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!

More handsome than the javalinas!

I just had to post this picture. My friend DJ was giving me a hard time about the photos I posted about the javalinas that came up to our back windows. This is what stopped by her back door. I must admit those deer are a smidge cuter! But mostly I love how the kitty is right there nose to nose with the deer!

Books Gone Wild Reception

We had a nice reception for the Books Gone Wild Show. A number of the artists came and talked about what inspired them to create the work. That is always my favorite part! It's interesting all the themes--excess packaging in the US where the cheese liners were the pages of the book, subtraction/reduction where things were cut out of the book to the lotus flower inspired by a book's end pages. The show is up until March 1st so get down here and see it before it is gone, gone, gone! You can also see the show online at paperstudio.com under current exhibitions.

PLAY!

Gary and I went to Port Townsend at the end of January for a weekend of PLAY. The event was hosted by the talented Teesha & Tracy Moore.

We've been so busy (note lack of posting!) that we were like yes, no, yes, no on whether we could go to the event. Finally it was YES and we got to get away for a few days. It was really cold there (compared to Phoenix) and we had to dig out hats and gloves from Chicago days. It was really great to spend a few days with a bunch of artists hanging out & making stuff. Here are some pics from our trip.

Here's Vynnie (who only brought sharpies) antagonizing us by calling us "Constructionists" because we don't journal--we make books!

Gary with a way cool book he made.

At the beach, gorgeous but cold!

I was fascinated with these!

One of the many black birds in the area.

The rainbow we saw on the way home from the Phoenix airport.

Letterpress is Everywhere...seriously!

Somerset Studios recently released a special publication called artists' cafe in late December 2007 where they went back and pulled out some of their favorite articles from the past as well as profiling current artists and new processes. There is a nice article on letterpress--from the Nov/Dec 2003 issue. 4+ years ago...I don't think letterpress was anywhere near as popular as it is now!

Now I've Seen it All--DIY Letterpress

Check out the latest issue of Ready Made. I was at the airport bookstore and thought...what are they doing on that cover? There's an article on how to make your own letterpress. So like the professor on Gillian's island! You can see the article online at http://readymademag.com/letterpress/. For those of you in the Phoenix area that may not be so invention inclinded, you can come and take a lettepress class with us!

It IS still the year of the PIG!

What was that?

10:30 pm last night I was making samples sitting right at the living room window when I heard some rumbling and clanking outside our back door. I could hardly see anything because I was having to look down the the side of the house in the pitch dark. I could barely make out a figure among the patio chairs. I yelled for Gary to turn on the patio lights.
I thought I spied a stray dog. But NOOOOOOOO....it was the marauding wild pigs....Javelinas or Collared Peccaries. Five of them. We have lived in our house for 3 years and for all of those 3 years I have been trying to take a photo of these pigs. They usually come in the middle of the night and we've actually gotten up at 3:00 in the morning to find them mucking about but I never have my camera with me. The fact that they showed up so early was shocking. The fact they came right up to the window while we had full lights on in the house was unbelievable. They were searching for food but all they found was an empty plastic bag.

There were four large ones--like the size of medium 60 lb dog and this one small guy. They come from the nearby desert preserve and rummage around the neighborhood. They are quite stinky and you can usually smell if they have been in your yard. They haven't visited us in a long time since we got smart and secured our garbage can so they can't tip it over. It is really an annoying deal to be running out the door in the morning and find your garbage strewn all over yours and the neighbor's front yard. So after about 10 times of that Gary figured out a way to secure the trash receptacle to the house so they leave it alone.

They actually came right up to the glass but if we made the slightest move, they would run away. But they came back a couple of different times. I couldn't get a photo of all 5 together--this one has 3 of them.

No food to be found so then they were off to the next house.

Publishing Opportuntity

We sent out a blurb in our newsletter for a call for entry from Rockport publishers. They are working on a new book titled "1000" handmade greeting cards. Some of you were not able to see the PDF so here it is. We also linked this to Etsy News so check that out. Contact Laura.McFadden@rcn.com Good Luck!

Lisa Kokin's Coming Our Way!

We are exciting to announce that Lisa Kokin will be coming to teach a weekend workshop with us the weekend of March 8 & 9th at The Paper Studio! She'll be doing two one-day workshops--Photocycle Diaries and The Open Book. Here are some samples of Lisa's work--she is really an amazing artist and instructor. Gary and I went out to Oakland this summer and spent the day with her and Lea at one of her workshops and were really impressed to see the creative juices flowing! While we have been book and paper artists for years, Gary and I hardly ever work with the existing book form--we usually make our own books from scratch so it was great to have a day to play in an area that we don't normally work in. Cliche as it sounds, getting outside your comfort zone is where the new ideas start to percolate--we found it to be true, true, true! Here is some of Lisa's imagery from her work to give you a peek at her style. Visit her site at http://www.lisakokin.com/ to have a more comprehensive look!

Here's Lisa at her studio with her newer work. My photo doesn't do them justice because I didn't didn't shoot any closeups. Her books transform into these amazingly organic looking "beings" or stuctures--so organic looking and feeling like they might have come from the bottom of the sea.