#20

I took a workshop at the Newport Paper Arts Festival years ago with Patty Grass on making batiked paper. I happened to be in touch with Patty recently and she generously contributed this lovely blue paper. The technique is interesting: she used white kozo paper, parafin wax and traditional wooden stamps (can you see the butterfly?), brushes and fabric dyes. The paper was sprinkled with wax and light blue dye was applied to the paper with a brush; after it dried, the butterfly stamp was used to apply more wax and a darker shade of blue dye was painted on; wax was then brushed in strokes on the paper; and finally, a darker blue dye was applied. When dry the wax was removed by ironing between sheets of newsprint. I wove the batiked paper with an ogurashi blue/green paper from Paper Connection International.
#21


When I was writing Playing With Paper, I solicited papers from various paper decorators. Steve Pittelkow made this marbled paper – I met him when he taught a marbling workshop in the neighboring studio at Penland in 2011. It was like magic watching him decorate the water’s surface and then jiggle the paper as he laid it down on the surface and caught the patterns. My friend Shu-Ju Wang brought this blue mulberry paper back from a trip to Taiwan. The paper seemed a bit plain, so I crinkled it. Here’s the professional photograph by Stephen Funk that appears in the book.

#22


This project has been nostalgic for me, but I guess that isn’t so surprising considering the fact that paper is my life. I have so many memories tied up in it after having worked with it for more than 25 years. I solicited papers early on for this project, and Linda Draper from San Antonio sent me several sheets of handmade paper in this lovely blue folder. I couldn’t take my eyes off of the folder – it is an antique! Check out that embossed texture, the embossed area for a label (which, by the way, had 10 cents written on it), the accordion folded spine to accommodate the brads inside, the rounded corners the discoloration from aging… need I say more to convince you how enchanted I was with a silly old school notebook? Linda’s gorgeous pulp painted sheet is woven with it, made by pouring colored pulps onto a base sheet through a plastic grid.


And now to change the color! I was in Wishes Toy Store in Avon yesterday where I saw this wrapping paper. The owner was nice enough to give me a yard, which I wove with a pink momigami that I got at one of the country’s finest paper stores (in my humble opinion): Two Hands Paperie in Boulder. If you ever have a chance to go there, it is a feast for your eyes.
I’ve had many an adventure on a bicycle. My first large purchase was a bike, acquired with hard earned babysitting and work money in high school. I once got a date for knowing how to fix a young man’s derailleur, I cycled across the country, and I’ve pedaled to the base of two bridges in NYC, locked up the bike, and then climbed way up high!
I’m off to St. Louis on Thursday for a papermaking conference. I look forward to sharing the weavings that I do from the road! I also wanted you to be the first to know that I’ve created a sales page for 100 x 100 Paper Weavings, where you can view all of them in one place. I hope you’ll take a peak and let your friends know about the project! Thanks.