The Sunday Paper #384

October 10, 2021

The Paper Year is open for registration quarterly, and now is one of those times! Here you see the final three projects we’ll be making in 2021. This would be a great time to join and get a sense of what our community in preparation for 2022, when I’ll be adding a few more fun elements to this membership program. Registration is open through the end of today!

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Last weekend, I attended the Movable Book Society (MBS) conference, whose members include pop-up book collectors, paper engineers, artist’s book makers and lovers of paper movables. Several of the designers mentioned in The Story of MoMA Holiday Cards are MBS members. Rob Kelly was at the conference, and he is well known for designs that, when easily assembled by the recipient, transform into small paper sculptures representing objects such as a pinball machine or a cuckoo clock. This year, Kelly’s Holiday Harmony assembles into a vintage upright piano adorned with a holiday centerpiece.

Holiday Harmony, by Rob Kelly, available at MoMA

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I recently attended an online lecture by Kelli Anderson through the University of Michigan, Dearborn campus (click through to watch the recording). Anderson has done some really interesting projects with paper, and I decided to sign up for her 10-week (gulp) paper engineering class through Cooper Union, since it is online. We started this week!

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How fun to discover this article about Jenny Pinto, who came to work with me in Portland in 2000. I remember opening an e-mail that was on the book arts listserv with the subject line of paper lighting and natural fibers. Pinto is a pioneering force in India’s sustainable paper and lighting sector. Today, her company sells products ranging from elegant lighting to creative home accessories, all made from recycled materials.

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This looks like a great book by Ellen Knudson of Crooked Letter Press. Knudson wrote Illustrated Bookmaking for her own educational and instructional purposes over years of teaching her Book Arts class. Creating diagrams helped her understand the structures better, and she can teach them in a more complete way as a result. The diagrams included in this publication are intended to supplement in-person (or online) bookmaking instruction and practice.

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Paper Tidbits:

• The Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking is hosting a virtual talk and discussion series entitled “The Book: Past, Present, and Future.” The 2nd lecture in the series, The Present, takes place this coming Tuesday. Register for this free lecture here.
• Listen to my interview with Jenny Pinto on Paper Talk.
• I’ll be attending Paper For Water’s annual fundraiser next Saturday online. If you live near Dallas, you can attend in person. I love what these girls are doing! Click here to secure your Remember Celebration tickets today.

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In & Out of the Studio:

Our son Will has been waiting throughout the pandemic to see whether a scholarship he received from the Japanese government would come to fruition. He was supposed to spend his senior year of college in Japan, but instead her spent it here, taking classes online and graduating from DePaul University. A week ago, he got the news that exchange students would be allowed to travel into the country. It was a bit of a scramble, but on Tuesday, he got a rapid covid test, tested negative, received his Visa, and here we are at the airport in Denver, sending him off for 9 months in Tokyo! He’s currently quarantining for 2 weeks and will then be taking classes online, but we hope that might change to in-person at some point. And at least he can explore Tokyo, and he might have to visit Itoya to do some paper shopping for his mom!

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Featured this week in my Studio shop: Papermaking with Garden Plants, now enrolling: The Paper Year, translucent abaca, and Water Paper Time.

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