Saturday, October 27. “The Papermaking Tradition in Central Asia,” Johan Solberg ✧ “An Enduring Master and a New Generation of Traditional Japanese Papermakers,” Rie Hachiyanagi
Johan Solberg shared his recent research on historical papermaking in Central Asia, the geographical conduit through which paper technology moved from the Eastern world to Europe over a thousand years ago. Few sources remain to shed any light on how paper was made in the region when it first appeared there in the seventh or eighth century; the lack of available scholarship led Solberg to plan a trip to Uzbekistan in search of answers. [Read more]
Friday, October 26. “Defining Collaborative Authorship in Book Arts,” Katharine DeLamater ✧ “Papermaking as a Socially Engaged Art Practice,” Drew Cameron ✧ “Survey of Modern Korean Print and Papermaking,” Steph Rue and Lars Kim
This session focused on identity within artistic practice and succeeded in delivering presentations that gave way to further thinking of ownership and appropriation. The placement of identity within arts/crafts works can be misconstrued based on the level of appropriation taken by artists/artisans relative to the participants of said work. Who gets the credit? Why does one person get the acknowledgement, but the ‘laborers’ none? [Read more]
Katherine DeLamater, left, assists Ruth Lingen in couching a pigmented black sheet of paper onto Leonardo Drew plates filled with ‘magnum’ bits.
Friday, October 26. “Papermaking & Printmaking Collaborations”
Ruth Lingen introduced the audience to her decade-long work at Pace Paper—a satellite of Pace Editions and Pace Gallery in Brooklyn, New York—by showing examples of her collaborations with artists. To the amazement of the audience Lingen explained some of the paper and print requirements that constantly push the boundaries of artistic matrices. Shepard Fairey (perhaps best known for his Hope poster created for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign), the pop-artist Donald Baechler, painted pulp monoprints by Daniel Heidkamp, Leonardo Drew (sculptural prints on an enormous scale), Li Songsong’s dimensional work were discussed and explained during this lively plenary session. [Read more]
Katherine Ruffin demonstrates printing on an iron hand press in conjunction with the Protest in Print exhibition at the Davis Museum, Wellesley College, November 7, 2017.
Saturday, October 27. “Why the Whole Book Matters: Making Books the Hard Way in 21st Century America,” Katherine Ruffin ✧ “Chasing the Ideal Book,” Carolee Campbell
The standing-room-only crowd of over fifty attendees learned about the bookmaking practices, personal histories, and artistic philosophies of two book artists: Katherine McCanless Ruffin who shares her passion of print and paper with her students at Wellesley College and Carolee Campbell who realizes her vision of the ideal book through thoughtful concept and high craft. [Read more]
Mhd. Hussain Kagzi getting ready to form a sheet. (Mina Takahashi)
Friday, October 26. “Papermaking by Hand in India,” Radha Pandey ✧ “Daluang Beaten Bark Paper and Contemporary Artists in Indonesia,” Lisa Miles ✧ “Traditional Japanese Kites & their Influence of 21st-Century Kite Makers,” Scott Skinner & Ali Fujino
Radha Pandey discussed papermaking by hand in India and what that process entails, as well as traditional dyeing techniques alongside her own experiments with non-traditional natural dyes. Pandey discussed the history of this kind of paper, and then went on to describe each step in this traditional papermaking process, from the beating of the fiber with large wooden hammers, to the techniques used for pulling sheets, to burnishing the paper on curved wooden boards. Pandey noted that the position the papermaker is in while pulling sheets influences the quality and thickness of the paper, as does the floating action of the mould when in the vat of pulp. Pandey argues that when pulling sheets from the vat, the seated or squatted position of the papermaker is what allows them to consistently make the same thickness of paper throughout an entire run. [Read more]
Saturday, October 27. “The Nexus of Being and Place: Interpreting Human Origins in Handmade Paper,” Lynn Sures ✧ “The Driving Force of the Universe Made Visible,” Heather Peters ✧ “Printmaking with Dirca Bark Paper,” Zachary Hudson and Andrew Zandt
Lynn Sures reported on her work funded by the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship into early human and animal origins, beginning with drawings of fossils on her own handmade abaca, flax and hemp paper. After research in museum collections in Washington DC, she traveled to Kenya with her handmade kenaf paper to document archeological sites where early human remains had been found along with evidence of tools and tool making, or “the development of the ‘maker’ in a species that directly preceded ours.” All of these drawings were then reinterpreted in pulp paintings. On the process she says, “These drawings are very literal. I’m trying to understand who I am looking at.” [Read more]
A post sheet-forming group portrait, Timothy Barrett holds the megaphone. (Barry Phipps)
Friday, October 26. An audience participation demonstration with Tim Barrett & his team
After a call for assistance, twenty-two people were ready to help with this ambitious project, and a bigger crowd was ready with their cellphones and their enthusiastic presence to see the action. The full 5 × 27 foot sheet required 88 liters of water, 23 liters of (bleached abaca) pulp and 58 liters of formation aid. This solution was gradually and continuously added using buckets at either end while the nearly two dozen volunteers held and moved the mould. Although we tried practicing with 40 lbs. of dry marbles just before the real process, it turned out to be ineffective. Marbles move differently than pulp. [Read more]
Peeling off the sheet. (Lisa Dunseth. More photos on the Northern California Chapter’s Flickr.)
Wednesday, October 24
Tim Barrett, our esteemed host from the University of Iowa Center For The Book, instructed seventy-seven conference attendees, in seven one-hour sessions, on how to make paper. Although none of us in my tour even came close to the “2,000 sheets-per-day” rate we certainly enjoyed trying. [Read more]
As a librarian at Plymouth State University, I am seeking the expertise of someone with an interest in industrial papermaking.
Plymouth State is home to a collection of thousands of photographs of the Brown Paper Company of Berlin, NH. A great many of these photographs were taken in the company mills in the early twentieth century and show their papermaking process and equipment. Currently the photographs do not have enough data attached to them to make them easily searchable. Together with two student employees, I have undertaken a project to add information to the photographs to facilitate folks finding and using them.
Session IV, Panel 4. “Valley of Venetian Ties: Historic Paper Mills and Printers of Toscolano Maderno,” presented by Megan Singleton ¶ “Much to Do with Little: Paper and Book Making at Aba House, Nungua, Ghana,” presented by Kathy Wosika.
Megan Singletonspoke about her 2011 visit to the ruins of a former hand papermaking district in Lombardy called the Valley of the Paper Makers. Proportedly established in 1384 in the mountains above the villages of Tuscolano and Maderno on Lake Garda, most of the mill sites date to the sixteenth century when the area was abandoned due to the plague. However in the late seventeenth century it came to be re-occupied and by 1730 thirty-eight mills were reopened. [Read more]
