Book Arts and Photography

Chinese lantern flower or Bougainvillea + cotton

Shanna Kaczynski, Sarah Ripp and Kathyrn Petke have been collaborating on sheet formation. Kathyrn brought in some puffy plants which I think are called Chinese lantern flowers or maybe they are Bougainvillea. Shanna harvested some dill will. There is no shortage of wild dill weed in Wisconsin during the summer. Sarah Ripp provided some white cotton fiber. The plants were dried under pressure for several days and added to beaten pulp in the vat during the formation process. The result are sheets with randomly placed dried plant matter on a white sheet. The Bougainvillea have lost some color but the texture and shape add visual interest to the sheet.

I get so hungry in class!

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. Continue reading…

Cotton pulp + elastic + underwire

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.
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Etchings on abaca

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

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

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.
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Amanda Larson, work in progress

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. Continue reading…