The Sunday Paper #390

November 28, 2021

We’re wrapping up the first year of my online membership program, The Paper Year. I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed this adventure and seeing how this amazing group responds to the monthly projects. We’re heading into another Paper Year in 2022, and I’ll be kicking off registration on December 15th at 12pm MST with a Winter Solstice Zoom Workshop. We’ll be making the pictured lantern and exploring paper weaving. Let’s illuminate our spirits and our homes, and create some holiday gifts! Click here to register for this FREE Zoom event. It will be recorded – so you can sign up even if you are not available, and you will receive the recording by the next day.

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I had a lovely conversation with Susan Kristoferson on Paper Talk. Susan specializes in surface design processes on paper such as itajime (Japanese fold, clamp, and dye) and hand painted paste papers, She lives and works in Turner Valley, Alberta, in Canada, on a hilltop with a view of the foothills and Rockies, along with her husband and a small farm of chickens and sheep. She is inspired by the long-distance view from her home and studio where she creates unique landscape “paintings” and abstract images using the papers she has made, painted, dyed, and collected during the past 40+ years. Enjoy our conversation!

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Paper on Skin, Tasmania’s wearable paper art competition is now calling for entries. The competition invites Australian and international artists to embrace the challenge of designing a wearable garment made from at least 80% paper. The biennial event originated in the city of Burnie, on the beautiful North-West Coast of Tasmania. Paper on Skin embodies the region’s transformation, shifting from heavy industry (there used to be a paper mill there) to a destination celebrating innovation, sustainable enterprise, food, culture, and the arts. The entry deadline is January 20, 2022 and there will be prizes totaling $AUD 10 000. Works will be exhibited at the Devonport Regional Gallery 23 June – 30 July. And new this year, Paper Off Skin is another competition that will expand the artistry and innovation seen in the works of Paper on Skin – without the works needing to be wearable!

© 2020 Brielle Killip, Chris Geissinger and Jennifer Garber (USA), Flower of Life, photo by Grant Wells Photo

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Hand Papermaking Magazine is the journal for our field. Each year, they do a year-end fundraising campaign. This year, if you donate $125 or more, you will receive a broadside that I’m delighted to have made the paper for. Akua Lezli Hope’s evocative and ruminative poem “Why Paper” inspired me to create a custom batch of lightly pigmented, highly beaten, handmade wild abaca paper for this broadside, which is illustrated and printed by Anna Benjamin.

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I’m a big fan of the work of Susan Ruptash, who is currently showing her work at Propellor Gallery in Toronto. Click through to read more about what she has to say about her work: ” My work is process based. I research traditional Japanese techniques for treating washi, often used in the past for utilitarian purposes, then adapt parts of those processes to embed bits of history into the piece.”

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Paper Tidbits:

• Arnold Grummer’s is having their Annual Press Sale, with discounts on their paper and book presses!
• Weave Through Winter is coming….!
• I’m a member of the Craft Industry Alliance, a wonderful resource for small business owners in the industry. They’re having a membership sale through tomorrow which will safe you 25% if you enter the code CRAFTPOP. Full disclosure: I’ll receive a small commission if you sign up.

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In the Studio:

I’m excited that we’re getting closer to the publication date of my new book, and I’m really looking forward to giving you a glimpse into the 40+ projects that can be made with a single sheet of paper. In the meantime, I’ve created a fun holiday gift idea for the paper artists and crafters on your list this season: save them an autographed first edition of The Art of Papercraft! Thank you to those of you who have already pre-ordered!

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Featured this week in my Studio shop: The Art of Papercraft, The Papermaker’s Companion, Curated Paper Collection #4, and Water Paper Time, a film download.

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