Paper Twine / Paper Yarn

Paper Twine / Paper Yarn

The Sunday Paper #255
April 14, 2019
Congratulations to the two winners of the April Giveaway. Janet Lee and Jen Reardon will each receive a copy of Shawn Sheehy’s new pop-up book, Beyond the Sixth Extinction! Look for another giveaway next month!

Paper of the Week: PaperPhine

Welcome to the world of paper twine and paper yarn. These strands have long been forgotten, yet they are slowly being rediscovered as an environmentally benign and sustainable material. As a very light though sturdy, simple and nevertheless elegant material, they offer endless possibilities to the advanced artisan as well as to the intrigued student and curious designer.

PaperPhine is a retail shop in Vienna Austria, and they have retail shops around the globe that carry their products. On a side note, if you’re really into paper yarn, there is an facebook group for paper threads, yarns & textiles (unrelated to PaperPhine).

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In the Studio:
I’m shipping two artist’s books to Santa Fe for a group exhibition this summer at the Gerald Peters Gallery. I plan on visiting my books, speaking a bit about them and meeting some of the other artists at the gallery talk on July 20th (if you’re in the Santa Fe area, I hope to see you there). Here’s an alphabet book I created back in 2010. Alpha, Beta, … is a limited edition of 25 and is a book in the form of a unique lantern structure, with a flexible hinge that allows it to be displayed in a variety of ways. Each panel of the shadow lantern features an alphabet letter cutout that casts a shadow onto a second layer of handmade paper. The letters are in the Arts and Crafts style font designed by Dard Hunter (who is often referred to as the father of hand papermaking in 20th century America).

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Papery Tidbits:

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Inflation in the oil-rich Latin American nation of Venezuela has seen the economy spiral out of control, with its currency the Bolivar losing value. Street sellers are making purses, bags, hats and baskets to make money more valuable – their hand crafted wares sell for more than the bank notes are worth.
Check out this fire breathing dragon that Andy Singleton created from 1,200 sheets of A4-sized paper to celebrate the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones. It measures an incredible 43 feet long with a wingspan of nearly 20 feet. Click through to see all of the details in the piece.
I love the diverse paper works that are being shared over in Club Paper! Counterclockwise: Ilze Dilane’s pulp paintings made during her residency at the Southwest School of Art in San Antonio, TX; photos from Stefanija Damova’s visit to Museu Molí Paperer de Capellades outside of Barcelona, Spain; Kimberly McWhorter’s high shrinkage abaca castings for her MFA show in Athens, GA; and Rich Gray’s water lily using abaca made at an Arrowmont in a workshop with me in 2014! If you’d like to join us over in Club Paper, please answer the three questions when you request to join. This helps me keep spammers out of the group!

I have featured Ekatarina Lukasheva on the blog before, and she never ceases to amaze me! Her tesselations have a double presentation, as they each work as expanded and contracted forms (click through to see some of them in motion).

The Penland School in North Carolina created a lovely new video about craft. I was hoping that papermaking would make a cameo, and it did (towards the end) with master papermaker Paul Wong! Jesse Beecher’s short film exploring the focus, exhilaration, beauty, and joy of creating in the studio. It speaks to the special character of workshop education at places like Penland.

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Featured this week in my Studio shop
Twelve Months of Paper

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2 Comments

  1. Lou says:

    Hey Helen. I’m attending a workshop ‘Paper Thread through Asia’ with Aimee Lee at John C Campbell in June. I’m very excited about this! I’ve been interested in shifu for such a long time☺️
    Lou

  2. So cool, Lou. I think Aimee is a fantastic teacher. I haven’t taken a class, but I’ve watched her do a demo. Enjoy!