I want to share the evolution of producing The Papermaker’s Studio Guide, which has been quite a feat! I have to say there were moments when I thought I’d throw in the towel, but now that we’re at the other end, I am proud of what has been accomplished and pleased that I stuck with it.
I sought funding for this project from the Celebration Foundation in Portland and the International Association of Hand Papermakers and Paper Artists (IAPMA), asking for support so that I could hire a filmmaker to create and edit a how-to video. Both grants were awarded.
It was great to have the grant proposal as a guideline for the project. I knew that I’d be working with Ian Lucero who made a lovely little documentary about The Mother Tree Project. What I hadn’t thought about was the fact that Ian knew very little about papermaking and I knew very little about producing a film. We really needed a director to pull this all together, but that wasn’t in the budget.

 
I spent a good six months tossing various ideas around and finally settled on filming in four different papermaking studios in and around Portland (we didn’t have a travel budget either) to show a variety of workplaces, papermaking equipment and techniques.
We filmed at Oblation Papers & Press,

HiiH Lamps & Lanterns.

Marilyn Wold Studio,

and Helen Hiebert Studio. Each studio is profiled in the extras on the DVD.

We used The Papermaker’s Companion as our guide and script.

You are invited to Watch the introduction of the DVD here.
And You can order a copy here. Don’t forget to check out the cost-saving packages in my web store, too: The What’s New Package includes the DVD and my new book, Playing With Paper; and The Papermaker’s Package includes the DVD and The Papermaker’s Companion.
Stay tuned for some fun giveaways hosted by the publishers of my books, who were so generous in providing financial support for producing the actual DVD’s and cases.