The Sunday Paper #264
June 16, 2019
Congratulations to Selena Dixon from Dallas for winning last week’s giveaway. Thanks to everyone else for participating!
Happy Father’s Day! Both of my kiddos are traveling home this weekend, and I reminded them to bring home a little something for their pop. A string of texts ensued, with one saying they were going to one-up the other in terms of gift giving. This certainly wasn’t my intention, but it made me think about how much joy we get from giving (and she’s actually bringing him something he requested, so I think she had the advantage… if this is a competition).

Paper of the Week: Washi

The word washi comes from wa meaning ‘Japanese’ and shi meaning ‘paper’. Washi is made using fibers from the inner bark of the paper mulberry (kozo) bush, the gampi tree, or the mitsumata shrub. As the number of producers of washi dwindles in Japan, my hope is that interest in the unique papers will grow. Sukey Hughes spent a few years in Japan back in the 1970’s and wrote an amazing book called Washi, the World of Japanese Paper in which she documented a wide variety of papers that were still being made by hand back then. There are several companies that import Japanese papers to North America, and I’ve promoted many of them on this blog. The papers you see below are from Washi Arts and show the custom paper pack for my upcoming Paper Weaving online class. I love introducing participants to new papers, but I always encourage them to incorporate their own papers to create unique weavings.

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In the Studio: Paper Weaving Online Class
I’ve painted the floor in my studio and rearranged! I’ve purged quite a bit, but am still amazed at how much stuff I have. Next week, I’ll share some pictures.


Earlybird pricing for Paper Weaving ends tomorrow (June 17th)! Click here to watch the video trailer and learn more about this online class. If you’re thinking of joining us and want to order the paper kit, tomorrow is also the deadline for that, or if you prefer to use your own papers, you can register right up until class begins. Class runs July 10th – August 14th, and a new lesson is delivered each Wednesday.

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Papery Tidbits:

• I’m a member of the Craft Industry Alliance, and I can’t say enough about how much I get out of the organization: access to articles about running a business, a fantastic forum on facebook that always has multiple answers to my questions, and discounts which have paid for my membership! Learn more here.

Here’s an interesting off-shoot of Combat Paper’s process of having veterans turn their uniforms into sheets of handmade paper. Desiree Hagen is turning the clothing of loved ones who have passed away into handmade sheets that she’ll create portraits on. What an interesting and loving way to go through the grieving process.

Ryan Gary creates paste-up street art murals that dot the Walla Walla Valley in Washington State. He uses wallpaper paste, construction paper, gold glitter paper, painted paper, and photocopied drawings that he tears apart. This piece (which caught my attention) was applied to fencing on the Whitman College campus just before Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

These paper parachutes sound very practical (although you wouldn’t catch me using one – I don’t enjoy the feeling of falling – but they aren’t meant for human use). Natalie Yam, a 12th grader at the Anglo-Chinese School in Singapore, is working on a parachute design to carry light packages for disaster relief. Since these types of parachutes are generally meant for single use, paper is strong enough and it degrades naturally (compared to nylon). Sounds like a win win to me.

This is a pretty incredible story about how Gao Guangli, who was born with cerebral palsy and is able to move only his mouth, makes a living and holds a Guinness world record for his origami.

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Featured this week in my Studio shop: Playing With Paper, the Paper Weaving Online Class, the Twelve Months of Paper Calendar (now 1/2 price) and Handle With Care, an artist’s book.

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