Prints for a Print Exchange

I am organizing a Print Exchange. This session's theme is Black and White. The hardest part for me, usually, is settling on a design. I have so many ideas that it is hard to settle on just one! Was looking at old manuscripts of Persian gardens and saw one that had pomegranate trees in fruit. I love the shape of pomegranates, so decided to use this in my design. I am also working with traditional textile designs in my artwork, so incorporated some made up paisleys for this.

print on gampi paper that I made this summer















The lino block


The drawing



Printing on various papers








creating a layered design

Combat Papermakers

Paper Recycling

Did you know that it takes 70% less energy to produce a ton of paper from recycled paper than from trees?

Papermaking Summer 2009

Spent as much time as I could between the other happenings to make paper this summer. I wanted to use pulps I had cooked and frozen over the past few years, but I also really wanted to try beating linen and cotton cloth in my Lander beater. I made one batch of beaten linen from 4 old linen tea towels. I also made pulp from a yellow cotton tablecloth. After speaking with someone at Carriage House Paper in Brooklyn, NY I decided to beat some abaca to ad to the cotton pulp to make a stronger paper for printmaking. So I had 3 pounds of pulp and other pulp that I had taken out of the freezer to use up.

It was great! Last year Bob added two windows to our old potting/tool shed and installed electricity so that I could use it as my papermaking studio. It was a great way to make the best of the hot, humid days we had in early August. Keeping my hands in the cool water helped a lot to keep me refreshed. Plus I love the meditative process of papermaking. I love that I have a flow. It took a few years to master my moves and now it comes so naturally.

Here are some videos and photos taken during the course of the summer:

This video is the beating of a yellow cotton tablecloth:





The finished pulp - ready to use!










cotton and abaca sheets of paper.






















This is the linen towels being beaten. You can see the fibers starting to separate.

Here is a condensed version of pulling sheets of gampi fiber. I used formation aid which slowed down the draining process, so cut all that footage out.





My homemade paper press in action.

The Importance of Memories?

Since I am spending time with Grandma, I am remembering once again the stories she told me over and over about her life growing up. Once again I am thinking that I should write them down so that they will be preserved. The same thing with the photos I have that were hers, Uncle Mickey's and Mom's. I think I should put them into albums and write notes about who the people in the photos are. I intend to one day take a pictorial inventory of the things I have inherited and put these in an album with labels explaining the stories behind them.

But now I am wondering if I did this, would it matter to my children or to my nieces and nephews? Will they want to know these stories? Will they want to know about these people?

I was in an antique store yesterday and saw boxes of old photos for 25 cents each. Old photos of family members that no one remembers. This is where they wind up.

So I wonder who the preserving of memories is for? Even the photo albums my mother spent the last year and a half of her life creating, are being stored in boxes in my brother's garage!
Should I do it for the future generations or for myself? What about the stories of my own childhood spent with my brothers, cousins and friends? Are we the only ones who care to hear them?

I don't know. I do know that my life is full of thoughts and activities pertaining to the present and to the future. I don't want to take the time right now to organize the past.

These are my thoughts at the moment. We'll see how and when they will change.

I appreciate any thoughts you may have with regard to this post.

Susan