as 300 B.C., along
with Tibetans, Mongols, Hui, and others. By
the 3rd century A.D., these peoples began
to adopt the Buddhist religion. It was later,
in the 9th century A.D. that the Muslim religion
took over as the dominant religion of
the Uygurs, who then were settled primarily
in Xinjiang Province. Insofar as papermaking
is involved, I could see that it was logical
for Uygurs in Hotan to use Tibetan papermaking
techniques if indeed papermaking
began there in the sixth century. It was not
until the 8th century that papermaking
spread to Samarkand and other Muslim
areas; and the sheet forming that they
learned from the Chinese was the method
of dipping a mould with a detachable screen
into a vat of pulp.
I had many opportunities to examine
Tibetan manuscripts closely and I actually
own a collection of them. On this new trip
to Xinjiang Province I hoped to examine the
early papers made in that province, carefully
inspecting them by transmitted light to
ascertain the type of sheet formation that
was used.
We finished our spectacular journey
through Sichuan Province on September 15
and flew to Urumqi. The plan was to meet
with a Uygur-speaking guide who would
organize our trip and act as a translator.
When our plane landed, we found Tilak
Ibrayim, with his official Lincoln Continental
vehicle, complete with a chauffeur, along
with our new guide, waiting for us at the
airport. We arrived at the designated hotel,
piled out of the car with our entire luggage,
and I walked up to the front desk to sign in.
To our astonishment, the clerk informed
us that we had no reservation and the hotel
was fully booked. Our guide had neglected
to make the booking. Tilak made some calls,
located another hotel, and we drove across
the city to that one. The hotel was fine. I
only hoped that this incident was not a foreshadowing
of future occurrences.
That evening we walked to a nearby
restaurant for a pre-arranged dinner. Other
people had been invited, and I was introduced
to the group as an important paper
historian from the United States. It was
stated that I had documented traditional
Uygur papermaking in Hotan in a widely
shown film that announced this papermaking
to the whole world. The guests included
Tilak and others in Xinjiang research. The
food was excellent, but no one had anything
to offer to my paper research.
On the way back to the hotel our guide
discussed vague plans for the next few
days, namely talks with important people
and museum visits, with travel along the
Silk Road to Turpan, Korla, Kuqa, Kashgar,
Hotan, and back to Urumqi. He mentioned
a sister-in-law who was a travel agent. She
was arranging a car and driver for us, and
making hotel reservations in the towns we
would visit.
The following day we went to the Xinjiang
Provincial Museum, now housed in a
splendid new building and featuring 3,000
to 4,000 year-old mummies, quite different
from 1993. I had a mixed experience.
A large group of young people was touring
the museum, and I was immediately invited
to lecture on traditional Uygur papermaking.
The group
was fascinated to
hear about this
aspect of their
culture, and asked
many questions.
Meanwhile, I was
looking forward
to closely examining the museum’s old
manuscripts that I remembered from 1993.
But our guide had not made a prior request
and special permission was necessary to
see them. The day before we left for the
U.S., permission was given. We returned to
the museum and a Mr. Abdukayum Khoja
showed us some fragments of documents
related to paper history in Xinjiang. Every
piece was permanently glued to a piece of
cardboard. It was not possible to examine
them by transmitted light. Finally, Mr.
Khoja proudly brought out a 19th century
Persian Koran, declaring that here was a
book written on Hotan paper. I examined
it closely and promptly announced that the
paper was clearly made in Persia or another
Arab country, as shown by the unmistakable
screen pattern in the paper when held up
to light. Also, the surface of each sheet was
highly burnished, typical of Arabic paper.
As we traveled through the oasis cities
we visited various museums. But my guide
still had not made any advance appointments,
and I was treated as an ordinary
tourist, viewing all the exhibits enclosed in
glass cases. I had no special access to the
collections of paper stored in the archives.
Therefore, I was never able to examine any
manuscript, paper, or book by transmitted
light, in order to further confirm my
opinion that papermaking had spread from
Tibet to Xinjiang. Fortunately, my own prior
research of ancient Chinese documents
had been very productive. I always arranged
beforehand at museums or libraries to meet
with the proper person. I was considered a
research scholar, and permitted to personally
examine ancient manuscripts and
photograph them. For instance: at the Bibliotheque
Nationale
in Paris, France, I
inspected ancient
Chinese documents
found in the
Dunhaung caves in
Western China; at
the Archaeological
Museum in Lanzhou, China, I thoroughly
examined and photographed the 2,200 yearold
papers found buried in Gansu Province;
at the Shaanxi Provincial Museum in Xi’an,
China, the director allowed me to photograph
the earliest paper fragments found in
Chang’an.
Besides examining ancient paper, I
hoped to document traditional Uygur hand
papermaking. On September 21 we began
the long drive to Hotan, where I had filmed
the two papermakers in 1993. Our guide
had told me several times that there were
many other Uygur papermakers in the area,
not only in Hotan but also in the adjoining
districts of Karakesh and Lop. It became evident,
however, that our guide did not comprehend
the distances between oases. Our
driver did a fine job, but the travel from one
oasis city to another was so poorly planned
that on three occasions he was forced to
drive half the night to reach our destination.
The trip to Hotan was particularly bizarre.
At 11:30 p.m. our guide announced that we
were very close to the home of a papermaker,
and we should stop there. When
the driver finally located the proper house,
what happened was surreal. The street was
pitch black – no light anywhere. I got out
of the car, stumbled through bushes, and
finally reached the dilapidated house of the
papermaker. The first room I entered had
no roof, but it led into a second room that
did have a roof. I couldn’t believe the apparition
I saw was a real person. In the gloom of
an oil lamp, there stood a very elderly man
with a long white beard, wearing pajamas,
standing next to his bed. Apparently, he had
just been awakened. This was the papermaker
Tho Tue Baki. The whole thing was a
pitiful sight. Despite the late hour, he spoke
with the guide and showed him a bundle of
handmade paper. I was told that we would
be visiting him and other papermakers he
knew the next day. Then we left, arriving in
Hotan at 1:00 a.m. There were a number of
other weird incidents that occurred during
the entire journey – very funny incidents,
not pathetic, like the encounter with Mr.
Baki. But those stories would require an
entire chapter on the paper road.
In the morning we outlined the day’s
activities. We wanted to visit the home of
Mrs. Razyihan, who was the papermaking
star of our film “The Last Papermakers
Along the Ancient Silk Road.” I knew that
Mrs. Razyihan had died, but our guide said
that her daughter was now the papermaker
and so I hoped to film her work. We also
wished to see the Hotan Museum, spend
some time at the Old Bazaar, and see other
papermaking in the area.
Now I discovered that our guide
actually had no idea where the papermakers
lived or worked. He only had a friend who
apparently knew where to find any of these
people. But the friend had gone to a wedding
an hour drive away. By asking many questions,
our driver eventually found the elegantly
furnished house where the wedding was
taking place. The friend was there, but did
not want to leave the wedding immediately.
We had to stay for the wedding dinner, a
sumptuous meal, but by the time we got
back to Hotan, half the day was gone. Razyihan’s
daughter was at home and remembered
us from 1993. We expressed condolences on
the loss of her mother, and gave her a copy
of our film. But there was no papermaking
to document. The daughter had stopped
making paper and all her equipment had
been given to the Shanghai Museum.
So where were all the papermakers that
the guide had promised we would meet?
To be continued in the April 2007 issue.
1 Needham, Joseph, Science and Civilisation
in China, Vol. 5, Part I: Paper and Printing
by Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin, publ. by Cambridge
University Press, Great Britain, 1985.
BEGINNER TOPICS
Well-known author and teacher Helen Hiebert
offers helpful tips and guidance for newcomers.
Here she introduces paper casting with sand.
I was first introduced to the idea
of using sand as a casting medium at
the 2000 Paper & Book Intensive held
in Oxbow, Michigan. I was teaching a
workshop, and one of my perks was getting
to take a workshop during the second half
of the session with Amanda Degener, who
has worked sculpturally with paper in many
ways. (Amanda was introduced to this
idea by Winifred Lutz, an innovative paper
sculptor in her own right, when she studied
with her at Yale. Although Amanda didn’t
actually demonstrate the technique (she
showed slides of work created using it), I
was intrigued.
Here’s the basic idea: First, you cast
an object in paper as you normally would,
by tamping paper pulp or sheets of paper
over or into a relief form. Next, you pour
heated sand over the top of the object, which
provides weight, keeping the object in
contact with the paper. The sand also wicks
moisture from the paper. This technique is
ideal for high shrinkage pulps (like abaca,
flax, and hemp) which would pop off of the
mold if not weighted down by the sand.
In the summer of 2005, I attended
the International Association of Hand
Papermaker’s Congress in Banff, Canada,
and was reminded about sand when I saw
a video produced by Italian paper artist Roberto
Mannino. His video showed footage of
using a metal tray on top of a printmaking
hot plate to heat sand. And here’s his really
ingenious idea. He took pressed, still wet
sheets of paper to the beach and used the
plentiful hot sand heated by mother nature
to cast his forms. Through his experiments,
Mannino has noticed that darker sands
(containing iron) heat up faster and hold
heat longer than sands containing pumice
(which are lighter in color and weight).
Now for some how-to details. When
choosing the item to cast, pick a rigid form
made of ceramic, metal, glass, or plaster –
basically anything you would normally cast
paper onto or into. As with any mold, you
need to be aware of undercuts, and you may
need to apply a barrier, like a release agent,
to prevent the paper from sticking to the
mold. When setting up to cast, choose a flatbottomed
heat-proof glass, enamel, or metal
tray or pan to set your object to be cast in (the
heat of the sand can melt plastic – I speak
from experience!). Make sure that it is deep
enough to hold your object and the sand
which will be poured on top of it. You might
need more sand than you’d think, to provide
enough weight and so that you can continually
change the sand until the paper is dry.
When you cast with sand directly on
high shrinkage pulps, you don’t tend to
see the texture of the sand on the paper.
However, some sand might stick to the
sheets, particularly if you have lots of little
crevices, and you might get some discoloration
on the paper. If this is a concern, you
should put something, like a thin layer of
toilet paper or a piece of thin cotton (like a
bedsheet), between the paper and sand.
When casting the paper or pulp, apply
it to the form as you normally would. Heat
your sand on a heat-proof tray, pot, or pan
on a hot table or stove, in the oven or in a
microwave. After you have all of your paper
on the mold, use a heat-proof cup or scoop
(along with heat-proof gloves, if necessary)
to pour the hot sand over the object. The
sand closest to the paper will get the wettest
and it will also cool off, so repeatedly changing
the sand is necessary and will speed up
the drying time. You will need to experiment
with how much sand you need to apply
enough weight, too, so that the paper doesn’t
shrink from the mold as it dries. Another tactic
Mannino uses is to place a metal grating
or tray with holes in it on top of the object
covered with sand to add weight and prevent
the paper from warping. Once the paper is
dry, you can remove it from the mold.
I’d love to hear about your innovative
papermaking techniques, if you’d like me
to consider them for my column. In the
meantime, I’ll be trying out some sand
casting at the beach.
TEACHING HAND PAPERMAKING
Based in Philadelphia, Winifred Radolan operates
an itinerant teaching papermill, and has
taught papermaking to thousands of adults and
children. In this installment Winnie uses papermaking
to sensitize students to conservation
issues with the help of colleague Betsy Miraglia.
It was an early, if not quite bright start
last Thursday morning as I pulled into the
parking lot of Haverford High School at
6:50 am. For once I had arrived even before
the teacher, had plenty of time to unload my
papermaking and horseshoe crab paraphernalia,
and had several parking places
from which to choose! And on this balmy
November day the first Horseshoe Crab
Conservation and the Arts classroom visit
for the 2007 season commenced.
For the past three years fellow Guild of
Papermakers charter member Betsy Miraglia
has generously funded my classroom
visits to Mark Wangberg’s art students at
Haverford High School. Mark is an extraordinary
book artist and educator whose students’
works have been selected to appear
in Ecological Research and Development’s
juried “Poems, Tales and Images” anthologies
since 2004.
Now entering its fifth year, the
Horseshoe Crab Conservation and the Arts
in-school program is my contribution to
ERDG, the only non-profit organization
dedicated to the preservation of the
world’s four remaining horseshoe crab
species. During the course of a half day
visit with students who range in age from
pre-K through high school, I introduce
the history, physiology, and conservation
issues surrounding this ancient marine
invertebrate. I present ERDG’s belief that
by elevating horseshoe crab’s to the subject
matter of artistic expressions we can go
far towards bringing species awareness
to humankind. I challenge students to
become environmental stewards through
sharing their visual and language art
works created in celebration of this ancient
mariner. ERDG sponsors an annual juried
arts competition in which selected works
become part of an internationally traveling
art exhibition, are published in the “Poems,
Tales and Images” anthology, and become a
permanent part of the web gallery on <www.
horseshoecrab.org>.
To culminate the classroom visit I give
students the opportunity to participate in
my art form of choice – hand papermaking.
Everyone learns to form their base sheet
of paper from whatever plant
fiber mixture I might have with
me. Then students have the
opportunity to apply colored veil
layers of pulp using horseshoe
crab stencils and other environmentally
related images. The
handmade paper experience is my
gift to the students for their participation
in the program. When I’ve gone,
the classroom teacher guides these young
people in creating and submitting works
of language and/or visual art for ERDG’s
annual juried Horseshoe Crab in the Arts
competition.
On this particular Thursday, Mark
had arranged for his art students to have
an extended visit with horseshoe crabs and
paper – from 7:30 am until about noon!
Because a few
of the students
were in class
for last season’s
papermaking
lesson, Betsy
agreed to show
her methods of
working with
handmade paper
this time, which
differ from mine. So I brought lots of base
sheet pulp and veil colors, and after my
horseshoe crab lesson I sat back and gave
her the floor!
Betsy floated a 24” x 24” pouring
mould in a large tray which contained a
low level of water and a drain. She lined the
mould with fine mesh, then began filling
it by hand with casting consistency pulp to
about one-half inch depth. After covering
the smoothed out pulp with another layer of
mesh, she fitted a 24” x 24” piece of insulation
board into the mould over the pulp
and applied downward pressure. She also
opened the tray drain over a bucket, releasing
the water. After the insulation boardapplied
pressure had pressed out enough
water, everything was inverted and the
mould and layer of mesh was removed, giving
her a large stable base sheet upon which
to work. She explained that this method has
given her a way to make really large sheets
that are easier for her to move around her
studio and manipulate. (The insulation
board becomes a support that holds the
paperworks in progress.) Betsy also showed
examples of her method of printing on her
paper using collograph plates.
The students all began forming small
square base sheets using Betsy’s pour/cast
method. They transferred their new sheets
onto plexiglas and then began dipping into
the finely beaten, colored vats of veil pulp
with stencils and screens, collecting shapes
and patterns to couch on top of their base
sheets. Additional linear patterns were
created by applying colored pulp by pipette.
All work was sponge pressed and allowed to
dry adhered to the plexi overnight. The time
passed quickly and before noon almost
every student had completed
at least four squares. The morning
ended up being a wonderfully
exciting collaboration between the
students, Betsy, Mark, and me. I
look forward to seeing what these
talented young people will submit
to this year’s arts competition!
ON-LINE
Pamela Wood of Arizona makes one-of-a-kind
books from her handmade papers. She explores
the internet seeking out notable paper-related
sites. In this issue we visit a lovely French-
Canadian mill.
My latest site takes us to Quebec in
Canada: <www.papeteriesaintgilles.com>.
It’s amazing the myriad ways papermaking
gets interpreted on the web. This site has
a fantastic opening splash page, a real
gem: water slowly drains beneath a mould
and deckle freshly pulled from the vat. To
me, it sums up what papermaking is all
about by engaging our senses. The only
thing missing here is the sound of water.
Unfortunately, this opening is the best part
of the web site. The rest falls a bit short.
After clicking on English or Français, a
slide show sequence shows the bucolic mill
building in all seasons; a nice welcome to
the Papeterie Saint-Gilles. Clicking History
on the left, we get a brief statement of the
1965 founding of this paper studio. Click
on Presentation for a series of enlargeable
photos: studio, gallery, boutique, etc.
Next take a look at Processing. I
love learning and as an avid web surfer,
I continue to find all sorts of examples of
virtual papermaking instruction. This area
of the site has the
greatest potential, yet
in this case it is the
weakest. The stylized
drawings have a
certain appeal but are
difficult to decipher,
and the process
descriptions are really too basic. It is such a
shame, since everything was going so well
up to this point.
More effort went into the Products
page. By the look of the image sequence,
the paperwork is very handsome and of
excellent quality. Seems this paper studio
is famous for flower petal paper. You get a
glimpse of it on all the backgrounds. The
final page is for contact information with
maps and other details to make planning
your visit easy. It would be a great visit to
include on the way to or from Quebec City
or Montreal.
PAPER HISTORY
Cathleen A. Baker, PhD, is Senior Paper
Conservator at the University of Michigan
Libraries. She has written books about Dard
Hunter and John DePol, and is proprietor of
The Legacy Press, specializing in the printing,
paper and book arts. A Samuel H. Kress
Conservation Publication Fellow, she is writing
a book on nineteenth-century American paper
and papermaking. This final installment of
her three-part article offers analyses of the
Whatman Papers used for Audubon’s
The Birds of America (London, 1826-1838).
Fiber content, gelatin, alum, rosin,
and pH tests were carried out on paper
samples from all four of the plate volumes
of the Syracuse University’s set. While the
results of these tests indicate that the paper
is acidic, qualitative criteria indicate that the
presence of harmful chemicals in the paper
and relatively low pH values do not describe
the actual condition of the paper.
Fiber content: Fiber samples were examined
using a polarizing light microscope.
They were also stained with the Herzberg
and “C” stains, and all the samples tested
positive for “rag.” The papers were composed
primarily of flax fibers (linen rags)
with a small percentage of cotton. The flax
fibers are relatively short with cut ends,
very well beaten and fibrillated. The cotton
fibers, by comparison, are longer and displayed
few of the effects of beating.
Gelatin: Using the Biuret test, which
tests for proteins, gelatin was found in the
larger samples tested; when only a few fibers
scraped from the surfaces were tested,
the results were negative. To check whether
this negative result was due to an absence
of gelatin in the samples or to the insufficient
quantity of sample, similar amounts
of fibers were scraped from the surfaces of
samples that tested positive; these also gave
negative results. Despite the fact that the
sample size interferes with test results, it
is probable that gelatin is present in all the
samples. It is also possible to state that the
gelatin is on the surfaces of the paper and
not in the interior. The reagents used on
paper that does not have any gelatin leave
the fibers blue, while fibers with gelatin
turn violet. It was easy to see under magnification
that in most of the samples tested,
the surfaces turned violet while the interior
fibers remained blue.
Alum: The reagent used to test for
aluminum ions was aluminon. In every
paper sampled except the very small ones,
this test was positive. The common source
for aluminum ions in paper is papermakers’
alum (hydrated aluminum sulfate). Alum,
which was added to the gelatin, served
two purposes. First, it was a preservative,
and its use was essential when the easily
spoiled gelatin was made in large quantities
and then stored, even for short periods.
Secondly, it hardened the gelatin size. That
is, when alum was combined with gelatin,
gelatin-alum size imparted to the paper
more water resistance than gelatin alone
in the same concentration. However, it is
incorrect to assume that, if alum is found
in paper, then gelatin must also be present.
Alum is also found if the paper was alumrosin
sized, see below, and it was also used
to clean the water used for papermaking by
acting as a flocculating agent to precipitate
debris out of the water. Unfortunately,
free alum converts to sulfuric acid in aged
papers. Undoubtedly, its common use in
papermaking accounts for most of the
acidic nature of paper, which can lead to a
certain amount of degradation and overall
discoloration. It should be noted, however,
that when alum is present in relatively small
concentrations, its acidic nature appears
to be neutralized by the pH buffering
characteristics of the gelatin.
Rosin: Using the Raspail test, the presence
of rosin was negative or inconclusive.
Alum-rosin sizing is an internal size, also
called “engine size” because it was added to
the beater. Although discovered in 1807, it
was not in common used in Europe until
1835, and then primarily for machine-made
papers. Saponified rosin was added to the
pulp in the beater, and alum acted as a mordant
to precipitate it onto the fibers. When
the paper traveled over the dryer cylinders,
the rosin was melted onto the fibers making
the sheet more water resistant, as well as
internally stronger. The bad reputation of
alum-rosin sizing is based on the pH of the
pulp solution in the beater, which could
be very acidic, pH 2–3. It is probable that,
because the Whatman papers were made by
hand, they were not alum-rosin sized.
pH: To determine the acidity of various
sheets, pH tests were carried out on nine
paper samples, using a flat-tipped glass
electrode and a calibrated pH meter. The
results follow (JW = J Whatman;
JWTM = J Whatman / Turkey Mill):
Plate Countermark, date pH
40 JWTM, 1832 3.87
63 JWTM, 1832 3.99
100 JWTM, 1833 4.40
108 JWTM, 1833 3.84
159 JW, 1833 3.95
182 JW, 1833 3.95
186 JW, 1834 4.57
title page, Vol. I JWTM, 1838 4.34
title page, Vol. II JWTM, n.d. 4.14
The pH values for these nine samples,
ranging from 3.84 to 4.57, are relatively low –
pH 7 is neutral – and indicate that the
papers are indeed acidic. However, these pH
values do not seem to have much bearing
on the degree of deterioration each sheet
exhibits in terms of visual appearance, feel,
and physical damage. One might expect
such acidic papers to be brittle enough to
crumble or break with handling and that
they would discolor to various shades of
brown. However, with the exception of eight
J Whatman / Turkey Mill / 1837 papers in
the Volume IV, which are a light-brown
color, the remaining sheets, which have
both countermarks, range from off-white to
a cream color. Even the discolored J Whatman
/ Turkey Mill / 1837 papers are flexible
and cannot be described as brittle. In terms
of physical damage, for example, Plate 108
(pH 3.84) has two small edge tears, and
on the verso, there is minor offset staining
from the next plate. By comparison, Plate
186 (pH 4.57) has one small edge tear; on
the recto, there is a small area of brown,
spot staining; and on the verso, there is
some heavy offset staining from the next
plate. In these examples, the degree of offset
staining seems to depend more on the
quantity of oxidized oil-based printing ink
on the succeeding plate rather than on the
pH of the effected paper.
Even though The Birds of America
papers are acidic and contain alum, most do
not exhibit serious deterioration. Probably
due largely to the buffering qualities of gelatin
sizing, these well-processed, handmade
papers have the capacity to combat acidity
arising from internal and external sources –
air pollution, high humidity and temperature
levels – that would have degraded
inferior papers.
References: Browning, B. L., Analysis of Paper
(2d ed., 1977); Graff, John, A Color Atlas
for Fiber Identification (1940).
PAPER SCIENCE
John Bordley is F. B. Williams Professor and
Chair of the Chemistry department at Sewanee:
The University of the South. Here John covers
acids and bases.
This series of articles will conclude
with several articles on additives. However,
before additives are discussed, there needs
to be a discussion about acids and bases.
Indeed, a very common additive is a base
such as sodium carbonate.
In the 1880s, Svante Arrhenius worked
with water solutions and ions and is the
person given credit for associating acids
with the presence of hydrogen ions, H+, and
bases with hydroxide ions, OH–. Thus an
Arrhenius acid is a substance that produces
H+ ions, and an Arrhenius base is a substance
that produces OH– ions. Hydrogen
ions tend to attract water molecules to form
what are called hydronium ions:
H+ + H2O (l) → H2OH+ (l) = H3O+ (l) = H3O+ (aq)
Sometimes the H3O+ (aq) species is written
as H+ (aq). This shorthand version has the
advantage of being a little easier to write.
It is extremely important to understand
that any water solution always has some
hydronium ions present, i.e., there is some
concentration of hydronium ions, [H3O+].
(The square brackets, [ ], indicate concentration,
usually in the units of moles per
liter, with moles being a quantity.) Likewise
there are always some hydroxide ions,
OH–, present in any water solution. There
is indeed a continuum of concentrations of
hydroxide and hydronium ions, [OH–] and
[H3O+]. When the hydronium ion concentration
increases/decreases, the hydroxide ion
concentration decreases/increases.
A mathematical way of presenting this
idea of a continuum of values of the [OH–]
and [H3O+] is that when the concentrations
are multiplied by each other, the result is
equal to 1.0 x 10-14 at 25°C:
[OH–] x [H3O+] = 1.0 x 10-14 at 25°C
According to this equation, if the hydronium
ion concentration increases, the
hydroxide ion concentration must decrease,
and not just by any amount, but proportionately.
Notice, too, that neither concentration
can equal zero. The concentration of one
species might be very small, but it can never
be zero. For example, if [H3O+] = 1.0 x 10-1,
[OH–] must equal 1.0 x 10-13.
A neutral solution is one that is neither
acidic nor basic. That means that [OH–] =
[H3O+], and since their product must be 1.0
x 10-14 at 25°C, then [OH–] = [H3O+] = 1.0 x
10-7. To avoid working with powers of 10
(and the powers are negative to make things
worse!), pH is defined to be the negative
logarithm of the hydronium ion concentration.
Using this definition of pH, the pH of
a neutral solution at 25°C is 7.0.
An acidic solution is one that has a
hydronium ion concentration, [H3O+], > 1.0
x 10-7, for example 1.0 x 10-5, or 1.0 x 10-2.
It follows that the pH of an acidic solution
must be < 7.0, i.e., 5.0 or 2.0 in the two
examples just given. It also follows that the
hydroxide ion concentration, [OH–], of an
acidic solution must be < 1.0 x 10-7. For the
two examples [OH–] would be 1.0 x 10-9 and
1.0 x 10-12, respectively.
A basic solution is one that has a
hydronium ion concentration, [H3O+], < 1.0
x 10-7, (or said another way, the hydroxide
ion concentration, [OH–], > 1.0 x 10-7), for
example [H3O+] = 1.0 x 10-8, or 1.0 x 10-10. It
follows that the pH of a basic solution must
be > 7.0, i.e., 8.0 or 10.0 in the two new
examples just given. The corresponding
concentrations of hydroxide ion would be
1.0 x 10-6 and 1.0 x 10-4.
In 1923, Johannes Brønsted and
Thomas Lowry independently developed
a more general set of definitions. In their
model, the hydrogen ion, H+, is the ‘unit of
exchange’; it is transferred from one chemical
species to another. It is read as “aitchplus”,
and thus we speak of “an aitch-plus
ion”. A Brønsted-Lowry acid is an H+ donor;
a Brønsted-Lowry base is an H+ acceptor.
An important concept when discussing
Brønsted-Lowry acids and bases is conjugate
acid/base pairs. The word conjugate is
derived from the Latin conjugare which
means joined together, especially in a pair.
A conjugate acid and its corresponding
conjugate base (the conjugate acid/base
pair) differ only by one H+, the unit of
exchange in Brønsted-Lowry acids and
bases; the form with the H+ is of course the
conjugate acid and the form without the H+
is the conjugate base.
To show that a solution of sodium carbonate
(washing soda) is basic, we would write:
Na2CO3 (s) + H2O (l) → 2 Na+ (aq) + CO3
2– (aq)
and then
CO3
2– (aq) + H2O (l) → HCO3
– (aq) + OH– (aq)
The first equation shows that the ionic
compound of sodium ions and carbonate
ions dissolves in water to form aquated
sodium and carbonate ions, i.e., the ions
are surrounded by the water molecules. The
second equation shows that the carbonate
ion accepts an H+ ion from the water
to become a hydrogen carbonate (usually
called bicarbonate) ion; the water, having
lost the H+ ion becomes an OH– ion. Of the
two reactants, the carbonate ion is the base
and the water is the acid. The conjugate acid
of the carbonate ion is the bicarbonate ion,
HCO3
–, and thus the carbonate ion and bicarbonate
ion are a conjugate base/acid pair.
Water and the hydroxide ion are the other
conjugate acid/base pair. In each conjugate
pair the conjugate acid and conjugate base
differ only by the H+ ion which was supplied
by the water molecule to the carbonate ion.
When fibers are cooked in base, or if
some acid is otherwise present (more on
that next time), the above equation becomes:
CO3
2– (aq) + H3O+ (l) → HCO3
– (aq) + HOH (i.e., H2O)
In this equation, the hydronium ion, rather
than the water, is the acid. Its conjugate base
is water. The role of the carbonate is the
same. Sodium carbonate, washing soda, is
recommended as a base in papermaking (in
cooking or as a reserve), as it is much safer
to work with than sodium hydroxide (lye).
And if a milder basic solution will work
for you, baking soda, sodium bicarbonate,
NaHCO3, is even safer and easier to work with:
HCO3
– (aq) + H3O+ (l) → H2CO3 (aq) + HOH (i.e., H2O)
In this equation, the bicarbonate ion, rather
than the carbonate ion, is the base. Its
conjugate acid is H2CO3. The role of the
hydronium ion is the same.
Next time: how the acid gets into the
paper and how acid can destroy paper. Then
on to other additives.
PROFILES IN PAPER
Susan Gosin co-founded Dieu Donné Press
& Paper in 1976. She regularly lectures and
teaches papermaking, and has compiled
a significant collection of interviews with
noted personalities in the hand papermaking
community. In this issue Sue introduces us to
Garner Tullis.
When Joe Wilfer organized The First
Hand Papermaking Conference in 1975 at
the Paper Chemistry Institute in Appleton,
Wisconsin, most of the attendees were
relatively new to hand papermaking and
few, except the Clarks of Twinrocker, had
chosen it as their profession. However, by
1975, attendee Garner Tullis had spent more
than a dozen years experimenting with
handmade paper and using it as an element
in his print collaborations. His reputation
for boldness and controversy preceded him
and he did not disappoint us. He challenged
fellow papermakers with work and words
to embrace the opportunities for innovation
in the ancient craft that he had discovered
himself years before.
As a student at the University of
Pennsylvania in the early 1960s, he had
been introduced to the embossed prints of
Norwegian printmaker Rolf Nesh and was
encouraged by his teacher, the sculptor David
Smith, to think more ambitiously about
his prints the way an artist would think
about his sculpture or painting. At Smith’s
urging, Tullis began to research paper and
after a visit to Scott Paper Company in
1962, Tullis began to make his own thick,
oversized sheets of paper. Breaking from
traditional printmaking, he printed imagery
on these hefty sheets using a flat bed press
rather than a press with a roller.
It is interesting to note that in 1963
while Tullis was in Philadelphia learning
how to cast large sheets with commercial
pulp for his own deeply embossed prints,
Ken Tyler was in Los Angeles working
with domestic and international paper
companies to develop new, large scale print
papers for his mixed media collaborations
and Laurence Barker was establishing the
first university hand papermill at Cranbrook
Academy in Michigan. The next decade
proved to be a critical period in the revival
of hand papermaking as all three of these
artists made unique contributions to the
revolution in fine printmaking and the
reinvention of hand papermaking in the
United States.
While Tyler and Barker’s curiosity
about papermaking grew out of their
interest in printmaking, Tullis’s background
as a sculptor motivated him to explore threedimensional
as well as two-dimensional
applications of the process. When he
applied for a Fulbright Fellowship to
study printmaking in Italy in 1964, he
was awarded the fellowship in sculpture.
Learning how to speak fluent Italian and
to cast metal served him well when he
returned to the United States for graduate
studies at Stanford. While a student, he
taught printmaking and assisted visiting
sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro. After
completing his graduate work at Stanford in
1969, Tullis began teaching at the California
State University in Stanislaus while he set
up a printmaking studio of his own in Santa
Cruz. Contact with dynamic sculptors in the
Bay Area, such as Peter Voulkos and Mark
Di Suvero, influenced Tullis’s nontraditional
approach to making prints and working
with paper pulp.
In 1976, when he left Stanislaus
to teach at the University of California,
Davis, he moved and enlarged his studio,
now called the Experimental Printmaking
Workshop, to an 18,000 square foot space
in San Francisco. During the next decade,
Tullis with his wife, Ann McLaughlin, collaborated
with a wide range of established
painters and sculptors introducing them to
both printmaking and hand papermaking.
Garner and Ann contracted with New York
publisher Pace Editions to fabricate cast
paper editions for artists such as Louise
Nevelson and Joe Zucker in the late 1970s.
They also collaborated
with west coast artists
such as Robert Arneson
(work pictured left) and
Deborah Butterfield
on one-of-a-kind paper
cast sculptures. It was
also during this period
that Garner developed a
signature method of working two dimensionally
using both colored paper pulp and
printmaking ink as paint in the creation of
one-of-a-kind printed images. Sam Francis
and Ken Noland were two of the prominent
artists who succeeded in creating large bodies
of monotypes using this direct, “hands
on” method.
Tullis favored working shoulder to
shoulder with the artists in the studio rather
than reproducing a maquette or editioned
image. He also enjoyed having his family as
part of the collaborative team. Garner’s son,
Richard Tullis,
began assisting
his father at an
early age learning
technical skills
as well as how to
be a innovative
collaborator (see
photo circa 1973-4). So in 1984 when Garner
left the Experimental Workshop to Ann
and moved to Santa Barbara to establish a
new studio, The Garner Tullis Workshop,
he brought Richard with him to concentrate
full time on publishing his monotype
collaborations. Until a hand papermill was
added to the facility in Santa Barbara, Garner
used the printing presses to work with
artists Richard Diebenkorn and Sean Scully
on new monotypes.
In 1987, leaving the workshop in Santa
Barbara to Richard, Garner moved across
country to New York City to establish a new
studio to continue working on his own art
and to delve deeper into monotype and print
collaborations with Sean Scully and other
East Coast artists such as Robert Ryman
and Helen Frankenthaler. Though he did
not set up a hand papermill in New York, he
continued to work on the handmade paper
that his son Richard produced in Santa
Barbara as well as using other domestic and
imported handmade papers. As with the
work produced in Santa Barbara from the
late 1980s, the art that he created in New
York, both his own and that of the artists he
worked with, reveals an understated polish
and subtlety that compliments the out sized
bravado which characterized so much of his
earlier experimental work.
In 2003 Garner packed up once again,
this time to return to Italy, a place that had
left an indelible impression on him years
ago when he had studied art as a young
student. Though Richard Tullis continued to
make handmade paper and collaborate with
artists at the shop in Santa Barbara until
2005, just this past year he let go of the studio
and the presses and put the papermaking
equipment into storage until settling
into his new home in Portland, Oregon.
Meanwhile for the past two years, Garner
has been reestablishing contacts with
friends and artists in Italy and assembling
printing and papermaking equipment for a
new studio.
DECORATED PAPER
Sidney Berger, a professor at Simmons College
in Boston, has been collecting and researching
decorated paper for over thirty years. In this
article Sid argues that decorated paper practitioners
deserve better notoriety.
Last month I gave a talk at The Guild
of Book Workers’ Centennial Celebration
in New York. My topic: Decorated Papers
in the U.S. I spoke about the history of
decorated papermaking and also, of course,
about the practitioners, whose work is inextricably
linked with the history.
In my research, I uncovered the names
of many obscure practitioners, along with
names we are all familiar with – the more
recent (many still active) marblers, paste
paper makers, and others whose work we
recognize and admire.
A few things emerged from my research.
The first is that decorated
paper makers, while satisfying the needs
of others – mostly bookbinders, but also
people needing their papers for lining
boxes, making lampshades, doing all kinds
of craft projects, and even making fire
screens – pretty much remained anonymous
over the centuries. Richard Wolfe says
in his book The Role of the Mann Family of
Dedham, Massachusetts in the Marbling of
Paper in Nineteenth-century America (N.p.:
n.p., 1981):
Of all the craftsmen engaged in the
book trades over the centuries, the
makers of marbled and decorated
papers remain the least understood and
identified today.... the historian or bibliographer
attempting to study and interpret
the marbled and colored paper
trade encounters an almost total dearth
of documentation .... As a result, there
is no aspect of the book arts at present
which is more obscure and about
which less information is available than
early marbling and the making of fancy
and colored papers. (p. 1)
One of the aims of my talk was to make
people recognize this and to spur them on
to rectify this situation.
That is, I hope that those using the
decorated papers of others give those
others credit, in colophons, prospectuses,
and other places in which information is
given about the manufacture of the item on
which the decorated paper is used. Millions
of books in our libraries are covered with
paste, marbled, or block-printed papers with
no attribution whatsoever of the artists who
made these sheets. I discussed this with
Peggy Skycraft, one of the first active marblers
whose work became well known in the
commercial world, and a strong advocate for
the protection of copyright for paper decorators.
She said, “Sometimes we even ask the
binders to mention us and they don’t. We
marblers don’t get no respect” (telephone
interview, September 19, 2006).
A second thing that emerged from my
work is that there is an abundance of information
hidden away in obscure places that
would reveal to us the names of many paper
decorators. Sometimes the information
needs to be sought out with a little leg-work.
For instance, I went to Harvard’s Rosamond
Loring Collection at the Houghton Library.
Hope Mayo, the Curator of Graphic Arts
there, kindly allowed me to work from the
as-yet unpublished finding aid she had
prepared of that wonderful collection, and
I was able to identify about a dozen names
of paper decorators, mostly marblers. The
good thing about this line of approach is
that there are actual papers attached to the
names, so that a scholar can see the work of
these otherwise “unknown” artists.
For instance, the Loring collection has
papers by M. Kalaba (or Calaba) of New
Rochelle, New York; George K. Huber of
Swarthmore, PA; W.C. Doebbelin; Peter
Franck; Mrs. George Bullock and Mrs.
Irving Coxe of New York (more about them
below); Margaret Laquer Hayes, and others,
along with papers from a distributor called
Tamm & Co., about which I could find nothing.
This will require more sleuthing.
The tale of Mrs. George Bullock and
Mrs. Irving Coxe is frustrating. Norma
Rubovits, one of our most imaginative
and artistic marblers, steered me to some
marbled papers in her own collection, now
housed in the Newberry Library in Chicago.
The only designation she had on the papers
were the names Bullock and Coxe. She
knew nothing about them; all she knew was
that her collection had sheets with those
names on them. A few weeks later I found
those names in the Loring collection. But
the folder there had on it only the names as
I have given them, linked to their husbands’
names. I still don’t know the names of these
women, nor do I know what sheets each did
in the folders. Did they both do each sheet?
This too calls for more detective work.
But it is just this kind of work that
might reveal some of our artistic past.
To be continued in the April 2007 issue.
Listings for specific workshops and other
events in the following categories are offered
free of charge on a space-available basis.
The deadline for the April Newsletter is
February 15. Contact each facility directly for
additional information or a full schedule.
Teachers: Tell your students about Hand
Papermaking! Brochures and handouts can
be mailed to you or your institution. Email
<info@handpapermaking.org>.
CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS
Amagansett Applied Arts, Amagansett, NY,
(631) 267-2787, <www.a3arts.org>. Papermaking
on the eastern end of Long Island.
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts,
Gatlinburg, TN, (865) 436-5860, <www.arrowmont.
org>. Classes and workshops in a
variety of disciplines, including paper.
The Topography of Handmade Paper, March
18-24, with Mary Hark. After a thorough
investigation into fibers and tools, be ready
for a lively exploration of surface, form and
content.
The Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta, Canada,
(800) 565-9989 or (403) 762-6180,
<www.banffcentre.ca>. Contact <wendy_
tokaryk@banffcentre.ca> for info.
Brookfield Craft Center, Brookfield, CT,
(203) 775-4526, <www.brookfieldcraftcenter.
org>. Workshops at a colonial vintage campus
75 miles north of New York City.
Papier Mache Sculpture, March 17-18, with
Lanette Barber. Work with pulp and sheet
paper to create sculptural forms using wire
armatures, constructed forms, and premade
forms.
Basic Papermaking Plus, March 24-25, with
Shannon Brock. Learn pulp preparation,
sheet forming, use of additives, pressing
and drying.
John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown,
NC, (704) 837-2775, <www.folkschool.org>.
Classes in papermaking and other crafts in
the mountains of western North Carolina.
Advanced Marbling – Images, Devices and
Effects, January 7-13, with Mimi Schleicher.
Gain a mastery of watercolor marbling.
Eastern Papermaking, March 11-17, with
Rajeania Snider. Take a papermaking tour
from Nepal to Japan and China to Egypt.
Paper Cutting: Scandinavian Paper Patterns,
March 25-31, with Barbara Stoop. Explore
the tradition of “papierklip,” making papercuttings
using small, curved scissors and
many different papers.
Marble and Paste: Pretty Paper Duet, April 15-
21, with Nancy Lawrence. Try both marbling
and paste paper decoration.
Carriage House Paper, Brooklyn, NY, (800)
669-8781, <www.carriagehousepaper.com>.
A full program of beginning and advanced
papermaking classes taught by Donna Koretsky
and Shannon Brock.
Center for Book Arts, New York, NY, (212)
481-0295, <www.centerforbookarts.org>.
Dozens of book and paper workshops offered
in midtown Manhattan.
Columbia College Chicago Center for Book
and Paper Arts, Chicago, IL, (312) 344-6630,
<www.bookandpaper.org>. Papermaking
classes in spacious downtown studios.
Cottage Industry Technology Center,
20 Russet St., SSS Village, 1811
Marikina City, Philippines, (632) 942-
3974, <LorEto.DA@gmail.com> or
<bookendshere2002@yahoo.com>.
Dieu Donné Papermill, New York, NY,
(212) 226-0573, <www.dieudonne.org>.
Beginning and advanced papermaking
classes for adults and children.
Basic Papermaking, January 10, February 7,
or March 7, with staff instructor. Gain a general
overview of the papermaking process.
Open Studio, January 22, February 12, or
March 12, with staff instructor. Experiment
with the medium on your own using various
pulps.
Frogman’s Press & Gallery, Beresford, SD,
(605) 763-5082, <www.frogmans.net>.
Paper is Just the Beginning, July 9-14 (register
by April 15), with Lynn Sures. Create artistmade
paper which varies in shape, pattern,
color, thickness, surface texture, scale, and
edge, from abaca and kozo pulps.
The Hall of Awa Japanese Handmade Paper,
141 Kawahigashi, Yamakawa-cho, Yoshinogawashi,
Tokushima 779-3401, Japan, fax
81-883-42-6085, <www.awagami.com>.
Harvesting Mitsumata for Papermaking,
March 4-5. After harvesting, steaming, peeling
the outer bark, and processing the white
bark, spend a day making paper from this
fiber rich in tradition.
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer
Isle, ME, (207) 348-2306, <www.haystackmtn.
org>. Workshops in various disciplines,
including papermaking and book arts.
Historic RittenhouseTown, Philadelphia,
PA, (215) 843-2228, <www.rittenhousetown.
org>. Summer paper arts workshop series at
the site of America’s first paper mill.
La Font du Ciel, La Chambary, Charrus,
F-07230 Saint André Lachamp, France,
<pfpfrerick@aol.com>, <www.frerick.de>.
Papermaking workshops at the east foothills
of the Cevennes taught by Helmut Frerick.
Magnolia Editions, Oakland, CA, (510)
839-5268, <www.magnoliapaper.com>.
Workshops in papermaking, printmaking,
and book arts.
Minnesota Center for Book Arts,
Minneapolis, MN, (612) 215-2520, <www.
mnbookarts.org>. Classes at the Open Book
center for book and literary arts.
Introduction to MCBA’s Paper Studios,
February 23, with Jeff Rathermel. Learn
the procedures and instructions for safe
operation of the beater, hydraulic press, and
restraint dryer.
Traditional Marbling, March 5, with Steve
Pittelkow. Practice the basic process of
marbling including preparation of the bath,
mixing paint, and making tools.
Papermaking Open Studio, April 13. Bring
your own inclusions; everything else is supplied
during this self-directed evening.
Japanese Papermaking and Decoration, May
2, 9, 16 & 23, with Jana Pullman. After
learning the process and forming many
sheets, try your hand at a variety of decorative
techniques.
Paper Circle, Nelsonville, OH, (740) 753-
3374, <papercircle@frognet.net>. Call or
e-mail for upcoming classes.
Papermakers of Victoria, at Box Hill Community
Arts Centre, Whitehorse, Victoria,
Australia, phone 9885 2479.
The Papertrail, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada,
(800) 421-6826, <www.papertrail.ca>.
Classes in papermaking, marbling, and
related arts.
PapierWespe (PaperWasp), Aegidigasse
3/Hof, 1060 Wien, Austria, (0676) 77-
33-153, <office@papierwespe.at>, <www.
papierwespe.at>. Workshops in English
and German taught by paper specialists in
downtown Vienna.
Reliefs with Paper Pulp, April 20-21, with
Beatrix Mapalagama.
Hot Air Balloons, June 29, with Gerhild
Resch.
Creating Handmade Papers for Illuminated
Structures, July 21-22, with Helen Hiebert.
Make papers to be used for lamps, lanterns,
or sculptures which incorporate light.
Paper Lamps, Lanterns & Sculpture,
July 27-29, with Helen Hiebert. Cover
traditional wire lampshade frames, then
advance to more complex structures
involving armatures.
Paper Jewelry, December 1-2, with Babsi
Daum, Du Fei, Christina Leitner, and
Andrea Schreiber. Work together with four
artists to create one piece of paper jewelry.
Penland School, Penland, NC, (828) 765-
2359, <www.penland.org>. A full program
of craft workshops, including papermaking
and book arts.
Peters Valley Craft Center, Layton, NJ, (973)
948-5200, <www.pvcrafts.org>. Workshops
in a variety of craft, including papermaking.
Pyramid Atlantic, Silver Spring, MD, (301)
608-9101, <www.pyramidatlanticartcenter.
org>. Workshops in papermaking, printmaking,
and book arts.
Open House, January 20, with staff, interns
and volunteers. Experience the studios,
see how paper is made, meet artists-inresidence
and local faculty, and select your
spring classes.
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence,
RI, (800) 364-7473. Continuing education
through the Summer Institute of Graphic
Design Studies.
Robert C. Williams Paper Museum, Atlanta,
GA, (404) 894-5726, <www.ipst.edu/amp>.
Advanced Japanese Papermaking, January
13, with Berwyn Hung. Enhance your skills
making washi from kozo.
Paper Jewelry Family Workshop, April 14,
with Marcia Watt. Make paper beads and
assemble your own paper bracelet.
Lampshades from Paper Family Workshop,
June 9. Create decorative paper shades with
flower petals and leaves.
Japanese Papermaking – A Hands-on Learning
Experience, June 25-29, with Berwyn Hung.
Study all stages of Japanese papermaking
from fiber collection and preparation to
sheet forming.
San Francisco Center for the Book, San
Francisco, CA, (415) 565-0545, <www.sfcb.
org>. Book arts classes and events year-round.
Seastone Papers, West Tisbury, MA, (508)
693-5786, <www.seastonepapers.com>.
Summer paper workshops in Martha’s Vineyard
taught by Sandy Bernat.
Sievers School of Fiber Arts, Washington
Island, WI 54246, (920) 847-2264, <www.
sieversschool.com>. Summer workshops on
an island in Lake Michigan.
Snow Farm, The New England Craft Program,
Williamsburg, MA (413) 268-3101,
<www.snowfarm.org>. Study in a pastoral
setting near the five-college communities of
Amherst and Northampton.
Southwest School of Art & Craft, San Antonio,
TX, (210) 224-1848, <www.swschool.
org>. Classes at the Picante Paper Studio.
Intermediate Papermaking, January 17, with
Beck Whitehead. Learn some new techniques
of pulp preparation, pigmenting
pulp, and sheet forming.
Introduction to Paper, February 3-4, with
Jo Etta Jupe. Explore the paper studio and
learn the basic papermaking process.
Making Watermarks and Shaped Deckles,
February 17, with Linda Draper. Create
shaped deckles and watermarks for a variety
of projects using very low tech methods and
easily obtained materials.
Low-Relief and Textured Paper, March 3, with
Jo Etta Jupe. Explore many ways of incorporating
physical texture into the handmade
sheet of paper.
Exploring Special Fibers, March 17, with
Beck Whitehead. Discover some new fibers
or just enjoy having a variety of pulps ready
to use.
Spannocchia Foundation, Tuscany, Italy,
<www.spannocchia.org>. Contact Susanne
Martin at <alavee15@hotmail.com> for
summer workshop details.
Organic Bookmaking: From Clay to Crops,
July 16-30, with John and Susanne Martin.
Use materials from a sustainable farm
to create books using paper made from
recently harvested plants and herbs.
Stone and Paper Art Center, L.L.C.,
Mandeville, LA, (504) 674-9232.
Nagashasuki with Mary-Elaine C. Bernard,
selected Saturdays. Learn this Eastern
method of making paper and incorporate
local plant fibers.
Valley Ridge Art Studio, Muscoda, WI,
(608) 250-5028, <www.valleyridgeartstudio.
com>. Workshops in papermaking, bookmaking,
photography, writing, etc.
Wisconsin Center for Paper Arts,
Madison, WI, (608) 284-8394,
<wcpaperarts@hotmail.com>.
Women’s Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY
12472, (845) 658-9133, <info@wsworkshop.
org>. Summer Arts Institute includes workshops
in papermaking, printmaking, book
arts, photography, and other media.
EVENTS
The twelfth annual Newport Paper Arts
Festival takes place April 20-22 at a breathtaking
site overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Workshops, lectures, and exhibits on surface
design, papermaking, printmaking, and
book arts are planned. Send SASE to NPAF,
PO Box 1315, Newport OR 97365, or email
<vac@coastarts.org>. Go to <www.coastarts.
org> (click “NPAF”) for registration and
workshop information.
The Friends of Dard Hunter will meet in
Washington, DC, October 18-20 at the historic
Carnegie Institution. The Friends meet
annually to enjoy speakers, presentations,
tours of local paper and book arts facilities, a
trade show, auction, and banquet. Scholarships
are available to those with financial
need. For more information write to the
Friends of Dard Hunter, PO Box 773, Lake
Oswego, OR 97034, or call (503) 699-8653
or visit <www.friendsofdardhunter.org>.
IAPMA, the International Association of
Hand Papermakers and Paper Artists, will
hold its 19th Congress at Wadham College
in Oxford, England, from July 30- August 3.
For more information contact
<hilarysussum@googlemail.com>. To find
out more about the organization and the
Congress, visit: <www.iapma.info>. Plan
ahead for the 2008 conference in Italy;
2009 in Australia; and 2010 in Korea.
The 36th Annual SGC Conference takes
place March 21-25 at Kansas City Art Institute
in Missouri. Established in 1972, the
purpose of the Southern Graphics Council
is to educate the public and promote awareness
and appreciation of the art of making
original prints, books, handmade paper, and
drawing. The annual event is the largest
gathering of printmakers in North America.
Contact Conference Director Laura Berman
at <Lbsgc07@gmail.com> or visit <http://
sgc.kcai.edu/>.
Founded in 1910 on the shores of Lake
Michigan as an escape from the city, the
Ox-Bow School of Art campus encompasses
115 acres of pristine landscape. Paper &
Book Intensive 2007 will be held at Ox-Bow
from May 20-31. Instructors for this year are
Stuart Brockman, Michael Burke, Amanda
Degener, Ann Marie Kennedy, Barbara
Korbel, Renate Mesmer, Dominic Riley, Pati
Scobey, Pamela Spitzmueller, and Barbara
Tetenbaum. PBI is held annually in different
regions of the country and attended by
individuals who are passionate about the
book arts, bookbinding, hand papermaking,
conservation, and related fields. Motivated
beginners and practitioners are welcome.
The online brochure can be viewed at
<www.paperbookintensive.org>.
EXHIBITS
The Fabric of Life: Tapas and Mud Cloths
from the South Pacific, Africa, and Mexico,
is on view at the Robert C. Williams Paper
Museum in Atlanta April 26 through July
6. Tapa, one of several words for traditional
beaten bark cloth, is at once beautiful
and functional, having historically served
the mundane and the sacred in cultures
throughout the world. The exhibit will focus
on particularly rare and unique tapa collected
by Dard Hunter on his travels during the
1920s. In September look for Art from Wood
and Paper: Japanese Woodblocks and Washi, a
joint exhibition with the Georgia Museum
of Art. For further details call (404) 894-
7840 or visit <www.ipst.edu/amp>.
The Book as Art: Twenty Years of Artists’
Books from the National Museum of Women
in the Arts is on exhibit until February 4.
The 108 works by 86 artists employ a wide
variety of structures and formats – traditional
codex, unfolding accordion books,
scrolls, tunnel books, boxes, pop-ups, fans,
flag books – many with handmade paper.
Curator Krystyna Wasserman has organized
these annual exhibitions since 1987. More
details are on the NMWA website at <www.
nmwa.org> plus a podcast interview with
Audrey Niffenegger. A full-color, illustrated
catalogue is available for purchase. Call
(202) 783-5000 for information.
The Japan Foundation is proud to present
Found in Translation: Interpreting Elements
of Japanese Design, curated by Arlene
Gehring. The exhibit focuses on Japanese
design aesthetics and techniques as practiced
by four fibre and paper artists living
in Canada. Through their work, Nieves
Carrasco, Marta Dal Farro, Judith Fielder
and Lorraine Pritchard speak of Japanese
tradition in an artistic language of their
own. The exhibit is on view until January
19 at the Japan Foundation in Toronto. For
further details call (416) 966-1600 or e-mail
<tmiki@jftor.org>.
Through February, The Stairway Gallery
presents the First Paperworks Exhibition
and Workshops featuring the works of Loreto
Apilado, Penny Reyes-Velasco, Bencab,
Pandy Aviado, Rishab Tibon, Tess Pasola,
Tony Gonzales, and other paper artists.
The artists will use shredded, demonetized
Philippine money as the main material,
turning it into pulp or collage art mixed
with other media, or as paper canvasses.
For further details contact Stairway Gallery,
Imacron Media Center Bldg., 115 Kamuning
Road, Quezon City, Philippines, (632) 920-
1375, <penny@stairwaygallery.com>, or see
<www.stairwaygallery.com>.
Fuller Craft Museum presents an exhibition
entitled Pulp Function curated by Lloyd
Herman, founding Director of the Smithsonian’s
Renwick Gallery. The exhibit opens
May 19 at Fuller Craft Museum, and will
travel through 2010. Art made from paper
pulp; recycled paper; cardboard; papier
mache; and cut, folded, or otherwise manipulated
paper will be featured. For more
information visit <www.fullercraft.org>.
The Finnish Paper Art Gallery presents the
work of Jany Vyborna-Turunen, on exhibit
through January. For further details contact
The Finnish Paper Art Gallery, FIN-45700
Kuusankoski, Finland. The Gallery is part of
the Kymen Paviljonki complex on Highway
6 at Kuusankoski.
Marjorie Alexander exhibits her paperwork
Flock in Flight II as part of the Arrowhead
Biennial Exhibition at The Duluth Art Institute,
506 West Michigan Street, Duluth,
MN 55802, until March 4.
CALLS FOR ENTRIES
Erica Rasmussen is presenting a lecture/
demo at the May 2007 Surface Design
Association conference entitled “From
Bubblewrap to Bottlecaps: Embellishing
Handmade Paper with Everyday Media.”
During the slide section she will be showing
examples of low-tech methods for surfacing
paper with inexpensive and commonplace
materials like red wine, beet juice, rusty
washers, tomato paste, and instant cocoa.
Your contributions of non-traditional or
non-conventional sheets would be most
appreciated. Verbal credit will be given to
artists/craftspeople. Please send slides and
contact information to Prof. Erica Rasmussen,
Metropolitan State University, 1380
Energy Lane #205, St. Paul, MN 55108 or
e-mail <erica.rasmussen@metrostate.edu>.
PapierWespe Studio in Vienna, Austria,
is planning a paper jewelry exhibition
in December. To participate mail five
to ten digital images of your works to
<office@papierwespe.at> no later than
April, 2007. The entries will be juried.
Selected artists will be notified by e-mail
before June 15.
OPPORTUNITIES
Artists experienced in papermaking are
invited to apply for the opportunity to
spend up to three months working in the
Paper Studio at the Southwest School of
Art & Craft. For further information contact
SSAC, 300 Augusta, San Antonio, TX 78205,
(210) 224-1848,
The Creative Residency program in Visual
Arts at The Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada,
provides studio facilities and support for
artists working in a broad range of media,
including papermaking. Applications are
now being accepted. Visit <www.banffcentre.
ca/va/residencies/> or contact Wendy
Tokaryk at <wendy_tokaryk@banffcentre.
ca> or (403) 762-6402.
Fellowship Grants at Women’s Studio Workshop
are designed to provide concentrated
work time in the printmaking, silkscreen,
hand papermaking, photography, letterpress,
and clay studios. Fellowships are
awarded through a jury process. Recipients
pay $200 per week, approximately one-fifth
the actual cost. To apply, send an application
form, resume, 6-10 slides, a letter of interest,
and SASE to WSW, Box 489, Rosendale,
NY 12472.
TRAVEL
The Rittenhouse European Tour takes
place April 25- May 9. Tour the homeland
of William Rittenhouse the founder of
RittenhouseTown and the first papermaker
in North America. The tour will travel to
many locations throughout Germany and
Netherlands. The tour will be led by John
Ruth, a minister, author, and filmmaker.
He teaches history through storytelling.
He knows points of interest on both
Rittenhouse and Mennonite history. Mary
Rittenhouse Schwartzentruber organized
this tour and will act as the administrator.
For the complete tour itinerary or for more
information, please call (215) 438-5711 or
email <info@rittenhousetown.org>.
MISCELLANEOUS
In the spring of 2007 Dieu Donné Papermill
will move to a new location at 315 West
36th Street in New York City. Plans for an
expanded studio, archive, and gallery are
now being drafted. Visit <www.dieudonne.
org> to view images of the new space and to
help support this major milestone.
Homestead Mill and Studio has introduced
Deckle2-Go, a papermaking tool for
teachers, artists, and students. According
to the website, this polycarbonate mould
and deckle combined with a deckle box is
virtually maintenance free, easy to use, and
durable. Papermaking lessons, handmade
paper examples, resources, and ideas are
provided on an interactive CD included
with the 3-part unit. For more information
about Deckle2-Go call (513) 315-3929,
e-mail <msa@cinci.rr.com> or visit <www.
deckle2go.com>.
Hand Papermaking continues to offer
Selected Paper Artists, 2004, featuring
62 images of contemporary artwork by 19
paper artists juried from the Hand Papermaking
Artist Registry. Two versions of
this collection are on sale: purchase a set
of slides for $200 plus $10 postage, or
purchase a CD-ROM for $35 postpaid. Both
include a 48-page booklet including image
descriptions and artist statements, plus
an introduction and history of the project.
Juried from over 500 current slides, this
generous sampling of stunning imagery
demonstrates a wide variety of techniques.
These inspiring images make an excellent
classroom presentation. They are the perfect
solution for educators, publicists, scholars,
and curators looking for unique talent. They
present a helpful overview for newcomers.
They are an inspiration to anyone interested
in handmade paper art. To place an order
send $210 for the set of slides or $35 for the
CD-ROM to Hand Papermaking, PO Box
1070, Beltsville, MD 20704. Or call (800)
821-6604 or (301) 220-2393. Additional information
about Hand Papermaking’s Artist
Registry can be found at <www.handpapermaking.
org>.
CLASSIFIEDS
Classifieds in the Hand Papermaking
Newsletter cost 75 cents per word, with no
minimum. Payment is due in advance of
publication.
Fresh USA Grown Kozo For Sale. UI Center
for the Book 2006-2007 harvest from
imported Japanese tree stock. $25 for 500
grams; packing and shipping included. This
is dried black bark: scrape prior to cooking
to make high quality paper, or cook as is
to make ‘chiri-gami’ with black bark flecks
included. Email Tim Barrett at <handmadepaper@
uiowa.edu> to place an order. Supply
limited; first come, first served.
Need a Mould and Deckle? Welcome to
The Paperwright, Britt Quinlan, <www.
trytel.com/~brittq>, <brittq@trytel.com>
(877) 622-4522. I custom build pine and
mahogany moulds, types include: beginner,
form fitting, bronze mesh, laid, square,
Japanese. Check out the on-line catalogue.
Fine Art Paper Business Opportunity:
Have you always had a hankering to be in
the paper business? Do you have the desire
to ensure beautiful paper gets into the
hands of those that need it? If your answer
is “YES” to either these questions, please
send resume and contact info to:
<paperbizopportunity@gmail.com>.
SPECIAL THANKS
Hand Papermaking would like to thank
the following people who have made direct
contributions to our organization. As a nonprofit
organization, we rely on the support of
our subscribers and contributors to continue
operating. All donations are greatly appreciated
and are tax deductible. Call or write for more
information on giving levels and premiums.
Patrons: David Marshall & Alan Wiesenthal,
Charles E. Morgan. Underwriters: Bobbie
Lippman. Sponsors: Jane Farmer, Helen
Frederick, Peter Newland & Robyn Johnson,
Pamela S. Wood. Donors: Grimanesa Amoros,
Cathleen A. Baker, Simon & Kimberly Blattner,
Gail Deery, Michael Durgin, Lori B. Goodman,
Susan Gosin, Helen Hiebert, Lois James,
Elaine Koretsky, Mary Lou Manor, Dianne L.
Reeves, John L. Risseeuw, Michelle Samour,
Kimberly Schenck, Agnes Schlenke, R. H.
Starr, Jr., Marilyn Sward, Claire Van Vliet,
Becky Whitehead, Ellie Winberg. Supporters:
Marjorie & Harold Alexander, Shirah Miriam
(Mimi) Aumann, Valerie T. Bechtol, Bonnie
Bernell, Joanne R. Davis, Amanda Degener,
Linda Draper, Martha Duran, Frank Gallo,
Patricia Grass, Peter Hopkins, Courtney Hudson,
Kristin Kavanagh, Ann S. Miller, Nancy
Norton Tomasko, Ralph Ocker, Lise Poulsen,
Mary C. Schlosser, Maxine Seelenbinder-Apke,
Lynn Sures, Marcia Widenor, Kathy Wosika.
In-Kind: Adobe Systems, Campbell-Logan
Bindery, Arnold Grummer’s, Hiromi Paper
International, Val Lucas, Maryland Institute
College of Art, Paper Connection International.
Hand Papermaking’s 20th-anniversary
activities were made possible through the
generosity of: Carole A. Alameddine, Pat
Alexander, Shirah Miriam (Mimi) Aumann,
Cathleen A. Baker, Bonnie Bernell, The
Brodsky Center, Inge Bruggeman, Tom and
Lore Burger, Susan Butler, Carriage House
Paper, Carla Castellani, Amanda Degener,
Gail Deery, Lesley Dill, The Drachen
Foundation, Linda Draper, Mindell Dubansky,
The Fifth Floor Foundation, Kathy Fitzgerald,
Elizabeth Frater-Allen, Shirley Freriks, The
Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Susan
Gosin, Peggy Grissom, Lucile G. Hicks,
Helen Hiebert, Kristin Kavanagh, Yukie
Kobayashi, Elaine Koretsky, Mary C. Leto,
Val Lucas, Russell Maret, Bruce Markow,
David Marshall & Alan Wiesenthal, Allen K.
Mears, Ellen Mears Kennedy, Lourene Miovski
and Tom Bannister, Margaret Prentice,
Pyramid Atlantic, Dianne L. Reeves, Gretchen
Schermerhorn and Eric Burris, Jann Selleck,
Lynn Sures and Rick McSorley, Marilyn and
Steve Sward, Betty Sweren, Sandy Triolo,
James Trice, Gibby Waitzkin, Bob Weber,
Beck Whitehead, Marcia Widenor,
Pamela and Gary Wood.