Hand Papermaking Newsletter Issue 79

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:

$45 in the U.S., $50 in Canada and Mexico, and

$55 overseas. Two year rates are discounted: $80

in the U.S., $90 in Canada and Mexico, and

$100 overseas. To subscribe, send a check to the

address below, call or fax us to use Visa or Mastercard,

or visit our website. Foreign subscribers may

use a credit card, or pay in U.S. dollars via money

order or check marked payable through a U.S.

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

Web: www.handpapermaking.org

The deadline for the next issue (October 2007)

is August 15. Please direct all correspondence to

the address above. We encourage letters from our

subscribers on any relevant topic. We also solicit

comments on articles in Hand Papermaking

magazine, questions or remarks for newsletter

columnists, and news of special events or activities.

Classified ads are 75 cents per word with no

minimum; 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.

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

Publications

News & Resources

Get Involved

About

Issue Number

79

July 2007

Publications

News & Resources

Get Involved

About Us

Publications

News & Resources

Get Involved

About

Issue Number

79

July 2007

Publications

News & Resources

Get Involved

About Us

Stay in the Loop!