INTRODUCING THE
‘PAPERMAKER’S PACK’ – A STUDIO AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
Inspired by The Mobile Mill and developed by Better
Decisions, I am pleased to announce that a first edition of Papermaker’s Packs
are now available for sale at PAPERMAKERSPACK.COM
Originally
invented as a smaller iteration of The Mobile Mill’s paper-studio-in-a-truck
concept, I built the original Papermaker’s Pack as a practical means of
taking my mobile hand papermaking practice abroad to Sarajevo, Bosnia for
collaborative work on artists Melissa Potter and Adam Pantic’s project ‘Pulp
& Pastry’, an interdisciplinary artwork exploring the intersection of
food and the art of hand papermaking.
After
this Papermaker’s Pack prototype made its debut abroad, the fully functional studio-in-a-suitcase
was introduced to persons in the United States via a series of pay-it-forward
style papermaking workshops that I taught while on a solo cross-country tour
with The Mobile Mill project from September 2015 to April 2016. Roaming about
with the Papermaker’s Pack, I discovered that a hand-carried studio enhanced my
physical mobility and reduced my operating budget, which in turn widened my
geographic reach as an independent practitioner, a socially engaged artist, and
an arts educator.
My
mobile hand papermaking inventions have undoubtedly increased the accessibility
of rare craft tools and resources through the transportation of professional
paper studio equipment into public realms for community use. That said, in the
process of bringing my students how-to knowledge of - and a unique opportunity
to use - the tools I have available on hand, my transient roadwork has revealed
a widespread public call for specialized papermaking tools:
‘Where can I buy a mould
and deckle?’
‘How can I make paper on my
own at home?’
‘How can I press my paper
without hydraulic power?’
‘Where can I source felts
and pellons?’
If
you’re practiced in the field of book arts then you very well know the sort of
time and energy it takes to track down and acquire the bare necessities.
My
yearning to provide solutions was met by my brother Maxum’s inclination to
manufacture. Now living in the same city, we have fused our minds and energies
to reimagine the future of mobile hand papermaking. Working together as a
creative development team self-dubbed ‘Better Decisions’, we are pleased to
introduce our first joint venture – the production of Papermaker’s Packs – created
with the aim of disseminating high-quality tools for hand papermaking.
The
Papermaker’s Pack is an all-encompassing, easy-to-use toolkit for hand
papermaking that offers papermakers ease and convenience of practice, equipped
with all the necessities for turning pulp into handmade paper. Our handcrafted
professional tools have been paired with the highest quality process
accessories, housed in a lightweight portable carrying case that doubles as a
papermaking vat.
It
is my intent to develop The Mobile Mill project in such a way that it will grow
with, as well as beyond, me. Inspired by a spirit of activism and a passion for
movement, the Papermaker’s Pack is a logical continuation of the work that I do
as a traveling teaching artist. As I explore this new vein of The Mobile Mill
trajectory, I am thrilled by the potential of so many mobile paper studios out
there moving about the world. The Papermaker’s Pack is a practical instrument.
It is an artisanal invention. And it is a functional artwork. With aims of
perpetuating an ancient handicraft practice and promoting an ethos of
tool-sharing, it is my hope that our Papermaker’s Packs get into the hands of
persons who wish to use them.
An
international paper exchange emerged organically as an offshoot of this
teaching work with the Papermaker’s Packs, taking the form of a traveling
handmade paper archive – due to be exhibited in the ‘Pulp as Portal’
show at NY Center for Book Arts in February 2017, co-curated by Jessica Cochran and Melissa Potter. The collection contains
postcard-sized recycled paper artworks made by public workshop participants.
This community-generated archive is in constant rotation as papers are taken
from the collection as well as added to the collection during workshop
happenings, the making/sharing cycle permanently sustained as labor is
exchanged for labor.
As
these papers leave the collection carried away by the hands of others, I think
a lot about where they may go, what future lives they may take on, what
purposes they might serve, what meaning they might bring to others. Just the
same, it’s delightful to consider the future route that each of the
Papermaker’s Packs we send out into the world may take.