The Sunday Paper #256
April 21, 2019

Paper of the Week: Shizen Screen Printed Papers

Shizen Design papers are manufactured by hand in India. These papers are made from t-shirt cotton waste, and the huge variety of patterns are screen printed. These papers are acid-free, distributed by Shizen Design in Kansas City, and are available through a variety of retailers, including Artists & Craftsmen and Mulberry Paper & More.

Here’s a lovely video about Shizen Design Papers.

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Lynn Sures on Paper Talk
I recently interviewed Maryland artist Lynn Sures, who works with handmade paper in a variety of ways. Lynn tells me how she first discovered that paper was made by hand while reading the book Papermaking by Dard Hunter, and that she assumed that nobody on earth made paper by hand anymore (she was wrong)! We talk about her teaching philosophy and her work with pulp painting. And we discuss the paper she makes to draw on –she says if you make your own paper, it isn’t scary to draw on a blank sheet. Lynn describes one paper she took to Africa with her on a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship. She has spearheaded several unique papermaking efforts, including the Pulparazzi and the National Collegiate Handmade Paper Art Triennial. And she was recently elected president of Friends of Dard Hunter, the national papermaking organization that was founded to preserve Dard Hunter’s collection and currently meets annually in a different part of the country. Enjoy the episode!

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Papery Tidbits:

• The 7th annual National Collegiate Handmade Paper Art Triennial deadline is April 30th.
• Magnolia Editions has a treasure trove of information on their site, some for purchase and some for free, such as Sidedness, which describes the two distinct sides of a handmade sheet.
• Books, Vessels, & Containers, oh my! How do you store your stuff? Come explore a variety of papers that can be cut, folded, stitched and manipulated to create books, tubes, pockets, envelopes, maps, bags and more at the Red Cliff Paper Retreat, held in my Colorado studio, September 14-18. One spot left!

I would prefer to view these in person, but I still really enjoyed looking at these typewriter drawings by Lenka Clayton that are on view at the Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco through May 11.

From Lenka Clayton’s series “Typewriter Drawings”; typewriter ink on paper, rendered with a portable 1957 Smith-Corona Skyriter typewriter. Photo: Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco

Check this out! The Folding Foropter’s easy to ship (it flat-packs), easy to assemble and easy to use design helps bring corrective vision to the 2.3 billion people who need it. And it is a beautiful object, too!

Several national research agencies in China are investigating the molecular mechanisms that lead to economically important traits of paper mulberry such as pulping, papermaking, and the creation of feedstock, medicine, and food. Fascinating!

This figure shows how the genetics of paper mulberry enable it to be used in traditional medicine and paper and barkcloth making, as well as food and forage materials for human and livestock. CREDIT Peng and Liu et al.

Paul De Graaf recently made this fully functioning pop-up piano. How cool is that?!

Did anyone make it to the LA Art Book Fair? I enjoyed this description of one book at the fair: Made in India features bold, screen-printed graphics sourced from ephemera (packaging, maps, leaflets, etc.) collected in India during the ’70s and ’80s. The pages are made of hanji (traditional Korean handmade paper) and bound by a cover of jute and painted wood.

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Featured this week in my Studio shop: A bendable paper lamp, Playing With Paper (on sale), Cosmology (an artist’s book) and the Twelve Months of Paper Calendar (now 1/2 price).

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