What a treat it has been to spend the past few days at Hook Pottery Paper in LaPorte, Indiana with my papermaking friend Andrea Peterson, her potter husband Jon Hook and their teenage sons Ry and Lu.
They millk their goats and make goat cheese.

and collect 2 dozen eggs a day from their chickens.

They eat home grown food from their garden each meal.
Andrea is a papermaker and Jon a potter. I taught a weekend workshop on watermarking in Andrea’s studio, and we all enjoyed the indoor/outdoor summer papermaking set-up.

We created watermarks using strapping tape and buttercut.


and fabric paint.
And after a hard days work we baked pizza in the bread oven!

Hook Pottery Paper’s store is open every weekend and they offer workshops throughout the year. They even have a residency program with a visiting artist suite, where artists can stay while they create artwork under the technical supervision of Andrea and Jon.
There are not that many places that you can go and spend focused time making paper. Tell us about your papermaking residency experiences.