Sunday, November 16, 2014

Hand Papermaking Portfolio: Negative Space

Our proposal for a submission for the Hand Papermaking portfolio themed Negative Space was accepted last year. We were excited first, and then overwhelmed by the amount of work that was involved in creating 152 pieces needed for the portfolio. The great thing about participating in the Portfolio is that we each get one at the end! Anne Covell, Steph Rue and I worked together on this laborious project. The idea was to embed silk threads in between two sheets of abaca. The threads varied in colour, and went from dark brown all the way to the colour of the paper. They seemed to melt into the sheet and become invisible. The plan was to lay them out in a grid 1/4" apart from one another. In the middle, they would create a negative space as they melted into the sheet.

 


The test sheets were threaded using a gradation of blue silk threads.
We decided only to thread a portion of the frame and make a smaller sheet for the test




The frame was laid face down and centered onto the sheet of paper. The threads that weren't completely taut, absorbed the water from the sheet first, and remained in the position they were in when the frame was first laid down. They couldn't be re-positioned afterward.



The second sheet was then couched on top of the first carefully, and then pressed in a hydraulic press



The sheet after pressing




The test worked, and was accepted as part of the proposal. Now it was time to begin




The frame being threaded. We decided to make the sheets large enough to get eight out of a sheet. This way we needed to only make 30 or so sheets, accounting for wastage and mishaps





Threading completed - for one sheet



The frame was laid face down and centered onto the sheet of paper. The threads that weren't completely taut, absorbed the water from the sheet first, and remained in the position they were in when the frame was first laid down. They couldn't be re-positioned afterward.




The frame was carefully lifted and transported to the wet area to be couched. Vyvek strips were laid down prior to placement. These would act as cutting surfaces for the threads


The threads were carefully repositioned. Some that had already sunk to the surface of the sheet couldn't be recovered, 
but the others often could



It took all three of us to lift and reposition so as not to disturb any other threads



Post-pressing. Placing the second sheet on top of it was a stressful challenge.


 

After pressing!


Ta Da! The finished sheet. It was hard to get the threads to stay in the grid despite our best efforts, but we did manage to finish the edition, and each individual piece looked pretty good! Being included in the portfolio along with all the other artists was quite an honour. I will be posting photos of the finished piece in the portfolio as soon as I have it in my possession.




Update 3 and show!

After printing for about eight or nine weeks, I finally have some room to breathe and write another update. I have to say, so far it hasn't been as stressful as I thought it would be. I got everything I had to get done with time to spare. The show reception is in 4 days!





Starting to letter-space the small caps



 The biggest disaster (I was waiting for this one) was that all the sheets of handmade paper stretched and dried at different rates after dampening. I trimmed them all individually by hand with help from the wonderful Julie Leonard, who is on my committee. Disaster averted? Kind of. Each sheet needed to be placed differently on the feed board in order to register the next press run in the right place. I made a sort of jig to help with that. Luckily most of these sheets were translucent enough to see through.







 We got new windows in the graduate print room! The light comes in around 4 pm and hits the press bed in a yellow splash! Here is the last text run on the title page - for the pink ornament




 Cutting up the individual flaps for assembly



 Measuring for the hinge on the Deluxe edition




 Finished Hibiscus Rosa-Sinensis




 Finished Magnolia Grandiflora

 


 Finished Nelumbo Nucifera





 Lotus pod mounted



 Magnolia aggregate fruit (left) and Hibiscus pod mounted





The show!



Vitrine with stop motion animation process work



Vitrine with the folded form, standard and deluxe editions of the book, and a few of the reduction blocks showing process