Return to Curtin Springs

In 2018 I did a two week artist residency at Curtin Springs Cattle Station in Central Australia. 

Last week I returned to Curtin Springs as a tourist, along with 9 members of Papermakers & Artists Queensland (plus 5 husbands!).

We spent our week touring the property, making paper from grasses, sharing stories and laughter, and generally just being very creative.

I completed two artist books which I will tell you about in my next blog posts.

To find out more about Curtin Springs, here is the website  www.curtinsprings.com.

Mary and Wendy collecting grasses to make paper with.

Exploring a sand dune, looking for animal and bird tracks in the sand.

Gladys and Wendy couching their sheets of paper.
Both Gladys and Wendy work very texturally with their fibres.

Gladys adding dried plant fibre inclusions to her paper.

Helga and her husband Victor couching sheets.
The red coloured paper has red clay added to the vat.

Ngaire forming a sheet.

Bangtails - hair from cow tails - can be
added to the paper as an attractive inclusion.

My post - featuring a red clay paper.

The girls laminating their wet sheets to a smooth
surface to restrain dry.

Amee and Joanna cooking the grasses.

 

Amee giving basic instructions on how they work their paper mill.

Here I am doing a 'dance' on top of the post to manually
remove some of the water from the couched sheets.
Its usually done with a hydraulic press.

Here we all are, posing with our deckles in the paper studio.