Off the Grid Paper

Off the Grid Paper

The Sunday Paper #292
December 29, 2019

Paper of the Week: Grid Paper


I have been playing around with my new Cricut Maker (a desktop machine that will cut watermarking material, among other things) and this is the first design I cut and made paper with. If you know anything about watermarks, the imagery cannot be too wide or the pulp slips off of the watermarking material, resulting holes in the paper. I’m afraid my success rate with this batch will be low – my pulp was quite fine and the material was a bit wide – but I’m still looking forward to getting the paper out of the drying box and seeing the results!

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In the Studio: Weave Through Winter

It’s exiting to see a classroom develop – there are close to 30 souls who have signed up for the Weave Through Winter challenge so far! Join us for this online class and create a daily practice as you explore a variety of papers and weaving techniques.

  • Commit to an hour of creativity a day (more or less)
  • Challenge yourself to share what you create (there will be prizes)
  • Stimulate your mind by finding, mixing and matching papers
  • Find satisfaction in the ordinary while creating something extraordinary

Class begins on January 16th, 2020, but earlybird pricing ends on January 1st (when the price will increase from $185 to $210).

Here’s a weaving and sentiments from Sarah Morgan, who took the class last year and has signed up to take it again:
“As I wove everyday, I started seeing possibilities for paper. I like working with reclaimed papers. I shop at SCRAP in Portland, OR, a local creative reuse store where I find maps, envelopes, discarded drawings, wallpaper, calendars, etc. I grabbed a poster from a power pole and delaminated cardboard. Experiments with all kinds of materials flowed from the daily practice. I recommend Weave Through Winter and will take it again.”

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Papery Tidbits:

  • I’m offering a FREE webinar where you can learn more about the Weave Through Winter online class on January 2nd at 1pm EST, 12pm CST, 11am MST, 10am PST. If you miss the webinar, you can watch the replay – but make sure you register so that I know to send it to you!

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I had the pleasure of meeting Audrey Niffenegger when she visited Oregon College of Art & Craft several years ago. She’s the author of The Time Traveler’s Wife (which was made into a movie) and Her Fearful Symmetry (both fantastic works of fiction; perhaps you already know that the heroine in The Time Traveler’s Wife is a papermaker). Audrey is also an artist, and she’s passionate about the book in all forms. Click through to read about Audrey’s vision for an Artist’s Book House in Evanston, IL. She has her eye on the historic Harley Clarke House there, and will make a proposal to the city on February 28, 2020. If the proposal isn’t accepted, she is dedicated to finding another place for classes, a library, a book shop, studios, a cafe: a place to gather, to meet each other, to share ideas (and coffee). You can help Artists Book House become a real place by donating!

This is a fascinating story about the guy who pioneered using paper negatives instead of silver-plated daguerreotypes—a choice that eased his travel and also made it possible for him to create the first-ever travel book accompanied by original photographic reproductions.

Maxime Du Camp, Westernmost Colossus, the Great Temple, Abu Simbel, 1850, Salted paper print.

If you’re in NYC this week, head on over to MoMA to see Betye Saar’s very first etchings, drawings, and early experiments with assemblage. For the exhibition, a team of curators made the most of a recent museum acquisition of 42 works on paper by the artist.

Betye Saar, “Let Me Entertain You” (1972), Wooden window frame with cut-and-pasted printed and painted papers and plastic skull, 14 3/4 x 24 x 1 3/4″ (37.5 x 61 x 4.4 cm) (photo by Jasmine Weber)


It isn’t every day that I find out about a cool paper book through a personal connection. I had some of my artist’s books professionally photographed in Denver this week, and the photographer (Wes Maygar) told me about his brother’s girlfriend, Corrie Beth Hogg, who wrote the book Handmade Houseplants. How cool is that?

This is a great article + video about a young man who is bridging generations in the paper umbrella making business in Japan.

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I made this one sheet wonder as a project for my new book – it shows off a strip of kraft tex adorned with eyelets and a snap attachment.
Do you have a One Sheet Wonder? I am curating a gallery section in my new book to show off the potential of paper (featuring artwork, graphic design, fashion design and other wonders created from one sheet of handmade or machine-made paper). Fill out this form if you have something to share, and feel free to pass it along to other paper artists (deadline: 1/15/20). Although I can’t promise that your image will make the cut (there are so many factors involved), I plan to start showing off your One-Sheet-Wonders on the blog (like I’m doing today), leading up to the book’s publication.

Featured this week in my Studio shop:
Weave Through Winter Online Class, Vertices, an artist’s book, The Paper Year, and The Paper Lover’s Package.
The Paper Year

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2 Comments

  1. Susan Mackin Dolan says:
    December 29, 2019 at 11:13 am

    Betye was very interested in handmade paper too. I collaborated with her making several pieces when she was a visiting artist at the Southwest School of Art in San Antonio in 1985. I recently saw another “pulp painting” work by her in the collection at the Brodsky Center (during the Dard Hunter conference in Philadelphia.)