Monday, April 19, 2010

Andrea Peterson Workshop

The Handmade Paper Guild typically brings in one or two artists each year for a workshop.  Sometimes we focus on surface design, other times bookbinding, papier mache, or another paper-related technique.  But this year it was back to our roots:  handmade paper.  We enjoyed the company and knowledge of papermaker Andrea Peterson of LaPorte, IN.  She is amazing!  I'm very happy to have met her and benefit from her expertise.  The workshop, with 13 Guild members, was held at the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center.

The workshop was all about pulp painting.  I'm not talking about just squirting overbeaten pulp from a ketchup bottle onto a freshly pulled sheet of paper (although we did that).  She talked about the chemistry of it all (and made it interesting).  She demonstrated how to color the pulp with pigments and retention aid so that the pulp was really highly saturated.  We then each had to try to match a paint chip so that not only was the color correct but it didn't bleed either (sounds easy, it's not).  Then big fun:  using stencils, paint brushes, titanium white, dental syringes, spoons, cups, ketchup bottles, spray misters and other tools, we experimented.  Into the press and then voila, finished masterpieces.  Ok, I'm getting carried away.  No masterpieces maybe, but all good tries anyway. 


Here are sample colors.  I mixed the orange.  You can see how the bottom left blob is bleeding so more retention aid was added until the bleeding stopped.


The cups of colored pulp that became our pallete.  We used white, buff and gray sheets as our base.


Sally, Lauren, Judy, Alice and Sally working away...


Pouring pulp and using a brush to paint the pulp on the surface.


Preparing to use a stencil.


Barb and MaryJo pulling sheets out of the press.


An experimental group project where each person made a mark of some kind with the color that they had mixed.


At the end of a long, productive day...
Andrea Peterson, instructor
Eve Reid, founder of Handmade Paper Guild and Andrea's hostess 
Sally Rose, professor at Central Michigan University
Lorrie Grainger Abdo, workshop coordinator


Can you tell that it was more than a full day and we all went home exhausted?  Many, many thanks to Andrea for a great day. I'll show you my results from the experience in the next post...

Lorrie



7 comments:

Joanne Huffman said...

Such a cool looking workshop. What a good job the workshop coordinator did!

Kathy L said...

Wow, you didn't get dirty di you? Looks like everyone enjoyed themselves! Oh I wish I lived closer....

k

Gera Scott Chandler said...

What an incredible day!

last minute lynn said...

Looks like a very fun, colorful day! Always new stuff to learn.

Kim Mailhot said...

This looks amazing, Lorrie ! What fun ! And such gorgeous results too.

martha brown said...

This looks so fun!

Lorrie Grainger Abdo said...

Wish you all could have been there too! :)

By the way, I've had several people ask about the shirt: no, all that mess isn't from the workshop. That shirt is the result of years of paste painting and using the shirt instead of a rag. It's my pride and joy!

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