On my studio journey

Its been a while between blog posts which is entirely reflective of the busyness of my art practice since I opened my popup studio at Chermside in April.

For those following my progress on Instagram and Facebook, its been a wonderful time in my little studio - some new friends made and lots of learnings about how to manage my own studio space.

One of the major drawbacks of the Chermside studio was its small size.  At only 7metres by 3.5metres, it couldn't accommodate all of my printmaking equipment and more than 4 people.  It was cosy but at the same time, stifling and frustrating to have my printmaking resources spread between my home studio and the Chermside studio.

And then all my birthday cake wishes came true.... in the form of a long-time friend who has invested funds into a new studio space from which I will operate a community art studio.

The new studio is spacious but not overwhelming, around 200m2 in a semi-industrial unit in Banyo.  Lots of concrete and glass windows. From the outside, there's nothing inspiring about it, but my partner Craig and I have been busy over the last few weeks transforming it into an arts hub.

The renovation and fitout work will continue for another month, there's lots to do, but there'll be a big opening celebration and everyone is invited!

From the outside - lots of 
concrete but inside - heaps of potential

Before the renovations started,
a blank canvas

Demolition and repainting of
the main studio space 

Upstairs, lovely windows.
This space will have plants and
 lots of tables to work at.

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.

Ode to the Desert Oak

I'm in love with a tree.

Its the Desert Oak, from Central Australia.  Its latin name is Allocasuarina decaisneana and its a slow growing tree with the typical branchlets of the casuarina family.

Young trees have a narrow trunk and form, looking somewhat like old-fashioned feather dusters.  They mature to an adult form with spreading limbs and bushy foliage.

They tend to grow in multiples in the one area which creates a surreal looking landscape of the variously shaped trees in different growth stages.

During my recent trip to Curtin Springs Cattle Station, I decided to produce a work based on these trees.  When I visited in 2018, I did sketches of the trees, their branchlets and their cones.  This time I wanted to extend myself a bit more, and decided to use cyanotypes to record the trees.

Using my unit's bathroom, I created a darkroom to pre-coat my papers with the cyanotype solution, then exposed them the next day with various samples I had collected.   The sunlight was very strong, so I couldn't use my standard exposure times, but chose instead to work fairly organically and probably did overexpose the prints.  I love the serendipity of it anyway.

I've assembled the cyanotype prints into a concertina book, using a piece of my handmade paper I created from the station's grasses.  The cover features a sample of paper made from the Desert Oak.

We have casuarinas here on the coast, known as She-Oaks, but the Desert Oaks have really captured my imagination, so I've enjoyed creating this book to record my memories of them.

Recording Desert Oaks in my sketchbook in 2018.

Young Desert Oaks -
they look like feather dusters I think!

Mature Desert Oaks, surrounded by a few young ones.
I can still hear the wind whispering through the branchlets.

The front cover of my book, featuring
Desert Oak paper and cyanotype of the branchlets.

You can see the texture of the paper in this photo...yum!

Close up of some of the pages. I applied the cyanotype
solution roughly on purpose, leaving the white of the
paper showing through in places. 
To me, this evidence of brushstrokes replicates the breeze
was flowing through the oak's branchlets.

This photo shows the spine of handmade paper.
The earthy colour of paper sits well with the indigo of the cyanotypes.

Photo from the top downwards - you can see that I've glued
the cyanotype papers to the handmade paper spine.
A simple concertina construction that lets the cyanotypes and
handmade paper take centre stage.

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.

Paper - its good for the Seoul

I've recently returned from holidays in Japan (again) as well as a few days in Seoul, the capital of South Korea.

I was interested in visiting Seoul, given South Korea's reputation for its paper, Hanji.  I found a couple of shops in the Insa-dong area, amongst the tacky tourist shops and restauranteurs touting for business.

The best shop I found is known as Ilsindang.  As usual, its hard to find places using street addresses, but luckily I had walking instructions from another blogger (thanks!).  Find Starbucks (easy), look across the road and up, and there it is.  I could see the paper lanterns alight in the window....magic!

The shop was full of paper goodies - hanji papers, glues, brushes, templates.  Unfortunately for me the people in the shop only spoke Korean, so I just had to help myself.  I've still got a large stash of Japanese papers from my last trip so I had to restrict myself to just a few goodies.

I loved the lanterns, so have included a few photos here (I was thinking of you Ngaire....!).

paper, paper, paper

more paper, almost overwhelming....!

I bought one of the plastic templates for this lantern,
to work on at home

Detail showing the beautiful paper

Like a beautiful rich pumpkin!

The pinholes in this lantern make a beautiful effect.