The Sunday Paper #374

August 1, 2021

People ask me all the time if I know where to find a Hollander beater. Well friends, here’s a top of the line beater that was previously owned by Tim Barrett. It is one of the rare bronze tub Valley models, which includes a bronze roll and bedplate (which means it will never rust). This beauty is now up for auction on Ebay and all proceeds from the sale will go to match the University of Iowa Center for the Book challenge grant (read more about that here). This is a Win-Win-Win: you get a beater; you assist the University of Iowa Center for the Book, the most innovative combined book arts and book studies program in higher education today; and the third win is for the WINdgate Foundation, which is providing the match for the challenge. $3,000 dollar bid, now four, now four, will ya give me four? 

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This is a moving story by a NY Times writer about marking time during the pandemic by folding 465 paper cranes with her son. This photo marks 200 days / 200 cranes. Her son learned about perseverance, she reflects on other forms of creative expression in response to adversity, and she wraps up by stating: “Ultimately, when I look at the cranes now, boxed up, they exist to me as a symbol of hope and resilience and of what still remains. Each one represents a day we survived.”

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Here’s a unique kind of CSA (usually known as Community Supported Agriculture). Community Supported Art shares have been cropping up around the country for the past several years, and Rhizome CSA is the first of its kind in D.C. Here’s a share that includes handmade paper.

Julia Marks’s project “Seeds” is a play (subtitled “a conversation between me and my dead fig tree”) that is printed on handmade paper embedded with native wildflower seeds. The script can be planted, if so desired. (Julia Marks)

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I had the pleasure of presenting with Rachel Singel, associate professor at the University of Louisville, as part of a fellowship program she was involved with in the spring. Each fellow got to partner with a professional in their field. It was fun to come across this article about Singel, who is passionate about finding creative ways to eradicate invasive plant species that threaten local ecosystems. Here she is, working with yellow flag iris, which grows in wetlands, is toxic to livestock and other animals and destroys habitat used by waterfowl and native fish.

Rachel Singel, associate professor in the Hite Art Institute, with invasive plants she harvested for a papermaking project.

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Have you ever wondered why paper is 8-1/2″ x 11″?

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Paper Tidbits:

• Have you listened to my interview with Amy Richard on Paper Talk?
• I’m a member of the Craft Industry Alliance and get so much out of it! They are opening up a Mastermind Program this week, and I participated in the last round, and got so much out of it! Find out more and/or join this professional networking group.

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In the Studio:

It is such a delight to see how participants respond the projects I introduce in The Paper Year, my membership program. We just wrapped up the July Project: Envelope Photo Albums. Susan Kanowith Klein set out to make an album with wallet-size photos for her grandson Sammy about his first year.  (She’s giving the album to his parents for safe-keeping.)  She included two unsealed envelopes for Sammy – for when he’s older – to add some of his own photos and notes. What a sweet book and keepsake!

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Featured this week in my Studio shop: Opening Soon: Flexible Book Structures Online Class, Papermaking with Garden Plants & Common Weeds, Unique Handmade Sheets, Blue Knit

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