My Paper Sculpture Portfolio

"Maliko Gulch" 13 1/2 x 6 x 3- Handmade papers cast over a winter melon and embellished with layered leaves sewn up each side and unspun sheeps wool to finish off the rim.

" ipu heke 'ole" 15 1/2 x 14 x 12- Decorated paper vessel handcast from a Hawaiian gourd once used as a drum to accompany the Hula dance.

Embellished with seeds sewn up each side and unspun silk fibers finishes off the rim.

"Stilt Basket" 15 x 5 1/2 x 4 1/2- Paper vessel handcast from a honeydew melon, positioned on bamboo stilts and embellished with dyed orange fibers.

"Medicine Bowl" 7 x 7 1/4 x 8 1/2- Paper vessel handcast from a squash. A 4 piece plaster of paris mould was needed to cast the elaborate shape of the squash. Unspun tresses of camel hair adorn the rim.

Hand Cast Paper Sculptures

Hand cast paper bowl.



Another view of the paper bowl.

After much deliberation, my handmade paper bowls, vessels and sculptures are starting to manifest. I had some technical difficulties along the way and the weather was counteractive in the drying process. But here we are.

With my handsaw and clippers I ventured into the wilderness to harvest some of the grasses, leaves, flower stalks and inner bark from the plants and trees that I would be needing. I collect only from plants that are growing in abundance and have plenty to share.

Then the cooking process- about 6 -8 hours simmering on an outdoor burner in a caustic solution, then to rinse and wash in preparation for the relentless beating of the fibers. Each batch of cooked plants is beaten with a wooden mallot on a wooden cutting board for approximately 4 hours. The beaten fibers are then further cut up into smaller pieces and small handfuls are put into a kitchen blender with water and blended, repeating the blending process about 15-20x or until an entire vat is filled with pulp. Using my papermaking screen and deckle, sheets of wet papers are lifted out of the vat and set aside.

In the weeks previous, was the production of the plaster of paris moulds. For several weeks I would bring my equipment down to the beach- a bucket, the plaster powder, a couple of gourds, squashes and other fruits that have interesting shapes......I would bury the gourd halfway into the damp beach sand, mix the plaster in my bucket using ocean water and pour the mixture over the gourd, wait about an hour to set up and then flip it over and pour plaster on the other side.

After the plaster mould is bone dry I press freshly lifted, wet sheets of paper on the inside of the plaster mould. I use many different kinds of papers to get different tones and textures. When the papers inside the mould are dried, I pull the 2 piece mould apart and release the handcast vessel, a paper replica of the model that was used to make the mould.

This little piece pictured above is a paper replica of a pomegranite! The plant materials that I used to make the papers that went into this are, spider lily stalks, bird of paradise flower stalks, trunk of a banana plant, and the dark brown flecks are dried philodendron flower sheaths. I also put a PVA glue substance into the paper pulp vat so that when the paper piece dries it will be hardened. It looks delicate, but really, it is quite hard and durable. The tactile qualities of the plants really shine through in these hand cast pieces. I have more of these to come- some much larger and more intricate, we'll see what happens here.

Arbor Day

Wiliwili, Erythrina sandwicensis

Arbor Day is a day to recognize and plant trees. Trees are the most massive, longest lived, and tallest organisms ever to inhabit earth. Trees support more communities of living things than any other organism on earth. Trees are our greatest natural resource. November is the month that we celebrate Arbor Day in Hawaii, usually the second saturday of the month.

The Maui Nui Botanical Gardens hosts the celebration on Maui and in honor of the event, give away many hundreds of trees. And these are not just trees, they are all indigenous, some endemic and endangered Hawaiian species that are rare and hard to find. 

http://www.mnbg.org/home.html

 

A Celebration Of Tree Planters Around The World:

Arbor Day is also celebrated in other countries including Australia. Variations are celebrated as 'Greening Week' of Japan, 'The New Year's Days of Trees' in Israel, 'The Tree-loving Week' of Korea, 'The Reforestation Week' of Yugoslavia, 'The Students' Afforestation Day' of Iceland and 'The National Festival of Tree Planting' in India.

It seems that now, this time in our history, the world has a growing common concern; our environment. One of my favorite tree notations reguarding Wangari Maathai, known as the "Tree Woman" of Kenya, founder of the Green Belt Movement, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2004, responsible for the planting of over 30 million trees,
“Peace on earth depends on our ability to secure our living environment.”
Amen!!

Tension

Original Oil crayon drawing on Rives BFK hotpress drawing paper 19" x 24"
This is one of a series of drawings that I did in the early '80's after reading newspaper articles concerning the tension in the middle east.

"All art can be placed somewhere along a political spectrum, supporting one set of class interests or another, actively or passively, at the very least supporting existing conditions by ignoring other possibilities, silence giving consent." M. Stevens

Watercolor Drawings

Original watercolor drawing; part of a series of watercolor studies, I really enjoy doing figure drawings using a model.

Paper Samples

Beautiful papers made from various plants; hibiscus, philodendron and spider lily.

Papers from various plants grouped together. The light brown paper on top of the pile is a piece of tapa. Tapa is a polynesian word for bark cloth. Tapa is made from the inner bark of plants and trees. The inner bark is obtained by peeling off the outer bast or bark, soaking and pounding the fibers until the bark piece becomes very soft and the fibers have spread out to the desired size of cloth. Its very similar to making handmade papers except tht with tapa there is no cooking involved. For this little piece of tapa, I used the inner bark from a Ficus or Banyan tree and pounded the piece with a wooden meat tenderizer.

A very loose, lacy, fibrous brown paper made from the cooked and pounded leaf sheaths of a philodendron plant paired together with the soft, blotterlike white papers made from the inner bark of Hibiscus.

Useful Uses For Handmade Paper

The handmade papers on the left are folded into envelopes and used as very rustic stationary. The envelopes have two paper layers, the white paper for the base layer is made from the bast fibers or the stripped inner bark of hibiscus branches. Each branch is cut, peeled and cooked. Hibiscus paper is naturally very white and soft like cotton. The second layer of paper is made from a mixture of different plant fibers, the dominant brown flecks come from the shed leaf sheaths of a Monstera plant. The leaf sheaths are reddish to dark brown in color. The fibers are very coarse and really hard to break down. I love the effects from this plant, the papers have a really lacy look to them and are a great combination layered with papers made from softer, blotterlike fibers such as hibiscus.