The Sunday Paper #311
May 10, 2020

Happy Birthday

to The Sunday Paper!

The Sunday Paper is six years old this week – 311 consecutive issues have been published. Wow!
And Happy Mother’s Day to one and all.

I put this blurb at the top of the blog post once a year, asking you who read this blog regularly to consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper. I truly enjoy putting this together each week and am so thankful to those of you who send me comments, contributions and suggestions!
You can contribute by making a one-time gift or a monthly pledge. Thanks to everyone who has supported this blog over the years! I look forward to sharing many more Sundays with you!

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In the Studio: Paper + Light

I spent two days in the studio this week geeking out over Paper + Light (oh my!). As I interact with my online class participants in Flexible Book Structures 2 (who are half-way through creating a series of book structures) I have begun putting together a new online class that will begin on July 6th – something to engage you while you stay safer-at-home perhaps? This course is going to be different than my project-based classes as we focus more on technique. While I’ll still show plenty of structures, I’ll be prompting participants to go in their own direction as we explore paper, translucency, light, shadow, form and more. Think you’d like to join us? Fill out this survey and receive a $10 off coupon when registration opens (in about 2 weeks).

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Minneapolis-based Cave Paper has been producing gorgeous papers for the past few decades. They are one of the few hand papermaking businesses that is able to support a small staff on the proceeds of handmade sheets. I know many of you use Cave Papers in your work, and if you don’t, I invite you to try them out!
Grab this Quarantine Sale Sampler to familiarize yourself with Cave Paper. The sampler includes a variety of 8″ x 11″ flax sheets, a plantable cotton with wildflower seeds and marigold petals, a pulp painted Cloudy Sky, readable alphabet letters plus two wild card sheets so no two packets are alike. Each group of papers comes with either a Dark Granite, Cloudy Sky, or Layered Indigo Walnut handmade paper portfolio tied with raffia and a description of what is inside. Cave Paper peeps like all three of these portfolios but if you have to have a certain one then mention that in the “notes” section in your online order. These normally sell for $60 but during the quarantine they are only $40.

I’m promoting artists here on the blog to help them replace some of their income during the pandemic. Please reach out if you have a paper product to sell that you think my readers will enjoy.
Back when we could travel… I got to go to Japan. It was so much fun to visit Sarah Brayer, an American artist based in Kyoto, whom I met when I worked at Dieu Donné Paper Mill in NYC. Sarah is internationally known for her large-scale, poured washi paperworks and aquatint prints, and luminosity is central to her work! While talking, we discovered our kindred spirit: Sarah had an early interest in Japanese fusuma doors (click through to see the gorgeous set she created for her home), while I have been intrigued by the way light filters through shoji screens. Enjoy our conversation on Paper Talk!

This is a fascinating article about the production and use of tengujo, the thinnest paper in the world. As a papermaker, I can appreciate this: “It took (Mr. Chinzei, the papermaker) two years of trial and error, minutely varying the pressure of the pounding machine, the speed of the mixing, the density of the fiber and neri in the water.”

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The News from Here:
Like so many of you, I have been making sourdough bread (thanks to my friend Susan, who gave me some of her starter). So far I’ve made round loaves (both white bread and 1/3 whole wheat) in my dutch oven, and then I tried a sandwich bread loaf and cinnamon raisin bread baked in bread pans. They’ve all turned out pretty well. I’ve also cooked sourdough pancakes, and today I tried biscuits. Those didn’t taste quite as good as they look. I had a feeling when I was mixing the dough, which didn’t turn out light and fluffy…

Bravo! Vail, a huge summer music program was cancelled this week. I’m sure similar things are happening in your neck of the woods. Many local shops are opening, and part-time seems to be the way they’re starting out. Even my accountant (who finished my taxes this week) is open for reduced hours. The local art center is open for social distance purchases, and if the weather’s nice, they are inviting customers to sit outside (instead of inside) to make art.
My mother’s assisted living facility reported it’s first case of covid-19 on Wednesday (thanks, BTW, to those of you who have sent her notes – she mentioned them to me this week and truly appreciates the gesture). The outcome for that poor soul wasn’t good, and the facility immediately tested everyone. And guess what? They discovered more cases. The staff, who really are the ones working on the front lines, must be so freaked out! I am not one to over-worry about things like this, but it is easy to jump to conclusions. From what I can tell, they’re doing the best that they can and are keeping the families informed.
Stay well my friends!

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Featured this week in my Studio shop: Prism, an artist’s book, Shadow Ornament Online Class, The Papermaker’s Companion and Playing With Pop-Ups.