Sustainability in Chaos

Sustainability in Chaos

The Sunday Paper #449

February 26, 2023

I’m starting a new community project, and you’re invited to take part!

I am about to begin working on a how-to book about paper weaving. In conjunction, I am launching my next project – a collaborative paper weaving. I plan to collect strips of paper with messages from participants from around the world which I will weave into a large wall piece representing our collective planet. I hope to feature this weaving in the book and to exhibit it.

You can help by sending me your maps!

Here’s what I need:

  • Cut a map strip that is 1” (2.5CM) wide and 12” – 24″ (30 – 60CM) long.
  • I hope to collect strips from all over the world. Your strip does not have to be local – think global. I’d love to have map strips from your travels.
  • You can send as many strips as you wish (from different places).
  • It is fine to fold your strips and tuck them into a small envelope.
  • The paper needs to be in good condition so that I can weave it – no brittle maps please.
  • Write the place that your map represents and a “vision for our world” on the back of your strip. Use any medium you like that does not bleed through to the other side, and write in your language of choice. Add doodles or drawings if you wish.
  • Include your name and e-mail address on a separate sheet in the envelope so that I can credit you and keep in touch about the project.

Send your strips to: Helen Hiebert Studio, 113 Mill Loft St. Unit C213, Edwards, CO 81632

Save the rest of your map – I’ll be hosting a free zoom workshop to teach you how to make a unique weaving in the near future.

This is a global community project – please tell your friends. Let’s see if we can get a map strip from each corner of the earth!

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How cool is this? Since 2015, the arts nonprofit Visual AIDS has celebrated Valentine’s Day with women living with HIV through LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN (LPW), a grassroots initiative that uses the holiday as a backdrop for activism and advocacy through community kinship and artistry. With the help of Brooklyn-based paper-making mill Dieu Donné, LPW has invited artists, activists, and community members to design hand-crafted Valentine’s Day cards to distribute internationally to women living with HIV.

A photo of two workshop attendees learning the craft of handmade paper-making at the Dieu Donné workshop. (Image courtesy Dieu Donné)

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I am co-jurying the North American Hand Papermaker’s next juried exhibition: Sustainability in Chaos. Artists have shown their animus in chaotic human situations in different ways, such as through visualizations, music, poetry, photography, etc. They depict it in dream-like abstractions, express it in realistic depictions of life, inform the mind, or convey their empathy through art. I hope you’ll submit an entry.

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This is a great series of photos showing an in-depth tutorial on paper-making from natural fibers, in this case from banana stalks. Anupam Chakraborty at Nirupama Academy of Handmade Paper in Kolkata, India, introduced participants to the magic of creating sheets.

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This is a fun article about artists using art (in the form of paper) as art therapy. There’s a great video about various suminagashi marbling techniques by Rhonda Barrett (the second artist featured).

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Paper Tidbits

  • The Red Cliff Paper Retreat is an annual week-long event in my Colorado studio, August 21-25. This year, we’re focusing on Paper Panels: book pages, screen and lampshade panels, wall pieces, and more.
  • Have you had a chance to listen to my interview with Andrew Dewar on Paper Talk?
  • Applications are open for a Project Researcher: Physical Accessibility in Book Arts (funded) at the Center for Book Arts, NYC.
  • Some of you contributed roots to my sculpture Mother Tree, and many of you have seen her on view, first in Portland and then as she traveled around the country. She is now at the Museum of Motherhood (yes, a museum about motherhood exists) in St. Petersburg, FL. I met the founder of the museum, Joy Rose, all the way back in 2010, right after I finished Mother Tree, and we’ve been talking ever since. They intend to purchase her to remain on site, and you can help! Thanks to those of you who have donated – we’re getting close!

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In the Studio

My month-long online class, Weave Through Winter, is wrapping up on Tuesday. Here are a few of my favorite weavings – ones I created (you can see all of them on my instagram @helenhiebert). I’ll be sharing more from class participants in the coming weeks. It is always an amazing and intense experience.

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Papermaking Series: Loading the Beater

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Featured this week in my Studio shop:

The Art of Papercraft, Papermaking with Garden Plants & Common Weeds, Water Paper Time, a film download, and The Papermaker’s Companion.

The Art of Papercraft

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