The Sunday Paper #62

Paper of the Week: Thai Unryu

Thai Unryu is a versatile paper that I like to use for teaching. It is inexpensive and beautiful with kozo fibers running through it. It comes in a wide variety of colors (these are only a third of them), you can get it in 25″ x 37″ sheets, and a handful of colors are available on a roll. It isn’t terribly strong, but it looks great when illuminated. I often use it to add color to the shadow lantern project that I teach. I’ve also recently started using it to create double-sided sculptural papers with embedded wire.

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In the Studio: I’m in Portland now. It is great fun and definitely bittersweet to visit a place you used to live. But in some ways, it is business as usual. I’m catching up with artist friends, had some work shot by my photographer, and have bumped into old friends at the pool. I’m looking forward to a few days at the coast, where I’m headed today, where the highs are in the upper 60’s (there is a heat wave here in Portland).

Palmarin Merges, Here is Beauty, 2015, mixed media, fabric, and handmade paper. Photo credit: Dan Kvitka.

I gave an informal talk this week at c3:initiative, a really cool process-based residency program and arts non-profit located in the St. John’s neighborhood in North Portland. One of their missions is to support creative businesses, which they do through their business incubator, a program designed to help a budding creative business get on its feet and develop joint programs. Their first incubator business is Pulp & Deckle is a small business and working papermaking studio (how cool is that?!). Pulp & Deckle and c3initiative are currently taking applications for their papermaking residency, and you don’t have to be versed in papermaking to apply (in fact, they might be more interested if you aren’t). Check it out! 

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Have you seen the world’s largest Chinese paper cutting? It is currently on display stretching across a full basketball court in Malaysia. Gao Xiao Dong, 51, and his wife Yan Fang, 50 used 1,200 pieces of white paper and 600 pieces of red paper, painstakingly cutting and piecing the work together on a 650m paper foundation over five years. I wonder how big their scrap pile was!

Here is the film trailer for Between the Folds, an awesome documentary about origami by Vanessa Gould. I never tire of watching this film (available on netflix) and if you haven’t seen it, you’re in for a treat!

Mapping Hand Papermaking is a great resource. It is a map of paper studios around the globe (add yours if it isn’t on there already). Be sure to poke around the Paperslurry blog for other interesting facts about paper.

Speaking of maps, Here 360 is a blog devoted to maps, and this particular post to map folding. It can be difficult to refold a map that you’ve unfolded (been there, done that). When all else fails, you can resort to the technique employed below in the crumpled city map of London. 

This is an interesting article about Japanese handmade paper scraps being used as an ancient beauty secret.

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