text: I love to go into Ten Thousand Villages to see their handmade papers. There are usually just a few new ones at a time, but they are delightful. They are usually designs on rice paper. Love that!
  Thank you for your wonderful blog, and since I recieved your wonderful book for Christmas, please just consider these additional resources. Lenz Arts in Santa Cruz, CA, Racines in Fort Bragg, CA and anytime I am near a Kelly’s Paper Company, I check out their sale shelf.
  Happy New Year to all. What fun reading all the comments. I get armloads of different papers at Friends of Dard Hunter Conferences. Its like being a kid in a candy store – Susan Kristoferson paste papers, walnut and indigo dyed flax paper from Cave Papers, Hook Pottery Paper for plant based papers and Helen Heibert flax papers are a few. So many papermakers under one roof -a chance tosample and touch a huge variety. In between I make my own and luckily friends in their travels always bring me home speciality papers.
  Since I have been making my own paper for 36 years I have a lot at hand but did recently by some of Asao Shimura’s beautiful papers at the Friends of Dard Hunter’s live auction benefit. Each sheet is more beautiful then the next.
  I love the work of Peter Gentenaar which you show here. I wonder how he gets those lovely colours which fade in and out?
  He either dips the bamboo in pigment or paints it onto the sculpture when it is wet (I can’t recall which), but the fact that the paper is wet allows the color to travel.
  the heart of the gallery is their paper-making…each week they make paper from clothes the local thrift stores can’t sell, pampas grass, shredded money, etc. The paper they make is wonderful to work on, and their paper-making set up is open to community members. Plus they are cool…I did an installation there this fall and it was total fun.
  Thanks for that link, Bonnie. I’ve heard good things about that place, but haven’t had an opportunity to get there… yet!
  oh Helen, thank you very much for your report and the presentation of the wonderful work of Jill Powers. It’s a shame that Colorado is so far away from Germany…
  At least I’m now a fresh member of IAPMA. A first browsing through the gallery was very inspiring, too.
  I absolutely love Jill Powers’ work! It was such a highlight of the exhibit at the joint FDH/IAPMA conference in Cleveland to be able to see Jill’s creation, up close and personal… Her adept manipulation of the fibre of the Japanese Paper Mulberry (kozo) is the most creative I have ever seen. What a treat for both of you that you will now be neighbours and fellow Coloradians. Thanks for featuring this wonderful interpretation and powerful message of Jill’s passion… Mimi
  How wonderful to find this posting on your Blog. My friend Sarah Mulholland and I took two Bookmaking as a Spiritual Practice classes with Jill many years ago at Pendle Hill Quaker Study Center. They were magical times. It is a joy to see how her work has progressed. Thank you for this information.
  This book looks so enticing, I just ordered it from Powell’s in Portland – I’m so thrilled to be getting it! Love your website and blog.
  I haven’t had the intern experience but while at school I had the same experience as one of your interns. I took 2 semesters of weaving and really loved it, the yarns, the colors the textures, everything about it EXCEPT, planning and setting up the loom. I just knew I would never have the patience to take the time to prepare everything, yet the very first time I experienced papermaking it didn’t matter to me how long preparation and clean up would be……….it was just my medium!
  Thanks for that comment, Judy. I feel the same way actually. I have no patience for some materials, and sometimes I wonder how paper hooked me. I don’t really even like the mess!
  My favorite paper screens and such were made my friend and former studiomate, Sun Young Kang. She usually works with Hiromi paper or hangi over making the work herself, although she has done that sometimes. Check her out here: http://www.sunyoungkang.com/
  I love your “Rube Goldberg” approach to making art. You can google Rube Goldberg if you are too young to remember his Sunday Funny Paper drawings.Keep up the good work. V
  Before I had a studio space, I made paper in my living room on hardwood floors. I covered my work surface (card table) with bath towels. At the corners, towels extended off the table into 5 gallon buckets. It worked. This was when I was hand pressing and drying on the picture window.
  Thanks for the comment, Leandra! Your note about towels reminds me of the Shamwow someone gave me a few years ago. They absorb a lot of water! And the idea of channeling water into a bucket is a great one. My old paper press had a tray on the bottom that channeled the water to one corner. A bucket placed underneath caught the water.
  My basement studio floor is concrete, but is old and pitted and cracked, so I covered it in a seamless piece of vinyl flooring (a remnant). There are no floor drains in my studio, so I work pretty much the same way. I use those ‘sticks’ (mine don’t always match either) over a separate draining vat (and add the water back into the vat periodically), my couching stand sits inside big concrete-mixing vats; ditto for pressing.
  I considered a vinyl remnant! I like the suggestion of putting the couching stand and press in concrete mixing tubs. My next challenge: figuring out a good system for transporting water to the utility sink. I suck the water from the vats and trays into the wet vac, but it isn’t on wheels. I’m guessing there must be one out there…
  When I taught Portable Papermaking at the Center for Book Arts (NY), we needed to haul all the water to the bindery and then back to the sinks; we used two big plastic bins on furniture movers, one for clean water and one for cleanup. We also lined the wood bindery floor with plastic (it’s on the fifth floor, and there were businesses below!) and then we put flattened cardboard boxes down over it, which made less slippery footing and also absorbed some of the spilled water.
  BUt what did you do when you got to the sink? Lift the bins? I guess that works okay with two people, but I’m thinking of some sort of syphon system…
  Oh no, we used pitchers to bail it into two colanders lined with paint strainers to keep the pulp out of the drain. I have something similar I use when I travel to residencies, too difficult to describe here. I’ll send you a photo.
  (I was supposed to put that ‘system’ into the next HP issue, and just nowrealized I missed the deadline!!!)
  My “new” 4yr old studio does not have drains in the floor so I use a tremendous amount of newspaper…just pile them around where despite valiant efforts to keep the floor dry..drips happen. If hot and sunny (South Carolina) I dry the newspapers and reuse. But my best invention was to use a 1/4″x3 1/2″ piece of wood accross the vat to hold the draining mold and deckle in the center of the vat rather then a stick with the mold hanging over the edge of vat dripping onto newspaper.. I drilled large holes in the wood panel so it drips right back into the vat. I keep a barometor on the wall and a dehumidifier at the ready. I have a small studio with a bookbinding section…. water removal always a challenge.
  Thanks for sharing, Mary! This is an excellent solution for a small space. I wish I knew how to attach your image here…
  I think you need to invent a watersucking “room-bot” to chase after all the drips that inevitably get on the floor. Your solutions are great, by the way,, simple and effective. In the Tim Barrett Japanese papermaking book there is a diagram for a worktable with about a 1” lip at the edge all the way around the table, and a drain hole at one end of the table, with a bucket under the hole. Similar to what you’ve already got, but maybe worth a look.
  when i built my press i had a drain tray built around the bottom plate with a hose to direct the water into a bucket or into the garden. this helps.
  Thanks, Esther. My first press had a tray, too. I got it from a woman who made paper in her 5th floor NYC apartment!
  Hi Helen, Enjoyed today’s blog (which I linked to from facebook for the info on Codex show). Sure would love to go to that! But, in lieu, have just now officially subscribed to this blog, so will look forward to what you tell us about your experiences at Codex. I like the way you weave into the narrative how you got started/your history, your experiences with other papermakers, the aside about wallpaper, and especially like that you also talk about other papermakers/book artists (looking forward to going to websites of the marbled paper artist). Have a great time and lots of sales at Codex! I have decided to buy Playing with Paper first and add a few others gradually to my collection. I’ll either order it from Powell’s or from your website store.
  Another solution for the floor paint is “pool paint” I have used it to make 3 x 4 foot paper dyeing trays. This keeps the water in a wooden vat especially well.
  Susan, I’m going to try pool paint when I need to repaint my floor! There are already a few places where the paint has peeled up, due to rolling or dragging…
  no secrets, but thank you for the report from codex. i love hearing how it went for you, i’ve had friends go in the past who have barely broken even and found it as you said stimulating and exhausting.
  Codex was wonderful for me. I tried to dedicate my time to seeing other work and finding inspiration. I definitely came away with new ideas and structures. It was challenging to stay focused though. I realized that I will have to use handmade paper for my next book (and will be testing a sheet of Tim Barrett’s)- that an arches or hahnemuhle just isn’t going to cut it. I like how you find so many ways to create possibilities for your work. It isn’t just about sales that happen at the fair but about the conversations and future possibilities. Some of my best and continuing clients were established at Codex in previous years.
  Thanks, Margaret :). That is so true… even in writing that post. I was fumbling around yesterday trying to come up with something, and that is what came to me.
  i was so glad when papermaking with plants was published. and i still love the format you used. i actually refer to both books on occasion, and recommend them to my students. the companion is a good text, and i can imagine it being very helpful for setting up a mill. but i particularly love papermaking with plants.
  Very nice! I am looking for this type of info and sometimes I get lucky like today…:-). Thanks for your post.
  I can see that I’m missing a lot in the field of handmade paper but guess that I should be happy that I’ve been doing it since 1979 and am still going strong. Always learning new things and meeting new challenges. I just don’t make money!. Betty KJ
  wonderful to see such grand student work! and tawney was one of our icons when i was a fiber student in the 70’s. she was always making amazing NEW work…
  Sounds like a great trip. I am jealous that you saw an exhibit of Lenore Tawney’s work. She has been an inspiration for me too.
  I noticed this recent visit by the artist Paul Johnson after I had pulled down a piece that we had on the walls of our home and read the inscription on the back. The inscription reads “the landscape of dreams stretches to the limit of the imagination, Paul Johnson 88″… the piece itself is a shadowbox and is very reminiscent of the works displayed by the artist on this site. So, my question is this, could it be that we have an earlier work by Paul Johnson, who subsequently explored making pop-up books? I can provide pictures of the work in question, as well as the inscription, if you can provide any information on the origins of this piece it would be greatly appreciated.
  We’re you ever able to find anything on this. I recently came upon one myself with an inscription on the back “can afternoon light visualize the mystery of moonlight?” And again signed Paul Johnson 88’. I’m having trouble finding a true history to the piece.
  I simply LOVE this post!!! First of all, I love dandelions and their fragile beauty – and how they travel the world like wanderers, putting down roots here and there (and mostly everywhere!)… I look forward to the development of this project – particularly the collaborative community aspect of it! Another ‘Helen’ project on the horizon – such fun!! Nice to couple the “wishing” focus to the project as well – don’t we all have wishes! Mimi
  Jody :). GREAT wish, and now that you’ve made it public, perhaps you can figure out how to make it come true! This is one thing I’m thinking about wishes… if you write them down or speak them aloud, they are that much closer to becoming a reality!
  I love your idea! I, too, spend a great deal of time thinking through my artwork before finally (and it always feels like FINALLY) creating them. Thanks to one of your blogs I found and purchased “Wish Paper”. I bought some for my sister who is going through a divorce and some for me. I think that taking the step to write down the wish helps the wisher really clarify what is desired and letting it go gives the wish ‘wings’ to go out and seek what is needed. I really value your posts and your willingness to share what you’ve learned.
  Dawn, thanks for your lovely comments. Yes, wings! Just like the dandelion seeds. I’ve seen them referred to as parachutes…
  Beautiful work and beautiful thinking, as usual! I look forward to seeing the finished piece as well as – hopefully – more work in progress photos. Hardening dandelion seed heads is a mind-boggling idea!
  Have you seen the Seed House on Ted Talks Architectural series? You can find it on Netflix, or maybe the Ted Talks website. It is stunning and would give you some more inspiration for your wonderful looking project.
  Amber and Wendy from EFEC tell me their boys really enjoy the paper class. I’m the Marketing Manager at Walking Mountains Science Center in Avon, we would love to have you here for a family workshop some time. Would you have any interest? I follow your posts but I don’t think I actually have your email, let’s connect and chat about it when you have some time.
  Papermaking was an important part of my teaching experience (retired after 35 years and continued residencies for another 10 years). I developed a buddy pulp painting experience for very special arts festivals where kids poured pulp around their hands onto large sheets of paper. The sheets were sponge pressed and wet vacuumned to expedite drying. During my 40 plus years I’ve worked with all ages and abilities. In working with visually impaired we used different water temperatures to make the process more meaningful. At times I had kids create mini deckles with strips of cardboard. In May I will provide papermaking experiences at a shelter for battered women and children.
  Hi Dennis, I love the buddy system, the sensory applications you incorporate and the work you have done and are doing with people who really need the outlet (not that we all don’t!).
  Thanks for the kind words. I will incorporate dried flowers in the papers made at the shelter for battered women. I’ll send you some images of their works but will not photograph clients.
  Your after school program with kids sure brings back memories of my days with TAG, and Gifted Education plus MARKLYNE Papermaker in Residency Program I patterned after Artist in Schools Program (which I also did in Lane County). Coincidentally, I got the use of a slide scanner this month, so am scanning slides from ARTQUAKE and all the above I did with kids, so will try to post a few on fb or send you some. Am on way out door, but briefly, one thing the kids loved was overcouching-first couching a full sheet, then laying various ribbons, or other papers, tissue papers that bled, then topping it off with a piece with one or more windows formed either by holding a stencil or cookie cutter on the screen while dipping the screen in the pulp, or using tape on screen to achieve the window in top layer. I used cookie cutters often to make various shaped windows that the objects could be seen through. So hard to explain in words-photo will show you better. Also they loved the papercasting I did with the Brown Bag Cookie Molds and Rycraft Swedish Cookie Molds, and I also went to candy supply houses, and bought all kinds of plastic candy molds to use for casting paper. Also molds for plaster casting to make a small frameable. The small cookie mold casts were also used later to embellish the book covers of the books we made. Plus many more things I did with them – pockets, packets, and miniature folios. I definitely miss being able to do it. You’re right, they are creative! Bye!
  I know what you mean about exhausting! I teach paper arts to kids too but in my own studio, which is great although it’s a pain having to clear up my own work weekly to fit them in. I agree: origami has always worked well, as has paper making but I’ve also had great success with marbling and making simple books. We’ve made pamphlets, oriental bindings and even Coptic bound books with older kids. We made “wagon train” books i.e. an accordion fold book with a folded-up bottom edge which enabled the kids to draw and cut out characters (often animals or dinosaurs) to slip into the books, changing positions to make a narrative. We also made stained glass paper: grated wax crayons sprinkled between two layers of freezer paper and ironed to melt the wax.
  Hi Sarah. what great ideas… I love the wagon train book! And the melted crayons was one of my favorite activities as a child.
  i teach emotionally disturbed kids in a special education program in new york state. one very successful program i co-designed was within the adirondack curriculum project, called blue line books. this teamed my class (8 students) with the middle school art teacher’s hand picked group of 20 kids. i trained my students to make paper in our classroom. we then hosted the other students in a day long workshop that began with adventure based counseling style bonding exercises, class discussion of what the blue line is (the imaginary line around the adirondack forest preserve), and continued with making paper (blue threads were a part of their cattail and daylily and abaca papers), then sharing lunch as a group, and then book making in the afternoon. the students were able to come into my classroom individually to retrieve their papers and i assisted them in building books. the resulting extra was a bonding that occurred between “regular” and “special ed” students, that outlasted the project. by empowering my students to teach the others, their peers perceived them in a different way and bridges were built.
  Velma, I loved reading about the bonding between different groups! This is so critical and necessary. Hats off to your successful program, in more ways than one!
  I wish I could have been there! Doesn’t look like you all got all of the snow we were getting on Monday. Your parties sound like tons of fun and I love all of the photos you included here.