28th International Calligraphy Conference

Brody's Calligraphy with Cola Nib

What a busy week in Naperville, IL. About 400 people gathered from around the world and experienced their love of calligraphy (beautiful handwriting). From paper, nibs, inks, watercolor, brushes and various tools of the trade we sculpted paper, painted papers and canvas, created books and made numerous friends.

I took a class with Belgium artist Brody Neuenschwander called Developing Meaning. He asked us to write about a significant event in our life in the last few years. I wrote about my friend Bud who went into a diabetic coma at age 35 and died. Bud had asked me to do his eulogy. I addressed the church congregation gathered for his funeral with two poems I had written. My mission was to be his voice. So in class we had to address our writing with 6 points of interest...private, public, desire, fear, knowledge and understanding. We did several exercises in expressive calligraphy and then put the pages into a book format. The class was very intense and emotional for many of us.

Black Book Cover and Pages Done in Brody's Class

Cover edge made with a folded transparency on open page edge with the poem copied onto it. The transparency was stitched with gold thread and threads weaving throughout the book. The spine was covered with handmade paper.

The pages were sumi'e ink and handmade paper collaged onto the surface.

Busy in the Papermaking Studio

Here are a few of the participants in the papermaking class I taught this summer to the Ohio Educators sponsored by the Dayton Art Institute.

Papermaking Studio Pictures

3rd Day of Papermaking

This truly has been an awesome experience. So many wonderful people in this workshop. I feel so happy to have met them and to have had their word of mouth input and written evaluation about who I am and what I do. It was very validating to me as a person and an artist.

One of the neatest things we did today as a group before we left was to individually contribute something to the vat of paper pulp that symbolized each person and in a few words signified their gift to one another ie., thankfulness, students/careers, being out of the box, youthfulness, spontaneity, family and the extended family, sparkle, naturalness and creativity. One contributed letters (macaroni letters)to the vat for knowledge which she garnished through this experience and which will expand. Another participant gave the gift of shredded money because no one can repay the knowledge that was shared these last 3 days. Mine was a deep gratitude for the blessings bestowed upon us all, as I sprinkled glitter onto the altar of pulp.

We were all together seemingly to make paper; however, there is always a higher consciousness that comes through that elevates one's thinking, doing and being. I felt it.

Friday I'll be leaving for Chicago to attend the 28th International Calligraphy Conference. I will need a few days to regain my energy and be ready for my next creative adventure.

Japanese Papermaking

Today was the 2nd day of the Japanese papermaking class I am teaching at a local high school in Dayton. The group is mostly Ohio educators who take classes sponsored by the Dayton Art Institute during summer months each year. Being that most of them are art teachers, they are very creative and responsive to what I had to teach them about the paper process. A lot of them would like to do papermaking with their students, as well as personally becoming more involved with their own art.

Yesterday we spent the morning doing introductions and becoming familiar with supplies, tools and equipment for western papermaking. They were introduced to cotton rag, unbleached abaca, kozo, pigments, retention aid and formation aid and then we spent the day doing both western and eastern papermaking. Making paper from abaca was an introduction to Japanese papermaking because of adding the formation aid to the fiber.

After cooking the kozo yesterday during class, the first thing we did in the morning was rinse, clean and hand beat the fiber in preparation for the Japanese method. I introduced them to the sugeta (su=screen and geta=the mould). In the late 80's while in Japan I purchased a beautiful sugeta made from mahogany with the su made from bamboo splints and silk threads. In 1989 I paid $500 for this beautiful tool.

This afternoon we talked about several books that I love: Washi: the World of Japanese Paper by Sukey Hughes, Plants for Papermaking by Helen Hulbert, Japanese Papermaking by Timothy Barrett, one book called Paper with pictures of different artists and their art pieces. I showed them the only magazine for papermakers in the U.S. called Hand Papermaking. We talked about printing on kozo with an ink jet printer, a book cover made from iris leaves, and shifu which is hand spun paper. I had samples of this and how the process is done plus 2 yards of beautiful fabric where paper is the weft when it was on the loom. At that time in Japan I had taken a 3-day workshop in a Japanese artist's home. I will download some pictures from the class today soon.

I asked my granddaughter, Erin, if she would like to read a story to the class this morning. The story reading came about after I had a short discussion with a participant yesterday about a student of hers that died from an accident recently. It was evident to me how this teacher cared deeply for him, as I watched the tears flow from her eyes. She had tried to help him on a project he wanted to do for his mother and there was a lot of difficulty in what he wanted to achieve, so it was never brought to fruition. No matter what happened, I believe this teacher helped him more than what she realizes because of her caring and commitment not just for him, but for all her students. It made me think of a wonderful book titled The Dot by Reynolds. Erin read the child's story to the class of teachers and I shared that we, especially who are teachers, leave impressions on our students that we may never realize in this lifetime. I wanted, especially for this class participant, to believe she had an impact on this individual. I suggested she might make a ceramic piece in honor of him and present it to his mother. Their project may not have turned out, but I believe she gave more to him than she is aware. She helped him make his 'Dot' in life. I asked that she keep me posted in the continuation of this story.

Cityfolk Festival/2nd Day

There were a lot more people that came into my exhibition space today. The weather was great after the dreary day yesterday. I saw a lot of people I knew and met new people that were interested in an upcoming 3-day papermaking workshop at C-J the week after next. We had another panel discussion today and I talked about my personal experience while visiting Japan. After the discussion people came over to the exhibit to see how paper was made and became familiar with the tools used and what I do with paper....books, jewelry, clothing, art pieces and calligraphy. The artpiece titled "The Messenger" was used in Cityfolk's brochure.

I received a commission to do a Dard Hunter quote...."If man has achieved a high degree of development, it is due in large part to the inventions of paper and printing than to any other factor." Dard Hunter was a historian of papermaking and in the 1930's traveled worldwide to do research. There is a paper museum in Chillicothe, Ohio, dedicated to his love of handmade paper. There is also an international organization, known as the Friends of Dard Hunter, with a diverse membership whose interest centers around handmade paper and arts and crafts. They have an upcoming paper conference in Kaoilu-Kona, Hawaii, in October, 2008.

After a few days rest, I will be preparing for my next upcoming papermaking workshop, sponsored by the Dayton Art Institute. We will be working with cotton, kozo and unbleached abacca.

Cityfolk Festival

It poured down rain today after I set up my display for the festival inside the Wright State University center building in downtown Dayton. The theme was "Rips, Clips and Creases: The Art of Paper." It looked like the rain was to be an all day affair, but after a few hours it stopped, but the sun never did shine. I demonstrated Japanese papermaking, talked about the process and discussed the international handmade paper conference I attended in Japan in the late 80's.

I was part of a panel discussion later in the afternoon with Yasue Sakaoka, a Japanese artist living in Columbus, Ohio. She discussed her interest in origami and I shared how I began my papermaking path. I displayed a walnut dyed paper garment I had made and talked about my experience of a shifu workshop (spun paper)which I attended while in Japan.

I was very impressed with all the volunteers that helped in making this function the popular event that it is every year.

My Journey with Erin Today

Today is my fun-filled day with my granddaughter, Erin. She has helped me set up my blog. She is a lot smarter than her grandmother when it comes to this technical stuff. Yea for her!!! This should be fun. My main reason for setting up a blog is because of my upcoming trip to Tuscany. Our workshop date is scheduled Sept. 21-28, 2008. We still have 2 spots available. Wanna come?