The Sunday Paper #268
July 14, 2019
Congratulations to Lou Ellen Plummer from North Carolina for winning last week’s giveaway. Thanks to everyone else for participating!
Drew Matott, who runs Peace Paper Project is on Paper Talk this week! Like so many papermakers I talk to, Drew stumbled upon the medium by chance. Drew is the co-founder of Combat Paper and Peace Paper Project, programs which involve turning meaningful pieces of old clothing into handmade paper and works of art. We chat about the unique business model of Peace Paper and the most recent developments, including a DIY Hollander beater and St Pauli Paper, a new papermaking studio in Hamburg, Germany. Enjoy our conversation!
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I’m making flax paper a few ways in the studio. I cooked a batch in a 20% solution of soda ash and then made flat sheets, flax leather (air dried, spritzed with water and then restraint dried) and watermarked flax paper. Now I have a second batch that I’m beating without cooking. What you see here is the raw (uncooked) flax almost finished in the beater. It is such a stringy fiber! I’m hoping to be able to pull thicker sheets with the raw stuff, and all of these papers will be available in my online paper sale next month!
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Papery Tidbits:
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Growing Paper was born in Cape Town when Founder Roxanne Schumann was at a friend’s wedding and couldn’t help but feel bad about all of the beautiful wedding stationery that was going to waste because no one could keep it forever. This thought inspired Schumann to think of ways that paper could be reused, and the idea of seeded paper was born.
Dumbo BID. Spin the wheel: To watch the flipbooks in action, on person must turn a handle on the side of each five-foot-high contraption.
Unidentified Artist, “Flora and Bill of Sale,” 1796. cut paper on paperboard with pen and brown ink. Stratford Historical Society, Stratford, Conn. This work is part of “Black Out: Silhouettes Then and Now” at the Mississippi Museum of Art.
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Featured this week in my Studio shop: Playing With Paper, my films about paper, the Twelve Months of Paper Calendar (now 1/2 price) and Handle With Care, an artist’s book. |
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5 Comments
I’d be quite interested in specifics of your experiments with Flax, cooked and raw. Took a class where we made paper from Flax pulp. Have thought of ordering Flax Fiber to go with my Hollander Beater to be delivered this summer. Very interested in using plants that grow in northern MN also. While learning about the Beater thought I would start with cotton. Any suggestions greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Hi Penelope, I will try to remember to post about the flax paper! In terms of what to start with, that’s a good question. I wouldn’t think too much about it – dive in and see what happens.
The silhouette exhibit is amazing! I saw it last summer at the National Portrait Gallery and was blown away. I’d seen a show of Kara Walker’s work in Bellevue, Washington and was incredibly impressed by her work. Seeing it in conjunction with the historical silhouettes was stunning. Thanks for writing about this exhibit.
How lucky you are to have seen that in person, Phoebe!
gorgeous blog. I’m going to lose hours reading through these posts 🙂