Daily Wants: Dominoes, Kalamazoo Book Arts

The Illustrated Accordion Book Show
Kalamazoo Book Arts Center May 6th to May 27th 2011



This is my favorite book ! It includes a brief description of the history of dominoes as described in the Dictionary of Daily Wants 1858. I had a lot of fun making this. I collaged photographs of the dominoes in my collections and colored prismacolor pencils were used for illustrations. The small pop outs of dominoes add a unique dimension. I am very pleased with the inside front cover - this lion is my favorite domino....well one of them anyway.

I also made rubber stamps....cutting pink erasers... of dominoes falling.

The paper used was given to me by my dear friends, artist Pat Sahertian and her husband artist Jake Sahertian on their return from Paris where they purchased this paper for me to make something beautiful. I think I did.

The cover is a colored reproduction of an Asian patterned cloth - the domino is made of leather with white leather "pip" (dots) inserts (cut from old white leather gloves).

Some unusual designs on wooden dominoes. I rubbed gold over them to highlight the images.

The beginning... planning stage.

See all books entered into the 2011 Kalamazoo show here.

A Book About Death - Memento

A Book About Death - Memento
Willo North Gallery, Phoenix, AZ opening May 6th


My first entry (postcard) graphite on tracing paper.

I actually witnessed a crow trying to fly with a chicken bone on the front lawn of my son's house. It scared me... so I drew it... it always reminds me of death. (feather memento)

My second entry, (postcard) copy of a lithograph

I made this several years ago in response to a Walt Whitman poem "A Clear Midnight" (my favorite) it's a little more gentle but again dealing with death "away from books... the day done... night, sleep, death, the stars..." (Whitman poem memento)

Phoenix based artist Patricia Sahertian has organized an A Book About Death - Memento (ABAD) exhibit for May 2011. Following the tradition that started with the original ABAD show at the Emily Harvey Gallery in NYC 2009. The Phoenix show asks for a small memento to be sent along with the postcard art giving the exhibit a unique twist on the original format.

I have contributed to the ABAD shows at MOMA Wales, Long Island and now Phoenix. Go to the website for the current entries in the Phoenix ABAD show. And for information about shows past, present and upcoming you can look at the ABAD archives.

Artists from around the world contribute original art in postcard form to be displayed and then kept together permanently as an unbound artist book. Everything is documented and exhibited online as well as in a gallery. VERY INTERESTING TO SEE HOW ARTISTS SEE OR FEEL DEATH. All shows have an open call for all artists. This concept, expanding internationally, has taken place in many locations in the USA: South Carolina, Texas, Omaha and Long Island, as well as Brazil, Italy and Wales.

A.R.T. Picture This Gallery 2011

Concrete Illusion, detail


Hosta


Concrete Illusion #4, detail

Art Recycled from Trash. A.R.T.

Picture This Gallery on Hilton Head in SC is hosting its second annual juried exhibit featuring items recycled into art. It was a huge success last year and has been expanded this year. It includes every imaginable form of art and media and is open to everyone. I decided to enter piece #4 from my "Concrete Illusions" series. These pieces are made of marine Styrofoam that washed up on a Long Island Beach, cast recycled paper, re bar also found on the beach and found objects acquired while digging for old bottles ! (boy, do I ever miss digging).


Untitled Concrete Illusion # 6

My paper was formulated to look like concrete... recycled paper with added hosta fibers (from my garden) for a gray color and undercooked daylilly leaves for texture along with torn pieces of black and white paper. The handmade paper while still damp is heavily glued to the Styrofoam with white glue and placed in strong sunlight... quick drying brings some of the glue to the surface adding to the overall look of worn cement. Results are always a surprise !

Untitled Concrete Illusion #4

This series is a comment on our constant destruction, wars, and poor stewards of the earth... a warning of the desolation we can create. Sort of dismal but always with a little hope (tree able to grow in concrete).

The Joy of Papermaking

I've been away from teaching formal papermaking classes for awhile and almost forgot why I did it. After years of giving classes at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Islip Arts Museum and many other places I would periodically take a break from lugging vats and equipment, bucketing water and massive cleanups but somehow I always returned.

I just began teaching a series of classes,- beginner, intermediate and advanced - 8 in all - at the Picture This Gallery on Hilton Head. I realize I'm drawn by the miracle of creating a simple sheet of paper from seemingly simple materials. The process never ceases to impress me and I'm so grateful that I have the knowledge to do this... a secret gift from nature.


The first class - everyone is either smiling, intensely thinking or never looking up... just so busy

Creative juices flowing.......


Full attention and determination to make some beautiful paper....

However... it was the little squeals and gasps as each made their first sheet of paper, and smiles... and child-like joy....... now I remember.

Finding Felts in a Warm Climate

I left behind so many things.... when moving South. Plentiful old army blankets that I could cut to various sizes for papermaking was something I just took for granted. I have not been able to locate even one here in the "low" country even with all the military bases nearby (Parris Island is just one of many).



I have resorted to cutting up a variety of wool blankets when ever I'm lucky enough to find one. Most work well but all create different textures. Nothing like a well worn wool army blanket.

Gingko leaf embedded between two thin sheets of miscanthus fiber formed on "Weed Block". In luck, Mimi Aumann passed on a wonderful website and blog called Ifugao - a source for papermaking products and information. I noticed owner Keith Gum using landscape cloth in place of felt.... so I found a heavy version of synthetic cloth called "Weed Block"... it's made of used plastic water bottles.... how wonderful. A very large roll was reasonably priced and worked very well in place of felt. (leaves a very small pattern but perfectly fine for most plant based paper) AND IT'S GREEN.

Weed Block dries fast, holds its shape - no cockling of the paper, and cleans easily ! I may have found my new "felts".

Miscanthus Results & Indigo Seeds

I just love the color "Indigo blue". The piece below is a cyanotype print - Durer's Adam and Eve - on extremely thin mulberry stitched into a frame of dirt paper ! (paper formulated for the books "In the Trenches" and "Button Tales and Myths") I used cotton linter, sea grass, earth and roots. It was entered into the Friends of Dard Hunter Paper Conference Show and Sale.... not sure exactly what happened to it.... but it had me wishing I had planted my indigo seeds. Hoping to do some more cyanotype prints this spring and experiment with indigo plants as a fiber source in the fall.


"Through the Woods" 2010 FDH Conference


miscanthus wet sheets pressed between blotters and boards

The miscanthus "donation" from Mira Scott was fairly easy to work with. I cooked a small amount of cut and soaked fiber for 4 hours and pulped it in a blender. I was able to make quite a few decent small sheets. I colored some with cinnamon for fun.... the cinnamon fragrance did not last long !


finished miscanthus paper with embedded ginkgo leaf - fun


Indigo seeds on the right and seeds for Hibiscus manihot used to make formation aid - ready for spring

Miscanthus Giganteus Anyone ?

Picture This !

One early Saturday morning my doorbell rings and there is the owner of Picture This Gallery on Hilton Head Island, Mira Scott, with a large bag of Japanese Silver Grass (Miscanthus Giganteus). Always up for experimenting with new fibers for papermaking, I was grateful for her effort. A friend of Mira's is growing large quantities of this non-invasive ornamental grass for experimental use as a bio-fuel with great success and she was able to obtain some for me. I love unexpected gifts ! Papermaker, Jane Ingram Allen, has used Miscanthus floridulus, in this family of Silver Grasses to make an excellent strong light tan paper during her papermaking journey through Taiwan. I think I can get a similar result using M."Giganteus"... it looks like a tough plant !


Miscanthus Giganteus

So, along with my banana skins and Canna Lily fiber I have Japanese Silver Grass to process for classes I will be giving at Picture This Gallery beginning February 5th. (see below)

Left: Banana skins, I keep them in the freezer until I have enough to process for a large vat. When my doorbell rings its usually neighbors with banana skins ! Fun.

Center: bark from stalks of my Confederate Rose Plant (they have been steamed and peeled)

Right: Canna Lily stalks and leaves (dried and retting outside for the winter)


Sea Grass (Spartina) found washed up on the beach has to to be soaked and rinsed well to rid it of salt before cooking and beating.

Cooking sea grass (usually covered) in soda ash for several hours before beating.

Vat of beaten sea grass pulp... blender beaten and Hollander beaten, a small mold and deckle on the table (student sized) - I found that the best papers were made in this Nepalese sugetta with a fine bamboo screen.

Finished papers: banana skin - right, sea grass - center, recycled rag paper with some seagrass fibers added and painted with stripes using a paste paper method - left.

Hand Papermaking Classes

This February I will start with beginner papermaking at "Picture This Gallery" on Hilton Head Island. The classes will include a lecture, instructions on making all tools necessary and how to obtain suitable fibers to make acid free quality papers. Students will mostly be using cotton rag fibers, some Asain fibers and for added interest we will combine locally grown and prepared plant fiber.

Intermediate Classes will include plant gathering and preperation, use of different types of molds and deckles and drying systems with some small projects, pulp painting on a small scale.

Advanced Classes will be with Asain type fibers to create fine translucent papers (generaly called rice paper) totally prepared by students, refining beating methods, papercasting and mold making.

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The Robert C. Williams Paper Museum, Atlanta, is worth a visit...plan a whole day...if your in town.

If not check their web site. It features current exhibitions and interesting links to many papermakers and artists. It also is featuring a 1/2 hour video, called Mark of the Maker, on the history of the TWINROCKER HANDMADE PAPERMILL.... a fascinating look at every stage of making paper.

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