Log 16

A random assortment of photos from Penland while I gather my thoughts:

Ugh </3

Hollander beater

Pressing water out of fresh sheets of paper before drying

The Paper studio’s manager is a stickler. We spent a day and a half of our four days cleaning. One of the rules is no paper on the floor… in a studio that makes paper… ha

We used mostly abaca, linen, and flax fibers for our papers. A small batch of denim was processed. It stained everything and was a pain in the ass to clean but very pretty.

Pulled the skull on my birthday

Thicc denim paper

This was the largest sheet size we pulled. If you dip the mold too deep into the vat, it creates a suction that’s difficult to break. The first time I tried it, the suction was so strong that I almost drowned and had to call for help. Eventually got the hang of it but could barely move the next morning. Pulling these mega sheets made me feel invincible.

My instructor Heather developed this capillary technique for staining paper. Essentially you re-wet a dried sheet of unsized paper and drip ink onto it. The ink breaks down at different distances, creating gradients of different hues. This coloration was made with black ink.

Visited some of the resident artists and their studios

Sarita Westrup

Sean O’Connell

Daniel Garver

Back to paper – Classmate’s desk

The class collab

Heather made sheets from the last dregs of pulp. Still beautiful.

My time at Penland overlapped with the Toe River Arts Studio Tour. It’s wild how many artists live in the area. This is Dan Essig’s studio.

Vicki Essig’s studio. She trains silk worms to spin silk flat!

Kit Paulson’s studio

Spruce Pine

Spruce Pine

Spruce Pine

Spruce Pine

Spruce Pine

#nahzhluhlog