Earth | Paper | Sky - Late Night Pecha Kucha Power Session, by Catherine Nash

Late Night Pecha Kucha Power Session, by Catherine Nash

Jay Fox and Kerri Cushman hosted a power talk by 6 dynamic Friends on Saturday night. Pecha Kucha is a high speed way of covering a lot of informational ground without excess time to deviate: each presenter was allowed 20 slides with an auto image sequencing every 20 seconds...a total of about 6 minutes. It was high energy and lots of fun!

I was so grateful for my scholarship this year to attend the Santa Fe meeting - more often than not I cannot attend and I sit at home chomping at the bit as I wait for some published news about the amazing presentations and demos at the FDH annual meetings. I hope you will placate me as I have thoroughly written about each presenter - I’m so happy to report on these inspirational talks and I hope this satisfies your curiosity~

Helen Hiebert’s theme was “A Papermaker’s Challenge” and she outlined her creatively diverse way of making a living from papermaking. Hiebert is a talented artist who often collaborates with community in her installations such as Mother Tree and has permanent works such as The Wish installed in a library in Thornton, Colorado. She recently exhibited The Secret Life of Paper: 25 years of Works in Paper, a retrospective exhibition at the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center (KBAC) and Western Michigan University in April 2016.

While these installations and artworks are not necessarily money makers, they come straight from the heart and offer her enrichment and connections in a deep and meaningful way. Hiebert also creates artist books which offer her a steady income stream by sales through her own website and artist book sellers such as Vamp & Tramp. She is an educator and a prolific author, having published such classics as The Papermaker’s Companion and Papermaking with Garden Plants and videos such as The Papermaker’s Studio Guide and Water Paper Time.

News from Hook Pottery Paper

Get all the latest news from Hook Pottery Paper in their most recent newsletter HERE.

New work from artist Andrea Peterson

Andrea Peterson completed this 40” x 72” pulp and print piece as part of an Indiana grant. One of the four works focusing on tree roots. The base sheet, made as one piece is kozo with the tree trunk drawn with pigmented cotton rag pulp. After the whole piece was dry she printed 2 wood blocks. This piece and others just came back from a gallery in Michigan. see all the images at hookpotterypaper.com

Cast Paper w/ Print Imagery Workshop ~ SFCB

Cast Paper With Print Imagery ~ October 16th, 1:00-4:00pm @ San Francisco Center for the Book
This class involves using a printed image and merging it with a dimensional form during the paper casting process. Andrea and Jon use clay moulds because of their durability, lightweight and ease to recycle. Jon Hook, ceramic artist and expert in clay mold making, will lead participants in the construction of a clay mold using natural forms or something you bring to the class. This will be used as a future tool for your casting paper projects. During the class, Andrea Peterson, paper/print artist, will lead you through the casting process with print inclusion with fired clay moulds.  Students may bring printed image to try otherwise a selection will be available for experimentation. 
Materials to Bring:  Objects that could fit in two hands to cast (optional)

Workshop Fee: $150

Date & Time: Thursday, October 16, 2014 :: 1:00-4:00PM

Location: This workshop will take place at 375 Rhode Island St, San Francisco, CA 94103

Note: Please read the SFCB Registration Policies before signing up for a class

About the Instructors | Jon Hook & Andrea Peterson
MORE INFO & SIGN UP

Classes @ Hook Pottery Paper ~ LaPorte, IN

Hook Pottery Paper ~ LaPorte, IA

JUNE 20 – 21

Clamshell box making

with Mary Uthuppru

10am – 2:30pm friday & Saturday

$165.00, includes all materials

The clamshell box, also called the solander box, is the most versatile protective enclosure for artwork, books and objects. In this two day workshop, we will construct a sturdy clamshell box using handmade paper and bookcloth that not only protects the objects inside but is a great way to present professional work. During the class, we will discuss modifying the traditional clamshell in order to accommodate unusual shapes, create divided trays, and even make secret compartments. Participants will also learn how to make their own book cloth which can be used in the workshop or saved for future projects. The clamshell box will be made to house materials that are 8 x 10 inches. If you're interested in making your clamshell box to hold materials of a different size, please say so at the time of registration.

Mary built the clam shells for the FDH Portfolio 2014.

JUNE 24 – 28

hand paper making intensive taught by Andrea Peterson

10am – 4pm tuesday - saturday

$450.00, all materials included

In beautiful northern Indiana at Hook Pottery Paper explore many possibilities of papermaking during this 4-day intensive.

Expand your artistic and technical skills to create unusual works. You may try many possibilities or focus on a few.

Demonstrations will be given daily. All level. For more info on travel, lodging, and full schedule of activities please email hookpotterypaper@comcast.net

interested please email for registration form

Making Faces With Andrea Peterson et.al.

By Jill Littlewood

I am just winding down after 8 days of non-stop work. I’ve never worked so hard and I have fabulous pieces to show for it. My series of faces may be the best work I have ever done. Some of the things I worked hard on didn’t come off but I learned from them as well.

I’m kind of amazed that this all happened: I took a class with Andrea Peterson a year and a half ago and at the end I did some small works that I thought had real energy. They were faces, made in an almost panicky way because the three-day class was coming to an end. I was using up paper pulp that would have gone to waste, so I was kind of throwing it all about. The faces I made there, 8” by 10”, had power, and I asked Andrea if she would consider teaching me more. She said yes, and we planned a 10-day session for this fall.

It all seemed so remote, and I had no idea if my energy from that short session would translate into a long one. It turns out it got magnified, and that is largely because of Andrea. I’ve never had such perfect support: physically she makes all the pulps (very labor intensive), knows all the recipes, has huge forms for making large sheets, has been teaching for years, and lets me work long hours on whatever path I am on but seems to have a sixth sense about when to nudge me further and when to just leave me be. I feel like an Olympian athlete with the most perfect trainer.

All of this is taking place at Andrea’s farm/home in Indiana. She is set up for papermaking and printing; her husband, Jon, is a potter. Her two boys are wonderful, full of humor and curiosity. They have been homeschooling since I mentioned the possibility when I visited last year, and it has worked out very well for everyone. This is a wonderland for kids, full of plants, animals, and projects in various stages. Everyone spends their days problem-solving: while Andrea and I are trying to get black pigment particles to stick to cotton rag, Jon is working on his new fireplace for the house, based on a Finnish model. He is also designing pizza and bread ovens as a change from making kilns. The one he is testing this week was made by weaving a huge basket from grape vines, turning it over and filling the spaces with clay, and firing it. When you look inside, to see if your pizza is getting hot, you see the pattern of clay smooshed between the ghost of the grape branches. (I’ve been with them for several dinners, the pizza nights being the most memorable. How about goat, mozzarella, tomato, basil, onion, oregano pizza?)

 

Andrea and Jon, with Lu and Ry, grow much of what they eat - plant and animal. Ry, who is 11, is the farmer of the family and has 3 pigs, a goat, 22 chickens, 7 roosters, and a garden. His love is fixing old tractors with a neighbor nearby. Lu is more of an artist: his menagerie consists of 6 cats. There are two dogs that are just around, underfoot, happy to be part of the melee. A typical discussion at lunch will be about the perfect temperature for the yogurt Lu made, or whether the pickles Ry made could use a different spice. This will be followed by news that a neighbor’s chickens are sick and what they might do to help, and then a discussion of haying rotations and when Ry can go out again with neighbor Charles to drive the haying tractor. (I got to go on one of the big ones and do some turns in the field while it spit out bales from behind.)

Then Lu (9) will ask if he can make an ocarina this afternoon when Jon is in the clay studio, and he will show us the bag he sewed out of leather in the morning. We will discuss various ways to make a drawstring. Christon, who is visiting from Maine, will pass down a brew he made from Belgian hops: the one taste I had was the most memorable sip of beer I have ever had. (Small wonder he just won a national prize for micro-brewing.) A cat they call the Avon Lady will paw at the door and make mewing sounds, so someone will get up to let her in and that will start a discussion of where all the cats came from. (Later Lu and I will make him a cat family tree with illustrations, and I will get to know the naming of the cats. “Oolala” was a good story and is as beautiful as her name implies.)

The physical world of making and doing is a constant buzz, and making paper is just one element. Meanwhile, family, neighbors, visitors and customers to their small shop drop by in a constant stream. Much of the work I did was in the thoroughfare of the paper studio, with dogs and cats and kids and guests going back and forth.

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!