Member Spotlight: Helen Hiebert

Helen Hiebert has released a podcast interview with Hedi Kyle and Ulla Warchol about their new book, The Art of the Fold: http://helenhiebertstudio.com/products/podcast/hedi-kyle-ulla-warchol/ This is part of her series of podcast interviews about papermakers and paper artists. Listen to the conversation about Hedi’s childhood in postwar Germany, when she made paper dolls and paper chains, among other things and how she ended up in the US after her studies in Germany. Ulla is Hedi’s daughter and grew up in and around Hedi’s studios in the Bay Area and New York City, where she went to the Cooper Union to study architecture. They talk about how this book came about, the process of creating the book – Ulla rendered the illustrations from Hedi’s hand drawn diagrams; her husband Paul Warchol did the photography; and there was a lot of discussion about the belly band! Hedi talks about a paper made in the Netherlands from the sails of old windmills, and discusses the storage system she uses for all of her models. And they talk about some of the clever inventions that are found within the pages of the book.

Each year Helen produces a how-to book and calendar called the Twelve Months of Paper. The 2019 calendar includes 12 new projects featuring origami, pop-ups, paper cutting, weaving, quilling, and folding; 4 guest artists: Trinity Adams, Béatrice Coron, Ann Martin and Shawn Sheehy; and this year she's donating $5 from each calendar sale to Paper For Water (you can find out more about them in her last podcast episode). Calendars are available here: https://helenhiebertstudio.com/shop/2019-twelve-months-of-paper-calendar/ 

Helen also recently wrote a guest post for Artsy called A Crash Course in Basic Papermaking. Check it out, and feel free to share it: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-crash-course-basic-papermaking

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.

The Twelve Months of Paper: It’s A How-to Book, It’s A Calendar, It’s Interactive!

Helen Hiebert Studio is pleased to announce Kickstarter Campaign for The Twelve Months of Paper, a how-to book and a calendar all in one, featuring 13 paper projects to make, gift and enjoy throughout the year. Learn how to make a creative paper design every month with well-known artist and author Helen Hiebert (author of Playing With Paper, Playing With Pop-Ups, and The Sunday Paper – her popular weekly blog). The calendar is filled with fun paper projects, facts and quotes about paper from around the world, plus a page of templates. Grab a copy of the Custom Paper Pack featuring a curated selection of papers from around the world plus everything you need to make all of the projects.

Kickstarter link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/570620999/twelve-months-of-paper-calendar

THE SECRET LIFE OF PAPER DEBUTS AT KALAMAZOO BOOK ARTS CENTER IN APRIL

KBAC-Hiebert-Print-Fertilize.jpg: Fertilize © Helen Hiebert

KBAC-Hiebert-Print-Pop-UP-Hand-Shadow.jpg: Pop-UP Hand Shadow Book © Helen Hiebert

The Secret Life of Paper: 25 Years of Works in Paper by Helen Hiebert
April 8 – 29, 2016

Artist Talk: Wed, April 6, 5:30 – 7 p.m. at Western Michigan University, Frostic School of Art, Richmond Center for Visual Arts, Room 2008

Artist Reception: Fri, April 8, 6 – 9 p.m. at KBAC

Workshop: Innovations in Paper Weaving: Sat, April 9, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. at KBAC

Location: Kalamazoo Book Arts Center (KBAC), 326 W. Kalamazoo Ave. Suite 103A, Kalamazoo, MI 49007

Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

Website: kalbookarts.org

Sponsored by the KBAC, the Southwest Michigan Paper Guild, Western Michigan University Visiting Scholars and Artists Program, and Friends of WMU Libraries.

Helen Hiebert – A 25 Year Retrospective

Helen Hiebert discovered paper as an art medium in 1991, when she interned at Dieu Donné Papermill in New York City.

The highlight of Hiebert’s exhibition at the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center is a repertoire of artist’s books, a collection of artworks that focus on the intriguing properties of abaca, a fiber that she has been investigating for 20-plus years of working in the medium, and has illustrated in a film, Water Paper Time, that documents the properties of abaca through time-lapse imagery.

Hiebert tells us: “My work examines the intangible and the ethereal, the magical and the mysterious, in a visual format. Working like a scientist, I conduct experiments with paper pulp. I initiate a deliberate action—embedding a string between two wet sheets, cutting a hole in or nailing a wet sheet to the wall—to interrupt the papermaking process and irrevocably alter the sheet of paper. But unlike a scientist, who sets out to break nature down into its component parts to analyze the relationship of those parts, as an artist, I juxtapose different features of reality and synthesize them, so that upon completion, the whole work is greater than the sum of its parts.”

View the film trailer at: youtube.com/watch?v=ec0_VMSn_c8

From a studio in a mountain-town schoolhouse in the heart of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, Helen Hiebert constructs installations, sculptures, films, artists’ books, and works in paper using handmade paper as her primary medium. She is the author of five books including The Papermaker’s Companion, Playing with Pop-Ups, and Playing with Paper. She has taught all over the world at venues such as the PapierWespe in Austria, Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, Dieu Donné Papermill in New York, and Minnesota Center for Book Arts. Hiebert has served on the boards of the International Association of Hand Papermakers and Paper Artists and Hand Papermaking Magazine. You can view her work at helenhiebertstudio.com or read her weekly blog, The Sunday Paper at helenhiebertstudio.com/blog.

Three Dimensions out of Two: Eye-popping, Mind-blowing Paper Engineering

Julie Chen’s Cat’s Cradle, 2013, edition of 50 (photo: Sibila Savage)

Book Review

Playing with Pop-ups: The Art of Dimensional, Moving Paper Designs

By Helen Hiebert

Papermaking in the Colorado Rockies with Helen Hiebert

String Theory with Helen Hiebert

23 Sandy Gallery, Portland, Oregon

November 4-December 18, 2010

23 Sandy Gallery is pleased to present Helen Hiebert’s new suite of handmade paper “string drawings,” a solo show which opened on November 4.

Interested in the threads that bind us all, particularly knots, she will unveil her unique compositions. Hiebert arranges loosely tied knots on a sheet of translucent handmade paper, manipulating the loops and ends to create the drawing, trapping the threads in time with the addition a top layer of translucent paper. Inspired by historical knot illustrations, Hiebert’s contemporary interpretations serve as metaphors for the physical and emotional connections and junctures in our lives.

Helen Hiebert is a Portland, Oregon artist who constructs installations, sculptures, and artist books using handmade paper, thread and light. She exhibits and lectures internationally, and serves as an adjunct faculty member at Oregon College of Arts & Crafts in Portland. Hiebert is the author of the several papermaking books and is a regular contributor to Hand Papermaking Newsletter. She received the 2010 Regional Arts & Culture Council Project Grant, which partially funded String Theory.
View an online catalog of Helen's show here: http://www.23sandy.com/hiebert/catalog.html

Helen Hiebert's Mother Tree Project

Our Friend Helen Hiebert's always got something in the works, and now is no exception. Rather than try to boil it all down, I'll encourage you to go here to see what this is all about:

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.