Warp, Weft, Watermark, Wood
#17
© Helen Hiebert, 100 x 100 Paper Weavings #17, 10″ x 8″, $100
There are definitely a few crazy things that you find on the shelves in a paper store. This thin wood veneer caught my eye when I was working on my book Playing With Paper, but I didn’t find an opportunity to use it for the book. When looking through my flat files for this project, I was drawn to the way that the wood grain “matched” the pattern in this hand marbled paper by Tom Leech of Santa Fe, NM.
Tom Leech hand marbled paper on handmade paper, wood veneer
#18
© Helen Hiebert, 100 x 100 Paper Weavings #18, 11″ x 8″, $100
On a recent visit to the hardware store, I noticed all of the paint swatches and decided they needed to be woven into this sheet of handmade cotton paper, which has a pseudo watermark on it. I made the watermark by pulling a very thin sheet of blue cotton paper, allowing the pulp to slip off of the alphabet resist that was adhered to the mould, and laminated that thin sheet to a base sheet of white cotton. I wonder who gets the job of naming the paint colors? And wouldn’t you know that the first swatch that jumped out at me was called Paper Lantern (see the top lefthand corner).
#19
© Helen Hiebert, 100 x 100 Paper Weavings #18, 10″ x 8″, $100
Those of you who are familiar with my work know that I’m crazy about the shrinkage properties of handmade abaca paper. The white sheet here was made by sandwiching hemp cord between two sheets of abaca and allowing it to air dry. You can get an inkling about how this happens in the trailer for my film Water Paper Time. I wove strips of crinkled momigami paper (ogurashi blue/green from Paper Connection International) between the lines. I like how the textures of the papers complement each other. For those of you who are really interested in paper, Don Farnsworth wrote this great little book all about Japanese momigami (or kneaded) paper.
I’m working on a sales page that features all of the weavings. It isn’t quite up-to-date, but here’s a sneak peak for those of you who follow my blog. Thanks so much!
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2 Comments
Your weavings look relatively easy and simplistic at first look, however, the skill it takes to match the contrasting papers and make them look appealing to the eye, is very evident and amazing.
Thanks for the appreciation, Barbara!