Plant Papers Workshop

Wednesday I had a Plant Papers Workshop with the Rangers from Larrakia Nation. It was great to teach papermaking again and we used Eucalyptus pulp linters and previoudly caustic cooked bush grasses. I instructed on how to cook up a batch of bush grass while we worked on previously caustic cooked Dwarf Papyrus plant fibres from my fish pond. The results were lovely, especially when the interesting part of mixing the two vats using the double dipping technique combined with skeleton leaves from my bush block making unique and lovely plant papers. Thanks ladies! I will upload a picture of a sample paper when they have dried and been pressed ready to use. Happy papermaking!

Territory Craft Members Exhibition Items

A couple of small items I have in the above Exhibition. The croc photo is my own photography and the album is made of recycled paper and heliconia fibre paper bound using the Japanese Stab style binding. The other is a leather hand bound journal consisting of both various hand made papers include plant fibres as well as carbon paper (bit stronger than copy paper) to enable drawing, painting etc by the writer.

Pictures of Workshop

Pictures from the Free Workshops at the Recycled Art Festival on 12th November 2010 at Malak by the Darwin City Council.

Students learning how to make paper with traditional techniques, more modern equipment and with the luxury of being indoors in the air con and under fans! Behind these ladies were people making jewellery, wearable art and beside us were people recycling jeans into handbags. It was great to see young and old all getting into recreating and enjoying themselves while learning new skills.

Recycled Art Festival workshops were great! I had fun teaching school teachers and others alike. I am sure this will be bigger and better next year. I will be posting photos of the workshop soon. This pic is of the handbook I gave participants on the day so they can take home all that knowledge and use it at their leisure! I tend to overload heads with info and ideas. I know myself that workshop notes are always the best way to learn and experiment later. If there are people who may have missed out on these workshops and would like to have a workshop within the next month, please give me a call on 0419 832 953 or email me at ntpapermaker@hotmail.com and I will fit one in before December if possible. I am only doing workshops up until the second week in December as I have family commitments during December and January. I also need time to work on my own ideas and creations for next year! Cheers for now!

Recycled Art Festival

Excited to be be involved and just letting people know that I am hosting some workshops at the Darwin City Council's Recycled Art Festival from 8 - 14 November 2010 in Malak. Check out the website: http://www.darwin.nt.gov.au/play/arts-and-cultural-services/recycled-art for further details and times if you want to do a workshop. Hope to see you there! NT Papermaker

First Print

Well .... this is new for me .... my first blog! You would have thought they could have used a nicer name than "Blog". Anyway, so I am off and printing.

I am a lady of Bees Creek in the Northern Territory who is an avid Papermaker, book binder, scribe of poetry in my spare minutes of any day .... anyone with a regular business to run with their husband, active teenagers, a rural block and all that goes with that .... knows only too well that there is little time for our passionate pursuits of art or art in the making. However! I will not be perturbed and so I beg, borrow and steal any time I can get to push on with my visions and goals of creating something wonderful from what nature provides or what we humans no longer use. I am also a PartyLite Consultant .... anyone who doesn't know what PartyLite is ?? Candles, high quality candles with sumptuous scents and quality accessories to calm the mind and soul in any day or night.

Why would someone make paper you ask in today's abundance of paper and accessories? Well to create handmade paper is unique, a therapeutic experience in creating it and a timless treasure when it is recycled from either cotton sheets, denim or made with only plant fibres from nature - unique and personal - even more so when you create your own journal for your own thoughts, goals or experiences.

I do 3 different kinds of workshops on papermaking - a basic course on recycling paper at home; a recycling of cotton and denim fibres and basic bookbinding; and the last course is usually for experienced papermakers in which I use what nature has provided, cook it in caustic to neutralise the fibres and create papers using either bush grasses or plants from my local environs. With this I paint on it, print on it (yes even put it in my inkjet and laser printers) and use it as a backdrop for my photography. My dream is to one day have an exhibition of my works and pursue art on a part-time to full time basis in my later years. For now I am happy to hold workshops and pursue my dreams and my creations privately for the time being. I am happy to blog with likeminded persons and help with any queries.