Book Arts and Photography » art 466 Demos

Combat Paper workshop at UW-Madison Paper Lab

Jim — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:26:39 +0000

October 1, 2 & 3 Drew Cameron, Robert Possehl and Drew Matott conducted a workshop for veterans as part of the Combat Paper project. You can learn more about the efforts at the Combat Paper Organization site. A link of photographs can be viewed from the Combat Paper workshop.

I get so hungry in class!

Jim — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:03:41 +0000

Often when we are working in class, pulp looks like food. Jean Funcke has some pinkish pulp that is so similar to cake icing that I wish someone had brought a birthday cake to class. Let’s take a moment to review why we even took this photo.Jean and Andrea Brdek have been making large sheets of paper in class (see previous post). We’ve been using a large bent paint knife to even out and smooth the top part of the sheet. It takes a delicate touch to smooth out the sheet’s surface. The knife can also be used to spread pulp in order to fill in thin areas of the sheet. Andrea’s sheet below is a bit thicker and does not have as many thin areas, but she does want the surface to be even.

This photogrpah give a better view of the process.

Cotton pulp + elastic + underwire

Jim — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:03:04 +0000

Patricia LaPointe is constructing an object out of cotton pulp and an underwire structure. First placing a “de-constructed brassiere” on synthetic silkscreen material and outlining the shape with wet cotton pulp, she builds her shape.
Once the pulp and underwire are allowed to air dry, she can remove the piece from the screen and can explore a variety of ways to display her piece.

Etchings on abaca

Jim — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 01:56:50 +0000

Waverly Liu printed an etching plate on thin sheets of abaca paper. The etching plate of the figure is larger than the plate. Thin abaca paper holds up to the etching printing process which requires dampening and drying. The prints are not flat but have a nice texutre and hold a plate tone as as background tint.

Couch + Couch = Accordion fold book

Jim — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:44:14 +0000

Jean Funcke made an accordion book by couching two sheets of handmade paper with pieces of ribbon between the two sheets. Once the sheets have been dried, they can be folded to create an accordion book. Note the texture of the paper that she used. Her paper is a mix of cotton fiber and cooked straw.

Andrea beats rags to a pulp

Jim — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:37:04 +0000

Often, in class, the question is posed. “Is this pulp beaten enough?” Often my reply is, “It depends” In Andrea Brdek’s case, this pulp is almost ready for what she wants to do.
See, Andrea is planning on using this pulp for drawing images on larger wet sheets. The size of the pulp clumps is much smaller than usual. Andrea plans to put the pulp in squeeze bottles before she applies it on the damp sheet. She may need to beat it even further if she want to place the pulp in an eye dropper or other fine line drawing instrument.
Below is a detailed image of some of her first test painting with her beaten plup.

Today, she formed a large sheet outside, read this link. As soon as the water stopped dripping, she brought it inside to the studio and applied pulp to the wet sheet. Here is a photo of her squeezing the pulp on the damp sheet.

A closer inspection of the pulp on the damp sheep reveals how pulp, when mixed with formation agent, lays down a beautiful line quality. The diluted pulp pools or puddles and leaves a wetter looking line. Obviously other wet media could be used for painting or drawing. However, pulp mixed with formation agent lays down a nice looking line. Check out these details.

Amanda Larson, work in progress

Jim — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:10:23 +0000

Amanda Larson, a student working with Professor Mary Hark from the Design Studies Department is working on a large screen type installation using abaca pulp in the paper mill. Below are some process photos as she is building her pieces.

This is a detail of the piece.Amanda wraps a wooden frame with thread. The thread will hold wet pulp.Thread is simply tied to the wooden frame. The thread is wrapped around the frame to form a grid.

Once the frame is covered with thread, wet abaca pulp is poured over the thread.

The frame is placed on top of a container to catch the spill off. Once part of the frame is covered with pulp it can be moved.

Pulp is repeatedly poured over the thread.

Her piece was installed in the stairwell in the School of Human Ecology.

In celebration of above freezing temperatures.

Jim — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:42:36 +0000

Today we moved outside to form a large sheet of paper.

Letitia Garcia, MFA 2007, made large handmade sheets of paper for her drawings. You can view a gallery of her work at this link.

Question: How do you make a sheet of handmade paper?

Jim — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:42:57 +0000

In no way is this a complete answer, but these ten photographs quickly show you how a sheet of paper is formed and couched. Andrea and Jean work as a team to form sheets of paper from cotton fibers.

Making large sheets of paper

Jim — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:58:04 +0000

Megan Page is showing the full frame for the sheet of paper. This frame is made out of 2×4 wood with silkscreen material.

Place the frame off the floor.

Megan is illustrating the slimy nature of formation agent.

This bucket hold several gallons of abaca pulp.

Abaca pulp is added to the 5 gallon pail of formation agent.

Water is added to fill the pail and mix the pulp.

Add water until the pail is full.

A spray hose is used to dampen the screen.

Megan secures the screen while Jim pours the pulp and formation agent onto the screen. Pour the solution as quickly as possible, without spilling it over the edge of the frame.

Quickly pick up the frame and rock the pulp slurry from side to side so that the pulp is distributed evenly over the frame.

The rocking may take a few minutes to allow the water to drain from the frame.

Once all of the water has drained, the wet frame can be set on supports.

In this case, we placed the wet sheet and frame on two large trash cans.

Take the shop vac and begin to suck water from the under side of the frame. The attachment is placed on the silk screen material.

The shop vac attachment must be moved all over the sheet to remove as much water as possible.

Continue moving the attachment all over.

The sheet should be left to dry for a day or two.

Once the sheet is dry, it must be carefully removed from the screen.

Carefully remove the entire sheet from the screen.

Students inspect a dry sheet