Untitled from hbare on Vimeo.

I took a video of myself making paper the other afternoon!
I made about 25 good sheets of abaca paper: I overbeat the abaca for about 8 hours. The old beater in our studio doesn't really do more than saturate the pulp fibers because the blade height can't be adjusted, but the paper still ended up being delicate and translucent. We're getting a new beater at some point this spring. Look out, world!

This past week I worked in the metal studio welding beast armatures! I have been MIG welding 1/8" rod together and angle grinding the joints.
I'm glad to be back in studio before classes start. I've been hanging the beast's torso on a giant hook and strapping on the lower limbs - taking massive amounts of real estate. Next steps: fitting the limbs onto the torso in some detachable way, adding wooden limb-ends (feet), and testing out paper skins.

The first photo is the back leg + torso.

Hello! Sorry for the semester-long radio silence. It was pretty busy!

I took an amazing class (perhaps the best of all time): Natural Systems and Plant Ecology. It was in the landscape architecture department. We met every Tuesday, Sunday and one Saturday to learn native Virginia flora. These photos are from our Saturday trek to VA beach's First Landing State Park: cypress knees and beach grasses!

* I'll post some pictures of the journal we did for the class too - drawings of every plant & descriptions.

We visited the High Line while we were in the city, twice! It is an amazing reuse of space and a generally beloved spot by the citizens of NYC. The park was originally a raised railway line that carried things into the city; the train's final cargo was frozen turkeys in 1980. The patches of grasses and wild natives (mountain mint: second picture) are my favorite sections. The park continues to expand (final picture); seeing the space grow during the next few years will be interesting.

This past week I traveled to New York City with my beau, Mark, to learn more about papermaking and urban green spaces. Success! We visited Dieu Donné, a paper studio where artists create work using handmade paper and are enabled by an outstanding crew of papermakers. I didn't take any pictures at Dieu Donné, sadly. But I did learn some great new pulp pigmenting and drying techniques from the lovely Amy Jacobs, DD's studio manager. After visiting DD we popped over to Brooklyn to see Carriage House Paper's studio and museum. The pictures above are of the museum: paper aardvark/elephant balloon, Korean floor paper, vegetable paper. Shannon showed us around the studio a bit and gave me some excellent advice on sculptural papermaking. Now I'm itching to get some flax pulp and start working in studio!

Books! This week I'm taking a class as an Undergraduate RBS-UVA Fellow in the Rare Book School that is located at the University of Virginia. I'm taking "Printed Books since 1800: Description and Analysis" with Tom Congalton and Katherine Reagan. Tom is an antiquarian bookseller and Katherine is a curator and assistant director at Cornell University's Rare Books and Manuscripts Division. I've been learning all about rare books. My independent research focuses on these two rare 1867 and 1878 books: Gardening for Profit and The Farmers' and Mechanics' Manual, respectively. The details of the tool and horse wood engravings are from Manual; how stinkin' amazing. Check out the muddy water stain on Gardening; some of the leaves are dog-eared, too. Well loved.

beast no.1

spring 2010

9 in x 12 in

My first etching ever!