Nature Papermaking Class

We taught nature papermaking last weekend at the studio. Donna and I spent the two weeks prior prepping fiber--chopping, cooking, rinsing & more rinsing, then beating it into a pulp. It really has a lot of similarities to industrial size cooking!
We found bamboo fiber to be tough as nails! We soaked it for a week and cooked for about 14 hours in lye and it was still pretty tough. We have it soaking in water still trying to soften it up!

We cook fiber in large kettles--I swear a watched pot never boils! We cook with the lids on but need to check them so they don't boil over.

A tangled mess only a papermaker could love! Once the fiber is cooked and rinsed, we "beat it to a pulp" in our beater. This is the plant fiber Yucca which is notoriously bad behaving--see the suds? It can be used to make soap! The first time we beat it at the studio it was like an "I Love Lucy" episode--soap suds were overflowing everywhere--in ginormous proportions! We had to move the beater outside, it was such a mess. This Yucca behaved and made only bitsy suds.

Well behaving Yucca!

Everyone concentrating on their deckle boxes.

Couching newly formed sheets of paper.

These folks made a ton of paper. Yay! It was worth all the cookin' & prepping.

Lisa Kokin at The Paper Studio and in Fiber Arts Magazine!

Congrats to Lisa Kokin whose work appears in the March/April 08 issue of Fiber Arts!Lisa Kokin and Lia Roozendaal were here teaching a weekend workshop and the work that was produced pretty wonderful. Not only are they terrific artists but they are super nice people as well. You can see more of their work at http://www.lisakokin.com/

Who knew power tools and books would make such a great combination?

Thanks to Marissa who brought in the copy of Fiber Arts. Is was such nice surprise for Lisa!

Printing Without a Press

We got a call for an interview about printing without a press--a class which we have taught many times over the years but could we quickly find our old plates? Nope. So we spent a morning making plates, prints and a mess!

We really had loads of fun and plan to get this class back in our line up so stay tuned!

Organic Origami

One of the best perks about running The Paper Studio is that we get to meet terrific artists! We remember the day Goren Konjevod first stopped by the shop during the first few months we were open--he was so quiet but amazingly studied in his examining and careful considering all the papers. Over the past couple of years we have gotten to see some of Goren's fabulous and original origami designs that he has brought in to show us and now you can see them too!

Join Goren for his solo exhibition at the @Central Gallery in Phoenix from March 1 to 27. The artist reception which coincides with ART Detour, is on Friday evening March 7th from 7 - 10 pm. Congratulations Goren!