HAN D P A P E R M A K I NG
N E W S L E T T E R
Number 79, July 2007
Newsletter Editor: Tom Bannister. Columnists: Cathleen A. Baker, Sidney Berger, John Bordley, Helen Hiebert, Elaine Koretsky, Winifred Radolan, Mary Tasillo, Pamela Wood.
Hand Papermaking Newsletter is published
four times per year. In summer and winter it is
distributed with the journal Hand Papermaking,
and in spring and autumn it is mailed separately.
Annual subscriptions include both publications:
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bank. For more subscription information, or a list
of back issue contents and availability, contact:
Hand Papermaking, Inc.
PO Box 1070, Beltsville, MD 20704-1070
Phone: (800) 821-6604 or (301) 220-2393
Fax: (301) 220-2394
E-mail: info@handpapermaking.org
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The deadline for the next issue (October 2007)
is August 15. Please direct all correspondence to
the address above. We encourage letters from our
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comments on articles in Hand Papermaking
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columnists, and news of special events or activities.
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Hand Papermaking is a 501(c)(3) non-profit
organization. Staff: Tom Bannister, Executive
Director; Mina Takahashi, Magazine Editor.
Directors: Cathleen A. Baker, Sid Berger, Inge
Bruggeman, Georgia Deal, Gail Deery, Helen
Hiebert, Peter Hopkins, Barbara Lippman,
David Marshall, Cynthia Reuter Mowery, Andrea
Peterson, Margaret Prentice, John Risseeuw, Beck
Whitehead. Advisors: Timothy Barrett, Simon
Blattner, Gregor R. Campbell, Mindell Dubansky,
Jane Farmer, Helen C. Frederick, Elaine Koretsky,
James Sitter, Claire Van Vliet, James Yarnell.
Founders: Amanda Degener and Michael Durgin.
Dear Readers,
We are pleased to announce the eighth in our series of distinctive portfolios: Calligraphy
and Handmade Paper. This outstanding collection showcases the talent of thirty artists who
created fifteen distinctive handmade paper works incorporating calligraphy. The imagery and
processes used in these exceptional pieces focus on the inherent artistry and meaning of the
calligraphic mark as it interacts with the handmade paper.
Remarkably, given the edition of 150, many of the pieces are hand lettered. There is
elegant pen work and brush calligraphy, but also unusual methods of inscribing such as writing
with pulp. Lettering methods are sometimes enhanced with techniques such as letterpress,
dye resist, photo intaglio, debossing, and suminagashi. Paper rises from its traditional
supporting role to offer equal partnership in the realization of the image. For some images,
the paper speaks quietly carrying fibers that have cultural, historical, or geographical connections
with the written mark. In other works, the paper calls more attention to itself with curious
inclusions, bold colors, or a highly burnished surface. Whatever the method, the finished
pieces demonstrate the equal importance of calligraphic image and well-made paper.
The calligraphic content ranges from haiku to short phrases to single letters. Some
characters are typographically playful, some harshly rendered; some are immediately legible,
while others require sleuthing by the viewer. Themes range from epic to intimate, from
disquieting to uplifting. The expressions are as personal as a proper name, as philosophical
as the nature of truth, or as global as social commentary on war and peace.
A custom-made clamshell box houses the artworks, each in a protective folder imprinted
with the artists’ names. A handbound booklet contains statements from each artist and a
commissioned essay by Rose Folsom, editor of Letter Arts Review.
The participating artists, both juried and invited, are Timothy Barrett & Thomas Ingmire,
Neal Bonham & Suzanne Moore, David Chioffi & Cynthia Thompson, Annie Cicale &
Claudia Lee, Kathryn and Howard Clark & Susan Scarsgard & Wesley Tanner, Rona Conti,
Nancy Culmone & Tom Leech, Tatiana Ginsberg & Shibata Reiho, Karen Gorst &
Mina Takahashi, Cheryl Jacobsen & Jessica White, Nancy Leavitt & Katie MacGregor,
Miriam Londono, Pam Paulsrud & Andrea Peterson, Gretchen Schermerhorn & Marina
Soria, and Ann Alaia Woods.
Of the four jurors, two are known for paper: Timothy Barrett and Katie MacGregor have
some sixty years combined experience in the field. And two are well known and respected in
the world of calligraphy: Thomas Ingmire and Nancy Leavitt. The jury was also invited to produce
work for the collection. The designer is Steve Miller, and the editor is Mina Takahashi.
Orders received before October 1 are eligible for the pre-publication price of $395.
Thereafter, the opening price is $495. Add $15 for insured shipping in the United States.
Elsewhere, add $30 for airmail delivery. Visa and Mastercard are accepted. Please call us,
send payment to the address at left, or order online at www.handpapermaking.org.
Helping to produce these exquisite portfolios is a favorite aspect of my work here at
Hand Papermaking. I would welcome the chance to talk with you about this new collection
(or any of the previous portfolios) should you have questions.
Tom Bannister
(800) 821-6604
Dear Papermakers,
On Friday, April 27th, a deliberately
lit fire was the cause of devastation to the
new Creative Paper Tasmania Handmade
Paper Mill and Visitor Information Centre
which resulted in the loss of the $5.5 million
(AUD) heritage-listed development. The
site had been a prominent landmark at
the waterfront Burnie since the 1920s.
Thankfully nobody was hurt, and no
equipment or art works were lost in the
fire, but despite the forty-five fire fighters
working to save the building, the entire
structure had to be demolished.
It is a difficult chapter in Creative
Paper’s story, but not without hope. We have
started to pick up the pieces and will be rebuilding
on the original site once the insurance
officials have sorted out the legalities.
The papermakers and
the community have a
collective determination
to rise from the
ashes like a phoenix.
(Ironically the phoenix
used to be our mill’s
watermark emblem.)
There is much talk of
using the site to develop
a boutique “art hotel” to compliment
the new Creative Paper Development as well
as the regional tourist information centre.
In the meantime, our landlords have been
kind enough to extend our lease arrangements,
so we’ll be staying at our the East
Mill Studios for a wee while longer while
making the necessary adjustments to house
the incredible new equipment, interpretation
materials and shop fittings that were
being made for us off-site.
One of the most exciting aspects for
us just now is our enthusiasm to focus on
the 2009 IAPMA Congress as our prime
completion goal, which is helping to give
our project an urgent focus. Our congress
committee is in full swing and we are
preparing a tremendous programme which
we hope will exceed everyone’s expectations.
Thank you for all of the pre-registrations
we’ve received so far – please keep them
coming in! We will be providing an update
at the Oxford IAPMA Congress this July.
So there is so much to be done to get
us back on track. Thank you all for your well
wishes and kind words. This is a wonderful
community and your support has been
astonishing and much appreciated.
Joanna Gair, Manager/Papermaker
Creative Paper Tasmania
PO Box 384, Burnie Tasmania, 7320
www.creativepapertas.com.au
ALONG THE PAPER ROAD...
This regular feature offers paper musings from
Elaine Koretsky – renowned paper historian,
researcher, and traveler. Here we join Elaine on
the trail of the wild mitsumata in Georgia.
Most of my adventures on the paper
road have occurred in Asia. In 1980, however,
I had an extraordinary experience in
the United States, seeking “wild mitsumata.”
The tale begins in Boston, with a lecture
by Dr. John Creech, Director of the National
Arboretum in Washington, D.C. He spoke
about the introduction of Japanese plants to
the United States. I asked him specifically
about Edgeworthia (in Japanese, mitsumata).
He replied that the National Arboretum was
growing it. Soon afterwards, in mid-March,
when I was preparing to give a papermaking
workshop at the Greenwood Gallery in D.C.,
I wrote to Dr. Creech to arrange a visit to the
Arboretum to see the Japanese plants there,
especially the Edgeworthia.
When I arrived at the Arboretum,
Dr. Creech took me out to the site of the
Japanese gardens. He discovered that
the Edgeworthia had expired during the
unusually harsh winter and had been dug
up. A gardener was dispatched to look
for the corpse. After a successful search,
I was given the Edgeworthia remains.
Eventually, when I returned home I made
some lovely paper from it, and sent a sheet
to the Arboretum. Meanwhile, Dr. Creech
introduced me to Dr. Fred Meyer, Director
of the Arboretum’s herbarium.
Dr. Meyer explained the difficulties of
growing Edgeworthia in the D.C. climate,
and mentioned that those plants were
growing wild in northern Georgia. He gave
me a fascinating article reprinted from the
botanical journal Rhodora.1 Marie Mellinger,
a Georgia botanist, had observed a group
of plants unknown to her, growing wild
along Wolf Creek in Rabun County, located
in northeastern Georgia in the Blue Ridge
Mountains. She sent samples of the plant to
the National Arboretum for identification.
Dr. Meyer was the botanist who identified
the plant as Edgeworthia chrysantha, native
to China and the Himalayas, and introduced
into Japan as a source of paper. The puzzle
was their occurrence in the southeastern
United States.
The following summer, August 1982,
I was invited to teach at the Arrowmont
School in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I consulted
a map and found Rabun County close
to the junction of Georgia, Tennessee, and
North Carolina. Immediately I telephoned
my papermaking friend Beverly Plummer,
who lived in Burnsville, North Carolina. She
needed no coaxing to embark upon an expedition
to find the mysterious mitsumata.
When my teaching sessions ended, I got a
ride to Asheville, met up with Bev, and we
set off in her truck to locate Wolf Creek.
We reached Rabun County and stopped at
a country store to ask directions. A county
sheriff happened to be there, and he told
us exactly how to find Wolf Creek. But then
he emphasized, “You gals gotta be careful!
You should be wearing high rubber boots.
There’s snakes in them creeks!” We thanked
him very much for his advice and drove off.
After a considerable distance, wondering if
we were really getting to our destination, we
noticed some men fixing utility poles. Again
we asked directions to Wolf Creek. They
said we were getting close, and we followed
their instructions. Finally we spotted a creek
on the right of the road, and stopped at a
church to verify if we had located the right
creek. However, we heard people singing
in the church and did not want to interrupt
them. A little further along, we found a
house where two women were sitting in the
kitchen shelling peas and shrimp. I asked
them if this was the location of Wolf Creek.
The older woman immediately drawled,
“Are you’all lookin’ for that Japanese paper
plant?” Incredible! We certainly did not
anticipate that reply, but we definitely were
in the right place!
Bev and I walked along the creek
inspecting all the plants. Unfortunately,
we did not know exactly what to look for.
Mitsumata blooms in late winter to early
spring. When I was in Japan in April 1976,
I had seen mitsumata bushes covered with
brilliant yellow flowers at the Oji Paper Museum
in Tokyo, and a whole field of them in
bloom at the home of the famous papermaker/
book artist, Seikichiro Goto, near the
base of Mt. Fuji. It was a magnificent sight,
but I did not actually observe the structure
of the plant. The flowers emerge before
the leaves and totally cover the entire plant,
obscuring the ternate branches that give the
plant its Japanese name.2 Bev and I found
quite a number of plants that we thought
were mitsumata, although we wished we
could have positive identification.
The next summer I returned to Gatlinburg
to teach, and Bev was delighted to
embark upon another hunt in Wolf Creek.
This time I telephoned Marie Mellinger,
explained my mission, and made an appointment
to meet in Rabun County. Mrs.
Mellinger was a delightful lady, as well as
a very competent botanist. As we walked
along the creek, she identified all the mitsumata
growing there. It turned out that our
guess the prior year was correct. We were
thrilled when she dug up some small plants
and presented them to us to grow. We also
learned that every spring Mrs. Mellinger
brings a group of people to Wolf Creek to
count the mitsumata plants and determine
how far they have spread. That explained
why the two women last year had known
about the “Japanese paper plant.”
Our final discovery on the whole
subject was the origin of these plants in
Rabun County, half a world away from
East Asia. In 1902 David G. Fairchild,
Agricultural Explorer, introduced to the
United States three new plants from Japan,
namely, mitsumata, udo, and wasabi. The
20-page article he wrote about these plants
is fascinating. He explains how they are
cultivated, how to propagate them, and how
to use them. He even describes the entire
process of papermaking.3
The final bit of information was the
story of how the mitsumata arrived at Wolf
Creek and grew wild there. We received
a copy of an article written by Margaret
Shannon.4 She wrote that on one of Mrs.
Mellinger’s explorations, the group had
discovered an old home site. It had burned
down, leaving only the foundation. But
surrounding this site were many garden
plants, such as crepe myrtle, daffodil, and
Edgeworthia. Miss Shannon found out that
Edgeworthia was first grown at the U.S.
Plant Introduction Station in Chico, California,
while some plants were sent to W.T.
Ashford, a nursery owner in Atlanta, Georgia.
Meanwhile, a family named Haynes
had built a home close to Wolf Creek in
1906. Mr. Haynes was in the printing business
and had started to grow Edgeworthia
with the view to the possible production of
paper from it. Apparently, he had obtained
plants or seeds from the Ashford nursery.
Although the house was destroyed, the
mitsumata kept growing, adapting well to
its environment. Miss Shannon observed
that “. . . starting out from the yard of the
Haynes house, Edgeworthia has been proliferating
for some 70 years now, with the help
of Wolf Creek, the birds, and the beavers
who decorate their dams downstream with
branches of the Japanese paper plant in
bloom.”
I am happy to report that the little
mitsumata plants survived, both in
Burnsville, North Carolina, and Brookline,
Massachusetts. Bev was delighted that
her plants thrived, displaying a profusion
of yellow flowers every spring. Mine also
flourished, although they had to be brought
inside my house each winter. Occasionally,
I exhibit one of the mitsumata plants at the
annual New England Flower Show, which
occurs in early March. At that time the
plant is in full flower, looks spectacular, and
always receives a well-deserved First Award
Blue Ribbon.
1 William Duncan and Marie Mellinger, “Edgeworthia
(Thymelaeaceae) New to the Western
Hemisphere,” Rhodora, vol. 74 (1972).
2 Ternate means “arranged in threes”, and
mitsu means three in Japanese, referring to the
branching of the mitsumata.
3 David Fairchild, U.S. Department of
Agriculture, bureau of Plant Industry
– Bulletin #42 (1903).
4 Margaret Shannon, article published in
the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sunday
Magazine, 1977.
UNIQUE TECHNIQUE
Well-known author and teacher Helen Hiebert
offers helpful guidance and tips gleaned from
artists she has worked with over the years.
This column describes Jocelyn Châteauvert’s
manipulation of wet paper.
I met Jocelyn Châteauvert about fifteen
years ago at a Friends of Dard Hunter
conference in Chillicothe, Ohio (where
Dard Hunter lived and Dard III currently
resides). At that time, she was studying
metalworking and jewelry at the University
of Iowa, and on a whim decided to take a
papermaking class with Timothy Barrett.
She soon began combining her metalsmithing
skills with papermaking techniques
to create stunning pieces of jewelry using
overbeaten abaca and flax. (I commissioned
a pair of earrings and a necklace of hers for
my wedding). Her work has grown in size
to include one-of-a-kind lamps and installations.
Her unique technique involves
folding, pleating, and manipulating sheets
of wet handmade paper. In this state, the
paper has a plastic-like quality, and with her
years of experience and experimentation,
Châteauvert uses this technique to give her
pieces an internal structure–aside from a few
fasteners here and there, her pieces are all paper.
You can manipulate wet, pressed sheets
of paper in many ways. Flax and abaca
fibers work well, due to their wet strength
and translucency. Make and press a post of
paper. Now you are ready to work with the
wet sheets. Here are a few techniques you
might start with. You can fold the paper
over on itself, creating pleats. These pleats
can stick up (two layers
of paper), or you can lay
the pleats down to one
side (creating three layers
of paper). If illuminated,
these folded down pleats
create a nice line visually.
You can re-pleat the paper
in another direction (perpendicular
or diagonal to the first) to create
patterns and grids. Try varying the width of
the pleats, or opening them up when they
are wet or dry. You might want to add some
PVA glue between your overlapped parts to
ensure adherence, but experiment – it may
not be necessary as these fibers tend to stick
to themselves when wet.
You can also experiment with drying
methods. Air drying makes them shrink
quite a bit (up to 25% in overbeaten fibers)
and adds texture to the resulting forms.
Restraint drying creates a smoother textured
paper and also eliminates many sculptural
possibilities. When restraint drying, you
can get a crisp, clean line where the paper
overlaps, whereas air drying makes the lines
subtle and more organic. You can re-wet the
paper when it is dry and open up the pleats
and manipulate them again.
Châteauvert cuts wet paper using a
rotary cutter on a self-adhesive cutting mat.
Try cutting partway through a sheet to create
a series of strands that are all connected at
one edge (like a ruffle). You can leave the
strands you cut as is or twist them. You can
also cut a slit within a sheet and roll back
the edges. The rotary cutter can be used to
cut shaped sheets or to shape the edges. For
a softer edge, try tearing the wet paper.
Châteauvert has years of experience
with this technique
and knows how to
control it to get what
she wants, but says
there is still an element
of surprise. Her
experiments keep her
creating new works,
and she can’t predetermine
what she
needs. Her expertise
aids in planning out
her pieces (commissions, installations, and
products) – issues like 25% shrinkage have
to be factored in when planning a piece that
needs assembly.
Châteauvert’s most recent work is on
view through July 22 at the Renwick Gallery
of The Smithsonian Museum of American
Art. She was one of four artists selected for
a mid-career retrospective, and a catalog
(available at http://americanart.si.edu)
accompanies the show.
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 issue, Winnie spends the
day outdoors instructing new papermakers of
all ages, pre-schoolers to senior citizens.
What better way to spend a breezy,
sunny, warm spring day late in April
than outdoors under a canopy of trees.
I recently had occasion to do just this at
Swarthmore College’s Scott Arboretum
Arbor Day Celebration. Apparently, most
of the arboretum’s programming (such
as the Papermaking with Plants I recently
taught there) is geared toward adults. But
on this occasion, parents were encouraged
to bring their children for a day filled with
adventurous learning opportunities.
A large field with a majestic stand of
trees was peppered with many activity tents
beckoning junior arborists. Beneath one
tent a table was loaded with a collection of
pine cones on strings and several jars of
peanut butter, waiting for kids to make the
birds some gooey hanging nourishment.
A very tall tree was rigged with heavy rope
over pulleys, and attached to the rope was
a mini tree surgeon’s harness. A couple of
beefy volunteers stood by, ready to hoist any
takers up into the tree top. It looked like
so much fun that I almost stood in line for
my “lift.” Quite intriguing to me was an
enormous heap of old shoes of every type,
accompanied by the sign, “Plant a Shoe.” I
couldn’t imagine where this was going until
I saw kids carrying old shoes filled with dirt
and marigold plants – very cute and great
re-cycling!
On one of the three six-foot tables
beneath a tent set aside for “Papermaking
with Ms. Winnie” was a large plastic bin
filled with all sorts of objects whose origin
was trees. Tissues, diapers, clothespins,
toothpicks, chopsticks, and maple syrup
were no surprise.
But the car wax and crayons – I never
thought about carnauba wax from a tree! I
decided to assign this educational display
and its arrangement to one of my eager
volunteers. If she could engage the waiting
line of mini-papermakers that was soon to
form with these treasures, perhaps their
papermaking wait wouldn’t seem too long!
Whenever I do these “make-it-and-takeit”
kids’ festivals my set-up and presentation
is designed to keep the multitudes flowing
and entertained. In a minimum amount
of time my young audiences and their accompanying
parents receive some sense of
what papermaking is all about, along with
the piece of paper they have just made with
me. This time I set up a vat of printmaker’s
paper scraps that I re-pulped for base
sheets, and a vat of pigmented green cotton
“veil” pulp in order to stencil leaf shapes
on top. I cut “fun-foam” stencils of maple,
oak, sassafras, and tulip poplar leaves to
place on top of the moulds before dipping
into the veil pulp. I had two couching spots
with pellon on wet blankets set up between
the two vats. After the first child had pulled
and couched a base sheet, he moved to the
veil vat. I helped the second child pull a
base sheet and left him draining it while I
returned to the first child to assist with the
collection of a leaf-stenciled layer of veil
pulp, which we lined up and couched atop
the base. In a perfect world I alternate back
and forth between two children, keeping a
steady flow from one step to the next. The
next children in line are instructed to keep a
watchful eye so that they’ll know what to do
when it is their turn at the vats.
Once the leaves had been stenciled
onto the base sheets, each child carried
his/her paper on its pellon to the pressing/
drying area at the next table. First, a piece of
synthetic chamois was placed atop the wet
paper and the children were asked to gently
“pat” the chamois down with their hands to
absorb just enough water to enable lifting
the paper from the pellon. The chamois was
removed and the “pressed” paper transferred
to a piece of “re-cycled” cardboard cut
to size. A new chamois was then placed over
these layers, and the children were
asked to roll gently back and forth
over them two or three times with a
rolling pin. Then, after the chamois
had been removed again, the children
were instructed to carry their papers
home adhered to the cardboard, where
they should remain to dry overnight.
The next day the paper should be flat, dry,
and ready to peel off.
Because there were so many parents
and children attending this celebration I
established a “take-a-number” system and
had the forming line spend some time in
front of the “things that come from trees”
display. At first it seemed I might have
more volunteers than I might know what
to do with. (Since it was the Arboretum’s
first year to invite me, all the volunteers
fancied free papermaking lessons while
helping me!) I had them working in teams
between the “things from trees” table and
the drying table and I believe I wore them
out! I kept a steady banter going all the
while, and by the end of the day I was out
of voice, out of pulp, out of cardboard, and
out of volunteers! We estimate we assisted
in the creation of about seventy-five sheets
of paper, with kids as young as four, a few
parents, and, I believe, an eighty-four-yearold
volunteer, in three hours!
I do four or five of these presentations
in the course of a year. They are both
exhausting and exhilarating. And I need a
whole day of quiet to regain my equilibrium
afterwards – but I always seem to look forward
to being invited back next year!
ON-LINE
Pamela S. Wood of Arizona makes one-of-akind
books from her handmade papers. She
explores the internet seeking out notable paperrelated
sites. Her topic today is paper boats.
Have you ever noticed how much white
noise we are all surrounded with? Not just
audible noise, but “noise” affecting all the
senses? “Calm and quiet” is the subject of
much lip service, but we seldom really experience
it. I recently saw an exhibit of photography
that was entitled Quiet Landscapes.
Wow, it delivered a total knock-out blow to
quiet! I came away from the show actually
feeling quiet. Little did I know that the same
result could be found on the internet. Ken’s
Paper Boat Page at http://kcupery.home.
isp-direct.com is an amazing example. The
site is the creation of Ken Cupery, who has
discovered many fascinating historical paper
facts and artifacts,
including boats
made of paper by
the Waters Factory
in Troy, New York.
Yes, paper boats!
Full-size rowing
boats and canoes!
Starting with “Short History of Paper
Boats,” we find out why the nineteenth century
is referred to as the “Age of Paper.” In
addition to the invention of the Fourdrinier
machine, which made a continuous sheet
of paper, there was a change from expensive
rag pulp to wood-based pulp. Because of the
switch, newsprint dropped from fourteen
cents per pound to two cents per pound in
1850. In today’s dollars this would equate
to a change from $3.73 to fifty-three cents.
Paper clearly became the material of choice.
The making of an entire ship hull from
paper was not a silly concept. It sure beat
using pieces of cedar with lots of glue and
varnish.
Other pages show all kinds of contemporary
paper boats. People are still building
them. There are selected articles from a
quarterly boater newsletter and words on
cellulose-based naval architecture.
The links are interesting, one in
particular being “The Great Cardboard Boat
Regatta,” which has a nice water effect.
The site opens showing the curser passing
through the water. It seems that paper boat
regattas are being held all over the country
for charitable causes. I didn’t even know
that there was one in my home town this
past April. There are other links to locations
where you might find paper boats today. You
can travel to see them for yourself.
The next link, “Paper Rail Cars and
Wheels,” is great. Once again I experienced
the “quiet” of an invention of the late 1800s.
That century gave birth to quiet-riding rail
cars and, thanks to Pullman, a quiet sleeper,
based on paper. Here’s another “Age of
Paper” fact: the Waters Factory also invented
the paper observatory dome.
There is even a project for children,
or the young at heart, showing how to fold
a piece of paper to make a boat. I love the
caption from the original 1887 publication:
“Spare Hours Made More Profitable
for Boys and Girls.” Folding paper versus
PlayStation, iPods and television … hmmm,
I won’t even go into this subject.
I think you see what I mean about
a quiet web site that delivers lots of info
without all the “flash.” I came away thinking
“Wow, I didn’t know that!” Check it out, it
takes to water like a boat. Anchors Aweigh!
PAPER HISTORY
Cathleen A. Baker, PhD, is Senior Paper
Conservator at the University of Michigan
Library. She is author of By His Own
Labor: The Biography of Dard Hunter and
proprietor of The Legacy Press (www.legacypress.
com), specializing in the printing,
paper, and bookbinding arts. This is the second
installment about the early papermaking
activities of Dard Hunter.
During the winter of 1912–1913 at
Marlborough, Hunter set his priority to
produce handmade paper in America. Not
only would this activity give him financial
rewards and a reputation, but more importantly,
the experience and expertise he so
keenly desired. After all, if he was to devote
the rest of his life to writing knowledgeably
about the history of papermaking and watermarking,
he had to gain experience in the
craft rather than simply rely on information
he could glean from books.
In order to make paper for stationery,
endpapers for bookbinding, and fine book
and plate papers, Hunter had to have on
hand a variety of moulds. As was true for
the first set of moulds, discussed in the
previous article, a second set was purchased
from the T. J. Marshall company in February
1913. This was a pair of moulds, 8.25 x
11 inches, one modern laid and one wove.
Hunter indicated he also wanted to make
envelopes on these moulds, and the London
firm replied on 20 January 1913 that a “tearing
wire” affixed to the cover, rather than a
shaped deckle, would suffice.
In April 1913, Hunter was also corresponding
with the English mould-making
firm, W. Green, Son & Waite, about their
making a light-and-shade watermarked
mould. When
Hunter received
the so-called
Large Portrait
Watermark with
DARD HUNTER
in wire, he made
a few sheets of paper with it. (When used
as stationery, the sheet was folded backwards
to form a half sheet, 8.25 x 5.5 inches,
which, in transmitted light, shows the
portrait “looking” to the right with Hunter’s
name right-reading on top of it.) Hunter
was immediately impressed with the paper’s
unique qualities and decided to use it to
advertise this watermarking service, which,
by all indications, was not being offered in
America.
Hunter sent an inquiry to Waite as to
whether pure linen or a mixture of linen
and cotton rag pulp would serve equally
well in making this kind of watermarked
paper, to which they replied yes, as long as
the fiber was cut fine “like wet flour.” After
experimenting with this mould, Hunter
realized that he could not cut the fiber to
the correct consistency with his water-wheel
powered beater. Therefore, in early December
1914, he wrote to Perrigot-Masure –
French paper manufacturers – inquiring
about the cost of making large quantities of
paper on this mould. They quoted from $6
to $8 per ream, depending on the quantity
ordered. Although Hunter made calculations
on the bottom of the letter, there is no
indication that he placed an order then. (In
1922 and 1924, he did send Perrigot-Masure
orders for many reams of paper, handmade
on the Large Portrait mould.)
In addition to the two smaller pairs of
moulds, Hunter concluded he also needed
a larger pair to make book papers. He wrote
to his two suppliers in London, asking for
quotes for a pair of laid moulds with one
deckle, 16 inches x 23 inches, no watermark.
As W. Green, Son & Waite’s estimate came
in slightly less at £4.10.0, Hunter sent his
order to them in January 1914. They replied,
Will you kindly send us a sample to show
the laid lines required, saying at the same
time whether you require the paper to
look like that you have written on, (that
is, darker by the chain lines and lighter
between the chain lines) [antique laid], or
whether you require it to look level as per
sample A herewith [modern laid]. Will you
please say if we are to make any allowance
for shrinkage; and if so, how much both
ways of the Mould.1
(The shrinkage of paper, especially when
made of linen or other fibers with high
percentages of hemicellulose and/or wellbeaten
fiber, accounts for the wide range of
dimensions of finished paper formed on
the same mould and deckle.) Hunter did
increase the inside deckle measurement
by half an inch in both dimensions, 16.5 x
23.5 inches, and this pair of moulds have
modern laid covers. The first watermark applied
to one of these moulds was a wire one:
“Dard Hunter Mill”
in cursive script. The
other mould had “DH
in a heart” as a “wire”
watermark, placed in
two diagonal corners
of the mould.
Using the aniline dyes to color different
pulps green, grey, blue, brown, or rose,
Hunter made stationery sheets and envelopes
in solid colors. He also made experimental
sheets by “pulp painting.” For these,
he made a sheet in a base color, and onto
the still-wet sheet, he carefully swirled pulp
of a different color, almost as if marbling.
He seems also to have made partial dips in
different colored pulps to create patterns.
In early 1914, correspondence between
Hunter and the W. Green, Son & Waite
company also included a lengthy and detailed
description of handmade vs. imitation
handmade papers made on a cylinder machine.
J. Waite described how to distinguish
between false, torn, and deckle edges, and
even sent samples exhibiting each. Hunter
was astonished to find that machine-made
papers were being sold as “handmade,” and
this would be a sore point for many years.
Finally, in the late 1920s, perhaps in anticipation
of launching his Lime Rock Mill,
Hunter issued a complaint to the Federal
Board of Trade about the deception.
1 W. Green, Son & Waite to Dard Hunter,
26 February 1914.
PAPER SCIENCE
John Bordley is F. B. Williams Professor and
Chair of the Chemistry department at Sewanee:
The University of the South. This time John
discusses aluminum and acid deterioration.
Two articles previous to this one, I
talked about the attractions between the two
polar molecules water and cellulose. And
last time around I introduced the idea of
Bronsted acids, species that donate hydrogen
ions, H+, to a base. This article will
explain how an aluminum ion, Al3+, which
obviously contains no H+ ions, can be an
acid and cause the destruction of paper.
Recall that the cause of polarity is an
uneven distribution of bonding electron
pairs in a covalent bond between two
atoms. The best way to determine how
much attraction an atom or ion will have
for a bonded electron pair is to consider its
charge density. “Regular” density is defined
as mass/volume. A larger density can occur
either because the mass (the numerator)
increases and/or because the volume
(denominator) decreases. Charge density is
defined as the (absolute value of) the charge
divided by the volume, |charge|/volume. In
the water molecule, the bonding electron
pair is pulled toward the oxygen atom more
than it is to the hydrogen atom. An oxygen
atom has eight protons in its nucleus,
making the numerator large. But, the H+
ion, is a real competitor; even though its
charge is only 1, its volume is very tiny since
it is just the nucleus of a hydrogen atom
with no electrons (which give most of the
size to an atom). An Al3+ ion has a relatively
high charge density because its charge is 3+
and its volume is quite small.
In water solution, Al3+ ions attract
the negative ends of six different water
molecules to form what is called a complex
ion. In the jargon of another model
of acids and bases, the aluminum ion is
a Lewis acid which attracts electron pairs
from water molecules, which are the Lewis
bases. These Lewis bases in complex ions
are given the special name ligands. Imagine
the six water molecules attached to the Al3+
ion in a three-dimensional structure called
an octahedron. A more descriptive name is
a square bipyramid. The pyramids in Egypt
are square pyramids, a square base with a
point at the top, forming five corners. Imagine
a sixth point below the square base, and
you have an octahedron (literally eight faces,
but nevertheless six corners). Because of the
high charge density of the Al3+ ion, electrons
between the Al3+ ion and the oxygen atom
of a water molecule are drawn toward the
aluminum ion. In turn, the electron pair
between the oxygen atom and a hydrogen
atom are drawn toward the oxygen atom,
making the H atom positive. And this positive
H atom can leave its electron pair with
the oxygen atom and leave the complex ion
as an H+ ion. Thus, solutions of aluminum
ions are acidic and have a pH of about four,
about as acidic as vinegar and citric acid.
A good question is: how did the
aluminum ions get in the water?
“Papermaker’s” alum is aluminum sulfate,
and papermakers have added alum to
pulp since the early nineteenth century
(Paper Chemistry-An Introduction, Ecklund
and Lindström, 1991) to help coagulate
colloidal material. Wavell Cowan also
suggested to me that alum was used to
ensure disbursement of pitchy material in
unbleached pulps and hardwood. The alum
was needed to help connect rosin size to
fibers (more on this next time), but often an
excess was thrown in “just to make sure.”
In an earlier article the construction
of cellulose from glucose molecules was
shown. Adjacent sugar rings are connected
by a bridging oxygen atom. When a(n) H+
ion is available from the alum solution,
it can bond to one of this oxygen atom’s
unbonded electron pairs. With the hydrogen
ion bonded, the bond between the oxygen
atom and the carbon atom on the other
sugar ring can break. Light and heat aid
in this process. Breaking the sugar chain
destroys the structure of the cellulose
polymer. And to make matters worse, a
water molecule can move in and bond to the
carbon atom on the other sugar ring. Then
a(n) H+ ion can act as an acid and attack
another bridging oxygen atom, causing
another C-O-C to break, etc. With only a
few percentage of these bonds destroyed,
the paper becomes weak and brittle, e.g.,
newsprint that has been exposed to the sun.
The next and last article in this series
will attempt to make some sense of various
additives to pulp. This is a non-trivial task,
as there are competing models as to what is
actually going on, and most of these models
are presented in very mathematical terms.
DECORATED PAPER
Sidney Berger, a professor at Simmons College
in Boston, has been collecting and researching
decorated paper for over thirty years. Here,
Sid describes a new course about paper in the
scholarly world.
For the last four years I have been
teaching classes in the Graduate School of
Library and Information Science at the University
of Illinois – summer courses focusing
on The History of the Book, Bibliography,
and Rare Book and Special Collections
Librarianship. This summer, with the new
Summer Midwest Book and Manuscript
Study Courses program firmly ensconced
at the school, I will be adding a new course
to the old ones: The Manufacture, Description,
Uses, and Preservation of Paper in the
Scholarly World.
Readers of Hand Papermaking will
probably know just about all of what I will
say in this class, but it might be instructive
to give a brief overview of the course
to suggest the kinds of things our readers
may wish to bone up on. It will be difficult
to cover the topic thoroughly in only two
weeks, but the course promises to be just
an overview, with directions to students to
readings that might fill in some of the gaps.
The course begins with antecedents to
paper and proto-papers. The antecedents
include stone, clay, pottery, wood, bone, and
other surfaces. The proto-papers – materials
that are not real papers in that they are not
made from macerated, matted fibers –
include bamboo, papyrus, parchment and
vellum, palm leaves, amatl, tapa, and various
cloths (including silk). I believe it is important
to put these other materials into the
course to show how paper comes out of a
cultural context that demanded surfaces for
recorded communication. Necessity is the
mother of invention (as one of my students
said, “to coin a cliché”), and these materials
served their purposes in the absence of
other technologies.
The spread of education in the West,
concomitant with and brought about by
the rise of the guild system in Europe and
the growth of the middle classes, created a
need for an increasing number of books.
The predominant surface for books until,
say, the twelfth century was vellum, far too
costly a material to be practicable to supply
surfaces for all the books that society was
demanding.
Paper was the perfect material. So
the culture spurred its manufacture. The
course, then, covers the invention of paper
in the second century BC and its spread
west. We will look at the different ways of
making paper (the nagashizuki and tamezuki
methods), the materials that paper is made
from (the fibers and fillers), and many of
its uses over the centuries, from books to
bombs.
Naturally, it will be necessary to
look at all the tools and equipment that
papermakers need for macerating the pulp,
forming the sheets, coloring them, couching
them, drying them, and so forth. How many
of us have used a slice, for instance? Or a
sugeta (spelled various ways)? Or an ass?
And what about the fibers? Any idea
how many different ones have been used in
papermaking? The number is astounding.
I will try to bring to class papers made
from about seventy-five different materials,
maybe more. (I hope the students are not
put off by the Roo-poo or elephant-dung
papers.)
It will be useful to talk about some of
the more important papermakers over the
centuries, dispelling the Ho Ti / Ts’ai Lun
myth, and discussing more people than
just Dard Hunter. We must look as such
pioneers and masters as Eishiro Abe, James
Whatman, Brian Donkin, the Fourdriniers,
Armin Renker, J. Barcham Green, Douglass
Morse Howell, Henry Morris, Walter
Hamady, Peter Thomas, Howard and
Kathryn Clark, and Henk Voorn (Voorn for
his scholarship).
Then we come to one of the richest
sections of the class: decorated paper. I
will not expand on this here, as I have in
my previous columns and will again in my
future columns. You all know what I am
talking about – the variety, the methods, the
tools, the makers, their use in history, and
so forth. This could take two or three weeks
in itself.
Paper has its serious place in bibliography,
and the class will look at historical
events (e.g., Baskerville’s development of
a new typeface with fine serifs), bibliographical
description (especially important
for dating and localizing papers), types of
papers (antique and modern laid, wove,
lace, embossed, etc.), the identification of
watermarks, and such features as sizing,
other inclusions in the furnish besides the
fibers and water, and so forth.
The terminology of paper is fascinating,
as anyone familiar with E. J. Labarre’s
dictionary will attest. In fact, terminology
alone could take a couple of weeks. What’s
the difference between pott and foolscap?
What kinds of book formats are created
from the folding of paper in various ways?
Then we have grain, weight, dimensional
stability, burst strength, compressibility, wet
strength, and so forth.
Since paper is subject to the vicissitudes
of the world, the class must look
at its preservation and conservation. And
we must look at the vast bibliography of
the field. Did I say the course would be too
short? This last topic could take a year. Not
only are there monographs that students
should be familiar with, there are also
numerous periodicals out there covering all
aspects of the world of paper.
And there are sample books and
sample sheets to look at, along with artifacts
(I wish I could teach the class in my home).
I’d love to bring to class my eight-foot-long
dandy roll. But it won’t fit into the overhead
compartment. This should be fun. Wish you
all could be there.
FOR BEGINNERS
Mary Tasillo is a papermaker, book artist, and
mixed media maven based in Philadelphia.
She works at the Center for the Conservation
of Art and Historic Artifacts, and teaches
workshops nationally. In this article Mary
introduces wet binding.
For book makers out there who want
a break from needle, thread, and paste,
I introduce the wet-bound book. Using
basic sheet-forming skills alongside special
couching methods, you can create codices
and accordion books bound by pulp alone.
You will need to couch your sheets
onto heavy-weight pellon. Scraps of old bed
sheets will work as well, but will slow down
the drying process. Start by pulling a sheet
of paper and couching it onto a base sheet
of pellon. Having a felt or two at the very
bottom of your pile will aid your couching.
The codex structure will have a wide spine
along one side of the book, much like a
Japanese stab-bound book, so you will need
to decide how wide you want this spine to
be. The narrower it is, the more accurate
you will have to be in the placement of your
couching. For simplicity, let’s assume a oneinch
spine. Place a second sheet of pellon
over the first sheet, leaving a one-inch strip
of your first wet sheet uncovered on the lefthand
side. This strip is where the spine of
your book will be; the sheets you couch will
fuse along this strip once they have been
pressed.
Couch your second sheet directly over
the first. Do not worry that the two wet
sheets of paper are touching along the left
edge: this is the point! Lay another pellon
down, lining it up with the previous pellon.
Continue in this manner until you have
couched as many sheets as you want in your
book. All the sheets will touch one another
along the left side, with pellon separating
them on the right. When placing your final
piece of pellon over the last page, allow it
to cover the whole book. The whole book
should then be placed between felts and
boards and given a light pressing (about the
same pressing you would give to Easternstyle
sheets).
Your wet-bound book will require care
in drying. Place the pressed book between
dry felts or blotters and dry under weight.
After the first day of drying, take the book
out and replace the pellon with dry sheets
or paper towels, change the blotters or felts,
and place back under weight. Exchange wet
interleaving for dry periodically until the
book is completely dry. The more frequent
the exchange, the more quickly your book
will dry. Aim for one or two changes per
day. (Note: the thickness of the book makes
it unsuitable for a drying box; however, a fan
aimed towards your drying stack may aid
the drying process.)
An accordion book structure can
be made similarly. Instead of leaving an
exposed strip on the left side of each sheet,
alternate the exposed sides.
Thus, if you leave a strip exposed along the
left side of your first sheet, offsetting your
pellon to the right and couching your second
sheet directly over the first, then your
second pellon should completely cover the
left edge of the book, leaving a strip along
the right side exposed to fuse to the third
wet sheet. Alternate the pellon placement as
you move through the book, again covering
the entire book with your final pellon.
For the most elegant results, you will
want to set up a good registration system to
ensure that you couch your sheets directly
on top of one another and position your
pellon evenly. One method is to lay string
longer than the size of your page and pellon
across the bottom of your working stack,
marking both the edge of the page and the
one-inch spine.
Pockets and folders can be created
in the sheets using similar methods. For
example, pull a sheet smaller than the size
of your page. Let’s say this sheet is 4 x 4
inches. Now cut a piece of pellon to prevent
the pocket from fusing. You will want three
edges of this small sheet to fuse to the page
behind it, so you could cut the pellon to 3 x
5 inches. Place the pellon on the base sheet
and couch your 4 x 4 sheet on top of this
pellon so that three sides of the pocket land
around the pellon. A strip of pellon will be
left uncovered, sticking out the pocket’s top
and ensuring that you have a way to access
this pocket. Once the book is dry, you can
simply pull this pellon out. (Another note
on drying: you will want to leave the pellon
in this pocket undisturbed throughout the
drying process. Do not exchange it for drier
materials or you are likely to make a mess of
your book!)
Also note that you can work imagery
into your book using stenciling or pulp
painting as you would on any sheet of paper.
The only trick here is working on the verso
of the page. It can be done! You just have to
reverse your thinking a little bit, placing the
imagery onto your pellon before you couch
the page on which that image will appear.
Whatever layer you want on top will be laid
down on the pellon first. Thus if I am pulp
painting a black squiggle on top of a grey
triangle on an orange page, I will first paint
my squiggle onto the pellon, then paint or
stencil my grey triangle, and finally place
the orange sheet on top. I can then build up
the image I want on the front of the page
(i.e., orange sheet with grey triangle on top
and black squiggle painted over that).
Once you master these few simple
principles (and get your brain doing the
gymnastics of flipping these images around)
the possibilities for structure are endless
and you can achieve the satisfaction of not
only creating images entirely of pulp, but of
creating books bound entirely by fiber.
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 October issue is August 15.
Contact each facility directly for additional
information or a full schedule.
CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts,
Gatlinburg, TN, (865) 436-5860, www.
arrowmont.org. Classes and workshops
in a variety of disciplines, including
papermaking.
Plant Fiber Papermaking from Flat to Form,
July 8-14, with Catherine Nash. Transform
plants into strong handmade papers, from
thick and sturdy to translucent and delicate,
exploring both two- and three-dimensional
approaches.
Art New England, Bennington, VT, (617)
879-7175, www.massartplus.org/ane, Nancy.
Mccarthy@massart.edu. Week-long summer
workshops in a range of media.
Asian Papermaking, July 29-August 4, with
Kate Carr. Delve into the history, materials,
and methods of Asian papermaking using
kozo fiber.
Asheville BookWorks, Asheville, NC, (828)
255-8444, www.ashevillebookworks.com.
Hands-on workshops including bookbinding,
printmaking, decorative paper, and
basic papermaking.
Papermaking: Everything but the Kitchen
Sink, July 9-13, with Micah Pulleyn. Explore
the multitude of opportunities alive in the
papermaking process; learn to prepare pulp,
form sheets, press, and dry paper as well as
different finishing processes.
Atelier Cirkel, Brasschaat, Belgium, 0032-3
633 05 89, www.aterliercirkel.be.
Sculptural Objects with Handmade Paper,
August 25-26, with Bob Matthysen. Learn
sculptural applications of handmade paper.
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, August 11-12, with
Lanette Barber. Create sculptural forms
from paper using wire armatures, constructed
forms, and pre-made forms.
Sculptural Papermaking, August 25-26, with
Shannon Brock. Form sculptural objects
using high-shrinkage pulp along with metal,
wood, and fabric; explore pouring, dipping,
and piecing methods to apply pulp to
armatures.
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.
Silk Papermaking & Embellishments, July
8-14, with Kathy Hays. Learn a unique, yet
simple, process of silk “papermaking,” then
stitch the silk “canvas” for added dimension.
Paste Paper Passion, August 3-5, with Sigrid
Hice. Design your own decorative paste papers:
cook rice paste and color it with paints,
then create numerous patterns and textures
using unusual household tools and some
that you will make from recycled materials.
Papermaking with Plants, August 5-11, with
Rajeania Snider. Learn to create unusual
and beautiful papers from natural plant
materials gathered in the wild and from
flowerbeds.
Paper Transformations, August 24-26, with
Bob Meadows. Manipulate plain paper into
stunning papers to use to make books,
cards, and works of art.
Marble and Paste: Pretty Paper Duet, September
14-16, with Nancy Lawrence. Learn
the basics of both marbling and paste paper
decoration.
Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists
Guild, Toronto, ON, (416) 581-1071,
cbbag@ccbag.ca, www.cbbag.ca. Book and
paper workshops located on-site in Toronto
and in off-site studios.
Japanese Papermaking, July 21-22, with
Wendy Cain. Explore kozo and gampi fibers
at Rogue’s Hollow Paper Studio; learn
beating methods, Japanese sheet-forming
techniques, and pressing/drying variations.
Carriage House Paper, Brookline, MA,
(617) 232-1636, chpaper@aol.com or
paperroad@aol.com.
3-D Papermaking in Depth, July 3-7. Design
and build armatures from a variety
of materials; cover these armatures in
high- and low-shrinkage pulps – or learn to
build dimensional paper pieces without an
armature at all.
Carriage House Paper, Brooklyn, NY, (800)
669-8781, www.carriagehousepaper.com.
A full program of beginning and advanced
papermaking classes.
Pulp Spraying, July 22, with Shannon Brock.
Layer colored pulps to make really big paper
with this technique.
Pulp Pouring, July 23, with Shannon Brock.
Form 30 x 40 inch plain or decorative sheets
without use of vats or a press.
Introduction to Papermaking, July 24, with
Shannon Brock.
Pulp Painting, July 25, with Shannon Brock.
Develop imagery in your sheets by layering
and overlapping thin veils of pulp utilizing a
variety of materials and techniques.
Center for Book Arts, New York, NY, (212)
481-0295, www.centerforbookarts.org. Dozens
of book and paper workshops offered in
midtown Manhattan.
Paper Marbling, August 25-26, with Lauren
Rowland. Make your own marbled papers
and pattern using water-based techniques.
Columbia College Chicago Center for Book
and Paper Arts, Chicago, IL, (312) 344-6630,
www.bookandpaper.org. Papermaking
classes in spacious downtown studios.
Japanese Papermaking for Origami, July
21-22, with Yukie Kobayashi. Create paper
from kozo, dyed mitsumata, and gold leaf
which will then be used in origami folding.
Screen Printing with Pulp, August 11-12, with
Drew Matott. Bring imagery to be scanned
and screen printed with pulp.
Dieu Donné Papermill, New York, NY, (212)
226-0573, www.dieudonne.org. Beginning
and advanced papermaking classes for
adults and children.
Frogman’s Press & Gallery, Beresford, SD,
(605) 763-5082, www.frogmans.net.
Paper is Just the Beginning, July 9-14, with
Lynn Sures. Create artist-made paper which
varies in shape, pattern, color, thickness,
surface texture, scale, and edge, from abaca
and kozo pulps.
Grafton Arts Fest, Grafton, Australia. (02)
6643 1528 or artsfestgrafton@bigpond.
com. Spring and fall workshops in a range
of media.
From Paper to Book, October 1-7, with Gail
Stiffe. Make your own mould and deckle
and use recycled and plant fiber pulps to
produce art papers, which you will then
bind in four different ways.
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer
Isle, ME, (207) 348-2306, www.haystackmtn.
org. Workshops in various disciplines,
including papermaking and book arts.
Paper Collaboration, July 22-August 3, with
Sue Gosin and Mina Takahashi. Explore
the creative range of papermaking fibers
through collaborative work that incorporates
interpretation and development of each
participant’s artwork.
Illuminated Paper Structures, September 2-8,
with Helen Hiebert. Cover a variety of forms
with sheets of paper, working with paper
and light through both natural and electric
methods.
Historic RittenhouseTown, Philadelphia,
PA, (215) 843-2228, www.rittenhousetown.
org. Summer paper arts workshop series
at the site of America’s first paper mill.
Contact Ariel Wilson at (215) 438-5711 or
awilson@rittenhousetown.org.
Paste Paper Making, July 22, with Shelly
Holl. Get creative while using paste and
tools to make unique designs on paper.
Leaf Onto Paper: Nature Printing on Handmade
Paper, July 28, with Charlotte Elsner.
Hand print plant forms from gardens and
the wild onto your handmade paper sheets.
Momigami and Paste Painting, August
18, with Richard Aldorasi. Explore two
techniques for creating intricate patterns on
paper using paste: momigami and 18thcentury
paste painting.
Introduction to Suminagashi/Turkish Marbling,
August 19, with Richard Aldorasi.
Create swirling patterns of color and capture
them on handmade linen paper, colorful
rice papers, and silk fabric using a variety of
marbling techniques.
Magnolia Editions, Oakland, CA, (510) 839-
5268, www.magnoliapaper.com. Workshops
in papermaking, printmaking, book arts.
The Maritime Photo Workshops, Point
Prim, PEI, Canada, (902) 659-2559, www.
maritimephotoworkshops.com.
Expressive Alternatives: Papermaking with
Collected Natural Fibers, July 2-6, with Sheryl
Jaffe. Use native grasses, seaweeds, and
plants, overbeaten flax, and handbeaten
kozo, creating a full selection of papers on
which to generate prints using 19th-century
photo emulsions.
Minnesota Center for Book Arts,
Minneapolis, MN, (612) 215-2520, www.
mnbookarts.org. Classes at the Open Book
center for book and literary arts.
Marbling Open Studio, August 4. Bring your
own paint and paper; everything else is supplied
during this self-directed evening.
Old Ways Book Arts Tools and Workshops,
near Santa, ID, (208) 245-3043, www.geocities.
com/oldways_id/, oldway@imbris.com.
Old Ways of Making Books From Raw Materials,
June 30-July 15, with Jim Croft. Learn to
make tools, process hemp and flax for paper
and thread, make paper by hand, and make
books with wooden boards and brass clasps.
Paper Circle, Nelsonville, OH, (740) 753-
3374, www.papercircle.org, papercircle@
frognet.net. Call or e-mail for information
about upcoming paper classes this fall.
Paper Collaged Furniture, September 15, with
Susie Thompson.
Images in Paper, October TBA, with Mary
Manusos.
Introduction to Papermaking, October TBA,
with Susan Urano.
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 Vienna.
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, and more complex
structures involving armatures.
Penland School, Penland, NC, (828) 765-
2359, www.penland.org. A full program of
craft workshops, including papermaking
and book arts.
Sculpting with Handmade Paper, August
12-24, with Lynn Sures. Create strong, lightweight
paperworks using armatures and
components cast from objects and plaster
molds.
Plant Fibers for Papermaking, August 26-September
1, with Winnie Radolan. Discover
how to gather, prepare, cook, and beat plant
fibers and create sheets using Western and
Eastern methods.
Peters Valley Craft Center, Layton, NJ, (973)
948-5200, www.pvcrafts.org. Workshops in
a variety of craft, including papermaking.
Color Joomchi Making, July 13-15, with
Jiyoung Chung. Form layered, textural,
and surface imagery in your two- or threedimensional
pieces utilizing this Korean
papermaking method.
Pyramid Atlantic, Silver Spring, MD, (301)
608-9101, www.pyramidatlanticartcenter.
org. Workshops in papermaking, printmaking,
and book arts.
San Francisco Center for the Book, San
Francisco, CA, (415) 565-0545, www.sfcb.
org. Classes and events year-round.
Surface Magic: New Techniques in Decorative
Papers, August 3, with Peggy Skycraft. Make
exotic papers utilizing resist rubbing techniques,
handmade paints, mica, and glitter.
Suminagashi Marbling, August 10, with Mary
Beaton. Learn both traditional and experimental
techniques.
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.
Beginning Papermaking, July 27-29, with
Thomas Grade. Design and create your own
projects from a variety of fibers using basic
two- and three-dimensional techniques.
Paper: Varying Degrees, July 29-August 3,
with Thomas Grade. Explore a diverse range
of international papermaking techniques,
including dimensional methods.
Southwest School of Art & Craft, San Antonio,
TX, (210) 224-1848, www.swschool.org.
Classes at the Picante Paper Studio.
Advanced Studio Rental, most Wednesdays,
with Beck Whitehead. Use the Picante
studio and equipment; some instruction
available upon request.
Papermaking Saturday, one Saturday each
month, with Linda Draper. Create paper in
an environment that is somewhere between
a class and an open studio.
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.
West Dean College, Chichester,
West Sussex, U.K., (0)1243 811301,
short.course@westdean.org.uk,
www.westdean.org.uk.
An Introduction to Papermaking and Its
Decorative Uses, August 31-September 3,
with Jonathan Korejko. Learn to manipulate
paper pulp, forming sheets for decorative
objects, adding materials from the environment,
and using the papers in threedimensional
ways.
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.
Cross Pollination: Papermaking and Encaustic,
July 9-12, with Eugenie Barron and Laura
Moriarty. Create contemporary waxed handmade
paper works using layering, collage,
and encaustic techniques.
Fields of Blue: Paper, Cloth and Indigo Dye,
July 16-20, with Mary Hark. Explore the
range of surface qualities possible with
linen, flax, abaca, and Japanese fibers and
indigo dye, working with both handmade
paper and cloth.
Earth to Pigment to Paper, July 30-August 3,
with Catherine Nash. Learn a studio process
of washing and refining earth, mineral
deposits, and clay into pigments for use in
coloring pulp and creating paints and inks;
test pigments as internal colorants with different
paper fibers.
Watermarking Pulp, August 6-10, with Anne
Queeney McKeown. Work with a full range
of mark making possibilities using just
paper and water, from the simplest papermaker’s
tears to extreme watermarking.
Sculptural Papermaking, August 13-17, with
Ellen Kucera and Chris Petrone. Learn various
armature making techniques and cover
these forms with handmade paper.
EVENTS
Dieu Donné Papermill is pleased to announce
the grand opening of its new space
at 315 West 36th Street. Join in celebrating
the move to this 7,000 square foot space for
studio, gallery, and archive, by coming to a
Grand Opening and Reception on September
25 from 6:00-9:00pm followed by an
Auction Event on October 18. More information
can be found at www.dieudonne.org.
The Minnesota Center for Book Arts Symposium
2007 will be held from July 23-28
in Minneapolis. Highlights include classes
taught by artists from around the country,
lectures, workshops, panel discussions,
special Minneapolis art outings, a trade
fair, the opening of a new MCBA exhibition,
and an old-fashioned BBQ. Email
mcba@mnbookarts.org or visit www.mnbookarts.
org for a copy of the Symposium
schedule.
The first annual San Luis Valley Folk Art
and Fiber Festival will be held in Monte
Vista, Colorado from July 13-15. More info
about this event, consisting of workshops,
demos, a vendor fair, and swap meet, can be
found at folkfiberarts.blogspot.com.
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.
Visit: www.iapma.info. Plan ahead for the
2008 conference in Italy; 2009 in Tasmania,
Australia; and 2010 in Korea.
Elaine Koretsky will present a lecture on
Hand Papermaking Techniques in Asia and
the Western World at the Department of
Conservation, Documentation, and Science
of the British Museum in London. The
lecture will take place on August 10, and will
be illustrated by her film, “Developments in
Papermaking Through the Centuries.”
The Geelong Forum 2007 offers intensive
workshops in the creative arts from September
23-29 in Corio, Victoria, Australia.
Offerings include Inventive Itajime with
Susan Kristoferson and Sculptural Paper
with Rosalind Lawson at this annual event
sponsored by The Australian Forum for
Textile Arts (TAFTA). Accommodation and
meal plans are offered. Email Janet De Boer,
tafta@iinet.net.au, for an enrollment form.
The Friends of Dard Hunter will meet
in Washington, DC, October 18-20. 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. This year’s
keynote speaker is Jane Milosch, curator
of contemporary craft at the Smithsonian
American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery.
Other noted presenters include Sylvia Albro,
Laurence Barker, Colin Browne, Helen
Hiebert, Drew Luan Matott, and Samantha
Sheesley. Insider’s tours are planned to the
Folger Library, Library of Congress Print
Room, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Print Room and Conservation Lab, National
Museum of Women in the Arts, National
Archives, Bureau of Printing and Engraving,
and more. Numerous paper exhibitions
will take place all over town, and Pyramid
Atlantic will open its studios for hands-on
demos and a festive opening reception. 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.
EXHIBITS
From the Ground Up: Renwick Craft Invitational
2007, a biennial exhibition series at
the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery established
in 2000 to honor the creativity and
talent of craft artists working today, features
paper artist Jocelyn Châteauvert and three
other artists who work in glass and ceramics.
The four were chosen by independent
curators Susanne Frantz and Lloyd Herman,
and Jane Milosch, curator at the Renwick
Gallery. The exhibit ends July 22. More details
and an exhibition catalog are available
at http://americanart.si.edu.
The Bank of England Museum in London,
England presents Security By Design, an
exhibition looking at the design of paper
money over the past three centuries. It will
include a section on papermaking with
papermaking demonstrations on select
days. The exhibit runs through October 26.
Visit www.bankofengland.co.uk or email
museum@bankofengland.co.uk.
Fiber Art International 2007, a juried
exhibition of contemporary fiber art,
including handmade paper, is on view at
the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and at
the Society for Contemporary Craft through
August 19. It will then move to the Mint
Museum of Craft + Design in Charlotte,
North Carolina and travel through the
summer of 2009. For more information,
visit www.fiberartinternational.com.
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 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 Galleria Sottoportego at the Scuola di
Grafica Internazionale presents a show of
work by several American book and paper
artists, June 28-July 11, in Venice, Italy. The
show includes handmade paper pieces by
Philadelphia-based artists Erin Tohill Robin
and Mary Tasillo. For more information,
email info@scuolagrafica.it.
Fuller Craft Museum presents an exhibition
entitled Pulp Function curated by Lloyd
Herman, founding Director of the Smithsonian’s
Renwick Gallery. The exhibit opened
May 19 at Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton,
Massachusetts, and will travel through
2010. Art made from paper pulp; recycled
paper; cardboard; papier mache; and cut,
folded, or otherwise manipulated paper is
featured. For more information visit www.
fullercraft.org.
Paper Circle in Nelsonville, Ohio, will be
exhibiting the work of several paper and
book artists this coming summer and fall.
Sally Rose’s work will be on exhibit May
25-July 25; Ken Gradomski will be in the
gallery beginning July 27; the work of Mary
Manusos is on display September 28 -
November 27. Visit www.papercircle.org or
call (740) 753-3374 for information.
The work of Catherine Nash will be on view
this summer at the Conrad Wilde Gallery in
Tucson, Arizona. Gallery information can be
found at www.conradwildegallery.com.
The Fiber Art Center in Amherst, Massachusetts
presents Fiber and the Book Artist
II, an invitational group exhibition featuring
unique books that utilize a spectrum of
fiber art techniques, including handmade
and manipulated paper. The exhibition runs
from September 15 through October 27. For
more information, visit http://www.fiberartcenter.
com or call (413) 256-1818.
CALLS FOR ENTRIES
The seventh Holland Paper Biennial will
take place in the summer of 2008 (June 7 -
September 7). Paper artists who would like
to participate are requested to forward their
documentation – a CD or at least five good
quality photographs of your latest work
and an updated c.v., or any other materials
you would like to submit – to the Rijswijk
Museum before September 2007. A jury
will make a selections and in November
the artists will be informed. All materials
will be returned after the final selection
has been made. Artists who have sent their
documentation in previous years are also
kindly requested to forward their updated
documentation. For more information
about the Holland Paper Biennial you can
visit the websites www.museumryswyk.nl
or www.hollandpapierbiennale.nl. Museum
Rijswijk, Holland Paper Biennial 2008,
Herenstraat 67, NL-2282 BR, Rijswijk,
The Netherlands.
The Robert C. Williams Paper Museum is
pleased to announce the opening of applications
for their newest juried exhibition: The
Paper Runway. The exhibit will feature forty
individual works of clothing and accessories
made from handmade paper. It will be
displayed at the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson
International Airport from September 2008
to August 2009. The Museo des Belles
Artes (the National Museum of Fine Arts)
in Santiago, Chile will feature the exhibition
in 2009. Submission information and entry
form can be found on the Museum’s web
site at www.ipst.gatech.edu/amp under exhibitions.
Entries are due November 30, 2007.
For additional information, contact Cindy
Bowden at cindy.bowden@ipst.gatech.edu.
TRAVEL
Carriage House will sponsor a 2 1/2 week
expedition to both Yunnan Province in
southwest China, and to Myanmar (Burma),
visiting remote villages of papermaking
where ancient hand skills have been
practiced for centuries. The mountainous
areas of Yunnan are spectacular, and the
rich Burmese culture is truly remarkable.
Approximate dates are November 1-18.
For details, contact Donna Koretsky at
chpaper@aol.com or call (718) 599-7857.
OPPORTUNITIES
Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, a visual arts
and gallery space devoted to paper, prints,
and book arts, is seeking an Executive
Director to succeed founder and long-term
Artistic Executive Director Helen Frederick.
For more information and a complete job
description, visit www.Successionusa.com
or email successionusa@gmail.com.
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 painting,
drawing, performance, ceramics, book
arts, textile art, papermaking, sculpture,
installation, photography, and more.
Visit www.banffcentre.ca/va/residencies/
or contact Wendy Tokaryk at wendy_
tokaryk@banffcentre.ca or (403) 762-6402.
PUBLICATIONS
Dieu Donné Papermill announces the
release of the second installment of the
annual Collector’s Series edition, a variable
edition in paper by Polly Apfelbaum.
Power to the Flower, 2007 is an edition of
50. All proceeds benefit the programs at
the Papermill. For more information, visit
www.dieudonne.org or contact Catherine C.
Parker at (212) 226-0573.
The Fall 2007 issue of Tucson Home Magazine
features handmade paper in “3 of a
Kind: Meet a Trio of Local Paper Artists”
which includes the work of Junardi Armstrong,
Catherine Nash, and Gertrude Wait.
For more information about this publication,
visit www.tusconhomemagazine.com.
MISCELLANEOUS
Donna Koretsky announces that Carriage
House Paper is moving this summer to a
new and larger space in the Williamsburg
section of Brooklyn, New York, at 245 Kent
Avenue. The space will house their papermaking
supplies and equipment, and
there will be a showroom/gallery for their
handmade paper. Additionally, Shannon
Brock will be setting up her papermaking
studio, Gaptoothed Studio, and will
continue to collaborate with Carriage House
Paper. A special feature in the new space
will be a series of exhibitions on loan from
the Museum of Paper History, located at the
original Carriage House in Brookline, Massachusetts.
The theme of the first exhibit is
“What Preceded Paper?” On view will be
amazing artifacts from all over the world,
which include Mexican amatl, Samoan tapa,
African barkcloth, Egyptian papyrus, European
parchment, Indonesian bark books,
Burmese books on palm leaves, wood strips
from China, plus the materials, tools, and
other artifacts used in the making of these
works. A big opening celebration is planned
this fall. For more information, contact
information@carriagehousepaper.com.
The Book Arts Forum is a newly established
online meeting place for anyone interested
in the book and paper arts. There are message
boards for general bookbinding, restoration,
papermaking, tips and techniques
as well as a general chat area for off topic
posts. The Book Arts Forum can be found at
www.bookartsforum.com.
Florida Atlantic University’s Wimberly
Library is pleased to announce the opening
of the Arthur & Mata Jaffe Center for Book
Arts, a dynamic new center for book arts
study and research, complete with working
letterpress, bookbinding, and hand
papermaking studios, and a gallery to house
the artists’ book collection. The Arthur &
Mata Jaffe Center for Book Arts will teach
and showcase traditional and innovative
approaches to the book arts, and challenge,
more than ever, your definition of “The
Book.” For more information, visit www.
jaffecollection.org, or call the center at (561)
297-0226 or special collections and archives
at (561) 297-3787.
PaperPundit is a new pulp and paper
search engine powered by Google that
searches only pulp, paper, and handmade
paper websites. It can be found at www.
paperpundit.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. Additional information about Hand
Papermaking’s Artist Registry can be found
at www.handpapermaking.org.
SPECIAL THANKS
Hand Papermaking would like to thank the
following people who have made direct contributions
to our organization. As a non-profit
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.
Benefactors: Barbara Lippman, David Marshall
& Alan Wiesenthal. Underwriters: Charles
E. Morgan, Peter Newland Fund of the
Greater Everett Community Foundation,
John L. Risseeuw, Marilyn Sward. Sponsors:
Jane M. Farmer, Peter Hopkins, Abby &
Mitch Leigh, Nancy Norton Tomasko,
Anil Revri, Kimberly Schenck, Scott R.
Skinner, Beck Whitehead, Pamela S. Wood.
Donors: Grimanesa Amoros, Cathleen A.
Baker, Eugenie Barron, Simon & Kimberly
Blattner, William J. Dane, Mona Dukess,
Lori B. Goodman, Helen Hiebert, Lois
James, Kristin Kavanagh, Joyce Kierejczyk,
Betty L. Kjelson, Dianne L. Reeves, Mary
C. Schlosser, Marvin Spomer, R. H. Starr,
Jr., William J. Wagner, Marcia Widenor.
Supporters: Susan K. Abrams, Rochelle
Brown, Inge Bruggeman, Bertram Cohen,
Wavell Cowan, Amanda Degener, Linda
Draper, Martha Duran, Gail Fishberg, Eve
Ingalls Von Staden, Rick Johnson, Lou
Kaufman, Hedi Kyle, Edwin Martin, Dennis
Morris, Patricia L. O’Neal, Andrea Peterson,
Agnes Schlenke, Kathleen Stevenson, Tom
Weideman, Ellie Winberg, Kathy Wosika.
Friends: Carol Blinn, Warwick Press.
Recognizing Hand Papermaking’s 20th anniversary
in 2006, the Board of Directors pledged
an initial gift of $10,000 to launch the Hand
Papermaking Endowment Fund, with a challenge
to match this gift by year’s end. Exceeding
this initial target, we now have over $28,000
received or pledged toward our 2007 goal of
$40,000 thanks to the generosity of:
49er Books, Marjorie & Harold Alexander,
Martin Antonetti, Shirah Miriam (Mimi)
Aumann, Cathleen A. Baker, Tom Balbo,
Timothy Barrett, Sidney Berger, Marcia
Blake, Inge Bruggeman, Tom & Lore
Burger, Nita Colgate, Georgia Deal, Gail
Deery, Jeanne M. Drewes, Bryan C.
Ellison, Jane Farmer, Helen Frederick,
Sara Gilfert, Susan Gosin, Helen Hiebert,
Peter Hopkins, Lois James, Julie Jones,
Kristin Kavanagh, David Kimball, Elaine
Koretsky, Abby & Mitch Leigh, Barbara
Lippman, Winifred Lutz, Allegra Marquart,
David Marshall & Alan Wiesenthal, Anne
and Robert McKeown, Jesse Munn, Peter
Newland Fund of the Greater Everett
Community Foundation, Margaret Prentice,
Preservation Technologies L.P., Michelle
Samour, R. H. Starr, Jr., Marilyn Sward,
Betty Sweren, Gibby Waitzkin, Tom
Weideman, Beck Whitehead, Pamela Wood.
Please consider becoming a Founding Contributor
to the endowment thereby assuring the
long-term future of Hand Papermaking. For
information about this campaign, or to make
a pledge, contact Tom Bannister at (800)
821-6604 or visit www.handpapermaking.org/
Endowment.html.
Thank you!