A workshop at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary art
Beautiful art works of handmade paper were created by homeschooling students at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts during a six week workshop under the direction of Artist in Residence, Yukie Kobayashi.
Students learned ancient papermaking techniques from Tibet, Korea, Africa and other regions of North and South Asia as well as a more contemporary western style of handmade papermaking.
The students created sheets of handmade papers using papyrus pulp as well as pulp and fibers from Asian Mulberry bushes.
They pounded raw materials into the proper consistency, mixed with formation agents and then poured their mixtures onto screens and into paper forms. They were asked to visualize ancient people, using simple tools and materials, pounding pulp on rocks, and allowing rainfall to texture and sculpt the final products.
The students also had the opportunity to learn Japanese style paper marbling as well as other ways of staining paper using bamboo brushes or dipping paper into dye and dripping pigment or dyed pulp onto the paper.
Each student kept a journal throughout the course of the workshop in books they were given that were bound in beautiful sheets of handmade paper made by Yukie.
For the final exhibit the handcrafted papers were transformed into objects of art and utility or framed. The most dramatic of the final pieces were lamps shaded by sculptural sheets of paper, made in a Tibetan style of paper making. The thick paper sheets were bent around glass lamps transforming them into three dimensional glowing works of art.
