Sculptural Papermaking

Explore a range of techniques that take handmade paper from two to three dimensions. Students will learn to work with both low-shrinkage and high-shrinkage pulps, including cotton and flax, to create vessels, low-relief sculptures, and fully dimensional pieces. Pulp casting, sheet laminating, working with armatures, manipulation of high-shrinkage sheets of paper, and paper thread will be covered, as well as working with both pigmented and natural pulps.

This Monday class is eight sessions in order to accommodate the two holidays that occur during the winter term: Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 21, and Presidents’ Day, February 18. The class will not be held on these days and there will not be no makeup sessions.

What you will learn:

  • Learn the technical skills to create uniform sheets of handmade paper including pulp preparation, sheet formation, and the drying process

  • Discover techniques involved in creating relief and three-dimensional forms using pulp

  • Learn decorative techniques such as fiber embedding

  • Learn how handmade paper and the papermaking medium can be used for artistic expression, and how it can be used with other media

Required supplies:

  • Students should come prepared to get their hands wet and pulpy. Students with very strong skin sensitivities may wish to bring long rubber/latex/nitrile or similar gloves.

  • Students may wish to bring a plastic apron, or fabric apron and plastic sheeting (we can show students how to attach to fashion their own plastic apron in class!), to stay dry.

  • A plastic container (such as large yogurt container) to hold water

  • A clean sponge

  • Later, students may wish to bring found materials for embedding and armature building. We will discuss this in class.