Late last year I participated in an international online kozo papermaking workshop with US artist Amy Richard. Read about it in my blog post HERE. Amy is offering another round of workshops during May, you can find information on the workshops HERE.
I have made kozo paper both in Australia and Japan, but never from the point of collection of the fibre from the Paper Mulberry tree, so Amy's workshop was very enlightening as to the whole process.
From the kozo paper that I have made, I created an artist book. I wanted to capture both the long meditative process of kozo papermaking with the soft rustling sound of kangaroo grass heads waving in the breeze. Kangaroo grass is a native grass that I grow in my garden - its leaves make nice paper and the seed heads are wonderful to use in my monoprinting.
For this book, I chose white oil based etching ink. Oil based for a long drying time which extends my working time, and white so that I could play with the idea of ephemerality and the gorgeous transparency of the paper.
I have titled the book 'Silent : Listen' which is from a poem I wrote during a kayaking trip amongst the mangroves:
I cut through
jagged reflections
drifting
silent
then with the exhale
of the full tide
my ears
mouth
listen
And this is my artist statement:
This long landscape format book is a meditation on the beauty of the kozo fibre and the native Kangaroo Grass which grows in my garden. I have gently layered the transparent kozo with the pale ghost imagery of the seed heads waving gracefully in the breeze to honour a quiet moment of contemplation.
I embedded thread into some of the papers when I made them. The grass imagery is printed over the top when the papers were dry. |
Wonderful! What a stunning beauty. And anytime you can make it north you, can print it! Brava.
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