Butterflies and keepsakes

Back in late January on return from holidays I noticed that a couple of my daphne bushes were looking very sad, I think they had got wet feet, one had died and the leaves on the other had gone very yellow. What does a papermaker do but steam the stems and cook up the inner bark then stick it in the fridge!

A healthy daphne

The stems in the steamer

The stripped stems

Two hours later the inner bark ready to cook

Sheets of coffee chaff paper. Last year I was sent a big box of coffee chaff,
I cooked some up and washed and made paper without any beating.

The backs of my sheeting couching cloths, the coffee paper shrunk quite a lot.

The third lot of sheets that are part of the keepsake exchange for Watermarks 2012, FDH and IAPMA joint meeting in Cleveland. These sheets are bluebell flower stems courtesy of Beverly Bennett who brought a giant bag of dried stems to the last Papermakers of Victoria meeting laminated with well beaten cardamon stems and leaves from Margaret Mason's garden. Koala, kangaroo and wombat signs were made from gaffer tape to form stencils.

As usual I have gone over the top my keepsakes are taking ages to put together, they have daphne, then coffee chaff then the laminated cardamom and bluebell (scilla), I have done about a third.

I have a bit of a butterfly theme happening at the moment, yabbers are making a range of butterflies for the PoV exhibition that's to be held at Open Drawer in November. I have made these with black card and coloured New Zealand Flax, I liked them so much I decided to frame some. 

Papillon Three, is currently on show at the Contemporary Art Society Members Exhibition at 314 Church Street Richmond until 16 September 2012

I have used butterflies on books and cards

I also made some origami butterflies out of paper I made from recycled teabags, I had asked the T'Arts to save me some teabags then remembered how well teabags work with photocopy transfer using oil of wintergreen. This pic shows the original butterfly and the transfer onto teabag and the paper that was under the teabag.

Lemons on our tree

Lemons again transferred onto a piece of silk that Ruth left under the teabags she was collecting for me.

Pulp Fiction my contribution to Book Art Object Edition Four

Sale and etsy

I was very excited to learn that I sold a piece at the Contemporary Art Society Exhibition on Herring Island, I don't know which one yet but both framed works that went in were quite old. I'm on duty on the afternoon of Saturday the 6th so will find out then. Any Melbourne readers should check out the exhibition, it is on for the next two weekends and you get the Parks Victoria punt over the Yarra from Como Landing, South Yarra. The Island itself is worth visiting, it's a great place for a picnic and there are sculptures all around the island.

My prize from the OWOH extravaganza arrived this morning, it is great thank you Wendy, it is a viscosity printing of Anne of Cleves and you can see how it, as well as the rest of the series, was done here.

I spent several hours over the weekend setting up an etsy shop but I haven't worked out how to get it to show up in my side panel yet, I'll work on that when I get another day, it took me hours just to set up and list five items.

I've spent a fair bit of this morning getting a CD ready to send to Korea for the Paper Road Exhibition, I find I spend so much time on documenting and filling out forms it doesn't leave much time for creating. These are the works I'm proposing for the Paper Road exhibition, you are allowed three entries.


Pardelot Four cyanotypes on kozo with Zoe Culbertson and Celine's Nest cotton paper and mixed plant fibre with blackwood wattle branch and twig.

Dreamcatcher One cane and kozo

I am also helping to plan the first Valda Quick Paper arts Biennial which will be held at the Access Gallery at Bundoora Homestead from 3- 21 November, we had our second meeting yesterday, I'll be writing more here as that progresses.

I should also say that today I posted off the two body books from my post last week to the Mermaid in the Attic so I'll look forward to seeing what magic Christina works on the books. The shell book was bought by Carol, I hope she enjoys it.

What a Congress!

This post will be mostly pictures because I've got too many other things to do but I've been wanting to get this up for a week now. The IAPMA Congress was held in Burnie this year and I went over for a week. I arrived a little early and was able to sit in on a class Helen Heibert gave on making lampshades to locals and also one given by Therese Uguen to school students on making paper kites.

Helen demonstrating and one of the kites I made.

Helen was opening the exhibition 'Switch' by Tracy Luff so we met for a chat the day before. In the photo from the left me, Tracy, Helen and Jenny (Events manager, City of Burnie)

Tour of Creative Paper One of the beaters and their super press.


The backs of some of their large moulds and the drying room.

A memorial to Charles Turner who was intrumental in getting Creative Paper started.



Some pics from our trip to Cradle Mountain Park.

I did a mini workshop with Wendy Cain from Canada on Contemporary watermarks.

Some of her watermarking sheets, fine plastic mesh with puff paint. The couching bed with wet/dry vacuum

A piece of polystyrene, a chopping board, open plastic mesh, 3 sheets fly mesh the chux, worked a treat as a small vacuum table.

The string makers

Barb moulding some plant fibre on fabric dipped in plaster.

A few shots of the farewell dinner


The auction items!

I scored the Maple leaf in the bottom right hand corner of the bottom right picture.


We tried to get the PoV members together for a group photo but we missed a few, I was meant to photoshop these two in but it was beyond my capability so here they are and sorry to any who missed out on being in the pic.


My case, I just squeezed in the 400 sheets for the next IAPMA Bulletin covers, then a thin layer of clothes.

The bottom of the case was full of catalogues and books.


I also did a workshop with the Women from Euraba, these are the very ordinary sheets I made, they had much better control over the pulp.

Some of the things I brought back.

The invitation from Wonju, South Korea to the next Congress.

The goodies we got in our congress kit





The Cavalcade (designed and made by Jan Marinos and Creative Paper) and some of the contents