The Sunday Paper #479

September 24, 2023

Hip hip hooray! It’s time to celebrate Kelsey Pike’s new book, Modern Papermaking, with a GIVEAWAY! Enter your name by Friday 9/29 to win a chance to receive a copy of the e-book (there’s a print publication too, available anywhere fine books are sold).

Modern Papermaking is filled with tips and tricks that Pike, who runs Sustainable Papercraft, has perfected over the years, including:

• How to make a basic mould & deckle, a curved couching stand and a simple press.
• Papermaking techniques, including recipes for making 30 fun colors.
• Professional techniques, such as keeping records, pricing and selling paper, and using a Hollander beater.
• 13 fun DIY projects, like business cards and some of her signature papers (moon paper, wave paper, patterned paper).

I’ll be sharing more from Pike in an upcoming episode of Paper Talk plus a YouTube video where she shows me some of the elements that are featured in the book. It was so fun to talk with a papermaking colleague about the ins and outs of putting a book together for publication. Don’t forget to sign up for the Giveaway.

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There’s paper in there! Alexis Arnold’s Crystallized Books transform novels, guides, and maps into gleaming sculptures that consider how we value and use objects. Arnold submerges found books into a hot bath of water and borax. When water boils, its molecules expand, and as the saturated water cools again, the molecules shrink and any excess borax crystallizes. Out of the pools come books coated with dense, translucent clusters that stabilize the objects as warped, crinkled mounds.

© Alexis Arnold, “To Kill a Mockingbird” (2021) As seen on Colossal.

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I didn’t realize that the art of grave rubbing was a thing. Many historical societies and enthusiasts, as well as family researchers, will conduct a grave rubbing (on paper) to have a document on hand of a historical figure’s or family member’s stone for their records. This article lovingly includes a story about the deceased.

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I hope you can make it to this mini-workshop (via Zoom) on Friday September 29th at noon mountain time. We’ll be making these Pleated Paper Cards, and I’ll be talking about The Paper Year, which opens for registration that day. Click here to register for the free workshop, and you will find more information about The Paper Year at the bottom of that page.

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Rutgers Distinguished Professor Emerita Judith K. Brodsky, a visionary artist and advocate, arts administrator and entrepreneur, printmaker, and scholar, recognized that women and gender nonconforming artists, as well as artists of color, were excluded from the art world in the 1980s. The Brodsky Center at Rutgers University: Three Decades, 1986–2017, celebrates her pioneering work in the Voorhees Gallery at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers.

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Paper Tidbits

• Have you had a chance to listen to my interview with Marieke de Hoop on Paper Talk?
• I’ve just settled on the theme for next year’s Red Cliff Paper Retreat (August 26-30, 2024). Click through to see what it is. Registration opens later this fall.
• Are you interested in a papermaking intensive? I have one spot that hasn’t been spoken for in next year’s July Master Class (deposits will be due in October). Express your interest here.

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Featured Projects

I enjoy seeing what you create with the guidance of my books and workshops, so please consider sending me images!

Rachel Singel sent me this photo of her Japanese knotweed paper mixed with abaca. Rachel has become more aware as an artist and teacher that she is also a consumer. While she makes some negotiations for the results she needs for her work, she strives to have as little of an impact on the environment as possible. These papers are made from invasive plants she gathered in Acadia National Park, where she was a Resident Artist in May 2023.

Japanese knotweed + abaca paper by Rachel Singel, note the laid lines that appear on the finished sheets.