Treewhispers Installed in Chicago

I received a note from Pamela Paulsrud a couple of days ago, letting us know that she recently installed Treewhispers at the Newberry Library. Pamela and the late Marilyn Sward began Treewhispers in the year 2000.

Treewhispers is a traveling, ever-changing and growing art installation. It is an international collaboration involving paper, art and stories relating to trees. Round, handmade papers have been gathered from participants around the world. On the papers, contributors have remembered a tree or the spirit of a tree.

Some contributions are simply a magnificent example of beautiful handmade paper and some include text and/or imagery. Some suggest tree rings, depict leaves or illustrate a personally significant tree; others are imprinted with a poem or a meaningful story relating to trees. The handmade paper is bound together to create large tree assemblages and ultimately a "forest" of hanging tree rings.

Said Pamela: "It truly is an amazing installation with handmade paper from so many people—from so many places."

It is coinciding with Explorations 2009, the annual Chicago Calligraphy Collective juried exhibit.

Hook Pottery Paper Holds Chicago Weekend Event

Jon Hook and Andrea Peterson would like to invite everyone to their Exclusive Chicago Art Event!

Who: Hook Pottery Paper

Hosted by: Front 40 Press, 437 North Wolcott, Chicago, IL

When: December 4-6, 10 am -­ 9pm

For those of you who have not been out to the farm and studio, Hook Pottery Paper is a fine arts and craft studio in northwest Indiana run by husband and wife team Jon Hook and Andrea Peterson. These two artists who have moved to the country will visit the city for an exclusive weekend to demonstrate how they capture elegant natural textures and shapes to create and influence their work.

Focusing on local and renewable resources, they fire all the pottery with wood and make many handmade papers from indigenous plants and fibers.

During this event, wood-fired pottery including serving dishes, vases and unique teapots made by Jon Hook will be featured. Handmade papers from natural fibers and unique stationery as well as fine paper/print artworks by Andrea Peterson will be available. They will be present to discuss and demonstrate their techniques throughout the weekend.

For further information, call 219-362-9478 or hookpotterypaper.com.

Artists Reception Friday December 5, from 6 to 9 pm. Tea and beverages will be served. Hope to see you there!

Hawaiian Paper Petite Art Exhibit

The first word back from Paradise is that a good time was had by all. One important element of the annual meeting was the Hawaiian Paper Petite Art Exhibit.

Participants were encouraged to think big and create small, creating up to three post-card size works. Pieces were required to include handmade paper but could also involve any other media or technique. There were more than 90 works on display. Following are but a few. You can see images of all the works here.

Helen Hiebert's Lantern of Hope Project

Dear Friends:
Like many voters across America, I am concerned about the direction this country will take in the next four years and have decided to support Barack Obama in his efforts as an agent of change.

To do this, I am launching my own grassroots movement as an artist to raise money for the Obama campaign.



I'm calling this the Lantern of Hope Project. In my Portland studio, I am producing handmade paper candle lanterns with the Obama symbol for hope embedded as a translucent watermark. My dream is to see thousands of these lanterns glowing in the windows of homes in every state, culminating with a nationwide demonstration of solidarity on the evening of election night, November 4th.

These lanterns are available for sale at enlightenedpapers.etsy.com for $25 each (including shipping) or $20 each for those who live in Portland and can pick them up. $5 from each lantern purchased will be donated to Obama for America. You can help by purchasing a lantern and by telling your friends, colleague sand others about The Lantern of Hope Project.

Please contact me if you have ideas on how I might maximize my outreach efforts. Light a candle, and shine a ray of hope that spreads across America.

With peace and hope,

Helen Hiebert

info@enlightenedpapers.com


http://www.enlightenedpapers.etsy.com/

P.S. Bear with me while I work out the supply and demand details with Etsy. If the site says "out of stock", check back later or send me an e-mail.

National Collegiate Handmade Paper Exhibition

The 4th National Collegiate Handmade Paper Art Exhibition is accepting entries up to Oct. 13.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Brodsky Center at Rutgers University and the Corcoran College of Art & Design in Washington, D.C. It is dedicated to the memory of papermaking educator, author, artist and champion Marilyn Sward, who recently lost her battle with cancer.

Any student enrolled in 2007 and/or 2008 in a program of Associate, Bachelors or Masters degree in art is eligible.

For further information and entry instructions, please contact Anne McKeown at 732-932-2222, ext. 838; or Lynn Sures at 202-639-1801. Or you may e-mail for more information.

Dard Hunter to Enter Hall of Fame

Cathleen A. Baker and Arnold Grummer are very pleased to announce that their nomination of Dard Hunter as an 2008 inductee into the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame, Inc., was successful.

The P.I.I.H.F. is located in Appleton, Wisconsin; their website is http://www.paperhall.org/.



The mission of the P.I.I.H.F. is two-fold:
• to recognize people who have made preeminent contributions to the paper industry worldwide by inducting them into the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame, Inc.
• to display historical elements of the industry and to provide an education center for industry advancement.

Additionally, P.I.I.H.F. inductees are individuals who have “pioneered and/or helped the world’s paper and allied industries to flourish.” Hunter was nominated in the academic category.


The induction ceremony will be held on Thursday, October 23, 2008 at the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel in Appleton. Contact the P.I.I.H.F. at (920) 380–7491 to request an invitation/make a reservation, or Arnie at agrummer@sbcglobal.net.

Paper and Threshold by Dorothy Field

2008 Bronze Medal Winner

Independent Publisher Book Awards
National Category—Essay/Creative Non-Fiction

Paper and Threshold
The Paradox of Spiritual Connection in Asian Cultures
by Dorothy Field
Foreword by Jane M. Farmer
The Legacy Press • Ann Arbor, Mich.


Cultures use materials that reflect their own myths, their own sense of where life is held. In India, thread and cloth are often used as the mnemonic device to remind people to pay attention. In other parts of Asia, particularly Japan, Korea, Burma, and Nepal, paper takes up its paradoxical role as a bridge enabling spirits to cross and a barrier keeping dark forces out. Many ancient customs continue to be observed with little current comprehension, and when shapes cut out of white plastic are substituted for paper, we know amnesia has set in.

Many, probably most, traditional cultures see physical thresholds as more than a place to hang a door. Thresholds are liminal, often standing in for distant places such as sacred mountain passes. Crossing a threshold can symbolize the passage between being in the womb and being born, being single and being married, being alive and dying. Paper or thread placed at our everyday physical thresholds reminds us of less tangible crossings and of each individual’s connection to mystery and wonder.

In this book, illustrated with over 200 of her photographs, Dorothy examines a wide range of papers at thresholds in many parts of Asia, and its uses in Shinto, shamanic, and Buddhist temples, as well as paper kites, lanterns, doors, and windows. She considers why one culture uses paper, another thread, and a third, barley. And there are also examples of paper used for sheer fun, as bursts of color and celebration.

$45.00 • hardcover in cloth • 9.5 x 11.5 inches • 108 pages • 207 color photographs
ISBN: 978–0–9797974–0–8
to order: http://www.thelegacypress.com/

Note: This book is also available in sheets for binding and to order copies, email: thelegacypress@comcast.net