PaperArt with Homemade paper

Homemade paper

 ​I got the following hint from the article below I read for making handmade paper. namely the article, “BMC WOMEN ON CLAY, CRAFT AND NATURE: MARGUERITE WILDENHAIN, MARY CAROLINE “M.C.” RICHARDS, AND KAREN KARNES BY COURTNEY LEE WEIDA", the following sentence touched my heart.

“Artistic endeavors for people with a deep desire to create personal beauty with their hands, or they have become a therapeutic need and relief for all people, not content with our mechanized and mechanical way of life.” (p. 13)"

Among them, Wildenhain's anecdote helped me a lot when choosing the materials needed to make handmade paper.

Wildenhain offers a kind of guided visualization or meditation on art and solitude.
"I used to think of ways to create a studio and teaching space with my students. Let's say you are told that you have to stay in your house for six months. You have to take care of all the materials, but you can't go out. Your first The first reaction, of course, is to deeply resent and vigorously resist this imprisonment...but let's assume we have a different point of view: you can take the situation as grim.
Start thinking and looking around to see what you can use.
What you can do, what you can do. Here art, literature, religion, philosophy, and in different languages; Each of them might give you something to think about
Months, if not years, learning, working together. There are so many opportunities for life like windows. You can see the sky, trees, houses, people or streets. by passing traffic. You may have wanted to look closely to paint, or you may want to paint, sculpt, write, write prose or poetry, or even write entire stories.
You have watched the daily movements of certain people passing in front of you time and time again. window. Your imagination will fill in what you couldn't see. Potted plants can occupy you for weeks. (p. 101)
Wildenhain's sense of building his own life and studio is very poetic and quite resonant.

Similarly, Wildenhain (1973) related nature to the heart of the artisan.
The experience of integrating within oneself the disparate and separate tendencies of knowledge and personal feelings” (p. 52).

Nature inspires form, enhances observation, and helps solve problems.

So, with this concept, I looked around me. Then, I thought of the wrapping paper in the Amazon box, the gift paper, and the rose petals falling and flying in the yard. In particular, it was my own answer to the question "If you were isolated for six months and faced with loneliness, what material would you find?" I experienced this 6 months of isolation during the pandemic. At this time, my pleasure was to see the back of the worker who saw the Amazon box arriving and carefully placed it in front of the door and left. Amid unpredictable anxiety, the hard-working group of workers gave me great comfort and hope. At that time, it was May, and the roses had begun to bloom. As I opened the door to take the Amazon box into the house, I saw rose petals on the floor. The beautiful sight I encountered at that time was a bright smile that let me know that the world is not the end. So, I naturally and easily chose wrapping paper and rose petals as the materials for my handmade paper.

First, tear the brown paper in the Amazon box into small pieces and soak them in water. Then use a blender machine to finely chop it.  ​I used the lid of the lunch box as a frame to make paper, and a grill plate used for barbecue for the net. And the leftovers from the child are piled up one more layer with a tight lace net to ensure good filtering.

​Then put the finely crushed brown paper into the mold and let it drain. Afterwards, pour in the remaining glitter sand used by the child. Then decorate with well-dried flower petals.

​I left it in the boiler room for a day and dried it in the sun the next day. Dry paper is stiff and thin, making it look like well-made organic paper. To paint this paper I chose acrylic paint silver.

​Below is the finished piece.

​Then, the second material, wrapping paper and rose petals, is shredded and soaked in water. ​Since these two materials do not stick together, I boiled a spoonful of flour in water to make a paste and then put it in the water.

​The sun was hot and dry days followed. I dried the handmade paper in the sun.

​Handmade rose petal paper dried well in the form of paper. I cut it into a heart shape and then had my child write it.