A new process

On daily walks I collect birds’ nests and eggshells. A small but poignant reference to the cycle of life, nurture and industry, ingenuity and adaptability, I marvel at the intricacy and variety of materials found within each nest. I admire birds’ problem-solving abilities in making use of whatever materials are available at the time. This ingenuity parallels how artists work and how women adapt and improvise while juggling many expectations, demands and limitations in daily life. For a long while I have envisioned deconstructing these nests and with the eggshells and other found organic ephemera, embedding them within handmade translucent sheets of abaca paper capturing and preserving their resilience in another organic material.

I have taken multiple paper making classes and have used handmade papers to create dimensional paper objects during my residency at Vermont Studio Center (November 2019). I have never tried papermaking from start to finish on my own.

A bit of a learning curve

Every art process has its own learning curve, and papermaking is no exception. I scheduled a mini papermaking residency week with fellow artist and colleague Avery Syrig to join me in this problem solving endeavor. First thing to consider was how to set up a temporary studio as papermaking is a very wet process and was only fathomable outside. The most logical location was just outside my studio door in my driveway.

Butting up against the issues of excessive heat and sun exposure on the driveway was the challenge of working next to the contractors currently working on my house’s exterior. I had to contend with scaffolding, paths of egress and occasional flying objects! We erected a pop-up tent in front of the scaffolding. Folding tables held vats of water for the pulp. I picked up buckets of pre-beaten abaca, cotton and flax pulp (ordered from Carriage House Paper-an incredible resource for all things paper here in the New York area). Outside the tent I set up a press I had never tried out in hopes that it would work!

More issues to solve

We quickly realized we had to level all the vats and tables from a fairly severe driveway slant. Debris from the construction floated into the vats and we had to put up protective netting. The first two days consisted of frequent pauses while I adjusted table levels, cut additional felts, adjusted pulp ratios in the vats, and refreshed my memory on the methods and process in making paper. I am a chronic under estimator in terms of how long things take, and this endeavor proved no different!

I had two vintage mould and deckles with bronze screening I’d used previously and with which I was comfortable. I also ordered two larger mould and deckles from Stephanie Hare of Share Studio. At a 20 x 16 inch paper size, they are about as large as my current vats could handle. The polypropylene screen was stickier than the bronze, took a lot longer to drain and seemed more difficult to couche (transferring the pulp from the mould to the drying felts). I could not figure out whether I was doing something wrong or was just way out of practice. My frustration mounted as the hours slipped by, few sheets were pulled, and the moulds resisted my adjustments. Breaks for questions from the contractors, lunch and daily life stuff meant that after the first day there was little to show for my efforts. I felt tired and dejected.

A new day

The next day I tried a number of troubleshooting suggestions I read online and from Catherine at Carriage House paper and Stephanie Hare to break in the new mould and deckles. I scrubbed them down with soap and water and rinsed them multiple times. Lighter alternative felts laid between the mould and deckle allowed the pulp to drain more consistently (though still so slowly), as well as made it easier to couche the sheet without pulp slipping down the mould. We re-leveled the tables to be more exact so we could rig up draining slats to rest the mould and deckles while they drained. This way I could compose what I wanted to embed on the first couched sheet while the cover sheet drained.

I was getting the feel of these new moulds! By day three I started hitting a rhythm and was finally starting to enjoy the process. The press filled up quickly and worked as promised. With the water pressed out, we loaded the dry box and weighted it. Packing up our makeshift studio we realized the amount of pulp we hadn’t yet used and decided to schedule another papermaking week. With so many issues solved I’m excited to get back to pulling paper next week! Stay tuned for the finished papers after drying in the dry box.

See the finished papers in the next post.

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