Arts on Main 2014

Arts on Main Experienced Artist Winners (Debra Gibbs, Joanne Rich, Michele Eissler, John Schmelefske, and Mary Luck), and Presenters Patricia Middlebrook, and Colleen Kotnisz).

Thank you South Simcoe Arts Council, and their contributors for presenting my light sculpture Maple, 1st prize in three dimensional art category during the Arts on Main 2014. I am very excited and at the same time, speechless. Below is the winning sculpture, Maple. 

From Reeds to Dogwood

A dogwood bush growing in front of my house.

I take pride that my sculptures are made with natural materials. With support from the Ontario Arts Council, I received an Access and Career Development grant to study papermaking with plant fibers with Akemi at Kozo Studio. Since then I have made sculptures with maple leaves, forsythia, grasses, and even onion skin!

The paper on this sculpture, is made from forsythia fibers.

The paper in this sculpture is made from blackberry fibers.

When I first started making my sculptures, I used reed to form the skeleton. Reed was the material introduced to me when I first learned how to make my light sculptures. It's very easy to work with. Just soak it in warm water for 10 minutes, and it's extremely flexible.

Reed is used to form the skeleton.

I'm happy using reeds, but it's shipped from Indonesia. It disturbed me when I think about its carbon footprint. Just like our diet is influenced by what's available in our surroundings, I began to wonder if it can be the same for materials. I looked into basket weaving in Canada, and came across dogwood. I've never used dogwood before, but upon researching I learned that it should be harvest in the fall, when the sap is at their lowest. It should be pruned close to the ground, to encourage new shoots in the spring.

Although not as long as reed, it is flexible, and as a bonus, colorful! After harvesting, they are dried before I can use them (I read that they shrink).

After pruning. It will need to be dried before I can use them.

You can learn more about this process by following this blog, taking one of my sculpture making workshops here in Simcoe County, or taking a look at the final product in my shop.

Japanese Papermaking

This year, I was very fortunate to receive a grant from the Ontario Arts Council to take a four day papermaking workshop at Kozo Studio taught by Akemi.

Before this workshop, I never knew there was a difference between Japanese style papermaking vs. Western style papermaking. Except for the mold and deckle, I thought the techniques involved are the same.

After Akemi saw my light sculptures, she recommended I take her Japanese style papermaking workshop. Japanese style papermaking are made from harvesting plant fibers (we used kozo fibers), resulting in a thin, strong, and translucent paper — much more suitable for my sculptures.

Here's a brief overview of my four day intensive workshop. All photos are courtesy of Kozo Studio.

After cooking kozo fibers in a soda ash solution for several hours, the fibers are rinsed and cleaned.

Bark is picked out by hand, the fibers are hand beaten with a wooden stick.












After hand beating the kozo fibers, we ran it through a machine called the Nagintat beater for a few minutes to "comb" the fibers.















Cover off showing the blades of the Nagintat beater. Very different from the Hollander beater.














First try at papermaking with a tiny mold and su.

















Carefully removing the su from the freshly made paper.














This time with a larger mold and su. The su is actually a bamboo place mat with a sheet of window netting sewn on top of it.













The su is remove from the mold and brought over to the couching table.
















Slowly removing the su from the freshly made paper.














After pressing all the water out with a car jack, the sheet of paper easily peels away from the cloth.













The paper is brushed onto drying board to dry overnight.















In Japan, fibers are harvested from kozo, mitsumata, and gampi trees. Since these trees are not native in Canada, I'm going to experiment and harvest fibers from trees found within by backyard. So far I've made paper with forsythia and hollyhock. Currently my husband just chopped down our garden hedges and a few maple trees...I can't wait to see how these fibers will turn out (or if it's even possible)!

UPDATE: I've since created functional art light sculptures with maple leaves, apple tree leaves and milkweed which are available at my shop.