My goodness, has it been since September!??!! Well, the holiday season sure is a busy one for us crafty types... But now that 2010 is here, it is time to think about my upcoming show. This will be my first show -- and I am quite excited (and a little nervous).

I've been collecting sheets of handmade paper that I've been making over the past year or so, and plan on making collages out of them.

Here are some pieces for the first one I'm working on. The paper was made from scraps of pulp I've been collecting from the drain at the studio. I think it's made up of cotton, abaca, hemp, and flax -- plus some other random things I'm sure...


I'll post more as I work on it. The show isn't until June, so I've got plenty of time...

Origami top

Thursday evening I met with my origami group. This is just a hand full of people who get together once a month, and well, fold. And fold. And fold.
The woman who heads it up recently returned from a national origami convention, and shared some new patterns with the group.
The first is a York rose. My attempt wasn't so great, but I'll try again. This is one piece of paper that is red on one side and green on the other.

The next is a top. It's made from three sheets. The smaller ones are from 6" sheets and the larger is from 12" sheets. The best part is that they actually spin! The larger one I made is from scrap booking paper and it is very sturdy. I gave it to my 23 month old daughter to play with. It has held up beautifully!
Here is one spinning...
These were so much fun to make. This is one I will definitely remember for Thanksgiving with the nieces and nephews...

Marbling Fun!

This is only my second attempt at marbling. My first time was in a workshop setting. The class took place during the Friends of Dard Hunter conference (in Chillocothe, Ohio) and was taught by Ann Woods. She was wonderful, and as any talented person does, made it all look so easy. Maybe too easy. I took what I learned in this class of only a few hours, and years later thought I could do it again.
Here's a sample from that workshop:

In Ann's class, we did marbling that was typically European. What I attempted last week was suminagashi, which is Japanese marbling. There are differences, but I think the spirit of it was the same.
I was working with my friend Rita at Paper Circle, and we just had a kit to work with.
Here's Rita adding the pigment with a brush:
This is the handmade paper floating on top of water. It just takes the pigment off the top of the water when you lift the paper. Amazing, really...:
The kit came with rice paper, but the colors were so washed out. We quickly realized that handmade paper was the way to go. Though they may not be technically good, I think they came out really great. I'm thinking book covers.... These are some of my favorites:

Cereal Box Book

One of my favorite blogs is My Handbound Books. This is a blog by book artist in Canada who is so talented and has such a wonderful eye. One of the books she made was from an old mini cereal box. Well of course I just had to try this one out!

First things first -- I had my son eat the cereal...












I just did a simple longstitch exposed binding. The result was really cute! I'm thinking it would make a good food journal...

Oirgami Quilt

This is from the book Origami Quilts by Tomoko Fuse. Sadly the book is no longer in print. I borrowed a copy from someone in my origami group to play with. Fuse's books are great. I find the diagrams in many origami books to be a little difficult to understand. These however are extremely easy. She also has a number of books on origami boxes and unit origami which are still available -- and absolutely wonderful!
I did a couple of these "quilts" with my Mom when visiting her last week. She is a quilter, so I thought this is a paper project that would appeal to her. The one pictured here is made from 13 pieces of 6 inch origami paper. The finished piece is about 18 or so inches square.
We also did one using 12 inch sheets of scrapbooking paper (which is great for some origami projects) This ended up to be about a yard or so square. Unfortuneately, I ran out of space on memory card for my camera, and didn't get a picture of that one.

Time Flies...

Has it really been six weeks since my last post!? Well how time flies... I've been busy teaching in a kids art camp called Circle Round the School. The program serviced about 80 children ages 9 - 15 in the Nelsonville, Ohio area. Sadly, the school system there has no art classes for the kids until they are in high school. Imagine! I cannot even begin to think about what Morrison Elementary would have been like without Ms. Rector... Anyway, I taught with the theater portion of the camp. We did costumes and masks for the plays that were performed -- and of course they were all out of recycled materials! The kids did such a great job. Bravo to them all!

The only project that I have worked on for myself were invitations for my daughter's 10th birthday party. It's this Saturday, and the theme is "Summer Camp". We took scraps of decorative paper, cut them to the shapes we wanted, and did a sewn collage to look like a campfire on cards I made of recycled paper and grasses. As you can see, they turned out great!

Drying Flat Sheets

I had a question from a woman in a paper making group I belong to about how I got my sheets so nice and flat. The answer is easy: a restrained dryer. They are really simple to put together, and I thought I'd share pictures of the one I use at Paper Circle.
This was made with some plywood, some archival corrugated cardboard, some cotton linter blotters, and most importantly, a fan.

First you make a 3-sided box. Ours measures about 22 x 28 inside - but you can make them any size. On the back side, there should be a large hole in the middle. You stack your cardboard and blotters in this box and run the fan from behind.

When running the dryer, you want to be sure to do a couple of things. I couch my sheets on to Pellon (an interfacing) and use this to transfer my sheets from post to press to dryer. In the dryer, I sandwich these between cotton linter blotters to help absorb some of the moisture. These blotters then have the cardboard on either side. The corrugations should run perpendicular to the fan.(so that some air is being pushed through) My dryer "sandwich" goes cardboard, blotter, Pellon, blotter, cardboard. Pictured here are some sheets in the dryer:
The other thing to remember when you make a box like this is to leave a couple of inches between the cardboard and the back of the box where the fan is. This allows for air to circulate and aid in the drying. (pictured right)
A board is then placed on top with some light weights. (we use water filled jugs) The board should go all the way to the back of the box and be above the hole in the center of the back board. (we have to put in some "filler" layers of foam insulation to achieve this) This can be seen in the first picture I included.

I have also seen this same set up without the box. It is just the stacked cardboard with a weight on top and a fan behind. I'm not sure of the difference between the two. I'm guessing since the flowing air is not trapped in that space, it may take a little longer for the sheets to dry. In our dryer, it usually takes about 24 hours.

I hope this information is useful in making your own dryer. The beautiful flat sheets are well worth the work!
Happy building! And happy paper making!