Making a Collage out of a Mountain of Papers

I have a lot of prints that I have made over the years - monoprint, drypoint, relief, cyanotype, eco-dyeing.  And a lot of collected and gathered papers in my drawers - ones that I have made myself from plants, as well as those from more exotic 'far-away' places like Japan.  And I can't ignore the growing stash of old books sourced from thrift shops - bird books, garden books, insect books, dictionaries and thesauruses.

I came to realise the extent of my stash during the COVID lockdown last year.  OMG.  I have a lot of paper.  And I need to use it.

So my new series of works have been focusing on creating collage works incorporating all those lovely papers.  Well probably not all, but some of them at least.  And I am going to try not to bring home any more paper......

So I've been busy creating a small series of works mounted on a board base (used for painting).  I spent many happy hours shuffling through my papers, finding just the right ones, then figuring out the right composition (like sweating over a jigsaw without a reference photo), before gluing them on the board and finishing off with a light coat of encaustic wax.

Hopefully some of them will be off to new homes soon, and my studio and I will feel a bit lighter for a while (until I come across more paper which I can't possibly resist!).

So how's your stash? 😁😁😁

Forming the sheets - papermaking with local kozo

Hello everyone!  Welcome to a new year, a new start, full of new opportunities and continuing challenges.

In November last year, I posted about an online papermaking workshop that I have been participating in.  Read about it HERE.

Since then I've progressed further with my process - including cooking and beating, as well as the most exciting part - the forming of the sheets.

It was a long, very physical process, different to my usual fibres of native grasses and banana trunks.  A surprisingly meditative process (in other words, lots of patience and attention required!).  Not something I'd do if I was in a rush.

I produced a small series of sheets, using both a Japanese-style sugeta and my western style mould with a circle deckle.  I've very happy with completed sheets - they have the softness and strength of kozo, though a little more beige than the white sheets I made in Japan a few years ago. That's most likely from contamination from the outer bark.  But I'm very proud that I made it myself - from the sourcing, the collecting, the peeling, the stripping, the cooking, the hand beating, and the forming of sheets.  An intense journey over a couple of weeks!

During the workshop I enjoyed connecting with papermakers from the other side of the world (Northern hemisphere) and listen to their own journeys with this beautiful fibre.

Many thanks to Amy our tutor in Florida for her documentation and videos which will continue to assist me as I work my way through the rest of the fibre that I have collected (I have only used a tiny fraction of what I collected so far!).

I'm planning on using my kozo sheets to create an artwork for submission to the International Paper Fibre Art Biennial Exhibition Kozo Contemporary exhibition later this year.

Paper Mulberry inner bark fibre during cooking.
I used washing soda to break down the fibres.

Hand beating with a mallet, an art in itself
as well as a work out!

The beaten fibre.  I preferred my fibre
with a bit of texture, so I probably didn't
beat it as long as I should have....

I used okra to create my formation aid,
which is a viscose liquid added to the vat
to help the fibres float in the water.
This helps to create more even sheets.

My circle sheet of paper on my
western-style mould,
ready to couch off.

My homemade Sugeta,
using an old sushi mat.
There's a sheet of paper on there ready to couch.
Luckily I used one of these in Japan a few years
ago so I had some idea on how to form the sheet,
but its still very tricky as I remember!

You can see the beautiful textures
of the dried kozo paper.

Circle sheets drying on my board.

Papermaking in a Pandemic world

This year many of us have been relying on Zoom and other digital platforms to participate in the arts community.

One of my recent experiences has been to participate 'virtually' in an international  papermaking workshop.

The workshop is being supported by the National Taiwan Craft Research Institute with workshop tutor Amy Richard from the USA.

The workshop has been offered to artists to develop skills in working with kozo fibre, challenging and inspiring them to translate their fibre into creative art works, which hopefully will be exhibited in the International Paper Fibre Art Biennial Exhibition Kozo Contemporary exhibition in 2021.  I'm one of 14 artists selected to participate, from countries such as Taiwan, United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, and USA.  

Its an interesting format, with face-to-face discussions via Google Meet as well as course content delivered via slide shows and pre-recorded videos.  Sorting out the different time zones for everyone to meet up was interesting!

The kozo fibre is sourced from the Paper Mulberry plant.  This is an introduced weed species in Australia, so my first challenge was to find a reliable source in my home town of Brisbane.  I did a lot of online research using databases such as the Living Atlas of Australia (www.ala.org.au) as well as reaching out to local conservation groups.  I personally visited at least six sites without any luck in finding the plant, but after some intense focused bush-bashing and creek rock-hopping, I found what I needed to be able to collect enough fibre.

Kozo is a beautiful fibre, used in countries such as Korea and Japan for papermaking, and its made using the inner bast of the branches of the Paper Mulberry.  

As I've worked my way through the online modules of the workshop, I've learnt how to steam, strip, and clean the fibres.  The next step is the cooking and hand beating, then finally onto forming sheets - this will feature in a future blog post.

Below are some photographs of my progress so far -

Jackpot! I found what I was looking for.

Collected branches - ready to steam,
then I strip the bark off.

Scraping the outer bark from the inner bark

The kozo fibre, ready for cooking.

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.

Papermaking with friends

Last weekend members of Papermakers and Artists Qld met in Tenterfield (Northern NSW) for two days of papermaking with artist Liz Powell, who has set up a paper studio there.

We experimented with a variety of fibres including hemp, yukka, heliconia, lemon grass, bromeliad, banana, and ginger.  We took our new Hollander Beater and gave it a good workout.  The heliconia and bromeliad fibre was from my own garden, I've been doing a fair bit of tidying up lately, so it was easy to keep some of my plant waste to cook up.

Papermaking is a lot of work, requiring physical stamina and effort, but the load is lightened when working in a group.  Lots of fun as well, playing with water in temperatures over 30 degrees celsius.

I used a 30cm long mould & deckle to make a range of botanical papers, I hope to use these in an artist book in the future.

Selfie with some of the girls and the beater.
L to R - me, Zela, Tricia, Ngaire and Liz.

Chopping up plant waste to cook.

 

Hollander beater in action.  The cooked
fibres flow around to be macerated by the drum.
Our beater was made by Mark Lander
 in New Zealand, paid for with a
community grant.

The girls are separating the fibres to help the beater.

Close up of the beater.  Its a beautiful machine!

Papers drying in the sun.

A selection of my dried papers.
Some rough and textured, some smooth,
some with flecks, some with chunky bits!

A highly textured paper, might be good
for chine colle and collage.
Or just to admire its beauty.

Some of the wonderful food from the local
caterers, there's nothing better when working hard
to enjoy some tasty treats.

Reworking old prints into Artist Books

You know you've got too much art stuff when you can't find something you know you have, especially if you saw it yesterday......  OK, I admit its also to do with getting older, but I know I have too much paper and art supplies.  Something has to be done!

So this was the impetus for a reorganisation of my art studio and storage room, starting with the recent acquisition of new plan drawers in which to store my extensive paper collection.  And I've continued to use that energy to keep sorting through the rest of my studio.

Sorting through folios, I've found heaps of prints. Mostly reject monoprints from past series, where I've sold the best ones and I'm left with the not-so-good ones.  The ones where the composition or colours aren't quite right, they don't work as a whole but have plenty of interesting marks and textures.  Not a frame-able masterpiece but not worth shredding for the compost bin.

These are the prints that are destined to become artist books.  Cut down, folded, glued and taped - they become a new object with a fresh story.

I saw an interesting book design on facebook.  The book starts with a hexagon shape (I love hexagons!), with 3 valley folds and 1 mountain fold.  The hexagons can be joined all facing in the same direction so the book stands up on its own (as per my examples) or you can alternate the direction of the hexagons for an interesting 'reading' experience.

Here's photos of a couple of artist books that I've made recently using that design.  It was an experiment just for fun to see what these old prints could give me second time around.

Ok now its time to get back to sorting, labeling, shredding, and adding to the growing pile of goodies to donate.......

My new plan drawers, filled with my papers and labeled appropriately.
Now that I can find all of my papers, I know I DON"T need any more ...!

Looking down at the book of Scrub Turkey images,
turkeys running in all directions  :-)

The covers of the book were made with mat board offcuts
and covered with prints

One of the pages of the turkey book,
showing the folds

Another book of the same design, this time
using prints from a Silvereye series.

Another view of the Silvereye book,
I love the textures and imagery in this one.

Artist in Residence @ Curtin Springs - The Artist Book

Every arts residency has a goal, even if its to just 'think'.   My goal for my AIR at Curtin Springs was to complete an Artist Book.

However, as usual for me, it didn't go to plan.  I had a strong idea but was unable to resolve it whilst I was on site, so finishing my artist book was a priority when I returned to 'normal' life.

So its been a few weeks but I have finally completed the work, and I'm happy that it conveys the ideas that I developed whilst completing the residency.

Curtin Springs is a cattle station in Central Australia.  The current owners have been there since 1956 and so there's a lot of history retained on the property, particularly around the homestead.  A lot of used equipment is stored on the property for maintenance purposes, though the elements and nature have taken over and softened the rusted detritus.

To me its like a battleground, a skirmish between the man-made and nature.  Discards from the operations of the property gather red dirt and rust, with grasses pushing through the gaps.  My artist book was inspired by this disturbance, where things that don't belong gradually become part of the landscape.

My process started with rusty objects collected from around the homestead, and I used tea to stain the rust onto paper.  I also collected grasses and made collagraph plates from them, and printed them onto botanical papers made from those grasses (Curtin Springs has a wonderful paper mill).

The strips of printed papers run the length of the rusted paper concertina, wrapping around the covers.  The long format of the book reflects the view of the landscape, where the vegetation is relatively short and the view of the sky is from horizon to horizon.   The use of found objects gives a strong connection to the property's history.  Incorporating paper and prints made from local grasses recognises the value of the grasses to both the cattle operations and papermaking activities of Curtin Springs.

I'm still playing with a title for the book, but I'm leaning towards 'Colonisation'.  The rust can either be taken as a monument to life on the land or as a sign that nature is slowly claiming it back.

Grasses on the property - I love the
rich colour of the red sandy soil against the yellow grass.

Grass samples collected for making plates.

Rusty objects fighting nature

Rusting the paper

Close up of the rusting with tea bags.
The tannin in the tea makes beautiful
greys and browns, not orange.

Yummy marks!
Its tempting to move it before its dry.
Luckily its very dry air in Central Australia.

View of the Artist Book,
with handmade paper covers, rusted pages and prints
on handmade paper

There's some beautiful rusted marks on these pages.
I joined the concertina sections using a thin strip of
handmade paper.

Closed view showing the wrapped cover strip.

One of the pages showing the lovely rusted marks.